22 March: Anthony Van Dyck

This date in 1599 was the birthdate of Sir Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish artist. Here are 10 things you might not know:

1. Born in Antwerp, he was the seventh of twelve children. His father was a silk merchant and his mother was a skilled embroiderer.

2. His talent as an artist emerged when he was very young. He was an apprentice to Hendrik van Balen at ten. He had his own studio when he was a teenager and by 19 he was a master painter in the esteemed Antwerp Guild of St Luke.

3. He gave up his studio when he met Peter Paul Rubens, in order to become his assistant and learn from him. Rubens referred to Van Dyck as the best of his students.

4. He was a success throughout Europe, spending time in Italy and eventually settling in England. In his time spelling wasn’t standardised, so there were multiple variations of his name. Anthony van Dijk, Antonio Wandik, Anttonio Vandique, Bandeique, and Anthonius van Dyck were among the variations that existed.

5. In terms of his love life, he apparently put himself about a bit. He had many lovers and at least one long term mistress called Margaret Lemon. She was said to be jealous and possessive, but neither of them was faithful to the other. He probably had many illegitimate children, and it’s speculated that he left Antwerp to escape the consequences of getting some of his lovers pregnant. He only ever acknowledged one illegitimate child, a daughter, Maria-Theresia, shortly before he died.

6. He eventually married at the age of 41. His wife’s name was Mary Ruthven. By this time his health was declining. He died at the age of 42, just a week after the birth of his only legitimate child, Justiniana.

7. His portraits were famous for his depiction of hands, Eyes and suits of armour. He developed a style of full length portraits.

8. In case you’re wondering why he’s Sir Anthony Van Dyck, that came about after he became the principal court painter for King Charles I. Charles liked his work so much that he knighted him and also provided him with a house and a pension of £200 which would be five figures in today’s money.

9. Van Dyck was buried in St Paul's Cathedral despite being a Catholic. Unfortunately, his grave was destroyed in the Great fire of London although there is a memorial in the new cathedral to him and others whose graves met the same fate, which was installed in 1913.

10. Van Dyck was an influence to several famous painters who came after him, including Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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21 March: Modest P Mussorgsky

This date in 1839 was the birthdate of the Russian composer Modest P Mussorgsky. 10 things you might not know about him:

1. He was born in Karevo, 250 miles south of St Petersburg, to an aristocratic family which was descended from Rurik, a legendary founder of the Russian state.

2. The family name was derived from another ancestor who had had the nickname "Musorga," which meant, appropriately enough, 'Music maker.' However, the name was also quite similar to the Russian word for rubbish, so from 1863 they altered the name so it sounded less like that.

3. He started learning Piano at six and by the age of nine could play complicated pieces.

4. A career in music wasn’t his family’s first choice for him, though. They wanted him to join the military so at the age of 13 he was enrolled in the Cadet School of the Guards. He was, however, allowed to continue playing the piano. In due course he graduated and got a commission with the Preobrazhensky Regiment, the top regiment of the Imperial Guard.

5. Here, he met the composer Aleksandr Borodin, and also became friends with César Cui, Mily Balakirev, and Nikolay Rimsky-Korsakov. They became known as “The Five”, a group of influential Russian composers. Modest eventually resigned his commission in order to concentrate on music.

6. His mission in music was to create music which sounded Russian, rather than following the usual Western styles. Some of his most famous works include the opera Boris Godunov, the orchestral piece Night on Bald Mountain, and the piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition.

7. He was 29 when he wrote Boris Godunov, using as reference Pushkin's play and Karamzin's history. However, the opera was rejected by the theatre at first because it had no principle female role. Mussorgsky revised it, making the changes the theatre had asked for and more. The new version was accepted.

8. His family lost much of their land because of the emancipation of the serfs. Mussorgsky had to spend time trying to help his family, which made it hard to find time to compose. He had a day job as a civil servant to support himself but it wasn’t a very secure job and at times, he didn’t get paid.

9. He was an alcoholic and went into decline when he and his composer friends began to go their separate ways. He suffered from seizures and delirium tremens and was admitted to a hospital. He seemed to improve at first and had a portrait painted by Ilya Repin, which depicted him with a drink induced red nose. However, Mussorgsky died a week after his 42nd birthday.

10. The progressive rock band Emerson, Lake & Palmer performed and recorded an arrangement of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition in 1971, featuring lyrics by Greg Lake, and released it as a live album.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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20 March: Big Bird

20 March is the birthday of the Sesame Street character, Big Bird. Here are 10 facts about him:

1. He’s 8 feet 2 inches tall (249cm), is bright Yellow and lives in a nest behind 123 Sesame Street, next to Oscar the Grouch's trash can.

2. It’s up for debate what species of bird he is. His colour suggests that he’s a Canary, and he’s said himself that this is the case and that his scientific name is Bigus canarius. That said, he’s also described himself as a lark, and when asked if he was a Cassowary said that he was a golden condor. Others have suggested he might be an ibis, or a crane (or a unique species evolved from a crane). Oscar the Grouch calls him a Turkey but that is probably more of an insult than fact. Big Bird’s grandfather, however, is said to be an Emu.

3. While Big Bird may not be a turkey, his suit is made from turkey feathers which have been died yellow and glued on About 6,000 are in use at any given time.

4. The Big Bird suit weighs ten pounds, and his head alone weighs four pounds. Operating the suit is not for the faint hearted. The person inside gets very hot and can’t see where they are going, so they use a monitor strapped to the chest in order to navigate. The operator’s right arm is raised to operate the head, using the right hand to operate the mouth while the little finger operates the eyes.

5. Big Bird’s operator from 1969 to 2018 was Caroll Spinney. When he retired at the age of 84, the role went to his long time understudy Matt Vogel. Here is a classic case of nominative determination as Vogel is German for “bird”.

6. As for family, Big Bird was raised by his grandmother and an aunt called Nani Bird. He has a sister called Esmerelda, an Uncle Slim (a cowbird from Wyoming) and numerous cousins including Cousin Bubba from the North Pole, Floyd, a surfer bird from Los Angeles. He also has a Teddy bear called Radar.

7. Big Bird’s suit was designed by Jim Henson and built by Kermit Love. It was based on a seven foot tall dragon character than Henson designed for another project.

8. While Big Bird has been around for well over 50 years, he is portrayed as a perpetual six year old.

9. Big Bird can Roller skate, Ice skate, Dance, Swim, Sing, write poetry, draw, and ride a unicycle.

10. He almost went into space. In the 1980s when NASA was considering sending an ordinary citizen into space on the Space Shuttle, Carroll Spinney was invited to be that person, going into orbit in Big Bird persona. Spinney was hesitant at first, but eventually decided he was up for it, only to find that the Big Bird costume wouldn’t fit in the confined space. Which turned out to be a lucky escape, as the mission in question was the January 1986 Challenger one that exploded soon after launch, killing everyone on board. Schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe was ultimately chosen as the ordinary citizen instead.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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19 March: Avon Representative Day

Today is Avon Representative Day, so here are 10 facts about Avon.

1. There are 6.4 million Avon representatives throughout the world, so a lot of people are celebrating today!

2. Avon was founded by David H. McConnell, originally a door to door salesman selling books, based in New York. He hit on the idea of selling perfumes that way instead. He set up an office for his new company at 126 Chambers Street, Manhattan, New York in 1886.

3. It was originally known as the "California Perfume Company," because McConnell had a business partner who lived there and suggested it because many Flowers grow there.

4. The name Avon was not adopted until 1939.

5. With sales of $9.1 billion worldwide, Avon is the fourteenth-largest beauty company.

6. McConnell employed women as salespeople, believing that women should have some financial independence. While we’ve all heard the term “Avon Lady”, there are Avon gentlemen, too nowadays.

7. In 1989, Avon announced that it would no longer test its products on animals. However, some of its products are required to be tested in other countries where animals are still used. Hence People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has not included Avon on their cruelty-free list.

8. As well as selling cosmetics and personal care products, Avon is involved in charity work, raising money for good causes like breast cancer research.

9. They were the first mass-market company to stabilise Vitamin C.

10. At time of writing the company is based in London and the CEO is Kristof Neirynck, appointed in 2023.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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18 March: Grover Cleveland Quotes

Former US president Grover Cleveland was born on this date in 1837. 10 quotes from the days when what presidents said made sense and weren’t just ramblings about dead people walking around with no legs.

1. In calm water every ship has a good captain.

2. A government for the people must depend for its success on the intelligence, the morality, the justice, and the interest of the people themselves.

3. Officeholders are the agents of the people, not their masters.

4. A cause worth fighting for is worth fighting for to the end.

5. Men and times change-but principles-never.

6. Above all, tell the truth.

7. What is the use of being elected or re-elected unless you stand for something?

8. Honour lies in honest toil.

9. What do you imagine the American people would think of me if I wasted my time going to the ball game?

10. Good ball players make good citizens.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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17 March: 76

 Today is the 76^th day of the year. 10 fun facts about the number 76:

1. “Seventy six trombones led the big parade, With a hundred & ten cornets close at hand.” so goes the song from the musical The Music Man. It’s basically a sales pitch to encourage parents in a small Iowa town to buy musical instruments for their kids.

2. Seventy-Six is a historical fiction novel by John Neal. Published in Baltimore in 1823, it is about the American Revolutionary War.

3. There are (or have been) at least four towns or communities in the US called Seventy-Six. Two in Iowa, one in Kentucky and one in Missouri.

4. 76 Freia is a large main-belt asteroid discovered by the astronomer Heinrich d'Arrest in 1862, in Copenhagen, Denmark. It was his first and only asteroid discovery. It is named after the goddess Freyja in Norse mythology.

5. '76, formerly Lions of '76, is a 2016 Nigerian historical fiction drama film directed by Izu Ojukwu about a young soldier mistakenly accused of taking part in a coup.

6. 76 is a chain of gas (petrol) stations in the US.

7. '76 is an eight-issue comic book series published by Image Comics, and written by B. Clay Moore and Seth Peck, and illustrated by Ed Tadem and Tigh Walker. It is set in the year 1976 and features storylines based in New York City and Los Angeles.

8. Fallout 76 is a multiplayer video game set in the post-nuclear wasteland of America.

9. 76 is the debut album of Dutch trance producer and DJ Armin van Buuren.

10. In numerology, a person influenced by this number is realistic, pragmatic, and family oriented. They are loyal and conscientious and able to focus on details. They build and plan for the future.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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16 March: James Madison Quotes

Another former US president, James Madison, was born on this date in 1751. 10 quotes from him:

1. If our nation is ever taken over, it will be taken over from within.

2. Crisis is the rallying cry of the tyrant.

3. The purpose of the Constitution is to restrict the majority's ability to harm a minority.

4. If man is not fit to govern himself, how can he be fit to govern someone else?

5. Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

6. Conscience is the most sacred of all property.

7. Philosophy is common sense with big words.

8. If men were angels, no government would be necessary.

9. Democracy was the right of the people to choose their own tyrant.

10. Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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15 March: Andrew Jackson Quotes

10 quotes from Andrew Jackson, former US President, born this date in 1767.

1. It is to be regretted that the rich and powerful too often bend the acts of government to their own selfish purposes.

2. I was born for a storm and a calm does not suit me.

3. When the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in.

4. Peace, above all things, is to be desired, but blood must sometimes be spilled to obtain it on equable and lasting terms.

5. Any man worth his salt will stick up for what he believes right, but it takes a slightly better man to acknowledge instantly and without reservation that he is in error.

6. The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.

7. You must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessings.

8. There are only two things I can't give up; one is coffee and the other is tobacco.

9. Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.

10. People are my religion/Because I believe in them.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

14 March: Emeralds

On National Jewel Day: 10 facts about emeralds.

1. Emeralds are always Green (unlike Diamonds, Sapphires and Rubies which can be colours other than the one usually associated with them) although they might not be the exact shade of green known as emerald green. The shade of green varies according to the exact amount of the elements Chromium and Vanadium present in the stone.

2. Emeralds belong to the beryl family of stones.

3. They are actually rarer, and therefore more expensive per carat, than diamonds. An emerald is lower in density than a diamond and so would be larger than a diamond of the same carat value. Emerald measures between 7.5 to 8 on the Mohs Scale of Hardness.

4. Colombia is the world’s biggest emerald producer, accounting for around 90% of the world’s emeralds. Zambia is the second largest producer. Emerald miners in Colombia get an occupational perk called “picando” in which for one day each month they can keep any emeralds they find for themselves.

5. Emeralds are the birth stone for people born in May, or under the astrological sign of Taurus. 55 years is an emerald anniversary.

6. The largest flawless emerald in the world was known as the Rockefeller Emerald until it was sold in an auction to a man called Harry Winston for $5.5 million. Since then it has been known as the Rockefeller-Winston emerald.

7. The word emerald comes to us via Old French, Vulgar Latin and Ancient Greek, and possibly even further back to Sanskrit or Persian. The Ancient Greek word simply meant “green gem”.

8. In Ancient Egypt, emeralds symbolised eternal youth and were often buried with people. Cleopatra loved emeralds so much that she took ownership of all the emerald mines in Egypt. Elizabeth Taylor was another fan. One of her emerald necklaces sold for $6.1 million in 2011. They are also a feature of the British Crown Jewels.

9. There is folklore associated with emeralds. They were once said to counteract poison to the extent that if a venomous creature so much as looked at one it would go blind. It was also said that placing an emerald under the tongue would reveal truth, and grant a person the ability to foresee the future. They protected against evil spells, cured leprosy, improved memory and eyesight and was potentially even a contraceptive as ancient alchemists believed that if a person wearing an emerald ring had sex, the emerald would break.

10. The Emerald City is the capital city of the fictional Land of Oz in L Frank Baum's Oz books.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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13 March: Pope Francis

On this date in 2013 Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio from Argentina was elected as the new pope, taking the papal name Pope Francis. 10 facts about him:

1. His birth name was Jorge Mario Bergoglio and he was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina (though his parents had emigrated there from Italy) on 17 December 1936. He was one of seven children. His father was a railway worker, his mother a housewife.

2. There were several firsts with his papacy. He was the first pope in centuries to replace another pope who was still alive, as his predecessor resigned. He was the first pope from the Western Hemisphere, the first from South America, the first from the Jesuit order and the first to take the name Francis (in honour of St Francis of Assisi).

3. Like his namesake, he was committed to helping the poor and living as simply as possible. He refused to wear the ermine-trimmed Red velvet mozzetta, the gold pectoral cross and the pair of red Shoes prepared for his inauguration. He stuck with a simple Silver cross and his own shoes. Then he chose not to live in the Vatican Palace but in an apartment, and would eat in the Vatican canteen. He would often remind his followers not to forget the poor, especially during the covid pandemic. A source in the Vatican once told the press that he’d go out at night dressed as a regular priest to help the poor of Rome in person.

4. He was first called to the priesthood on St Matthew’s day in 1953. He decided, on the spur of the moment, to attend confession and felt the call while he was there.

5. He got an education and worked at several jobs before taking up his vocation. He earned a master's degree in chemistry from the University of Buenos Aires and a liberal arts degree in philosophy. His jobs included scrubbing the floors of the company where his father worked, taught in schools and was, for a time, a bouncer at a nightclub.

6. He lost part of his lung during his youth due to a respiratory infection.

7. In his youth he was a great fan of Argentine Tango and once said, “Tango comes from deep within me.” He was also a fan of classical music as evidenced by the fact he snuck out during the pandemic to buy records of Bach and Mozart.

8. His favourite film was La Strada by Federico Fellini, winner of the Oscar for best foreign film in 1957. His favourite food was Bagna Cauda, a dish prepared with anchovies, oil, and Garlic, used as a sauce for vegetables.

9. He would say a prayer from St. Thomas More every day. The prayer goes: “Lord, give me a sense of humour. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and be able to share it with others.”

10. Francis surpassed the record of Pope John Paul II in canonising the most new saints in a pontificate. These included: Mother Teresa, Óscar Romero, Louis Martin and Marie-Azélie Guérin (the first married couple to be named as saints together), and three of his predecessors: John XXIII, John Paul II and Paul VI.

See also:

Pope John Paul I 
Pope John Paul II

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

12 March: Jack Kerouac

Today, 10 facts about Jack Kerouac, who was born on this date in 1922.

1. He was born in Lowell, Massachusetts and given the name Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac. His father was an insurance salesman. He claimed that his family were originally from Ireland, but migrated to Cornwall and that was the origin of the name – Kernewek, meaning the Cornish language. Or it might have been a Celtic name meaning "language of the water". His ancestors would later flee to France and there was a baron among them: Baron François Louis Alexandre Lebris de Kerouac.

2. His first language was French, not English. He learned to speak English when he was six and had a French accent until his late teens.

3. When he was four, his older brother Gerard died of rheumatic fever, aged nine. Jack believed that his brother became his guardian angel and was the inspiration for his book, Visions of Gerard.

4. His best friend at school was called Sebastian Sampas, who shared his love of literature and theatre. It was Sampas who encouraged Jack to join the “Scribbler’s Club” at school, so could be responsible for getting him into writing. Sampas was killed during World War II. His sister Stella became Jack’s third wife in 1966.

5. Jack served as a merchant mariner during the war. He served on the SS Dorchester before its maiden voyage. He wasn’t, however, on the ship when it was sunk during a Submarine attack while crossing the Atlantic. Kerouac joined the Navy Reserves, but military life really wasn’t for him and he only lasted eight days in active service before being honourably discharged on psychiatric grounds. He wrote his first novel at this time, called The Sea Is My Brother, but it wasn’t published until 40 years after he died.

6. One of his friends, Lucien Carr, killed a man called David Kammerer, who Carr claimed was gay and had made advances to him. He asked Kerouac and fellow author William S Burroughs to help him dispose of the body which resulted in Kerouac being arrested as a material witness. He appealed to his girlfriend Edie Parker to get her family to post bail. She said she would on condition that he married her and got a job to pay back the loan. He kept his promise, but the marriage didn’t last.

7. His second wife was Joan Haverty, with whom he had a daughter, but by the time the child was born they had already separated. Kerouac denied paternity and refused to pay child support.

8. He liked to incorporate haiku into his works. Fellow Beat Poet Allen Ginsberg said of him, “He’s the only one in the United States who knows how to write haiku… he talks that way, thinks that way.” Kerouac was also an artist and would paint people he met, having painted his first self portrait at the age of nine.

9. Despite being famous for writing a book called On the Road, he never learned to drive and envied people who had the skill.

10. The character Hank in David Cronenberg's 1991 film Naked Lunch is based on Kerouac. He also has a crater on Mercury named after him.

See also: quotes by Jack Kerouac.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/

11 March: Spanners

Today is Worship of Tools Day in India. 10 facts about the spanner, or wrench.

1. What is it? A spanner or wrench is a tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage when applying torque to turn fasteners, such as nuts and bolts.

2. In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand it’s called a spanner; in the USA it’s called a wrench.

3. 'Wrench' is derived from a Proto-Germanic word meaning turning or twisting. The oldest recorded use dates to 1794.

4. The word ‘Spanner’ also derives from German, in this case from a word meaning to draw, stretch, or spin. The word was first used in the 1630s, referring to the tool for winding the spring of a wheel-lock firearm.

5. In the UK the phrase “throw a spanner into the works” means to screw things up. Americans would say "to throw a monkey wrench into (something)" to convey the same idea.

6. A common April Fool or trick played on a newbie in the workshop might be to send them to find a "left handed monkey wrench". Wrenches are ambidextrous.

7. The use of such tools dates back to the 15th century. They’d be used to adjust suits of armour or to tighten or loosen wagon wheels. Adjustable wrenches for the odd-sized nuts of wagon wheels were manufactured in England and exported to North America in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

8. Why call it a Monkey wrench? Because you can monkey with it? One story goes that it was because it was invented by a man named Charles Moncky, who made enough money from selling the patent to buy himself a nice house.

9. However, there’s no evidence there ever was a Charles Moncky. There was a Charles Monk who lived at about the same time in the same area, and he did make and sell tools. However, the tools he sold were for moulders, not for mechanics, so he wouldn’t have sold spanners. In any case, he was born after the term first appeared in print.

10. Another story about the origins of the monkey wrench is that it was called that as a racial slur because it was invented by an African-American boxer called Jack Johnson while he was in prison. This isn’t the case as the first patent for a monkey wrench and the use of the name both date back to before Johnson was born. Johnson can take the credit, however, for a patent for improvements to the tool in question.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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10 March: 69

Today is day 69 of any non-leap year. Here are 10 fun facts about the number 69.

1. Flipped horizontally or vertically, the number 69 looks the same. There’s a word for that, a strobogrammatic number.

2. Because of its appearance, it has became associated in symbology with the concept of yin and yang. In numerology it’s also associated with family, compassion and harmony.

3. The square of 69 is 4761 and its cube is 328509. This makes it unique among numbers because every digit from 0-9 appears just once.

4. 69 Hesperia is a large Asteroid and the only one discovered by the Italian astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, in 1861 while he was looking for the recently discovered 63 Ausonia. It was named in honour of Italy, the word being a Greek term for the peninsula.

5. Summer of '69 is a song recorded by the Canadian singer Bryan Adams from his fourth album, Reckless. It is a song about a dilemma between settling down or trying to become a rock star.

6. The Roman numeral for 69 is LXIX.

7. In binary it’s 1000101.

8. Its divisors are 1, 3, 23, and 69.

9. London bus route 69 runs from Walthamstow Bus Station to Canning Town Station.

10. It has become known as the sex number because of its association with a certain sexual position. This has led, in the US, to frequent thefts of 69 mile markers. In Colorado they solved the problem by replacing them with 68.5 markers.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

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9 March: Mickey Spillane

Mickey Spillane, crime writer, was born on this date in 1918. 10 facts about him:

1. His real name was Frank Morrison Spillane. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He was an only child and his father was a bartender.

2. Before finding success as a writer, he worked as a lifeguard and also as a trampoline artist and a human cannonball. He also worked briefly for the FBI, working undercover to crack a narcotics ring.

3. In the 1940s he was writing stories for comic books. He scripted stories about Superman, Batman and Captain America.

4. He joined the army soon after the attack on Pearl Harbor and became a flight instructor. It was during his time in the army that he met his first wife, Mary Ann Pearce. The couple married in 1945 and divorced in 1962. In 1965 he married a singer called Sherri Malinou (who first came to his attention when she was a model for one of his book covers). They divorced in 1983 and in the same year he married wife number three, Jane Rogers Johnson.

5. It was wanting to buy a nice country home to live in with Mary Ann that prompted him to write his first novel, I, the Jury which was completed in just 9 days. It was also the first novel to feature the detective Mike Hammer. It did well, selling over six million copies.

6. He was an actor, too. He played himself, as a detective, in a film called Ring of Fear in 1954, and also played his character, Mike Hammer, in The Girl Hunters in 1963. He also played a writer who was a murder victim on an episode of Columbo.

7. Although his hard boiled detective novels were known for their sex and violence, Spillane also wrote a couple of novels for children. The Day the Sea Rolled Back and The Ship That Never Was. He wrote the first because his publisher dared him to write something for kids, and when it won an award, he wrote the second.

8. He became a Jehovah’s Witness in the early 1950s and at that point took ten years off from writing as he was able to live off the royalties of his books so far. Until his 80s, he was going round knocking on doors and giving out copies of The Watchtower.

9. In 1983, Spillane received the lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and in 1995 he received an Edgar Allan Poe Grand Master Award.

10. He died of cancer in 2006 at the age of 88.

I also write novels and short stories. If you like superheroes, psychic detectives and general weirdness you might enjoy them. 

Check out my works of fiction at https://juliehowlinauthor.wordpress.com/my-books/