15 Authors With Dark Histories We Wish We Didn't Know

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15 Authors With Dark Histories We Wish We Didn't Know

In a small room, in a town, there lived a man. He was not a young man, for his hair had turned from black to grey. But he was not yet old, for his eyes had not begun to go cloudy and his limbs were still supple. The room was not large, for it was cramped with the books that the man had collected in his life, all the oddities he had encountered and the many things that had caught his interest. The room was not cluttered with things, for the man kept only what he needed and he enjoyed this list of interesting facts. He could have made another list, but he knew that this list would be as good as any other. He did not mind his small room. He was used to it. The man enjoyed the list of interesting facts so much that he decided to share it with a friend, though he could not remember having told anyone about the list of interesting facts. But he was sure it must have been one of them.

Norman Mailer Stabbed His Wife

Norman Mailer Stabbed His Wife CRACKED.COM In 1960, after a kickoff party for his mayoral campaign, Norman Mailer stabbed his wife in the heart after she said he wasn't as good as Dosto- evsky, which is just true. She survived, but amazingly, he did not win the election.

EW

Allen Ginsberg Was a Member of NAMBLA

Allen Ginsberg Was a Member of NAMBLA CRACKED.COM The famous Beat poet joined the ре- dophile organization in the early '80s in defense of free speech, in- sisting that he had no intention to apologize for rape and mental or physical violation of children and did not personally make carnal love to hairless boys and girls, but not before implying that we all want to, right? Right?

IPCE

William Golding Tried to Rape a Teenage Girl

William Golding Tried to Rape a Teenage Girl CRACKED.COM The Lord of the Flies author admitted in his unpublished memoirs that while he was in college, he tried to rape a high school girl who he called depraved by nature and whose pert, ripe, and de- sirable mouth he had mistaken for an invitation, which is one of the grosser ways to say she asked for it. She fought him off, and he ended up teach- ing high school a few years later, so that's fun.

The Guardian

David Eddings hid his domestic abuse conviction for his whole life

David Eddings Went to Prison For Child Abuse CRACKED.COM The bestselling fantasy author served a year in prison for beat- ing his children and enjoyed his entire career without that little tidbit ever coming to light until after his death. Не actually wrote his first published novel while he was locked up.

MLA

Enid Blyton created a hellscape for her own children

Enid Blyton Was Awful to Her Own Children CRACKED.COM The creator of the Noddy series of books may have created fanciful worlds for other children, but her own daughter described her as lacking even a trace of maternal instinct, keeping her and her sister shut away in a nursery that she rarely visited except to yell at them. Oh, and her books were also deeply racist.

The Guardian

Dr. Seuss does not like it, Sam-I-Am -- does not like peace with Japan

Dr. Seuss Wanted to Kill Japanese People CRACKED.COM Dr. Seuss chose a slightly less common target for his racist rage, commenting during World War II, If we want to win, we've got to kill, whether it depresses John Haynes Holmes or not. We can get palsy-walsy afterward with those that are left, unable to resist squeezing in a whimsical made-up word. Не also drew anti-Japanese propaganda that looks startlingly like, well, a Dr. Seuss book.

OpenCulture

Roald Dahl and the giant antisemitic rant

Roald Dahl Victim-Blamed Jews CRACKED.COM Meanwhile, Roald Dahl had a lot to say specifically about Jews, implying that their lack of generosity toward non-Jews naturally provoke ani- mosity and calling them submis- sive because he would have a go at taking one of the guards with me to the gas chambers. Yes, Roald Dahl and Mark Wahlberg have something in common.

New Statesman

Gertrude Stein did not have her own best interests in mind

Gertrude Stein: Nazi Lover? CRACKED.COM Let us begin our parade of racists with Gertrude Stein, who supported the head of France's Nazi puppet govern- ment to the point of translating his speeches with the hope of bringing them to an American audience and speaking out in his defense even after he was sentenced to death for trea- son, which is all pretty weird because she was also Jewish.

NEH

Agatha Christie just needed a vacation

Agatha Christie Pulled a Gone Girl CRACKED.COM In 1926, the mystery titan went for a drive and then abandoned her car on the side of the road, drawing thousands of people into an 11-day search and casting suspicion on her philandering husband, who had recently asked her for a divorce. She was later found at a health spa under a fake name, insisting she had no memory of her disappearance. She may have truly had a psychological breakdown, but she may have also just wanted to scare the bejesus out of her jerk husband.

StraightDope

The police would like a word with the author of Where the Crawdads Sing

Delia Owens is Wanted For Questioning About a Poacher Murder CRACKED.COM Delia Owens, writer of the best- selling book and upcoming Swift-soundtracked movie Where the Crawdads Sing, can't go back to Zambia, where she once worked for a wildlife conservation, because police would like to talk to her about her husband's and/or stepson's possible involvement in the murder of a poacher there in 1995.

Slate

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