Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads
    Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads
    Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads
    Audiobook7 hours

    Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads

    Written by Joni Rendon and Shannon McKenna Schmidt

    Narrated by Peter Berkrot, Antony Ferguson, Ann Marie Lee and Michelle Ford

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Why did Norman Mailer stab his second wife at a party? Who was Edith Wharton's secret transatlantic lover? What motivated Anais Nin to become a bigamist?

    Writers Between the Covers rips the sheets off these and other real-life love stories of the literati-some with fairy tale endings and others that resulted in break-ups, breakdowns, and brawls. Among the writers laid bare are Agatha Christie, who sparked the largest-ever manhunt in England as her marriage fell apart; Arthur Miller, whose jaw-dropping pairing with Marilyn Monroe proved that opposites attract, at least initially; and T. S. Eliot, who slept in a deckchair on his disastrous honeymoon.

    From the best break-up letters to the stormiest love triangles to the boldest cougars and cradle-robbers, this fun and accessible volume reveals literary history's most titillating loves, lusts, and longings.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherTantor Media, Inc
    Release dateOct 29, 2013
    ISBN9781452684857
    Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads

    Related to Writers Between the Covers

    Related audiobooks

    Literary Biographies For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Franny And Zooey In Iran

      Apr 5, 2018

      Franny And Zooey In Iran
      6 min read

    • Article

      On Imitation

      Feb 15, 2018

      The first time I stole, I was told it was wrong. It was borrowed from a Garfield cartoon—one character says, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me,” and then in the next panel, a dictionary falls on his head. I thought i

      6 min read

    • Article

      Previews

      Oct 13, 2019

      Previews
      4 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Nov 27, 2019

      THE Reading room
      7 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading

      Jan 1, 2020

      A wealthy bibliophile brings a treasured manuscript to her Paris binder. The pages are creased, yellowed and pungent with the nutty aroma “that old paper exhales as it decays”, and underneath the title is a jumble of figures. The book is broken up in

      7 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jun 18, 2020

      Book Club
      5 min read

    • Article

      Top 10 Criminal Duos In Fiction | Peter Swanson

      Mar 1, 2023

      There is a long and robust literary tradition of the crime-solving duo. Holmes and Watson. Nick and Nora Charles. Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. As a writer it’s nice to have two protagonists, if for no other reason tha

      4 min read

    • Article

      Film

      May 3, 2023

      How can you ever make a compelling documentary about a writer, even one as brilliant as Patricia Highsmith? Writers are famous for, um, writing – which doesn't make for gripping viewing, as the footage of Highsmith typing demonstrates. Still, you can

      3 min read

    • Article

      Summer Reading

      Dec 29, 2019

      A wealthy bibliophile brings a treasured manuscript to her Paris binder. The pages are creased, yellowed and pungent with the nutty aroma “that old paper exhales as it decays”, and underneath the title is a jumble of figures. It is an alternative pag

      6 min read

    • Article

      Brilliant BEST READING

      Jun 4, 2020

      Brilliant BEST READING
      3 min read

    • Article

      In 'The Enchanters' James Ellroy brings Freddy Otash into 1960s L.A.

      Sep 13, 2023

      The Enchanters marks the return of Freddy O — a disgraced ex-LAPD cop and Confidential magazine dirt digger turned shifty private investigator and Hollywood fixer — and introduces Marilyn Monroe.

      3 min read

    • Article

      In Defense Of You People, The Hit Netflix Movie You Hated

      Jan 31, 2023

      The number one movie on Netflix, You People, has mainstream critics cringing and Black Twitter talking back to the screen. The takeaway: they’re not buying any of it – not the culture clash, not the casting and definitely not the chemistry between th

      4 min read

    • Article

      PAUL BAILEY On This Year's Booker-shortlisted American Author Percival Everett

      Nov 16, 2022

      ‘To accept the absurdity of a situation is to accept the humanness of it,’ Percival Everett once observed in a rare interview. His extraordinary novels and stories are brimming over with the everyday absurdities of life, alongside unfunny matters lik

      3 min read

    • Article

      Books That Hook

      Jul 3, 2020

      Books That Hook
      3 min read

    • Article

      A Roll In The Hays

      Oct 12, 2023

      A Roll In The Hays
      8 min read

    • Article

      INTERNATIONAL BOOKS / The Best Of The Month

      Jul 14, 2019

      This is not a tale for the squeamish. Revelations about a disturbing, stomach-turning, father-daughter relationship are preceded by a gory plane crash and followed by bloody dagger fights, an especially chilling near-drowning and a wonderfully weird

      5 min read

    • Article

      Book Club

      Jul 16, 2020

      Book Club
      4 min read

    • Article

      THE Reading room

      Dec 4, 2019

      The most anticipated book of the year is Atwood’s sequel to her novel The Handmaid’s Tale, 34 years after the original. And while it may not pack the same punch, this is racy addictive storytelling. Fifteen years have passed and Offred is out on her

      6 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Mar 21, 2024

      Great Read
      7 min read

    • Article

      Books Of The Month

      Jan 27, 2023

      By Kate Webb In this Wiltshire-set contemporary police procedural from the historical novelist, DI Matt Lockyer has been demoted to the “cold case” unit after a conflict of personal and professional loyalties. He then receives a surprising phone call

      2 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Writers Between the Covers

    4/5

    34 ratings15 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 4/5
      Writers Between the Covers explores the scandalously licentious loves and lusts of history’s literary rock stars. Split into 7 parts, the chapters are introduced by trivia, quizzes, and even an online dating profile for Emily Dickinson.-Tenneesee Williams claimed writing was his way of coping with his emotional issues and according to Gore Vidal, Williams “could not possess his own life until he had written about it.”Not just a book of entertaining and wicked gossip, Writers Between the Covers connects the writer’s debauchery and romances with some of their greatest works. These episodes and manias shaped the authors as people and influenced the characters, stories and themes of the classic novels we all know and love. Charlotte Bronte turned down a marriage proposal even though she believed she wouldn’t receive any others. She refused to enter a passionless marriage for the sake of security and used the episode as inspiration for events in Jane Eyre. The chapter on Tolstoy explains the inspiration behind “Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in their own way.”The stories offered illumination, entertainment and historical factoids such as when Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared after her husband asked for a divorce, airplanes were used for the first time in a missing person search, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle enlisted the help a of psychic, and other authors got in on the action by writing articles for newspapers.Not all the chapters focused on badly behaving authors. The relationships between Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf and their partners were full of concern, care and encouragement. The passionate, enduring love between the Barrett-Brownings and the Stevensons could warm the heart of even the most curmudgeonly cynic.This is a great book for anyone who likes their scandals hot, their love enduring and their tabloids literary.-Kingsley Amis’s wife wrote 1 fat Englishman. I fuck anything, on his back in lipstick while he napped poolside.
    • 3/5
      If you personally know an author/writer DO NOT give their significant other this book for Christmas. With the exception of one or two it seems that writers cannot be (1) married, (2) monogamous or (3) happy, they do however derive great inspiration from the muse of disastrous love affairs. Touching on iconic writers from Agatha Christie and Lord Byron through to Hemmingway and Arthur Miller not one sheet is left unturned.

      This book is broken into small chapters with whimsical titles like “All War, No Peace: Leo Tolstoy” and “Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know: Lord Byron”. The short chapters are a good idea for this type of book as it is not one that you plop yourself down and read in one sitting, it’s more of a sneak a peek when you have just a couple of minutes to read something.

      An interesting read.
    • 3/5
      Scandalous, indeed! Based on this book, it seems like most every writer in history had several affairs, unsavory sexual appetites, or some kind of mental instability (sometimes all of the above). Each foray into an author's romantic life is no longer than 6 or 7 pages, which is just enough to examine the debauchery they got up to. After a while, I began to wish for a happy ending. Luckily the authors heard my plea and relegated their last section of the book to the happier stories (even though most of them still involved divorce or some other scandal).While I learned some new info about each of the writers, I found the writing to be mediocre and kind of repetitive; the addition of random quizzes like "Identify the Mistress!" left me rolling my eyes. Still, for what it was, I had some fun reading it. I will be passing this book along to be donated.
    • 4/5
      I admit it. I love gossip. Was it Alice Roosevelt Longworth who said "If you don't have anything nice to say about someone, come sit by me?" That's my philosophy. I'm ashamed of it, but there it is. And this is absolutely delicious gossip about literary figures. Not necessarily all secrets or unknown, but great fun to read. Divided into seven sections, from "Folie a Deux" to "This Side of Paradise," Norman Mailer to Elizabeth Barrett Browning, great little stories of the love lives of some of our greater and lesser literary folk. Truly a fun read!
    • 4/5
      This was a fun and entertaining read. Honestly most of this I have read and heard before but I did read a few tidbits I had not heard before. If you have ever wondered about the sceret life's of famous authors then you will enjoy this light read.
    • 4/5
      What happens when you open the bedroom doors of some of the best known writers of this or any generation? To no ones surprise, loving, leaving, hating, and scandals are found. "Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes, and Cads" by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon, allows the reader to take a glimpse of the private (and sometimes not so private) lives of various authors, such as Arthur Miller (and his relationship with Marilyn Monroe), Agatha Christie (with a personal mystery of her own), and Charles Dickens (more of a scoundrel that you know). Most of the stories are, however, no secret, especially to anyone who enjoys reading about writers.In the chapter headed, "Folie a Deux", we read about the sad decline into mental illness as experienced by Zelda Fitzgerald, wife of F. Scott Fitzgerald, and her horrific death. Not groundbreaking information but still interesting. The chapter "Bad Boys, Scoundrels, and Rogues" includes the often told stories of what a reckless womanizer Ernest Hemingway was. Nothing new there. Perhaps the best chapter is "This Side of Paradise" which includes true love stories: how Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas maintained a loving and respectful relationship (at a time when this type of relationship wasn't normally accepted) over many years and the wonderful love story of Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in spite her father's edict that none of his children will ever marry. Love affairs such as these seem to be the exception, at least in this book. Other chapters include, "Unlucky in Love", "Your Cheating Heart", and "The Joy of Sex". There are at least 25 authors represented in the main chapters with quick anecdotes (and a quiz or two) regarding a couple of dozen more. Anyone who loves to read will have heard of all of them, or nearly all. Most of the stories are heartbreaking, some are aggravating, and there a few that don't fall under the categories of the subtitle of the book. Essentially we learn that authors are just like the rest of us. A quick read for those that love to read about writers and even those that don't. The 11-page 'notes' section indicates the amount of research done for the book and also may be why it still feels as though this has all been written about before. Perhaps you'll learn something new and see a favorite author in a different light.
    • 4/5
      This is a fun book about the private lives of famous authors, especially their romantic adventures (and debacles).
    • 4/5
      This was a quick and easy book to read. I liked how writers from all time periods were represented. It just reminded me how dramatic and messy some of these writers' lives were. I knew many of the writers already, and this book did a good job of going in depth into their lives and uncovering facts and details that I did not know.
    • 5/5
      I found this book to be an easy and quick read because I enjoyed the subject. Very entertaining and eye-opening. I'm thinking that creative geniuses aren't playing with all their marbles, and that's on a good day! I would have liked to have seen dish about current authors, but I guess it's easier when they're dead. lol. Don't have to worry about any sticky lawsuits.I absolutely recommend this one. Fun stuff although I felt like a gossipy busybody at a cocktail party!
    • 5/5
      "Write what you know." Isn't that what they tell would-be writers? It seems a lot of famous writers practiced what they preached. They wrote about their wives, their ex-wives and their girlfriends, all thinly disguised as romantic characters in their books. And Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Reardon expose all the juicy details in Writers Between the Covers. I was familiar with the sexual escapades of a few of the authors, but there were many that surprised me, and many that will surprise you.
    • 5/5
      This book was a lot of fun, very informative and very easy to read. Some of the stories I was familiar with, but many were new to me and even with the ones I was already familiar with I learned something new about them.I felt that each romantic pair received ample space and coverage with just enough information to flesh each story out without dragging or feeling repetitive, in fact I feel the brevity of each section works to the books advantage as you never really get a chance to feel overwhelmed or to depressed (considering the primary trend with these authors was heartbreak and adultery) and things don’t feel repetitive. Overall a fast, engaging and fun read that shows the human frailties of some of our most famous and influential authors as well as a small piece of the world and times they live in.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this book from beginning to end. Sometimes it was sad , sometimes it was funny, but intertaining all the way through. Easy to read and plenty of interesting details of the lives and loves of many famous authors..
    • 3/5
      I doubt that there is any great need for this book. No new light is offered. The sexual peccadillos and sordid entanglements of the literati which are laid out in Writers Between the Covers are old news. Divorced from the greater context of the writers' full lives and work, these rehashed offerings seem only salacious gossip. The language which is used also heightens this salacious, winking tone. One would use ones time better reading the authors' work and possibly a biography on them than immersing oneself in this gossipy thrill fest. A book such as Amanda Vaill's Everybody Was So Young offers up similar information about the Fitzgeralds and Hemingways, as well as the Murphys, Cole Porter, and Picasso, but Vaill's does so against a backdrop of their era and its dictates and drives and balances her portraits with insightful analysis. One learns not just of Hemingway's philandering, but also of how he became a constant companion and nurse to the Murphy's dying child. By setting their sights on only the sexual lives of the chosen authors Schmidt and Rendon have done their chosen topics a disservice. Better are the chapters on DuMauriers, the Woolfs and Brownings, but still nothing new is brought to light, nor is there any fresh analysis.
    • 5/5
      Years ago, I was asked to teach a British literature class as part of my teaching load at a local community college. I plodded through the Romantics (not my favorite literary time period) and then told my colleague that I couldn't get the students interested in the readings. He told me to relay some of the private stories of the Romantics and the students would perk up. I started with the many scandals of Lord Byron's love life.My colleague was right. My students did perk up.Writers Between the Covers: The Scandalous Romantic Lives of Legendary Literary Casanovas, Coquettes and Cads by Shannon McKenna Schmidt and Joni Rendon is a romp through the sex and love lives of famous literary figures. In this book, the reader will explore Arthur Miller's marriage to Marilyn Monroe, the damned relationship between F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, and the cursed marriage of Percy and Mary Shelley. For the most part, I didn't learn a lot of new information (Although, I have to admit that I was shocked to find out how much of a monster Norman Mailer really was...), but the book did send me to google more than once to find out more about some of these authors' crazy escapades.Writers Between the Covers is a lighthearted romp through literary history, and would make a great gift for readers and teachers alike.
    • 4/5
      Writers Between the Covers explores the scandalously licentious loves and lusts of history’s literary rock stars. Split into 7 parts, the chapters are introduced by trivia, quizzes, and even an online dating profile for Emily Dickinson.-Tenneesee Williams claimed writing was his way of coping with his emotional issues and according to Gore Vidal, Williams “could not possess his own life until he had written about it.”Not just a book of entertaining and wicked gossip, Writers Between the Covers connects the writer’s debauchery and romances with some of their greatest works. These episodes and manias shaped the authors as people and influenced the characters, stories and themes of the classic novels we all know and love. Charlotte Bronte turned down a marriage proposal even though she believed she wouldn’t receive any others. She refused to enter a passionless marriage for the sake of security and used the episode as inspiration for events in Jane Eyre. The chapter on Tolstoy explains the inspiration behind “Happy families are all alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in their own way.”The stories offered illumination, entertainment and historical factoids such as when Agatha Christie mysteriously disappeared after her husband asked for a divorce, airplanes were used for the first time in a missing person search, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle enlisted the help a of psychic, and other authors got in on the action by writing articles for newspapers.Not all the chapters focused on badly behaving authors. The relationships between Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf and their partners were full of concern, care and encouragement. The passionate, enduring love between the Barrett-Brownings and the Stevensons could warm the heart of even the most curmudgeonly cynic.This is a great book for anyone who likes their scandals hot, their love enduring and their tabloids literary.-Kingsley Amis’s wife wrote 1 fat Englishman. I fuck anything, on his back in lipstick while he napped poolside.