Mental Floss

BOOKS

'To Kill A Mockingbird' author Harper Lee smiles before receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2007.

Before winning the Pulitzer Prize for her 1960 novel 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' Harper Lee worked as an airline ticket agent.

Andrea King Collier




Though much of Charlotte Brontë's life was marked by tragedy, she wrote novels and poems that found great success in her lifetime and are still popular nearly 200 years later.

Suzanne Raga




















Rita Mae Brown at the Lambda Literary Awards in New York City in 2015.

Rita Mae Brown wasn’t even 30 when her debut novel, 'Rubyfruit Jungle,' was published, but she had already made her mark in the realm of feminist and LGBTQ activism. Here’s what you should know.

April Snellings