Here, from New York Times bestselling author Robert Wernick, are the surprising and little-told stories of some of literature's greats - the man who created Madeline, Ludwig Bemelmans, the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie; Sherlock Holmes's creator, Arthur Conan Doyle; the Jungle Book's author, Rudyard Kipling; the man who heard the call of the wild, Jack London; Moby Dick's author, Herman Melville; and the woman who defied the rules of society and writing, George Sand.