Writing a book is an achievement under any circumstances – even the very bad ones
represent a great deal of effort. But here are some authors who created masterpieces under great strain – be it self imposed or externally inflicted – and ultimately had their genius recognized by the world.
No ‘e’s in Gadsby: Some might describe ‘Gadsby’ as a love story, but its author Ernest Vincent Wright never would have done so. His novel was instead a story of “strong liking” and “throbbing palpitation.” That’s because in 1939, Wright gave himself one restriction: He promised to write Gadsby without using the letter E.
The result is an astounding (and amusing) display of verbal gymnastics. While describing a wedding scene, Wright has his anonymous (and irritating narrator) avoid the words “bride,” “ceremony,” and even “wedding,” calling it “a grand church ritual” instead. Wright didn’t live long enough to revel in Gadsby’s critical acclaim. He died the year the book was published.
History’s Greatest Sonnet: Composed in 1936 by Etymologist David Shulman, ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ is a remarkable poem in more ways than one.
For starters, every one of its 14 lines is an anagram of the title. What’s more, the lines are rhyming couplets, and there’s even something resembling a plot. Here’s an excerpt:
‘A hard, howling, tossing water scene.
Strong tide was washing hero clean.
“How cold!” Weather stings as in anger.
O Silent night shows war ace danger!’
Told in the Blink of an Eye: Jean-Dominique Bauby was the editor-in-chief of French fashion magazine Elle. In 1995, at the age of 43, he suffered a major stroke and slipped into a coma. He regained consciousness two days later, but his entire body—with the exception of his left eyelid—was paralyzed.
What followed was surely one of the most inspiring stories ever. Determined to write, using only his lucid mind and one eye, Bauby began to construct his memoir.
Each night, he’d lie awake editing and re-editing the story in his mind, perfecting each paragraph and then memorizing it. By day, his transcriber would recite the alphabet to him over and over. When she reached the right letter Bauby would wink.
This painstaking process produces a word in approximately two minutes. Over the course of a year, Bauby managed to tell his story of life in paralysis. Critically acclaimed for its moving, even funny prose, ‘The Diving Bell and the Butterfly‘ became a bestseller throughout Europe.
James Joyce’s farewell: Quite frankly, ‘Finnegans Wake’ is something of a literary labyrinth. Considering how it was written, this shouldn’t come as a surprise. Its iconic author wrote the novel in Paris, finishing it just two years before his death in 1941.
During that time, Joyce was nearly blind, so he dictated his stream-of-consciousness prose to his friend, Samuel Beckett, and their collaboration proved unconventional in more ways than one. During one session, Joyce was said to have heard a knock at the door. Joyce called to the visitor, “Come in!” and Beckett (not having heard the knock) faithfully added “Come in!” to the manuscript. When Beckett later read the passage back to Joyce, the author decided to leave it in.
So, Finnegans Wake came to be described as one of the most impenetrable works of English literature. It is worth noting here, that the experience had an effect on Beckett’s writing, as well. As one of the great playwrights in Theatre of the Absurd, Beckett would create plays like ‘Waiting for Godot,’ where his characters often spent their entire time on stage sitting in the middle of nowhere, hoping that someone would hear their voice.
The Youngest Visitor: Every nine year old these days seems to be publishing their own collection of stories, but when Daisy Ashford’s novella about Victorian society was published in 1919, it was still something of an achievement...more so because it’s still in print and was even turned into a movie.
The publishers decided to leave in Ashford’s plentiful grammar mistakes and spelling errors (the title, for example) but they also added a foreword by Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie to assure readers that this was no hoax. In it, Barrie assured everyone that the book’s author was indeed a little girl, who was “hauled off to bed every evening at six.”
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