Things you didn't know about James Joyce:

-his father was a raging alcoholic

-he frequented Dublin's red-light district from an early age, and lost his virginity to a prostitute when he was 14

-not surprisingly, he contracted syphilis, which may have caused the chronic eye trouble he suffered in later years

-his wife was an uneducated chambermaid who resented his writing, but the relationship proved to be an enduring one

-his first work was a volume of poetry in 1907

-when Ulysses was first published, Ernest Hemingway thought it was "a most wonderful goddamn book," although D.H. Lawrence thought it was an obscene piece of crap

-his wife once claimed that Joyce tried to convince her to sleep with other men so that he could write about it (apparently, it didn't work)

-he once consumed an entire barrel of pickles in one sitting (ok, this one is a complete lie, but you I had you going there, didn't I?!)