Literature

Rejected manuscripts, stubborn pen names, endings rewritten under pressure: what happened to books before they became classics.

322 anecdotes, most recent first.
Highlights

A major character of The Lord of the Rings was invented on the spot

Faramir is an important character in the novel The Lord of the Rings written by J. R. R. Tolkien. His creator had not planned him in the plot and imagined him at the very moment of making him cross the path of the heroes. This literary improvisation recounted by Christopher Tolkien forced the author to postpone the end of the book and to develop the history of Gondor.

2026-01-25

Des livres érotiques pour contrarier son tuteur

Pierre Mac Orlan est un écrivain qui publia des livres érotiques sous son véritable nom de Pierre Dumarchey. Il sortit notamment La Comtesse au fouet et Les Grandes Flagellées de l'histoire en 1909. Cette publication avait pour unique but de nuire à son oncle et ancien tuteur Hippolyte Ferrand qui lui avait infligé une éducation sévère.

2026-08-03

Mark Twain signed under five other names before choosing the right one

Samuel Clemens used five other pseudonyms before emerging under the name Mark Twain. These pen names notably included Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab. He signed for the first time under his definitive pseudonym on February 1, 1863 to cover political news at the Territorial Enterprise of Virginia City.

2026-06-02

A black bread diet to buy books

At the age of 16, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky went to study in Moscow for three years while diligently frequenting libraries. His father being able to send him only small sums of money, he devoted the bulk of his budget to the purchase of books and equipment for his experiments. This asceticism led him to feed exclusively on black bread to meet his needs.

2026-10-16

The Flores man revived the myth of dwarves

The Flores man is a one-meter tall hominid that disappeared 12,000 years ago. Its discovery in 2004 revived theories linking legendary small-sized creatures to real prehistoric populations. This hypothesis relies on the fact that the species was already known through local legends before being unearthed by archaeologists.

2026-10-16

In Arthurian romances, a single dwarf replaces all servants

The Arthurian cycle features many supernatural dwarfs who often serve as anonymous servants for chores. These creatures generally act at night without ever feeling the need to sleep. In the novel Yder, a single one of these characters thus replaces the entire staff of a castle.

2026-10-15

The first known coat of arms was invented retroactively

The enamel plaque of Geoffrey Plantagenet depicts a coat of arms composed of six golden lioncels on an azure background. This object was long considered the oldest known coat of arms, supposedly offered during the knighting of the count in 1127 by his father-in-law Henry I, King of England. Recent studies have proven that this scene was in reality invented by a monk in the 1170s to project the fashion of his era.

2026-10-13

A 14th-century dwarf offers the strength of twenty men

A dwarf forced to fight a duel offers a belt granting the strength of twenty men to the knight who agrees to represent him. This fantastic creature also gives a ring bringing fortune to his champion. The anecdote is reported in a 14th-century Austrian chronicle.

2026-10-13

The eagle is the Roman military emblem

The eagle became a general military emblem for Roman armies starting from the reform led in 107 BC. This modification was introduced by the Roman general Marius to harmonize the troops' banners. Previously, Roman forces used various animals on their standards.

2026-10-12

The Pipintu are dwarves without an anus

The Pipintu are singular dwarves mentioned in the work The Jealous Potter. This improbable anatomical peculiarity is attributed to them by the author Claude Lévi-Strauss. This work addresses various mythological figures throughout the world.

2026-10-12

A crucial oversight in the Omar Raddad case

Omar Raddad is a gardener whose shoes bore particles indicating his presence in a cellar, contradicting his initial statements. The accused had first claimed not to have gone down there for two months, before remembering on February 18 that he had stored flower pots there shortly before the murder. This change in behavior and this lie led Judge Renard to doubt the gardener's innocence, according to remarks reported by Ève Livet.

2026-10-12

Zoophilia with demons according to the Church in the 19th century

René Louvel, vicar general of the Évreux bishopric, published in 1858 a Treatise on Chastity for the use of confessors. This theology manual classified mating with an incubus or a succubus among acts of bestiality. The author added that this capital sin constituted a crime of adultery or incest depending on the physical appearance adopted by the demon.

2026-10-11

Stealing an incubus's conical cap ensures the discovery of treasure

Stealing the conical cap of an incubus ensures the discovery of a treasure according to the Latin writer Petronius. This headgear, named pileus, was sometimes depicted on ancient coins such as those minted in Bithynia and Galatia. This mythological creature was thus frequently adorned with this cap similar to that of freed Roman slaves.

2026-10-11

Gandhi's version of his turban story was false

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi claimed in his 1927 Autobiography that he left a courtroom in 1893 after a magistrate ordered him to remove his turban. The archives of the newspaper The Natal Mercury recount a different scene where he was simply asked to present his lawyer's credentials. Authors such as N. Sanghavi, G. B. Singh and T. Watson have thus pointed out that this episode did not constitute a racial incident at the time.

2026-10-11

The romanticized portrait of Simón Bolívar caused shock upon its release

The novel The General in His Labyrinth is a book by Gabriel García Márquez published in 1989. The writer depicts the final journey of Simón Bolívar by relying mainly on fiction to fill the lack of historical documentation. This iconoclastic approach was perceived as an outrage by some patriots during its publication in Colombia, Argentina, Mexico and Spain.

2026-10-11

Love in the Time of Cholera is inspired by a murder

Love in the Time of Cholera is a novel by Gabriel García Márquez published in 1985. The writer was inspired by the true story of two Americans nearly 80 years old who met secretly every year in Acapulco while each being married to someone else. One day during a boat trip, they were killed with an oar by the boatman, thus revealing their affair to the public eye.

2026-10-11

Honoré de Balzac wrote his plays in a rush for money

Honoré de Balzac the novelist tried his hand at theater to pay off his perpetual debts and earn money quickly. Unlike his novels which he revised ten times, he wrote his plays on the fly without any real interest in the dramatic genre. Practically all his attempts were stinging failures or were banned, with the exception of the comedy Mercadet le faiseur created in 1851.

2026-10-11

The character of Falstaff is inspired by the playwright Robert Greene

Falstaff is a theatrical character whose main model presents astonishing parallels with the playwright Robert Greene. The latter frequented taverns, accumulated debts and displayed an ambiguous social position, while lamenting through brief repentances. The academic Stephen Greenblatt highlighted these similarities, going as far as the nickname Monsieur Remords that Shakespeare attributed to his hero.

2026-10-11

The name of the deceased is forbidden until their reincarnation

On the island of Fais, the name of a deceased person is totally banned from conversations after their death. This prohibition ceases only when the name is given to a newborn in the family. The relatives thus hope to find the character of their ancestor in the infant.

2026-10-11

Mathematical formulas remained without proof for decades

The Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan published revolutionary formulas in England in 1910 allowing to calculate pi with formidable efficiency. These propositions were put forward without any proof or clear explanation, plunging specialists into incomprehension. It was necessary to wait until the year 1987 for the brothers Jonathan and Peter Borwein to finally manage to prove them.

2026-10-11

Fitzwilliam Darcy is a devout practitioner

Fitzwilliam Darcy is a fictional character whose discreet morality is revealed through small clues in the novel. A joke by Bingley at Netherfield reveals that he strictly respects the Sunday rest. Furthermore, during Elizabeth's stay at the Collinses', he is seen only at church during the week preceding Easter.

2026-10-11

The French ambassador wrote the inscription of Uraniborg

Charles de Danzay provided the Latin inscription that adorns the cornerstone of the famous Uraniborg castle-observatory. Having formed a close friendship with the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572, the French diplomat was asked to write this commemorative text. This epigraph was sealed on the building erected in 1576 on the island of Ven, dedicated to philosophy and astronomy.

2026-10-11

She had her teeth removed for a role

Kinuyo Tanaka is a major actress of the golden age of Japanese cinema. In 1958, she played the role of a seventy-year-old woman in the film The Ballad of Narayama. Only forty-eight years old at the time of filming, she agreed to have four dental implants removed to perfect her character, subsequently receiving the best actress of the year award from the newspaper Kinema Junpō.

2026-10-11

The enigmatic lyrics of the Tago Mago album

Singer Damo Suzuki performs mysterious lyrics on the Tago Mago album that he never explained during his lifetime. Interpretations suggest that the tracks evoke varied themes, ranging from the apology of hallucinogenic mushrooms to drug addiction. The songs also use singular methods, such as the use of the Japanese language or tracks sung backwards.

2026-10-11

A fake farewell poem attributed to Gabriel García Márquez

In 2000, the Peruvian newspaper La República wrongly announced the imminent death of the writer Gabriel García Márquez. The following day, several newspapers published a text presented as his farewell poem, titled La Marioneta. It turned out that this text had been written by the Mexican ventriloquist Johnny Welch, who recited it during his shows.

2026-10-07

Horatio Nelson held numerous titles

The full title of Horatio Nelson is inscribed on his coffin, reflecting his many British, Sicilian, and Ottoman distinctions. Among these honors is the Dukedom of Bronte, received in July 1799 for his support of the royalist troops of Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies. Due to the lack of legitimate male offspring, his titles partly passed to his elder brother William.

2026-10-07

The cook of Alexander the Great is mentioned in the Quran

Idris, a character cited in the Quran, is a deformation of the name Andreas. This man was originally the cook of Alexander in the Alexander Romance by Pseudo-Callisthenes. This linguistic similarity links sacred texts to ancient fictional narratives related to the sovereign.

2026-10-06