These writers’ lives were more interesting than their fiction
Have you ever wondered how writers find inspiration for their literary pieces and what makes them create such fascinating stories and characters? When it comes to non-fiction, it is not that difficult to guess what inspired the author to write about that particular topic, but when we think about fiction, it is much more difficult to guess what inspired the author to create such imaginary worlds and creatures.
People tend to say that imagination is boundless and that there is no limit to what people can create, but sometimes reality can be even more interesting than imagination. In fact, there are some world-famous authors whose lives were at least as interesting as the fiction they wrote.
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway was one of the members of “the lost generation” and he worked as an ambulance driver during World War I. On the other hand, he was also a bull rider, a heavy drinker, and an American expatriate living in Paris. He got married four times and almost died in two plane crashes while he was on a safari in Africa. He ended his own life by shooting himself with his favorite shotgun which happened at his home in Idaho. It is believed that he suffered from a genetic disease that causes mental deterioration.
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Wilde was known as a controversial figure because he was homosexual. Today this wouldn’t be such a big problem, but during the Puritanical Victorian era when Wilde lived, his sexual orientation was an outrageous issue. In fact, he was taken to trial three times just for being a homosexual. Later on, he was accused of sodomy and ended up being sentenced to two years of hard labor. From that time on, his marriage started falling apart, his sons abandoned him, his friends left him, and he ended up bankrupt.
William Shakespeare
Although there are not many documents about Shakespeare’s life, there are a lot of interesting speculations. For example, it is believed that there were two different women called Anne and that both were his wives. Also, his daughter was born suspiciously early. Some evidence points to the possibility that he worked as an informant for the government under Queen Elizabeth I, and that Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare the playwright could be two different people.
Carson McCullers
McCullers went through a lot of difficulties to become an accomplished writer. She was friends with Tennessee Williams and Truman Capote. She suffered from emotional struggles in her life and even attempted suicide at one point. After failing to kill herself, she ran to her husband, who tried to convince her to do it with him. By the age of 31 the left side of her body got paralyzed and later she died in New York because of a brain hemorrhage.
If you are interested in more stories about unusual lives of writers, you should do some research on F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Edgar Allan Poe. You will be amazed.