David Wallechinsky - The Book of Lists

Elizabeth Barrett, not yet either married to Robert Browning or very well-known, was a great admirer of Wordsworth. John Kenyon, a friend of the Barrett family, arranged for Elizabeth to attend a dinner in the poet’s honour. Although she was nervous (she said that she trembled ‘in my soul and my body’) about being seated next to Wordsworth, he was kind and even recited one of Dante’s sonnets for her entertainment. Eight years later, Barrett paid tribute to Wordsworth by mentioning him in ‘Lady Geraldine’s Courtship’.

The 18-year-old Maupassant, later one of France’s greatest writers, witnessed the near-drowning of a swimmer who turned out to be the eccentric English poet Swinburne. (According to some versions of the incident, including Maupassant’s own, he was actually in on the rescue, but this is disputed by more objective accounts.) When Maupassant introduced himself, the poet invited him to dinner at his villa. Swinburne’s guest was shocked by the main dish — roast monkey — and the presence of a large ape, which pushed the young Frenchman’s head aside whenever he tried to drink.

Near the beginning of his career, Caruso was hired by Arturo Lisciarelli to star as Rudolfo in a production of Puccini’s La Boheme . Lisciarelli took advantage of Caruso’s eagerness to sing the part by booking him for a mere 15 lire per performance, but added, rather vaguely, that the fee would be increased to 1,000 lire if Puccini liked him. When Caruso found out that Puccini lived nearby, he made a 25-mile trip to see the composer at his villa. After Caruso sang several measures, Puccini exclaimed, ‘Who sent you? God?’ Despite the composer’s praises, Lisciarelli held Caruso to the original terms of his contract.

Before going west to become a star in D.W. Griffith’s epic films, Miss Gish landed a dancing role in Sarah Bernhardt’s show. As they waited together in the wings for the opening curtain, the Divine Sarah stroked the young girl’s delicate curls admiringly and uttered something to her in French, a language Miss Gish had never before heard.

Gable dated the future first lady — then known as Nancy Davis and an aspiring actress — on three occasions during a visit to New York. Although gossip columnists speculated about a possible marriage, the relationship never was particularly romantic. Gable simply enjoyed seeing the town with Nancy and making her laugh, while she hero-worshipped Gable and wondered how long it would last. Once when they attended a party, she was convinced that Gable would leave her the moment a more glamorous woman appeared. When he stayed, it gave her self-confidence a great boost.

Ruth was in New Haven to donate a signed manuscript of The Babe Ruth Story to the Yale library. Ruth presented the book to the captain of the Yale baseball team, first baseman George Bush. Later that day, with the Sultan of Swat watching from the stands, the future US president went two-for-four and led Yale to a 14–2 blowout over Princeton.

When future rock star Petty was 11 years old, Elvis arrived in his hometown to shoot scenes for the movie Follow That Dream . Since his uncle was involved with making the film, Petty was able to visit the set and meet the king of rock and roll. Petty remembered, ‘He didn’t have much to say to us, but for a kid at an impressionable age, he was an incredible sight.’ Straightaway, Petty traded his slingshot for a friend’s collection of Elvis records.

In the summer of 1963, Clinton was named one of the delegates to Boys Nation, an American Legion program in which a select group of high school juniors travelled to Washington to watch national politics in action. The highlight of the trip was the delegates’ visit to the White House, where a gangly, crew-cut Clinton briefly shook hands with President Kennedy. The moment was recorded for posterity (and future Clinton campaigns) in a photo and on film. When Clinton returned home to Arkansas, he was set on a political career. His mother, Virginia Kelley, remembered, ‘I’d never seen him so excited about something. When he came back from Washington, holding this picture of himself with Jack Kennedy, and the expression on his face — I just knew that politics was the answer for him.’

When bestselling author John Fowles was on the verge of success, but not yet famous, he was a panellist at the Cheltenham Festival. He was prepared to attack the famous authoress Iris Murdoch, but instead found her ‘a gentle creature with a good mind’. Mrs Fowles felt Murdoch ignored them. Years later, when Fowles’ fame was enormous, Murdoch invited the Fowleses to lunch. He recorded the following exchange in his diary:

I.M.: Are you religious?

J.F.: Not at all…

I.M.: Nor am I.

J.F.: in the normal sense of the word.

I.M.: Ah. (long Pinter-like silence, contemplation of the lawn outside.) I expect you have a nice intellectual circle at Lyme Regis? [The extremely remote country area where Fowles lived.]

J.F.: Are you mad?

At the age of five, Amos was the youngest person accepted to the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Maryland. Six years later, she was expelled for refusing to read sheet music. The experience inspired the title of her first album, Y Kant Tori Read?

American actor John Barrymore was 16 when he was expelled from Georgetown Academy in Washington, DC. A faculty member recognised him, in the company of several other young men, entering a bordello where they had gone to celebrate Washington’s Birthday. The next day, when asked to name the other men, Barrymore refused and was expelled.

The son of a successful physician with inherited wealth, young Bogart was sent to Phillips Academy of Andover, Massachusetts, and after a year was thrown out for ‘irreverence’ and ‘uncontrollable high spirits’. Since attending Yale was suddenly out of the question, Bogie joined the US Navy.

Former editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and currently editor-in-chief of the New Yorker , Brown was expelled from three boarding schools by the time she was 16. ‘I got other girls to run away,’ she recalled, ‘and I organised protests because we weren’t allowed to change our underpants.’ At one school the headmistress found her diary, ‘and opened it where I had described her bosom as an unidentified flying object’.

At 16, Collins was expelled from Francis Holland School in England for (among other crimes) truancy, smoking behind a tree during lacrosse, selling readings from her diary of naughty limericks and waving at the neighbourhood flasher. Says Collins, ‘I was a bad girl.’ She later sent her own daughters to the same school.