Literature Facts

Virgina Woolf wrote all her books standing.

The name Wendy was made up for the book Peter Pan.

Rudyard Kipling refused to write with anything other than black ink.

Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock Holmes stories, was an ophthalmologist by profession!

Shakespeare helped popularize "yo momma" style insults in literature, with characters in his plays trading maternal put-downs like "Villain, I have done thy mother" in Titus Andronicus.

The word 'nerd' first appeared in print in Dr. Seuss's 1950 book 'If I Ran the Zoo,' though its modern meaning likely evolved from unrelated student slang.

Critic Michael Crowley gave such a poor review of author Michael Crichton's novel 'State of Fear' that, in his next book 'Next,' Crichton created a character named 'Mick Crowley' who was a child molester with a small penis.

Iceland publishes more books per capita than any other country in the world. With a population of just 370,000, the country releases about 1,500 new titles annually—roughly one book for every 250 people. One in ten Icelanders is said to publish a book at some point in their lifetime.

There's a rentable mansion that's located where Beowulf was based.

Winnie-the-Pooh was a real bear. Harry Colebourn, a Canadian soldier headed to WWI, bought an orphaned cub for $20 at a train stop in 1914 and named her Winnipeg. When he shipped out to France, he left her at London Zoo, so gentle that keepers let a boy named Christopher Robin climb into her enclosure and feed her condensed milk. He renamed his teddy bear after her.

Beatrix Potter wrote Peter Rabbit as a get-well letter. A boy she knew was sick in bed. She sent the story to cheer him up. She named the rabbit after her own pet, Peter Piper, whom she had sketched for years. The letter became a book in 1902. It has sold an estimated 40 million copies since.