Did novelist George Eliot anticipate the ability of the brain to grow new cells? Did chef Auguste Escoffier foretell the science of the palate? Jonah Lehrer thinks so.
Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley aren't just relics of the Wild West, argues "Lonesome Dove" author Larry McMurtry -- they're America's original celebrities.
In "God's Secretaries," author Adam Nicolson tells how James I manipulated 48 translators to create the supreme achievement in the English language: The Bible.
Victor Hugo raised him in a séance, Voltaire ripped him off and Byron called him a vulgar dog. The world's great writers just can't leave Shakespeare alone.
Scott Fitzgerald stole Zelda's ideas, plagiarized her diaries and even pushed her into an affair. He was arguably the worst husband of his generation -- and that made him its best author.
Two recent books -- "The Femme's Guide to the Universe" and "On the Trail of the Women Warriors" -- explore femme fatales, latex, the invincibility of waterproof mascara and Amazons.
