5 Highly Persistent Bookish Urban Legends

Truman Capote Wrote To Kill a Mockingbird
Whether due to simple sexism or because Harper Lee didn’t publish another novel for sixty years, the rumor that Truman Capote is the actual author of Lee’s classic novel seems just possible enough to be believable, and has seen a resurgence now that Go Set a Watchman has been published. It’s easy to see where the legend gets its legs: Lee was a close friend of Capote’s, they publicly helped each other in their careers, and Lee never published anything new after Mockingbird. Both authors denied the legend completely, and a letter from Capote to Lee discovered in 2006 more or less put the rumor to bed, but like all urban legends, nothing—not even the truth—can kill it.

The Harry Potter Books Leads Kids into the Occult
Personally, we’d love to believe a simple series of fantastic books could lead us to expertise in the dark arts, because we’ve got some enemies to smite. Sadly, the Harry Potter series remain just awesome books, despite persistent rumors that they promote witchcraft, interest in the occult, and general devil worship in its young and presumably impressionable audience. No lesser authority than the infamous Jack Chick has denounced Harry Potter as “a doorway that will put untold millions of kids into hell,” and this led to several religious groups claiming children were learning to despise the bible and religious teachings because of the Potter books. As this is based on nothing factual, we’re once again completely bereft of books granting us actual magical powers, dark or otherwise.

Ernest Hemingway Wrote a Six Word Novel
Look, Ernest Hemingway reinvented literature, probably twice. He also lived a life of adventure and tragedy that won’t be equaled any time soon. And “For sale, baby shoes, never worn” is a devastatingly terse piece of genius, usually offered up as Hemingway’s response to a bet that he couldn’t write a novel in just six words. Today the Internet hosts several six-word story challenges, but the sad truth is the phrase existed long before Hemingway started writing, at least in some form. What’s fascinating about this is that Hemingway certainly didn’t need any extra bit of awesome to burnish his literary cred.

Dr. Seuss Wrote a Book Called Do You Know What I’m Going to Do Next Saturday? that Dealt With Suicide and Child Abuse
A secret Dr. Seuss book about such dark themes would be fascinating, but this rumor is a confused mess of misplaced facts. There was a book called Do You Know What I’m Going to Do Next Saturday? (now out of print), but it was written by Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel)’s first wife, Helen Palmer (according to Snopes.com), and the subject matter is much less ominous when taken in context. For example, the line “Did you ever beat more than one kid at a time?” might sound dark if you read it without context, but in the book it’s an innocent brag about sports. So, the search for the Seussian version of the Necronomicon continues—and believe me, when we find it, we’ll let you know.

The Japanese Mistranslated The Grapes of Wrath as The Angry Raisins
Look, English is a weird, lawless language where everyone more or less makes everything up all the time, from the pronunciation to the grammar, and where slang moves so quickly each generation is essentially unable to communicate with the next. So it’s TOTALLY believable that some poor Japanese translator took The Grapes of Wrath and turned it into The Angry Raisins. And yet, it is also totally untrue. For sheer giggles, however, it remains our favorite literary urban legend, as it’s fun to imagine a whole country of readers standing on crowded subway cars reading books titled The Angry Raisins with very serious expressions on their faces.