Literary Miscellany

Literary Miscellany is a breezy tour through the literature oftoday and yesterday, touching on many great classical literaryworks, movements, and trends. But don’t fear that it’s only forintellectuals—there’s plenty here for the contemporary pleasurereader as well. Alex Palmer offers something for everyone, includinganswers to the following questions: What’s the original bestseller? What authors introduced insults as a literary art form? Who burned the first book? Are writers more likely to be depressed than booksellers? How does a book become a movie? When did sex become part of literature? Most people don’t know that the Bible gets credit for plenty oflines that were written by William Shakespeare or John Milton.In Literary Miscellany, learn how this happened. Also examine themore recent concept of “false memoirs,” with a list of who liedabout what. And speaking of villains, was the devil the first badguy in print? Did his appearance lead to the inevitable self-helpbook? Or was that Oprah? This quirky work is filled with entertaining literary trivia fora unique perspective on writers’ lives and inspirations, from thedrinks they imbibed to the books they penned. Delightfully illustrated,it will entertain casual readers and literary buffs alike.