• Many say that Horace Walpole's “The Castle of Otranto” is the first gothic horror novel.  It was published in 1764.
  • Mary Shelley's novel "Frankenstein" was written when Mary was just 18 years old.
  • Edgar Allan Poe is considered to be the first American professional writer - he made his living writing.
  • Poe's most famous work was “The Raven”, a poem published in January 1845.  Some critics say that a talking raven belonging to Charles Dickens was the inspiration for the talking raven in the poem.  Dickens had a pet crow named Grip, who was the inspiration for a talking bird character in Dickens' novel "Barnaby Rudge."
  • Stephen King's “The Shining” (published 1977) is considered to be his best book.  It was his third published novel.
  • Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None" is considered by many to be the best mystery book of all time.  Others say no, that "Murder on the Orient Express" is the best.  Either way Agatha wins.

Finally, about “it was a dark and stormy night” – this is the opening phrase of English novelist Edward Bulwer-Lytton's 1930 novel “Paul Clifford”.   It is an often mocked and parodied phrase representing the best of “purple” prose.  But, it is also listed by the American Book Review as number 22 of the best opening lines of novels. 

The Peanuts comic strip character Snoopy, in his persona as World Famous Author, began his novels with the phrase.  It is also the opening line of the 1962 novel “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L'Engle.  AND, Chapter LXV of Alexandre Dumas' novel, “The Three Musketeers” begins with the phrase “C'etait une nuit orageuse et sombre” (it was a stormy and dark night).