Mental Floss

BOOKS

Karl Aspelin, Public Domain // Wikimedia Commons

As is often the case when you look back into history, there’s more than one possible answer. But one of the leading contenders has a fairly predictable culprit: the Puritans.

Jake Rossen
















These offenses include everything from historical forgeries to audacious heists to cold-blooded murder—all with a bookish twist.

Lorna Wallace








John Steinbeck

The author of ‘East of Eden’ and ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ was also a three-time Academy Award nominee and found an enemy in J. Edgar Hoover.

Anne Taylor