Curated playlist

American male novelists

Stephen KingA minivan hit Stephen King on a Maine road in June 1999. A dog in the back distracted the driver.
Mark TwainMark Twain predicted he would die with Halley's Comet, and he did. He died the day after it passed closest to the Sun.
F. Scott FitzgeraldF. Scott Fitzgerald died in 1940 believing his work was forgotten. The Great Gatsby later sold millions.
Edgar Allan PoeEdgar Allan Poe's executor used forged letters to paint him as a drunken madman.
Ernest HemingwayErnest Hemingway, only 18, carried Italian soldiers to safety despite being seriously wounded by mortar fire.
Herman MelvilleHerman Melville's death notice misspelled his great novel as "Mobie Dick."
Tennessee WilliamsTennessee Williams wanted to be sewn into a canvas sack and dropped into the sea.
H. P. LovecraftH. P. Lovecraft died in 1937 virtually unknown to readers. His monsters later became global touchstones.
Henry JamesNovelist Henry James was hissed at when he took a bow on his play's opening night in 1895.
George LucasGeorge Lucas turned down a higher directing fee for Star Wars. He asked for toy and merchandise rights instead.
William FaulknerWilliam Faulkner never told his daughter he had won the Nobel Prize. She heard it when the principal called her in.
Jack KerouacJack Kerouac typed On the Road on a 120-foot roll of taped tracing paper. He finished the final draft in 20 days.
John SteinbeckJohn Steinbeck once stole bacon from a produce market to survive. He later won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature.
Kurt VonnegutKurt Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden by hiding in an underground meat locker.
Kirk DouglasKirk Douglas insisted on giving blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo an on-screen credit for Spartacus.
Jimmy CarterJimmy Carter once was lowered into a crippled nuclear reactor for 90 seconds at a time. He later ran for president.
Stephen ColbertAt a 2006 dinner, Stephen Colbert roasted President Bush to a cold room. His show's ratings jumped 37% the next week.
Raymond ChandlerRaymond Chandler sold his first story for $180 after losing his oil job at forty-four.
Langston HughesLangston Hughes's ashes rest beneath the floor of a Harlem research center.
Vernor VingeWhat happens when machines get smarter than the people who built them? Vernor Vinge kept asking.
Saul BellowSaul Bellow learned he had entered the U.S. illegally as a child when he tried to enlist. He became a citizen in 1941.
Hunter S. ThompsonHunter S. Thompson's Gonzo style began as a Kentucky Derby deadline scramble. He mailed pages ripped from his notebook.
Jack LondonJack London lost four front teeth to scurvy in the Klondike. It also gave him the wolf dog of The Call of the Wild.
Salman RushdieA fatwa ordering Salman Rushdie's execution was broadcast on Radio Tehran on Valentine's Day 1989.
Philip K. DickPhilip K. Dick died four months before Blade Runner opened. He never saw the film that made his name famous.
Poul AndersonPoul Anderson's typewriter now sits in a Berkeley bookshop. His widow donated it after he died in 2001.
Arthur MillerArthur Miller wrote Death of a Salesman in less than six weeks. He finished the first act in less than a day.
Carl SaganCarl Sagan once asked a librarian for a book on stars and got one about movie stars.
Nathaniel HawthorneNathaniel Hawthorne paid $100 to print his first novel, then tried to suppress every surviving copy.
Edgar Rice BurroughsEdgar Rice Burroughs wrote Tarzan after failing as a mine manager and pencil-sharpener wholesaler.
Steve Winter (game designer)A campus newsletter ad turned journalist Steve Winter into a Dungeons and Dragons designer.
Ralph EllisonA 1967 fire destroyed more than 300 pages of Ralph Ellison's second novel. He never finished it.
John GrishamJohn Grisham hid in a restroom during a gunfight at 17. That scare pushed him toward college, law and novels.
Jonathan FranzenA gate-crasher once pulled novelist Jonathan Franzen's glasses off his face. He jokingly demanded $100,000 in 2010.
Stephen CraneStephen Crane wrote a famous Civil War novel without ever seeing a battle. He died of tuberculosis at 28.
Vladimir NabokovNovelist Vladimir Nabokov also named butterfly species, and later genetic research backed his theory.
Joseph HellerJoseph Heller's novel Catch-22 was first called Catch-18. It was renamed to avoid confusion with Mila 18.
John JakesJohn Jakes wrote fiction at night while working as an advertising copywriter. His Kent series sold 55 million copies.
Upton SinclairUpton Sinclair aimed his novel The Jungle at the public's heart and hit its stomach instead. Meat sales fell by half.
Gil Scott-HeronGil Scott-Heron preferred the word "bluesologist" even as critics called him a rap progenitor.
George R. R. MartinA chess craze helped save George R. R. Martin's writing career. Bobby Fischer's 1972 win got him a tournament job.
Junot DíazJunot Díaz arrived in New Jersey at six unable to speak English. He later won a Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
L. Sprague de CampL. Sprague de Camp turned the word extraterrestrial into a noun. He also coined E.T. in a 1939 magazine article.
Lin CarterLin Carter printed about 3,000 copies of his fanzine Kadath, and most were thrown away.
Charlie KaufmanEvery company rejected Charlie Kaufman's script for Being John Malkovich. Spike Jonze later agreed to direct it.
Isaac AsimovIsaac Asimov coined the word "robotics" in a 1941 story, thinking it was just a natural term.
Dave WolvertonDave Wolverton chose a second name partly because of where books were placed in bookstores. He was born John David Wolverton, and he published as both Dave Wolverton and David Farland. His reasoning was practical. A fantasy author needed a…
Timothy ZahnTimothy Zahn wrote a Star Wars trilogy from a box of roleplaying game sourcebooks.
E. L. DoctorowE. L. Doctorow won the National Book Critics Circle Award three times. He mixed real and invented people.
Michael CrichtonMichael Crichton once submitted a George Orwell essay as his own and got a B-minus.