FAVOURITE AUTHORS
The lives and stories of our favourite authors never cease to amaze us; more so because while they appear to allow us open access into their minds (or so we'd like to believe) they're among the most intriguing people whose lives are ultimately a mystery. Here are some shocking facts you may not have known about your favourite authors.
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton is a well-loved children’s author. Most of us grew up reading her books which are now considered classics. While many elements of her work were deemed acceptable at the time (between 1930s and 1950s), editors now rewrite racist and sexist bits in her books. While this may not come off as shocking, what you will be surprised to know is that in real life, Blyton was not fond of children, despite being held in high nostalgic esteem for catering her work to them. Moreover, Blyton was cruel toward her own kids, which often goes ignored by her fans. Neighbours who lived near Blyton’s Beaconsfield cottage reported that she would scream at the local children for playing too noisily. They also said that the divorced Blyton refused to allow her children to see their father after he remarried and that she was far nastier to one daughter than the other. In her autobiography, younger daughter Imogen, who received the worst treatment, called her mother “arrogant, insecure, and without a trace of maternal instinct.”
Edgar Allan Poe
Poe is one of those literary folks who encountered a lot of hardships. His writing was highly criticised, he was an alcoholic, and he found it difficult to publish his work due to the enemies he made in the industry. Yet Poe was able to find romantic happiness when he applied for a license to marry the love of his life, Virginia Eliza Clemm, on September 22, 1835. He was 26, and she was 13. Poe and Clemm were happily married for 11 years until she died suddenly on January 30, 1847, at age 24. Clemm had been suffering from tuberculosis for five years, which made her bleed in her lungs and out of her mouth.
Charles Dickens
One of the most famous and successful Victorian writers, Charles Dickens was highly interested in the supernatural. This is also evident in his work, such as the ghosts of A Christmas Carol (1843) and his numerous short stories involving paranormal beings. Dickens was a member of the Ghost Club, a society born at Cambridge University before moving to London to investigate potential cases of haunting and supernatural events. Dickens was also highly interested and claimed to be highly learned in the art of hypnosis. Inspired by what he saw, Dickens started studying and performing hypnosis on friends and family. He apparently eradicated the anxiety and facial tics of Augusta de la Rue in 1844. Dickens is then said to have cured the concussion symptoms of John Leech, illustrator of A Christmas Carol, in 1849. Dickens also frequently hypnotised his hypochondriac wife, Catherine, for a variety of conditions from which she believed she was suffering.
Elizabeth Browning
Popular poet and political writer in Victorian England, Elizabeth Browning, also, like Poe, encountered a number of struggles throughout her life, including a controlling father who forbade her to get married, a lung condition, and a spinal injury that she received at age 15 when putting a saddle on a horse. As a result of her fragile physical condition, Browning spent the majority of her early adult life confined to her bed in her father’s house. Browning’s injuries also meant that she had access to a steady supply of opium (from which morphine is derived), which was used to treat a large variety of conditions in Victorian medicine. Browning is on record as calling opium her “elixir.” She said that it made her feel more relaxed and aided her ability to write. She also felt that she could not live without it. While receiving opium treatments daily for a number of years, Browning became a recluse. She exhibited a hyperfocus on her work and political interests without much care for anything else, including her inability to get out of bed. Browning’s husband, Robert, repeatedly chastised her for her drug use and begged her to stop using.finally, she was able to do so when she and Robert moved to Italy, away from her father and her family home.