We’ve learned the background of some children’s book characters here on the _floss (Eloise may have been based on Liza Minnelli, for example), but today we’re uncovering the inspiration for some characters in more adult novels.
1. Margaret Mitchell, author of Gone With the Wind was distant cousins with Doc Holliday. It’s supposed that she based the character of Ashley Wilkes on him.
2. Moby-Dick was based on a real-life albino sperm whale from the 1830s named Mocha Dick. Mocha Dick was infamous for attacking ships and surviving harpoon injuries. He was killed in 1839.
3. Branwell Bronte is thought to have served as the inspiration for Benjamin Braddock in the 1963 novel The Graduate. Although Bronte died more than 100 years before the novel was written, his taboo relationship with a much older, married Mrs. Robinson has raised suspicion that author Charles Webb was a bit of a Bronte historian.
4. There are several theories as to where Ebenezer Scrooge came from, but one of the strongest contenders is that he was based on a miser named John Elwes. Dickens mentioned him in later letters and the man who illustrated Dickens’ work, John Leech, chose to portray Mr. Scrooge in a manner that closely resembled Elwes. Do you see the resemblance?
5. The appearance of Anne Shirley from Anne of Green Gables was based on a picture of Gibson Girl Evelyn Nesbit. Lucy Maud Montgomery didn’t know this at the time, though – she simply pulled a picture out of a magazine that she felt best embodied her idea of Anne.
6. Robert Langdon, it may come as no surprise to you, is Dan Brown’s idealized version of himself. Brown and his most famous character share a birthday, a hometown and the same school. His name was based on John Langdon, professor of typography at Drexel University. The real Langdon created the ambigrams for Brown’s book Angels and Demons.
7. Daisy Buchanan of The Great Gatsby is believed to be a thinly-veiled version of Ginevra King, the daughter of a wealthy Chicago businessman. Their very different social standings drove them apart, and during his relationship with King, Fitzgerald wrote the phrase, “Poor boys shouldn’t think of marrying rich girls,” which was later used in the movie version of Gatsby.
8. In his post-Gatsby novel, Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald based his main characters on people not very far from his heart – himself and his wife, Zelda. He mirrored their life right down to affairs, psychiatric treatment and even his feelings about his own professional failure.
9. Dill Harris from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird is believed to be based on her childhood best friend and neighbor. That kid, Truman Persons, just happened to grow up to be famous in his own right – you know him better as Truman Capote.
10. A real James Bond? Maybe. Ian Fleming never confirmed that his superspy was ever based on anyone with the exception of James Bond, ornithologist, whose name he borrowed. But historian Keith Jeffery has speculated that 007 was based in part on Fleming’s friend Bill Dunderdale, an MI6 agent who seems to have shared Bond’s affinity for women and cars.
I know there’s many more out there – do you know of any real-life inspirations for famous literary characters?
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Read any of Spider Robinson’s books. At least one important character will be tall, skinny, and will enjoy playing the acoustic guitar. He will probably also be married to a dancer. That’s Spider. Every flippin’ time.
posted by Jon. on 9-28-2010 at 7:03 pm
The Judge or Judge Holden in McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is based on a killer in the Glanton gang by the same name. They share physical attributes. Samuel Chamberlain’s My Confession served as an inspiration as well as provided factual accounts for McCarthy’s violent Western opus.
posted by Nick A. on 9-28-2010 at 7:16 pm
Stanley from Street Car was inspired by a man Tennesse Williams worked with in a shoe factory. Apparently, Tennessee had a boyhood crush on him… I am guessing this is why Blanch Dubois is the female version of Tennessee Williams.
posted by Marty on 9-28-2010 at 8:45 pm
winnie the pooh was named after a bear that a Canadian soldier in WWI named after his home town of Winnipeg and Ron from the “harry Potter” stories is based on Rowlings’ best friend Sean (actually, the only character in the series who is actkually based on a real person)
posted by Carol on 9-28-2010 at 8:58 pm
The Alice of Alice in Wonderland was based on Alice Liddell, daughter of one of Lewis Carroll’s colleagues at Oxford.
posted by Gollum on 9-28-2010 at 9:17 pm
Dan Brown & his character Robert Langdon have always seemed to me to be “dumbed down” versions of the Italian semiotician Umberto Eco.
posted by francesca on 9-28-2010 at 9:54 pm
@Carol
Actually, the only character in J.K. Rowling’s series who is based on a real person is Gilderoy Lockhart.
Also, Lucy Pevensie, in Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia is based on his god-daughter.
posted by hi on 9-28-2010 at 10:06 pm
Sherlock Holmes was based on Conan Doyle’s med school professor, Joseph Bell.
posted by Julie on 9-28-2010 at 10:08 pm
Sherlock Holmes was based loosely on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s friend, Dr. Joseph Bell.
Bell had a knack for figuring things out about a person by minutiae in their appearance. What part of the city they were from, what their profession was, that kind of thing. Doyle was fascinated by this ability and expanded on it to produce the ideal detective.
posted by Josiah on 9-28-2010 at 10:13 pm
Dirk Pitt (“Raise the Titanic”, “Sahara”, “Cyclops”, “Inca Gold”, etc.) is Clive Cussler’s alter ego, right down to the underwater explorations, the antique car collection, and the orange-faced Doxa dive watch that both wear.
Lately, however, Cussler has been writing himself (by name, yet) into the books as he is now, an older man, who turns up in the darnedest places. Sometimes he is a small factor in the narrative; other times he is just a bit player inserted for humorous effect.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 9-29-2010 at 1:43 am
There is an excellent novel based on Fitzgerald’s relationship with Ginevra King – Gatsby’s Girl by Caroline Preston
Capote based the character of Idabel in Other Voices, Other Rooms on Harper Lee and Lee returned the compliment by basing Dill on Capote.
posted by nerdmonkey75 on 9-29-2010 at 1:56 am
Can you really say Mocha Dick was a real person?
posted by Bob on 9-29-2010 at 2:27 am
Many people consider James Bond to be based on WWII Spy William Stephenson – “the man named Intrepid”. There is an Ian Flemming quote floating around that says “James Bond is a highly romanticized version of a true spy. The real thing is … William Stephenson.” Mr Stephenson was from Winnipeg. Yes, the same city Carol mentioned was the hometown of Harry Colebourn who named Winnie the Pooh!
posted by Kie on 9-29-2010 at 7:11 am
Aghhh…you stole my thunder “BB” lol. I love all of Cussler’s stuff.
posted by SeanP on 9-29-2010 at 7:47 am
Ransom in C.S. Lewis’s sci-fi trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, That Hideous Strength) was apparently based on his good friend J.R.R. Tolkein.
posted by vFeFrenzy on 9-29-2010 at 8:37 am
Jack Aubrey, from the Aubrey-Maturin series by Patrick O’Brian, was based on Thomas Cochrane.
posted by scanner on 9-29-2010 at 9:44 am
@ Kie – I was going to steal that one from you since I live in Winnipeg! Although I’ve also heard that many of Bond’s exploits are based on Fleming himself. Apparently the character is a bit of a pastiche.
posted by Bert on 9-29-2010 at 10:23 am
miranda priestly from the devil wears prada is based on Anna Wintour, chief editor of Vogue magazine for years
posted by blalexmarquez on 9-29-2010 at 11:16 am
Not quite a literary figure, but Charles Schulz based his creation Charlie Brown partly on his own childhood and personal insecurities (both had dad’s who were barbers, too). And Snoopy was inspired by a childhood pet beagle.
posted by Tim on 9-29-2010 at 11:34 am
Sorry, I meant dads, not dad’s in the previous comment.
posted by Tim on 9-29-2010 at 11:35 am
Not on topic, but that picture of Capote is frightening. It creeped me out when I first scrolled down to it.
posted by Heather on 9-29-2010 at 11:59 am
Apparently Truman Capote was based on Peter Lorre.
posted by Dwayne B on 9-29-2010 at 2:25 pm
Now that you mention it Heather, Capote kind of looks like Stewie from Family Guy in that photo.
posted by Bert on 9-29-2010 at 3:25 pm
Huckleberry Finn was based on Tom Blankenship, who went on to become a lawman in Montana.
And Injun Joe was based on Joe Douglas, whose face was scarred by smallpox. Douglas is said to have asked Twain why the bad guy was based on him and Twain explained it was because as a child Twain had always been scared of Douglas’s appearance.
posted by Steven on 9-29-2010 at 3:53 pm
Almost every character in Kerouac’s “On The Road” is based on a real person, including Kerouac himself as Sal Paradise, William S. Burroughs as Old Bull Lee, Neal Cassady as Dean Moriarty and Allen Ginsberg as Carlo Marx. Might have something to with the book being mostly autobiographical.
posted by Katie on 9-29-2010 at 3:58 pm
I thought it was common knowledge among the conspiracy folks that Truman Capote based the character of Dill after himself as a child, since clearly he wrote Mockingbird and just gave the credit to his old childhood friend. ;)
posted by James on 9-29-2010 at 4:18 pm
Speaking of Capote, Holly Golightly from “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” was heavily inspired by his relationship with Marilyn Monroe (the narrator of the story is a fairly plain sketch of himself). Apparently, he had hoped Monroe would star in the film adaptation, but her star (and professional reputation) was already seriously waning by then. Capote was supposedly never on-board with the choice of the elegant Audrey Hepburn to play his party-girl.
posted by Sara on 9-29-2010 at 5:26 pm
@James (09-29-2010 4:18pm)
That would explain why Harper Lee is so reluctant to discuss the book.
Also, the character of Treebeard in the Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy was based upon an Oxford professor known to drone on-and-on about poetry and history, one C.S. Lewis.
posted by Mikey on 9-29-2010 at 7:33 pm
Jack Kirby’s Big Barda was ‘inspired’ by a Lainie Kazan Playboy spread.
posted by Sean on 9-30-2010 at 4:29 pm
I thought the Benjamin character in “The Graduate” was based on author Charles Webb’s own experience. Didn’t he admit, years after its publication, that the wife of his father’s colleague made a pass at him, to no avail?
posted by WeedingGirl on 10-1-2010 at 11:21 am
There have been arguments that Victor Frankenstein was inspired by
1.) Benjamin Franklin, due to his experiments with electricity;
2.) Erasmus Darwin’s experiments with dead worms (from Mary Shelley’s 1831 foreword); 3.) Jacob Frank, the Gnostic Jewish heretic & libertine, and
4.) Adam Weishaupt, professor at the University of Ingolstadt (V.F. college) and founder of the Illuminati- with his supposed good intentions of social reform gone mad in the French Revolution.
posted by Cedric Klein on 10-2-2010 at 11:30 am
Of course most of Beatrice Potter’s characters were based on real “people”. Jemima Puddle-Duck for example.
posted by Carl on 10-2-2010 at 3:21 pm
And of course, “Leonard of Quirm” is Pterry Pratchett’s “Discworld” version of Leonardo da Vinci.
-”BB”-
posted by Bicycle Bill on 10-3-2010 at 4:00 am
Jake Barnes in “The Sun Also Rises” is a based on Hemingway himself, down to the war wounds and the trip to Pamplona for the fiesta with a bunch of expats.
posted by Tango November Whiskey on 10-3-2010 at 3:39 pm
A lot of Dan Brown’s characters are named after faculty and staff at the prep school he went to, Phillips Exeter Academy. Many of them consider it a dubious honor, particularly the English teachers.
posted by Gaby on 10-3-2010 at 4:33 pm
Actually, “Tender is the Night” is not based on the Fitzgeralds, but rather on Sara and Gerald Murphy, who were friends of the couple and famous in their own right.
posted by The Professor on 10-3-2010 at 5:18 pm
The play After the Fall by Aurthur Miller is is a thinly veiled critique of his failed marriage to Marilyn Monroe and the character of Maggie is said to be based on Monroe, with the character’s suicide being very much like hers.
posted by Jenna on 10-4-2010 at 2:38 am
*Arthur Miller
posted by Jenna on 10-4-2010 at 2:38 am
Two of Eugene O’Neill’s most famous plays, “Ah, WIlderness” and “Long Day’s Journey Into Night,” Are directly modeled after his own family, the later even having the same names. Wilderness is his “idealized” childhood while LDJ is much more Autobiographical, including his family alcoholism, His mothers addiction to morphine, and him being diagnosed with TB.
Also, it is fairly obvious Mikael Blomkvist in the Millennium trilogy is Larsson’s romanticized version of himself.
posted by Phil on 10-5-2010 at 5:25 pm
How has no one mentioned Dracula yet?
posted by roxie on 11-16-2010 at 4:34 pm
The character, Kinky Friedman, in all of Kinky Friedman’s mystery novels is based solidly on the author. Also nearly all the other characters in his books are based on actual people of the same names. Except maybe Willie Nelson. Is he real?
posted by Brenda on 11-21-2010 at 11:19 pm