Fun Literary Factoids

 

Here are some oddities relating to language, authors, books, and literary culture:  

Dog names of famous authors: 

·         Victor Hugo – Baron

·         Roald Dahl – Chopper

·         E.B. White – Daisy

·         George Orwell – Marx

·         William Wordsworth – Pepper

·         Anne Fadiman – Typo 

Authors who died young: 

·         John Keats – Age 25

·         Stephen Crane – Age 28

·         Emily Bronte – Age 30

·         Sylvia Plath – Age 30 

Longest-serving Poet Laureates of the UK: 

Of the 21 Poet Laureates, since 1668, only five served for 25+ years. They were: 

·         Lord Alfred Tennyson – 42 years

·         John Masefield – 37 years

·         Robert Southey – 30 years

·         William Whitehead – 28 years

·         Colley Cabber – 27 years 

The shortest amount of service was Thomas Shadwell, at just three years. 

The world’s libraries with the largest collection of items (books, music, etc.) are:

 

·         The British Library, London (200 million pieces)

·         The Library of Congress, Washington, DC (170 million)

·         The Shanghai Library (56 million)

·         The New York Public Library (55 million)

·         The Library and Archives Canada, Ottowa (54 million)

·         The Russian State Library, Moscow (48 million)

·         The National Diet Library, Tokyo (44 million)

·         The Royal Library Denmark, Copenhagen (43 milli0n) 

Some of the biggest books ever banned in the world: 

The Rights of Man by Thomas Paine

1795-1822, in the UK, for sedition

 

Ulysses by James Joyce

1922-1936, in the IK, for obscenity

 

Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller

1934-1964, in the US, for obscenity

 

Animal Farm by George Orwell

1945-1990, by the USSR, for its anti-Soviet satire

 

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

1955, in South Africa, for indecency

 

The Satanic Verses by Salman Rishdie

1989-present, in the middle East, for blasphemy

 

American Psycho by Easton Ellis

1995-2000, in Germany, for being harmful to minors

 

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

2004-presenmt, in Lebanon, for blasphemy

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About Brian Feinblum

Brian Feinblum should be followed on www.linkedin.com/in/brianfeinblum. This is copyrighted by BookMarketingBuzzBlog ©2024. Born and raised in Brooklyn, he now resides in Westchester with his wife, two kids, and Ferris, a black lab rescue dog, and El Chapo, a pug rescue dog. His writings are often featured in The Writer and IBPA’s The Independent.  This award-winning blog has generated over 3.9 million pageviews. With 5,000+ posts over the past dozen years, it was named one of the best book marketing blogs by BookBaby  http://blog.bookbaby.com/2013/09/the-best-book-marketing-blogs  and recognized by Feedspot in 2021 and 2018 as one of the top book marketing blogs. It was also named by www.WinningWriters.com as a "best resource.” For the past three decades, including 21 years as the head of marketing for the nation’s largest book publicity firm, and director of publicity positions at two independent presses, Brian has worked with many first-time, self-published, authors of all genres, right along with best-selling authors and celebrities such as: Dr. Ruth, Mark Victor Hansen, Joseph Finder, Katherine Spurway, Neil Rackham, Harvey Mackay, Ken Blanchard, Stephen Covey, Warren Adler, Cindy Adams, Todd Duncan, Susan RoAne, John C.