How to Hang With Famous Authors

Ernest Hemmingway once said, "Only three things in life I've really wanted to do: shooting, writing and making love." Want to hang with the wordsmiths? Then you've got to share their passions. Here are five easy steps to honing the hobbies of some of the most famous authors in history.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Play the clarinet. Woody Allen is a master at the woodwind and changed his name from Allen Stewart Konigsberg to honor famous clarinetist Woody Herman. His band plays every Monday at the Carlyle Hotel in Manhatten.

2. Become an animal rights activist. An avid fisherman on the San Francisco Bay, John Steinbeck once said he had always dreamed of hunting quail for dinner. However, he told a reporter in 1937, "every time I see one around the house I dash in and get a gun, and get it to my shoulder, and then I can't shoot."

3. Smoke a cigar. Mark Twain allowed himself 15 cigars every five hours. Friends estimated he went through at least 300 cheap stogies a month.

4. Donate to charity. The Wizard of Oz's L. Frank Baum donated old clothes to charity on several occasions. Ironically, while putting on his Wizard costume for the film in 1939, actor Frank Morgan checked the tag and saw it had once belonged to the author.

5. Become a famous author. Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau were such good pals that Thoreau built a cabin on Emerson's land and after leaving Walden and even lived in Emerson's house while he was away. Unfortunately, the friendship bombed when one of Thoreau's books bit the dust. He blamed his buddy for telling him to ignore a publisher's edits.

[ChantelAlise]

on 3/3/2008 Cute.