11 Curious Facts About Classic Books and Their Famous Authors

Avid fans of To Kill a Mockingbird might already know that Harper Lee based the character of Dill Harris on her childhood friend Truman Capote. But Lee was far from the only writer with whom Capote rubbed elbows.

In fact, it was Capote who helped a young, undiscovered author by the name of Ray Bradbury achieve some recognition in 1947. After unearthing one of Bradbury’s stories from a pile of unprinted works at Mademoiselle magazine, he decided to publish it. The story, “Homecoming,” was later named one of the best of the year.

On this special bonus episode of The List Show, Mental Floss editor-in-chief Erin McCarthy is covering those and other fascinating facts pulled straight from the pages of our new book The Curious Reader: A Literary Miscellany of Novels & Novelists.

If the video below piques your curiosity, you can order the book here.

And for future fun videos, be sure to subscribe to the Mental Floss YouTube channel.