Flavorwire

This week, we were surprised by the news that Emily Dickinson was a passionate baker, and it got us to thinking. Of course, some authors have exactly the hobbies you’d think they would — Hemingway was an avid hunter and fisherman, of course — but others are a bit more surprising. With so many cultural icons and celebrities, we tend to pigeonhole them like characters, fitting them into the roles they are most famous for instead of thinking of them as fully realized human beings — but famous authors have weird hobbies just like the rest of us, a few of which even make us think twice about that literary figure we thought we knew so well. Click through to see a few very surprising hobbies of famous authors, and let us know if you have the inside scoop on any more!

Though a recluse for most of her life, Emily Dickinson loved to bake, and would often lower a basket full of baked goods from her window to the children waiting in the street. Now, happily, you can recreate her coconut cake in your own kitchen — though you may not be able to recreate the poems it fueled quite so easily.