Over the course of his career the literary canon of famous French author Alexandre Dumas fills more than 310 volumes (the Complete Works of Alexandre Dumas published by Calmann-Levy) that contain more than 37 million words, more than 4,000 main characters, 9,000 secondary characters, and 25,000 smaller roles. As a very prolific writer, Dumas knew that time was money; he once remarked “My minutes are precious as gold. When I put on my shoes, it costs me 500 francs.” Fortunately for the literary world, Dumas spent more time writing at his desk (sometimes as long as 16 hours a day) rather than attending to sartorial matters. What is impressive about the achievements of early authors, like Dumas, is that they actually wrote their manuscripts using pen and ink (a process that is completely foreign to the i-Pad generation). Bookshelf reveals the daily word quotas of famous authors:
Isaac Asimov: 4,000
Barbara Cartland: 6,000
Raymond Chandler: 5,000
Charles Dickens: 5,000
Arthur Conan Doyle: 3,000
Alexandre Dumas: 2,000
William Golding: 3,000
Graham Greene: 500
Stephen King: 2,000
Norman Mailer: 3,000
John Steinbeck: 2,000
Anthony Trollope: 3,000
Tom Wolfe: 1,800
Read related posts: Random Fascinating Facts About Authors
Who Were Barnes and Noble?
Sleeping Habits of Famous Authors
How Many Words Does the Average Person Speak in a Lifetime?
First Typewritten Book
For further reading: Odd Type Writers by Celia Blue Johnson, Perigee (2013)
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2003/apr/16/alexandredumaspere
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