15 Bizarre Quirks of Historical Geniuses

1.

Ben Franklin started each morning with a nice bath. Not a water bath, an air bath. He would sit naked at his window whilst reading and writing to get his day started on the right foot.

2.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a HARD worker. He spent hours upon hours writing away and composing his brilliant works. In order to ‘keep sharp,’ he would often pour cold water over his head when writing. He did this so frequently, in fact, that his downstairs neighbour would often complain about water leaking through his floors into their place.

3.

Agatha Christie, writer of 66 detective novels including ‘Murder on the Orient Express,’ would never stay in one place when writing. When writing her books, she ALWAYS started with the actual murder scene first. As for the rest? She’d start filling in the gaps whenever the idea struck her. It did not matter where she was or when it was, when the idea came, she had her typewriter ready and she would write.

4.

Thomas Edison was very outspoken about his sleep schedule- or lack thereof. He felt that power naps were far superior to taking long ‘normal sleeps.’ Also, he refused to hire anybody who seasoned their soup before tasting it.

5.

Andy Warhol LOVED Campbell’s soup. SO much so that he would routinely eat it right out of the can. Furthermore, he started dyeing his hair grey when he was only 23, saying “When you’ve got gray hair, every move you make seems ‘young’ and ‘spry,’ instead of just being normally active,”

6.

Friedrich Schiller, a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, and playwright, got inspiration to work via apples. Not by eating them, no. But by having a drawer full of rotten ones sitting at his desk. The stench inspired him to write, apparently.

7.

Nikola Tesla was a germaphobe who washed himself excessively, slept in 2 hour shifts, and only stayed in hotel rooms that were numbered in multiples of threes.

8.

Alfred Hitchcock was a man of many phobias. He was scared of the police, he was scared of watching his own finished films, and he was afraid of oval shaped objects such as eggs.

9.

Edgar Allan Poe didn’t write his works in notebooks or on large pieces of paper. Rather, he wrote on small strips of paper that he would then glue together into a large scroll.

10.

Truman Capote was incredibly superstitious. He never wrote on a Friday, and he never kept more than two cigarette butts in his ashtray.

11.

Lewis Carroll, writer of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,’ would only write his works in purple ink.

12.

Whenever Dr. Seuss ran into some writer’s block, he would head into his closet and try on some of his hundreds of hats until he felt inspired again.

13.

Charles Dickens, writer of Oliver Twist and A Christmas Carol, among other incredible works, ALWAYS carried a compass with him. He also never slept without it pointing north, because he felt that it helped with his creative flow.

14.

Dan Brown, author of ‘The Da Vinci Code,’ would sometimes unwind by hanging upside down for a while.

15.

Mark Twain preferred to write from the comfort of his own home. To be more specific… he preferred to write from the comfort of his bed.