Inspiration comes in many forms. Whether it's green and scaly or a just a sweet treat, here are the unlikely muses that encouraged famous authors to write some of their best known work.
The Chronicles of Narnia: This Wardrobe
The nineteenth-century wardrobe pictured above was made by Richard Lewis, the paternal grandfather of C. S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia. As a child, C. S. Lewis and his cousins used to crawl inside and tell each other adventure stories. Given these fond childhood memories, it's not terribly surprising that Lewis chose a wardrobe as a gateway to a fantasy land. The wardrobe is currently on display at Wheaton College.
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The Wonderful Wizard of Oz: Actual Yellow Bricks
At the tender age of twelve, L. Frank Baum, future author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz was shipped off to a military academy in Peekskill, New York. Baum detested the academy and his time in Peekskill, but some historians believe the town's yellow brick roads influenced his best known work.
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Dune: An Unfinished Article on Florence, Oregon
In the late 1950s, Frank Herbert traveled to Florence, Oregon to write an article about the U.S. Agriculture Department's attempts to control the spread of sand dunes with poverty grass. Herbert ended up putting the article on hold and instead turned his ecological research into the well-known Dune Saga.
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A Song of Ice and Fire: Turtles
The fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire began as elaborate stories young George R. R. Martin concocted about his pet turtles. Sometimes a turtle would die; Martin fantasized that his turtles were plotting against each other to gain the throne of the turtle kingdom. Thus, Westeros was born.
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