Jenny Bond and Chris Sheedy run the freelance journalism company The Hard Word. Their work has been published in The Sun-Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sunday Telegraph, Virgin Blue Voyeur, Woman's Day, TV Week, FHM, and Cleo.
Who the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara?: The Fascinating Stories Behind 50 of the World's Best-LovedBooks
Paperback
$13.00
- ISBN-13: 9780143113645
- Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
- Publication date: 07/29/2008
- Pages: 336
- Product dimensions: 5.00(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.70(d)
Eligible for FREE SHIPPING details
.
13.0
Out Of Stock
The captivating stories behind fifty of the greatest authors and their most famous literary creations
Before Who the Hell is Pansy O'Hara ?, there had never been a single volume that explored the backstories of so many of the greatest books in the English language. A work sure to captivate all lovers of language and literature, it reveals in short, pithy chapters, the lives, loves, motivations, and quirky, fascinating details involving fifty of the best-loved books of the Western world.
• When stacked up, the original manuscript of Gone With the Wind stood taller than Margaret Mitchell, its 4' 9 1/2" author
• Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond, was part of the Allied team that cracked the Nazi's Enigma code
• Leo Tolstoy's wife copied War and Peace by hand . . . seven times
From The Great Gatsby to Harper Lee, from Jaws to J. K . Rowling, Who the Hell Is Pansy O'Hara? offers an entertaining and informative journey through the minds of writers and the life experiences that took these amazing works from notion to novel.
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
-
- Letters of E. B. White,…
- by Oversat
-
- Shelf Discovery: The Teen…
- by Lizzie Skurnick
-
- How Fiction Works
- by James Wood
-
- Jane Austen For Dummies
- by Joan Elizabeth Klingel RayJoan Klingel Ray
-
- The Eustace Diamonds
- by Anthony Trollope
-
- Varney The Vampire; Or, The…
- by James Malcolm RymerCurt Herr
-
- Diary of a Provincial Lady
- by E. M. DelafieldChristina Hardyment
Recently Viewed
Publishers Weekly
From Stephen King's childhood fascination with gruesome comics to the famous family name behind Peter Benchley, book-lovers and first time authors Bond and Sheedy light up some intriguing angles on many popular authors. Journalists in Australia, the authors deliver their 50 profiles with reportorial vigor, moving quickly through each profile while highlighting the salient and salacious details of, for example, the role played by Mary Shelley's literary legacy (daughter of two leading British writers) and her free-love husband (poet Percy Shelley) in the genesis of Frankenstein. Surprising words from the authors themselves adorn many profiles; said Harper Lee of To Kill a Mockingbird, "I was hoping for a quick and merciful death at the hands of reviewers." Between the engaging information and the range of popular texts (Pride and Prejudice, The Origin of Species, The War of the Worlds, In Cold Blood, Lolita, Roots, The Cat in the Hat, The Da Vinci Code), this affectionate literary history should appeal to many readers. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Library Journal
Freelance journalists Bond and Sheedy discuss the details and events that shaped the creation of 50 of the most beloved books of the Western world, including Gone with the Wind, Jaws, and War and Peace. They illustrate some magical ingredients behind these works, from passion for the craft of writing to struggles to achieve success. One tidbit regarding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn-Mark Twain wrote 400 pages in less than a month and then set the book to rest for three years; it was a trip to Twain's boyhood hometown of Hannibal, MO, that inspired him to finish the novel. Readers will enjoy this informative journey through the minds of writers and the experiences that led the authors from ideas to novels that became amazing treasures in the literary world. Those interested in researching or learning the rich details behind literary classics will be especially rewarded. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries, this would be a great resource in literature collections.—Susan McClellan