JD Salinger had an early draft of The Catcher in the Rye in his bag with him when he took part in the Normandy Landings  in 1944. 

John Steinbeck’s original manuscript for Of Mice and Men was eaten by a dog.

Carrie, Stephen King’s debut novel, was fished out of his trash bin by his wife after he originally discarded it.

Despite popular belief, there are not 1,001 stories in the Arabian Nights collection. The 900 or so stories instead were said to have originally been read over 1,001 nights.

In an early version of Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven,” the bird that repeatedly croaks “nevermore” was going to be a parrot. A meeting with Charles Dickens convinced Poe to change his mind, as Dickens had a pet raven at the time.

Bibliosmia is the name given to the scent of old books.

Harry Potter creator, JK Rowling, is popularly said to be the first author in history to make $1 billion from book sales alone.

Ray Bradbury’s original title for his classic novel Fahrenheit 451 was The Fireman.

Jane Austen’s original title for Pride and Prejudice was First Impressions.