Trivia: 06/26/11

TODAY'S MYSTERY QUOTE

QUOTE: "Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."

HINT: (1912-1989), American self-trained historian and author.

RANDOM TIDBITS

All the proceeds earned from James M. Barrie's book Peter Pan were bequeathed to the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children in London.

Fagin, the villain in Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, was also the name of Dickens' best friend, Bob Fagin.

Robert Louis Stevenson said that he had envisioned the entire story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in a dream and recorded it the way he saw it.

John Bunyan, author of Pilgrim's Progress, wrote most of his famous books while in jail. He was imprisoned for twelve years for preaching without a license.

After completing his book on the French revolution, English historian Thomas Carlyle gave the manuscript to his friend John Stuart Mill to proofread. By mistake Mill's housemaid used the papers to kindle a fire and destroyed the entire manuscript. Undaunted, Carlyle sat down and completely rewrote the book.

Alexander Pope published "The Rape of the Lock" at age 24, Browning wrote "Pauline" at age 20, Byron wrote "Childe Harold" when he was 24, and Keats wrote "Endymion" at age 23.

TODAY'S MYSTERY QUOTE

QUOTE: "Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill."

ANSWER: Barbara W. Tuchman