Authors | Guy Portman's Blog

10 Writers Who Went To Prison

Jul 31 2015

The following writers all spent time in prison. They are presented in chronological order.

Sir Thomas More More (February 7th 1478 – July 6th 1535)

Sir Thomas More was an English statesman, philosopher, author and Lord High Chancellor of England (October 1529 – May 1532). More was the author of the popular novel Utopia (1516). Utopia is about the political system of an ideal, imaginary country. More was imprisoned due to his opposition to Henry VIII’s split from the Catholic Church. After serving time in a number of prisons, including the Tower of London, he was beheaded.

Miguel de Cervantes (September 29th 1547 – April 22nd 1616)

Miguel de Cervantes was a Spanish poet, playwright and novelist, whose influence on the Spanish language was so considerable that Spanish is sometimes referred to as la lengua de Cervantes (the language of Cervantes). Cervantes was working as a purchasing agent for the Spanish navy when a banker he had deposited Crown funds with went bankrupt. This led to Cervantes’s imprisonment. It was during this time that he begun working on his seminal work, Don Quixote.

Voltaire(November 21st 1694 – May 30th 1778)

Voltaire was a satirical polemicist, whose voluminous writing output included novels, poems, plays and essays. His most famous work is the satirical novella Candide. Voltaire was renowned both for his wit and scathing criticism of the Catholic Church. Punishments for his controversial views included periods of exile, in addition to several stints in prison. Voltaire spent 11 months imprisoned in the notorious Bastille.

Fyodor Dostoevsky(November 11th 1821 – February 9th 1881)

Russian novelist and short story writer Fyodor Dostoevsky is best remembered for his novels Crime and Punishment and The Brothers Karamazov. Dostoyevsky served 8 years in a Siberian labour camp. His crime was being found guilty of circulating essays that were deemed to be critical of the government. During his time in the camp, Dostoyevsky began working on his novella, Notes from Underground.

Oscar Wilde(October 16th 1854 – November 30th 1900)

Oscar Wilde was a flamboyant writer, poet and playwright, acclaimed for his enduring wit and writing abilities. At the height of his fame Wilde was a very successful playwright. In 1895 Wilde was arrested for gross indecency with other men. This culminated in a guilty verdict. Wilde was imprisoned first in Pentonville Prison and later at Wandsworth Prison, where prisoners were required to do hard labour.

O.Henry(September 11th 1862 – June 5th 1910)

Henry was a renowned and prolific short story writer. In the 10 years prior to his demise he published over 300 stories. Having been convicted of embezzlement, O. Henry was given a 5 year sentence in 1898, which he served at the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus, Ohio. As he was a licensed pharmacist he was employed in the prison hospital. There is no evidence that he spent any time in the prison’s cellblock.

Chester Himes (July 29th 1909 – November 12th 1984)

Himes was an American author who wrote If He Hollers Let Him Go, as well as a series of Harlem Detective novels. In 1958 he won France’s Grand Priz de Littérature Policière. Himes served 7 1/2 years in the Ohio State Penitentiary after being found guilty of armed robbery. It was during his incarceration that Himes began writing short stories. Later he was employed briefly as a Hollywood screenwriter.

Joan Henry

(April 8th 1914 – 2000)

Joan Henry was an English novelist, screenwriter and playwright. Born into a wealthy and prestigious family, her life was to change markedly when she was jailed for passing a fraudulent cheque in 1951. Her best-known works are based on her time in prison. The most famous is Who Lie in Gaol. The book went on to become a bestseller. It spawned a film titled The Weak and the Wicked.

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
(December 11th 1918 – August 3rd 2008)

Russian novelist and historian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was an ardent critic of the Soviet regime. It was his writing that first brought global attention to the Gulag. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In February 1945, whilst serving in the Red Army, he was arrested for having made a derogatory comment about Stalin. Solzhenitsyn was sentenced to an 8 year term in a labour camp.

Jeffrey Archer (Born April 15th 1940)

Jeffrey Archer is an English author and former politician, who has sold over 250 million books. When, in 1974, a financial scandal left Archer almost bankrupt, he resigned as a Member of Parliament. Later he became deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. His political career ended with his conviction and imprisonment for perjury and perverting the course of justice. On July 21st 2003 Archer was released, having served half of his sentence.

10 Best-Sellers Initially Rejected

Jun 12 2015

This week’s blog post is dedicated to best-selling books that were initially rejected by publishers. It is a subject that I thought might interest my fellow authors and book lovers. The following 10 books are presented in chronological order.

The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells (1898) – This science fiction classic is about an unnamed protagonist and his younger brother, who are in London when the Earth is invaded by aliens. It was initially snubbed by a number of publishers, including one who wrote in the rejection letter, ‘An endless nightmare. I think the verdict would be ‘Oh don’t read that horrid book.’’

Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery (1908) – This classic recounts the adventures of Anne Shirley, an 11-year-old orphan sent to live with a middle-aged brother and sister on their farm. 5 publishers initially snubbed it, and it was only 2 years after this setback that the author removed it from her hatbox and resubmitted it.

Dubliners by James Joyce (1914) – Dubliners is a collection of 15 short stories whose primary theme is epiphany. Joyce began trying to find a publisher for his controversial book in 1905. He submitted Dubliners 18 times to 15 publishers without success. His relentless perseverance finally paid off when Grant Richards published it in 1914.

Lady Chatterley’s Lover by D.H. Lawrence (1928) – This story about a relationship between a gamekeeper and an upper-class woman was printed privately by its author in Florence after it was rejected by a host of publishers, due to its perceived scandalous subject matter and content. Lady Chatterley’s Lover was not published openly the UK until 1960.

Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936) – Set during the American Civil War and Reconstruction era, Gone with the Wind is about Scarlett O’Hara, the daughter of a plantation owner. This, the only book published by Mitchell during her lifetime was shunned 38 times by publishers before eventually being accepted.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding (1954) – This dystopian novel is about a group of boys stranded on a deserted island, who attempt to govern themselves. Lord of the Flies was rejected 20 times before Faber and Faber accepted it. One of the rejection letters condemned the book as, ‘An absurd and uninteresting fantasy which was rubbish and dull.’

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (1955) – Lolita is a controversial novel about a man’s obsession with a 12-year-old girl. It was rebuffed by numerous publishers because of its contentious subject matter. The book was eventually published in France by Olympia Press. Lolita was fourth on Modern Library’s 1998 list of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century.

Carrie by Stephen King (1974) – Stephen King’s first published novel is about a bullied high school girl who utilises her telekinetic powers to get revenge on her tormenters. Numerous publishers rejected the book. One publisher wrote in the rejection letter, ‘We are not interested in science fiction which deals with negative utopias. They do not sell.’

Life of Pi by Yann Martel (2001) – This fantasy adventure novel is about an Indian boy who survives for 227 days on a lifeboat with a Bengal tiger called Richard Parker. Life of Pi was rejected by 5 London publishers. In 2002 it won the The Man Booker Prize.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown (2003) – Dan Brown’s seminal work is a mystery/detective novel that explores an alternative religious history. Prior to its publication by Doubleday it was rejected by another publisher, who pre-empting the sentiments of many of its readers, allegedly stated in the rejection letter, ‘It is so badly written.’

7 Famous Works by Anonymous Authors

Jun 05 2015

Many authors have published anonymously through history, including Jane Austen, whose books were all published anonymously during her lifetime. However, I have only included literary works whose authors are either unknown or we know nothing about.

Here are 7 anonymously published works. They are presented in chronological order.

Beowulf

Set in Scandinavia, Beowulf is an Old English epic poem that was written between the 8th and early 9th century. It is regarded as one of the most important works of Old English literature, and may well be the oldest surviving long poem in Old English. The author of Beowulf was an anonymous Anglo-Saxon poet, who is commonly referred to as the ‘Beowulf poet’.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

This late 14th century Middle English chivalric romance is one of the most famous of the Arthurian stories. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight was influenced by Irish, Welsh, English and French traditions. The poem survives as a single manuscript, which also includes 3 narrative poems. To this day the author remains a mystery.

Lazarillo de Tormes

La vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus fortunas y adversidades is a Spanish novella, which was published in 3 cities in 1554. The novella’s content was regarded as heretical due to its open criticism of the Catholic Church, and this is most likely the reason that it was published anonymously. Various authors have been attributed to this important work.

The Romance of Lust

The Romance of Lust is a Victorian erotic novel that was published in 4 volumes between 1873-1876. The novel’s protagonist is Charlie Roberts, a man with a voracious sexual appetite. There has been much debate over who the author of this controversial book was. The general consensus is that William Simpson Potter or Edward Sellon, a well-known Victorian author of erotic novels, most likely wrote it.

Novel with Cocaine

Novel with Cocaine is a nihilistic and philosophical novel about adolescence and addiction. Since the time of its publication in book form there has been intense speculation over who wrote it. Many believed that it was Vladimir Nabokov, but he vehemently denied being the author. The real author is thought to be Mark Levi, a Russian émigré, who posted the manuscript to the Parisian journal Numbers in 1934.

Click here to read my review.

Diary of an Oxygen Thief

Diary of an Oxygen Thief is a Dutch novel, published in 2006, professing to be an autobiographical account of an Irish advertising executive living first in London and later in America, where he suffers from culture shock. The book, which was written anonymously, was published in Amsterdam by NLVI. Although Diary of an Oxygen Thief has become extremely popular the identity of its author continues to be a mystery.

O: A Presidential Novel

O: A Presidential Novel is a fictional account about the 2012 U.S. presidential race. Prior to publication, its publisher Simon & Schuster contacted many writers and journalists, requesting that they decline to comment if asked whether they were the anonymous author. The book was purportedly written by someone who ‘has been in the room with Obama’. The individual’s identity remains unknown.

7 Politically Inclined Authors

May 08 2015

This is a post that I wrote a while back about famous authors who held strong political opinions.

The following 7 authors were all politically inclined:

Hunter S. Thompson

(July 18th 1937 – February 20th 2005)

The father of Gonzo journalism was an iconic figure in the counter-culture. Despite his love of firearms and ardent support of the Second Amendment, Thompson’s politics were firmly entrenched in the far-left. A sworn enemy of Richard Nixon, he was vociferous in his support of George McGovern in the 1972 presidential election. He covered the election in dispatches for Rolling Stone, which laid the foundation for his book Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail ‘72.

Click here to read my review of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

John Steinbeck

(February 27th 1902 – December 20th 1968)

John Steinbeck was a prolific novelist and short-story writer, and one of the most acclaimed literary figures America has ever produced. The author was very critical of capitalism and a supporter of unionisation, recurring themes in many of his books. His most famous work, The Grapes of Wrath, was viewed as so controversial at the time of its publication due to its criticism of the nation’s economic plight that it was burned on 2 separate occasions in the author’s hometown of Salinas.

Click here to read my review of In Dubious Battle.

Zora Neale Hurston

(January 7th 1891 – January 28th 1960)

Zora Neale Hurston was an American folklorist, anthropologist and author, who wrote 4 novels and more than 50 short stories, plays and essays. Her most famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, was published in 1937. The highly opinionated Hurston could probably best be described as a conservative libertarian. Unlike many of her Soviet sympathising colleagues in the Harlem Renaissance, Hurston, a staunch patriot, was vehemently anti-Communist. She often referred to them as ‘commies’ and ‘reds’ in her writing.

Maxim Gorky

(March 28th 1868 – June 18th 1936)

Maxim Gorky is one of Russia’s most popular authors. His opposition to the Tsarist regime led to him being arrested on numerous occasions. Gorky, who associated with many revolutionaries, became a friend of Lenin. Later he provided financial support to the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party. Widely accepted as being the first famous Russian writer to emerge from the proletariat, Gorky is remembered as being a lifelong supporter of the Bolshevik cause and the founder of the Socialist realism literary method.

Click here to read my review of My Childhood.

Leo Tolstoy

(September 9th 1828 – November 20th 1910)

Russian novelist Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy is widely regarded as being one of the greatest writers of all time. His most famous works are War and Peace and Anna Karenina. Tolstoy was a Christian Anarchist, who believed that non-resistance was the only way to achieve a Utopian society. His beliefs influenced Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi. Tolstoy’s argument that peaceful anarchy could only be brought about by non-violent revolution is explained in his essay On Anarchy (1900).

Kurt Vonnegut

(November 11th 1922 – April 11th 2007)

Vonnegut was an American author, whose writing incorporated science fiction, black humour and satire. He was a pacifist intellectual and supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union. When he died in 2007 The New York Times described him as ‘the counterculture’s novelist’. His seminal work, Slaughterhouse-Five, is a satire about a survivor of the notorious firebombing of Dresden in World War II. Its anti-war rhetoric has resulted in it being banned by numerous US schools and libraries.

Click here to read my review of Slaughterhouse-Five.

George Orwell

(June 25th 1903 – January 21st 1950)

Author and journalist George Orwell was interested in social injustice, opposed to totalitarianism and committed to democratic socialism. So strongly was Orwell opposed to Fascism that he even volunteered to fight in The Spanish Civil War. His experiences there gave rise to his book, Homage to Catalonia (1938). Orwell’s most famous works, Nineteen Eighty-Four and Animal Farm, both warned of the dangers of totalitarianism. They were perceived as being a thinly disguised attack on Stalin and banned in the Soviet Union.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier.

4 Female Writers’ Writing Styles

Apr 17 2015

Every author, myself included, has his/her own distinctive writing style. Earlier this year I dedicated a blog post to 4 famous male writers’ writing styles.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to 4 famous female writers’ writing styles:

Virginia Woolf

(January 25th 1882 – March 28th 1941)

Notable works: To the Lighthouse, Mrs Dalloway, A Room of One’s Own

Novelist and critic Virginia Woolf was an influential interwar writer and one of the foremost modernists of the 20th Century. Woolf embraced an experimental stream of consciousness writing style, in which the subjective impressions of her protagonists formed the narrative. This writing device is in evidence in her novel Mrs Dalloway, in which Woolf parallels a single day in the lives of two people, adeptly portraying their internal emotions. This was a marked shift from the rigid objectivism of 19th Century fiction. Her rhetorical, informal personal style, effective use of metaphors, similes and symbolism continue to endear her to readers to this day.

George Eliot

(22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880)

Notable works: The Mill on the Floss, Middlemarch, Daniel Deronda

Mary Ann Evans was an author who used the male pen name George Eliot in order that she be taken seriously by the literary establishment. Her most famous novel, Middlemarch, is widely regarded as one of the greatest English language novels ever written. Her writing style incorporated an unusual style of phrasing, deep psychological insights, sophisticated character portraits, religious themes, highly original use of metaphors, comical elements and realism. Eliot also had a distinctive narrative voice, which some have criticised her for, because it often disrupts the action and casts judgement on the given event, as it is taking place.

Emily Dickinson

(10th December 1830 – 15th May 1886)

The reclusive Emily Dickinson was a prolific American poet, who penned over 1700 poems. Dickinson’s early poetry was fairly conventional, but her writing style became increasingly innovative and idiosyncratic. Her lineation, punctuation, capitalisation and extensive use of dashes were highly unusual. Most of Dickinson’s poems were written in short stanzas, the majority being quatrains, whilst other stanzas employed triplets and pairs of couplets as well as partial rhyming schemes. She also experimented with Iambic rhythms. The flexible and innovative structures of her poems, the conciseness of her language and the blending of different themes, such as the homely and exalted, in addition to her use of metaphors were in stark contrast to the rigid conventions of her era.

Jane Austen

(16th December 1775 – 18th July 1817)

Notable works: Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Emma and Persuasion

Jane Austen employed an elegant, experimental and innovative writing style. In contrast to other early 19th Century authors, Jane Austen’s novels have considerably more dialogue and much less description and narrative. She adroitly utilised indirect speech, burlesque, parody and realism to critique the portrayal of women in 18th Century literature, in addition to the perceived role of women during her own era. But it is her constant, imaginative use of irony that she is probably best known for. Austen utilised irony to highlight the social hypocrisy of her time, particularly with regards to marriage and social divisions.

4 Famous Male Writers’ Writing Styles

Feb 20 2015

Every author has his/her own distinctive writing style. My own evolving writing style utilises dry humour, satirical observations and concise prose.

This week’s blog post is dedicated to 4 famous writers’ writing styles:

James Joyce

(February 2nd 1882 – January 13th 1941)

Notable works: Ulysses, Finnegans Wake, A, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Ireland’s most famous author is remembered as being one of the most influential writers of the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce embraced an experimental, stream of consciousness writing style. His seminal work Ulysses contains more vocabulary words (30,030) than the entire Shakespearean canon of 38 plays.

The former poet took his experimental style a step further with his final book, Finnegan’s Wake (1939). Written in Paris over a period of 17 years, Finnegan’s Wake utilises a stream of consciousness style, idiosyncratic language and literary allusions. The book is regarded as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the English language.

William S. Burroughs

(February 5th 1914 – August 2nd 1997)

Notable works: Junkie, Queer, The Soft Machine, The Naked Lunch.

William S. Burroughs was at the forefront of the Beat generation, influencing the likes of Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. His often-controversial works (c.f. drugs and homosexuality) include 18 novels, in addition to a number of novellas and short stories, many of which are semi-autobiographical in nature. Burroughs’s writing is characterised as being sardonic, dark, humorous and confessional.

Burroughs was the pioneer of the collage technique, which entails cutting up text with a pair of scissors and then rearranging it to create new text. His seminal work, the non-linear and highly controversial Naked Lunch was created in this manner.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Junky and Queer.

Ernest Hemingway

(July 21st 1899 – July 2nd 1961)

Notable works: The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Old Man & the Sea.

Ernest Hemingway won The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1953) and The Nobel Prize in Literature (1954). Hemingway embraced the minimalist style of writing that he had been required to use when he had been a journalist. This style, known as The Iceberg Theory (Theory of Omission), utilised short, terse sentences, which was in stark contrast to the ornate prose of the literati of the time. It is this simple and direct writing style that has endeared Hemingway to so many readers down the years.

Click here to read my review of The Old Man and the Sea.

Jack Kerouac

(March 12th 1922 – October 21st 1969)

Notable works: On the Road, The Dharma Bums, Big Sur.

American novelist, poet and artist Jack Kerouac was a member of the Beat Generation. Kerouac primarily wrote autobiographical novels. His most famous book, On the Road, is set against a backdrop of poetry, jazz and drug use. It was the defining work of the post-war Beat Generation.

Kerouac typed On The Road over a period of 3 weeks in the spring of 1951, on a 3-inch thick, 120-foot long scroll. Through attempting to omit periods from his work and improvising words he created his own innovative, spontaneous prose writing style – a style that was influenced by Jazz music and Bebop.

Click on the links to read my reviews of Maggie Cassidy and On The Road.

Record Breaking Authors

Feb 13 2015

This, the latest instalment in my series of author related blog posts, is dedicated to World record breaking authors. As an author myself I find this topic fascinating, and I hope you will too.

Here are some record breaking authors:

Most Prolific Author Ever – American born author Lauran Bosworth Paine (1916-2001) can lay claim to being the most prolific author of all time. Paine, who had more pen names (70) than most authors have titles, wrote approximately 1000 books.

Best Selling Author Ever – The Guinness Book of World Records lists Agatha Christie, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, as the best-selling novelist of all time. She sold approximately 2 billion books.

Best Selling (non-English language) Author Ever – Prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon (1903-1989) wrote nearly 200 novels, in addition to many shorter works of fiction. He has sold approximately 550 million books.

Fastest Author Ever – Contemporary Irish novelist John Boyne claims to have written The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas – a best selling fictional account of a boy living through the Holocaust – in only two and a half days.

Worst Author Ever – Obviously this is a matter for conjecture, but it is difficult to argue with author Michael N. Marcus’s claim in his book Stinkers that ‘BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES and Also ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!!’ by ELIYZABETH YANNE STRONG-ANDERSON is the worst book ever. Every letter in this ludicrous, grammatically error strewn, excessively priced abomination (£113.92) is capitalised. Due to these reasons Yanne Strong-Anderson wins the accolade – the World’s worst author ever.

Oldest Author Ever – Ida Pollock, who died in 2013 at the age of 105, just weeks before her 125th book was published, might well be the oldest author ever. The romance novelist sold millions of books over the course of her long lifetime.

Youngest Author Ever – Dorothy Straight is on record as being the youngest published author ever. At the age of 4 she wrote a story for her grandmother, which went on to be published by Pantheon Books in 1964 when the author was 6.

Richest Author Ever – A number of sources including Celebrity Net Worth claim that JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, is worth a reported $1Billion.

Poorest Author Ever – There are so many penniless authors out there, it was impossible to verify each and every claim. I have therefore been forced to leave this category blank.

Most Pretentious Author Ever – This reader appreciates Vladimir Nabokov’s (author of Lolita) remarkable linguistic abilities. However his ornate writing style, which utilises a vast array of obscure English words, in addition to French, German and Russian, as well as his obsession with wordplay (c.f. synesthetic details & acrostics) has resulted in the ever self-indulgent Nabokov winning the accolade of the most pretentious author ever.

Most Reclusive Author Ever – There have been a lot of reclusive authors down the years, but surely none more so than prolific American poet (I know I said authors) Emily Dickinson. By her late thirties her reclusive habits entailed rarely leaving the house and speaking to visitors from the other side of her closed front door.

Are These The 12 Best-Selling Books Of All Time?

Dec 14 2014

This blog post is dedicated to 12 of the best-selling books of all time. It is with a heavy heart that I announce that none of my books made the list.

The Bible is omitted by design. After all half of the World’s Bibles have been given away for free, and are currently gathering dust in hotel room drawers. I have also ignored Mao’s Little Red Book for similar reasons.

The 12 books are:

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger – 65 million copies sold – Reclusive author J.D. Salinger’s seminal work was published in 1951. The iconic book continues to sell at a rate of approximately 250,000 copies a year.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill – 70 million copies sold – Published in 1937, Think and Grow Rich remains the best selling self-help book of all time. It certainly made its author rich, though not sure the same could be said for its readers.

The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown – 80 million copies sold – This Christian themed mystery thriller complete with conspiracy theories has become a global best seller. I am probably merely one of millions who don’t like Dan Brown, but nevertheless own a copy of The Da Vinci Code.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis – 85 million copies sold – Published in 1950, this Christian themed children’s fantasy tale, which has been adapted for the stage and big screen, continues to sell well to this day, and no doubt will continue to do so.

Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James – 125 million copies sold – Published in 2011, this, the first instalment of the Fifty Shades erotic fiction trilogy, more than makes up for any perceived lack of literary merit with massive global sales.

She: A History of Adventure by H Rider Haggard – 100 million copies sold – Published in 1887, She is about two men who discover a lost kingdom in Africa. Perhaps I shouldn’t be admitting this, but I had never even heard of it (I mean She) prior to writing this post.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien – 100 million copies sold – Prior to inspiring an ~~unnecessary~~ incredible three films in consecutive years, all based on different sections of the book that inspired it, The Hobbit was known as the bestselling prequel to The Lord of the Rings.

Dream of the Red Chamber by Cao Xueqin – 100 million copies sold – Mao’s Little Red Book is not the only bestselling Chinese book with the word ‘red’ in its title. Written in the 18th century, Dream of the Red Chamber is a semi-autobiographical account about the author’s family and friends.

And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie – 100 million copies sold – Best selling, prolific mystery writer Agatha Christie’s top selling book is about 10 people lured to an island and then murdered, following the pattern of the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians.

Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry – 140 million copies – Voted the best book of the 20th Century in France, this novella, complete with watercolour illustrations, tells the story of a pilot stuck in the desert, who meets a little prince.

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien – 150 million copies – Another Tolkien book, another Peter Jackson directed film. The Lord of the Rings is the second best selling book ever. Tolkien’s two entries on this list add up to 0.25 billion books sold. That is more than the population of Brazil and Colombia combined (2014 estimate).

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens – 200 million copies sold – A Tale of Two Cities is the best-selling book of all time. This iconic piece of historical fiction set during the French Revolution continues to grace bookshelves around the globe, including mine, though I must confess I haven’t read it yet.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Click here to sign up to my monthly book-related newsletter.

Record Breaking Old & Young Authors

Nov 28 2014

I have written numerous author themed blog posts. Topics include – the most prolific authors ever, drug addicted authors, posthumously famous authors, and the longest and shortest time it took to write a novel. Earlier this week I took to thinking about who were the oldest and youngest authors to achieve various literary milestones. This is what I discovered:

Oldest Best Selling Author – Helen Hoover Santymeyer was an American writer, educator and librarian, whose seminal work …And Ladies of the Club was published when she was 88. The book became a best seller in 1984, after it was selected for the Book-of-the-Month Club.

Oldest Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature – British playwright and author Doris Lessing was 88 when she won the prestigious prize. In 2008 The Times ranked her 5th on a list of ‘The 50 greatest British writers since 1945’. The author died last year aged 94.

Oldest First Time Author – Bertha Wood was a pioneer of the holiday camp movement, who became the oldest first time author ever when on her 100th birthday, her memoir Fresh Air and Fun was published.

World’s Oldest Ever Author – Ida Pollock died last year at the age of 105, just weeks before her 125th book was published. The romance author sold millions of books over the course of her long lifetime.

Youngest Best Selling Author – Christopher James Paolini is an American author, who is best known for his series the Inheritance Cycle, which consists of 5 books. Paolini became a New York Times bestselling author at the tender age of 19.

Youngest Winner of Nobel Prize for Literature – Rudyard Kipling is the younger ever winner of the Nobel Prize in literature. He was 42 when he achieved the accolade in 1907.

World’s Youngest Ever Author – Dorothy Straight is on record as being the youngest published author ever. At the age of 4 she wrote a story for her grandmother, which went on to be published by Pantheon Books in 1964 when the author was 6.

The Evolution of Books

Nov 07 2014

At the beginning there were papyrus scrolls. Later came handwritten bound books. With the invention of the printing press in the 15th Century books became accessible to the masses for the first time, changing the course of history.

Today ebooks and online retailers are revolutionising the publishing industry once again. The low costs associated with creating and distributing ebooks has seen a proliferation in the number of books being published.

1960 – 8,100 ISBNs issued.

2013 – 1.4m ISBNs issued.

This is largely due to the number of self-published authors entering a marketplace that was traditionally reserved for authors signed with publishing houses.

(courtesy of gallery hip)

There has also been a marked increase in the number of book genres. Yesterday’s readers would no doubt be surprised to find genres such as Amish Fiction, Steam Punk, and an infestation of Romance sub-genres, including Nascar, Amish (again) and Centaurs. So frequently when online am I accosted by book front covers depicting half-dressed cowboys and period clothed cavorting couples in various states of undress that I am seriously considering having a sick bag dispenser installed at my desk. My reading tastes aside, genre fiction, particularly Romance, are performing well in this new era of publishing. Evidence of this is the fact that female Romance authors have been dominating recent Smashwords self-published bestseller lists.

Amazon has been at the forefront of this publishing revolution. Jeff Bezos, a man who was once described as a ‘hyper-intelligent alien with a tangential interest in human affairs’ founded the company in 1994.

Amazon’s war with publishing is well documented. Most recently its battles with publishing behemoth Hachette has seen Amazon accused of aggressive tactics, including delaying deliveries of Hachette books, halting the sale of others, and displaying banners on their website alongside their books with the words, ‘Similar items at a lower price’, in what could be described as the modern equivalent of the medieval siege. Back in the 15th Century the inventor of the printing press, Johannes Guttenberg, died near penniless due to legal battles over his printer. What will be the fate of today’s publishers? Perhaps they will be forced to flee their plush offices and seek refuge in the ruins of closed bookshops, as Amazon drones darken the skies above. A more likely scenario is that they will find ways to adapt to the rapidly changing marketplace.

Although some major authors have been vociferous in their criticism of Amazon, many less famous authors, including myself (Charles Middleworth & Necropolis), have welcomed the high profits Amazon offer, in addition to their advanced recommendation systems that have proved invaluable in assisting authors to find new readers.

Tag - Authors

10 Writers Who Went To Prison

Like this:

10 Best-Sellers Initially Rejected

Like this:

7 Famous Works by Anonymous Authors

Like this:

7 Politically Inclined Authors

Like this:

4 Female Writers’ Writing Styles

Like this:

4 Famous Male Writers’ Writing Styles

Like this:

Record Breaking Authors

Like this:

Are These The 12 Best-Selling Books Of All Time?

Like this:

Record Breaking Old & Young Authors

Like this:

The Evolution of Books

Like this:

Tag - Authors

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this: