• the names of broad gauge railway locomotives were drawn from areas such as Greek, Roman and other mythologies, famous people, literature, flora, fauna, towns, geographical features, speed and power?
• before Nielsen BookScan began tracking point of sale data at bookstores, nobody knew how many copies were being sold of literary works that were published by multiple publishers and had entered the public domain?
• Sinop Fortress Prison in Turkey, abandoned in 1997, hosts hundreds of thousands tourists yearly thanks to its featuring in popular literature, music and film?
• Danish botanist Christen C. Raunkiær made quantitative studies of plants in literature?
• "many-sided" priest Father Patrick McLaughlin (pictured) promoted links between the Church and the world of literature by staging plays, and by commissioning lectures from T. S. Eliot and Dorothy L. Sayers?

Facts on topics related to Literature

Novel

• 49 of Egyptian novelist Ihsan Abdel Quddous's novels have had film adaptations?
• Alistair Beaton predicted the flooding of New Orleans in his 2004 satirical novel A Planet for the President?
• Charles Dickens wrote his novels Bleak House, Hard Times, Little Dorrit and A Tale of Two Cities at his Tavistock House home?
• F. Sionil José's Viajero (The Wanderer) is a novel about a Filipino boy adopted by an African-American soldier?
• Jacek Dukaj's Black Oceans, a Polish science-fiction novel, received the Janusz A. Zajdel Award Polish award for sci-fi literature in 2001?
• novelist Charles Dickens received news of the death in India of his son Walter Landor Dickens on his own birthday on February 7, 1864?
• Peter Benchley wanted to write about pirates, but editor Thomas Congdon preferred his idea for a novel about sharks that became the bestseller Jaws?
• Reginald Hill's novel "A Clubbable Woman" was his first story about Dalziel and Pascoe?
• Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard composed the music for Space Jazz – a concept album companion to his science fiction novel Battlefield Earth?
• Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's SF novel To the Stars was nominated for a 2001 "Retro" Hugo Award?

Poetry

• Egyptian poet Farouk Shousha has described the decline in the quality of Arabic in Egypt as "an issue of national security"?
• poet Robert Hass, a two-term American Poet Laureate, is a neighbor of Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz?
• British Conservative politician Sir John Loveridge published poetry and exhibited paintings and sculpture after serving 13 years as a member of Parliament?
• Andrew Carroll went on a 1998 nationwide tour sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, distributing 100,000 free poetry books at truck stops, hospital waiting rooms and train stations?
• Charles Wilfred Orr wrote more settings of A. E. Housman's poetry than any other composer?
• Thomas Bancroft's Times out of Tune (1658) includes verses against whoring, gluttony, alcoholism, hedonism, lying, pride in clothing, betrayal, ambition, cowardice, and the abuse of poetry?
• Tomás Rivera, a Chicano author, poet, and educator, was the first Mexican American chancellor of the University of California system?
• Urdu literature is dominated by poetry, often of the ghazal form?
• Western Ganga literature included Kannada poetry and prose written by royalty, on topics ranging from religion to elephant management?
• a cento is a poetic work composed entirely of verses taken from other authors?

Satire

• Alistair Beaton predicted the flooding of New Orleans in his 2004 satirical novel A Planet for the President?
• Edgar Allan Poe satirized the concept of a self-made man in his story "The Business Man" using a character that makes his fortune cutting the tails off cats?
• James Russell Lowell's satirical poem A Fable for Critics (1848) made fun of many poets of the day, including himself?
• Mexican writer Juan José Arreola's short story The Switchman can be interpreted as a satire of the Mexican train system?
• satirist Stephen Colbert has a species of spider called Aptostichus stephencolberti named after him?
• Soviet scholars coined the term ‘democratic satire’ to describe the three-century old Russian tale of Frol Skobeev?
• Ferrante Pallavicino was the anonymous author of Il Divortio celeste (1643), a satire wherein Jesus Christ asks God for a divorce from his eternal bride, the Roman Catholic Church?
• Frithjof Sælen was known for the book Snorri the Seal, banned during the German occupation of Norway for being a subtle satire on Nazi Germany?
• Jeż Jerzy is a popular Polish comic, a satire on modern life, often making fun of subcultures like skinheads or dresiarze?
• John Rolle, 1st Baron Rolle inspired one of the pioneering works of British satire, and half a century later, fell down the stairs at the coronation of Queen Victoria?

Short story

• "Indian Camp" (published in 1925) was the first Ernest Hemingway short story to feature the semi-autobiographical character Nick Adams?
• Edgar Allan Poe's 1841 short story Never Bet the Devil Your Head spoofs moral tales and Transcendentalism?
• Hall of Fame jockey Tod Sloan was the "Yankee Doodle" in the George M. Cohan Broadway musical "Little Johnny Jones" and the basis for Ernest Hemingway's short story "My Old Man"?
• Nick Joaquin's short story The Summer Solstice is about the fertility ritual known as the Tatarin?
• Nick Joaquin's May Day Eve is a short story about a couple who got married because of an incantation recited in front of a mirror?
• Anglo-German novelist Elizabeth von Arnim was a cousin to New Zealand short story writer Katherine Mansfield?
• American novelist Harold MacGrath had 18 of his 40 novels and 3 of his fictional short stories made into motion pictures?
• Kaa's Hunting is an 1893 short story by Rudyard Kipling featuring Mowgli?
• The God Stealer is the most anthologized short story written by Filipino National Artist F. Sionil José?
• The Man Who Came Early, a 1956 time travel short story by Poul Anderson, was written as the antithesis of Mark Twain's A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court?

Play (theatre)

• Camille Saint-Saëns's 1911 opera Déjanire was originally a 1898 play accompanied by symphonic music, choruses and a ballet?
• John Boylan, who won an acting award in the play On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco, eventually died of lung cancer?

Character (arts)

• "Pretty Baby...." is the first soap opera episode to feature just a single character?