Arthur C. Clarke, most famous for his sci-fi masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey, predicted many things throughout his literary career. For example, he predicted the internet in 1964, saying: '[We] will have in our own [console] through which we can talk to our friendly local computer and get all the information needed for everyday life, like our bank statements, our theater reservations... all the information we need.'

This may explain the origins of the Welsh author's famous novel, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Steinbeck's puppy was left alone one evening and found the manuscript in question. Steinbeck wrote to his agent, saying, 'I was pretty mad, but the poor little fellow may have been acting critically.'

The legendary author wrote a total of 66 detective novels, most of them revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple.

George Eliot, one of the most celebrated British authors of the 19th century, was a woman. Although female authors were published under their own names during her lifetime, she wanted to avoid the stereotype of women's writing being limited to lighthearted romances or other lighter fare.

The fake books included titles such as ‘The Life of a Cat’ in 9 volumes.

One cabinet was labeled “A to N,” and the second was labeled “O to Z.”

More than 70 actors have taken the role.

The phrases "bookworm," "bibliophile," "vanish into thin air," "gloomy," "puking," "amazement," "countless," "gnarled," "radiance," "majestic," "critic," and "bedroom" had never before been recorded in English literature and were presumably coined by the playwright. The name Jessica is also said to have made its first appearance in his 1598 play "The Merchant of Venice."

A common misunderstanding is that the monster is named Frankenstein, when in fact he remains nameless throughout the novel. It is thought that during a reading of the book, Shelley referred to the monster as 'Adam,' a nod to the Garden of Eden.

Tech billionaire Bill Gates bought the Codex Leicester, one of Leonardo da Vinci’s scientific journals, for $30.8 million. The work consists of 18 sheets of paper, and is handwritten by Da Vinci, using his mirror writing.

In 2003, approximately 2.5 million unsold books from the UK romance book publisher Mills & Boon were used in the reconstruction of an M6 motorway in the UK.

In 1870 the Governor of Hunan Province in China banned Lewis Carroll’s classic Alice in Wonderland believing that animals should not be given the power to use the language of humans and to put animals and humans on the same level would be ”disastrous”.

The Tale of Genji is a depiction of the lifestyles of high courtiers during the Heian period.

The classic medieval collection One Thousand and One Nights didn't include the stories of Aladdin, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, and Sinbad the Sailor. These were added by French literature professor Jean Antoine Galland in the 18th century.

"Sting wrote the song 'Every Breath You Take' at the same desk that Ian Fleming used to write his James Bond novels. Sting was renting the Fleming Villa in Goldeneye on the island of Jamaica while composing the famous track.

British writers J.R.R. Tolkien (author of The Lord of the Rings) and C.S. Lewis (author of The Chronicles of Narnia) were close friends. While serving on the English faculty at Oxford University, they were active in the Oxford literary group known as the Inklings. They regularly read newly written passages of their work for feedback. Lewis even modeled the protagonist of his works after his friend and fellow author, J.R.R. Tolkien.

Many authors through the years have started their careers with their works being rejected over and over again before publication.
 
John Le Carré’s first novel, 'The Spy Who Came in From the Cold', was rejected by several publishers. One even remarked, 'He hasn’t got any future.' He was very wrong. The novel went on to become an international bestseller and won several literary awards.
 
'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling was rejected by twelve different publishers before her debut. Rowling has since sold over 450 million copies of her works.
 
John Grisham’s first novel, 'The Jury', was rejected 25 times before it was published.
 
The most rejected novelist ever was American writer Dick Wimmer. He received over 162 rejections over a span of 25 years. He spent a quarter of a century being told 'no'. He could have quit after 20 years, or after 150 rejections, and no one would have blamed him. But he kept at it.
 
Finally, his novel 'Irish Wine' was published in 1989 to positive reviews. The New York Times called it a 'taut, finely written, exhaustingly exuberant first novel.'" - the grammar of these sentences has been corrected.

Ernest Hemingway once took home the urinal from his favorite bar, arguing that he'd 'pissed away' so much of his money into it that he owned it.

French novelist Marcel Proust wrote his masterpiece "In Search of Lost Time" from 1909 to 1922. With 9,609,000 characters, it is considered the longest novel in history. The book tells the story of the narrator’s experiences growing up, while reflecting on the loss of time and lack of meaning in the world.

Irish novelist James Joyce published his masterpiece Ulysses in 1922. It takes place over one day in Dublin and contains a sentence consisting of 4391 words in total.

It is: 'Lopado­­temacho­­selacho­­galeo­­kranio­­leipsano­­drim­­hypo­­trimmato­­silphio­­parao­­melito­­katakechy­­meno­­kichl­­epi­­kossypho­­phatto­­perister­­alektryon­­opte­­kephallio­­kigklo­­peleio­­lagoio­­siraio­­baphe­­tragano­­pterygon.' It's apparently a description of some kind of fictional dish.

Not, it wasn't a bestseller.