Lindsay Lohan and Charlie Sheen, move over.
I now know plenty of long-dead authors whose escapades with drugs, alcohol and altercations would knock your misadventures right off the TMZ home page.
Take F. Scott Fitzgerald. When he was trying to cut back on his drinking, he limited himself to beer - 30 bottles a day. When Sylvia Plath met future husband Ted Hughes, she became so enamored she bit him "long and hard" on the cheek. And before Henry David Thoreau wrote "On Walden Pond," he accidentally burned down a forest.
Where'd I get this newfound knowledge? "Writers Gone Wild," (Perigee), Bill Peschel's entertaining new collection of anecdotes and essays.
Peschel, who graduated from West Charlotte High School and UNC-Chapel Hill, is a copy editor and designer for The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa. He's also a lover of author biographies. It was a George Bernard Shaw biography, in fact, that gave Peschel the idea for his book. Peschel read about Shaw buying condoms in preparation for losing his virginity. Shaw later noted in his diary that they "extraordinarily revolted me."
"The imp in me thought people needed to know this - the day Shaw bought condoms," Peschel says.
That was about 15 years ago. Since then, Peschel has been gathering material. The resulting 200 stories go beyond writers behaving badly. We learn that Virginia Woolf once toured a British Navy battleship dressed as an Abyssinian, totally fooling naval officers. We meet the unimaginative New York librarian who tried to keep E.B. White's "Stuart Little" out of libraries. And we discover that Samuel Beckett narrowly escaped capture while working for the French Resistance during World War II.
Want more dirt? Peschel has posted many of his stories on www.bill peschel.com .
Food writing, with food
I write about books, not food. But I'd be remiss if I didn't tell you that the Levine Museum of the New South's "New South for the New Southerner" program on Monday involves both a book and Dan Huntley's unforgettable barbecue.
Speakers include Huntley, co-author of "Extreme Barbecue"; Observer Food Editor Kathleen Purvis; and Fred Sauceman, editor of "Cornbread Nation 5: The Best of Southern Food Writing." The event, 7 p.m. in the Lilly Family Gallery of Davidson College's Chambers Building, is $8 for the public, $4 for members of the Levine Museum and Davidson Friends of the Arts. It includes a reception with the aforementioned barbecue.
RSVP: 704-333-1887, ext. 501, or rsvp@museumofthenewsouth.org.
