The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived

From detectives and criminals (Dick Tracy, Perry Mason, and Norman Bates) to the legendary characters of the theater (Hamlet, Shylock, Romeo, and Juliet), this lively, informative guide introduces dozens of well-known fictional figures and explores how they have helped shape our culture and our lives. An encyclopedic look at several dozen of the most well known “people” of literature, television, mythology, and film, The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived reveals such fascinating tidbits as:

• how the opera character Siegfried actually started World War Two and Harriet Beecher Snow’s Uncle Tom helped spur the American Civil War

• how Ibsen heroine Nora Helmer, television heroine Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and poster girl Rosie the Riveter popularized women’s liberation

• how Ivanhoe uncovered the linguistic heritage of Britain

• how Icarus invented flight insurance

• and more

Author Biography

Allan Lazar is a graduate of Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia and did post graduate work at the University of Chicago where he was also a member of the faculty. He has also served on the faculty of Columbia University College of Physicians & Surgeons as well as Fairleigh Dickinson University Dental School. Dan Karlan originally trained to be a biochemistry researcher at MIT, but after several years changed careers to computer programming. His favorite authors are Joseph Conrad, Charles Dickens, Victor Hugo, Larry Niven and Poul Anderson. Jeremy Salter was born in New York City but grew up in Long Branch, NJ. He has a BS in chemistry from Monmouth College and worked in the drug industry as an analytical chemist. He had studied writing at the feet of Allan Lazar and his dog, Yogi.