In the tradition of Quirk's bestselling Secret Lives of the U.S. Presidents (100,000+ copies in print), here are outrageous and uncensored profiles of the world's greatest writers, complete with hundreds of little-known, politically incorrect, and downright bizarre facts. Consider: Edgar Allan Poe was kicked out of West Point Military Academy. Louisa May Alcott was addicted to opium. W. B. Yeats paid surgeons to transplant monkey glands into his scrotum. J. R. R. Tolkien slept in his bathroom. Kurt Vonnegut managed a Saab dealership before hitting the big time. With chapters on everyone from William Shakespeare to Thomas Pynchon, Secret Lives of Great Authors tackles all the tough questions your teachers were afraid to answer: What's the deal with Lewis Carroll and little girls? Is it true that J. D. Salinger drank his own urine? Why was Ayn Rand such a big fan of Charlie's Angels? The classics were never this much fun in school!