A young Stephen King got the idea for his characters in Carrie when he worked at a laundromat in Maine with a woman who quoted endlessly from the Bible.

Nathaniel Hawthorne based Hester Prynne on two of his ancestors who had committed incest and wore badges that said so.

The title character of The Little Prince began as a short figure with thinning hair that author Antoine de Saint-Exupery called "the little lonely man."

Scarlet O'Hara was initially named Pansy, Sherlock Holmes began life as Sheridan Hope, hobbit Frodo Baggins was called "Bingo" until J.R.R. Tolkien came to his senses. In this amusing book, Madame Bovary, C'est Moi (Norton, $19.95), Andre Bernard, author of two previous books of literary trivia (Now All We Need Is a Little Title and Rotten Rejections), describes the origins of many of your favorite characters, including Jay Gatsby, Joe Leaphorn, Brett Ashley, Long John Silver, Miss Havisham, Mary Poppins, Miss Marple, Holly Golightly, Sam Spade and Adam Dalgliesh.

And let's not forget Tolkien's sorcerer Gandalf. He started out in life with a name only his creator could love: Bladorthin. Thank the lord for revisions.



Anne Stephenson