Literary Trivia

After the death of Robert Southey in 1843, William Wordsworth become Poet Laureate but he never wrote a single line of poetry in the seven years he held the post.

Sir Walter Raleigh burned a volume of his History of the World in a fit of depression after watching a murder outside is cell window. Three eyewitness gave different accounts of the event causing Raleigh to say "What chance have I of giving a true picture of the world's history when three eye witnesses to something that took place just five minutes ago can't agree".

Arnold Bennet dank water from a carafe in a Paris restaurant to show that the city's water was safe to drink. He caught typhoid from it and died two months later.

In a romantic gesture, Li Po, a Chinese poet, leaned out of a boat to kiss the moon's reflection . He fell in and drowned.

Dorothy Parker once bought a new typewriter because the ribbon ran out her old one and she didn't know how to replace it.

In Mexico City in 1951, William S Burroughs, creator of Tarzan, killed his partner while in the process of trying to shoot a glass from the top of her head.

Joe Orton was jailed for six months for defacing library books.

D H Lawrence's last words were 'I'm getting better'. Tobias Smollett was equally optimistic - his last words were 'All is well, my dear'. But no one can match Oscar Wilde's - 'Either that wallpaper goes or I do'.

Samuel Johnson once received an unsolicited manuscript which he sent back with a note saying "Sir, your manuscript was both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good".

(With thanks to the book 'Literary Trivia' by Aubrey Malone.)