6 More Author Facts to Surprise YouLike this list

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• Slaughterhouse-five, Or, The Children's Crusade

  a Duty-dance With Death

  Vonnegut, Kurt

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  Before writing "Slaughter-House Five," Kurt Vonnegut managed the U.S.'s first Saab dealership in Cape Cod. It failed. Lucky for us because Vonnegut's writing career took off and lasted for over 50 years.

• In Secret

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  Emile Zola, who penned the novel this film is based on, was a "second" in an 1870 sword duel between French painter Edouard Manet and his friend Edmond Duranty. After the duel, Manet and Duranty patched up their friendship.

• Fahrenheit 451

  Bradbury, Ray, 1920-2012

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  Ray Bradbury is descended from Mary Bradbury, a woman who was sentenced to hang as a witch in Salem, MA. Several stories abound as to how Mary avoided her sentence including paying off the jailer or escaping. She died in 1700 of natural causes at…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Novels, Tales, Journeys

  the Complete Prose of Alexander Pushkin

  Pushkin, Aleksandr Sergeevich, 1799-1837,

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  When Alexander Pushkin's wife was romantically pursued by George d'Anthes, Pushkin challenged him to a duel. d'Anthes, who was married to Pushkin's sister-in-law, escaped with a gash on his arm but Pushkin was shot in the stomach and died two days…Read moreRead more of this annotation

• Pride and Prejudice

  Austen, Jane, 1775-1817,

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  Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is one of literature's most enduring love stories, but Austen herself never married. She was, however, engaged for one night in 1802 before realizing her mistake and breaking it off.

• Mrs. Dalloway

  Woolf, Virginia, 1882-1941,

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  In 1940, Virginia Woolf and several of her friends dressed in blackface and outrageous costumes to board the HMS Dreadnought. Their plan? To convince the British Royal Navy that they were the Emperor of Abyssinia and his entourage of princes. Too…Read moreRead more of this annotation