Photos of Famous Authors and Their Bicycles

It’s the height of bike riding season here in New York — it’s no longer so hot that you can’t do more than duck from air conditioned shop to air conditioned shop, but it’s still beautiful, and as the air continues to crisp, the cyclist will be out in numbers. And hey, in another life, one of them might have been Leo Tolstoy. We spotted this delightful photo of Leo Tolstoy and his bicycle — he learned to ride at 67! — over at Open Culture, and we were intrigued. Bike riding seems like an appropriate pastime for authors (all those bike-powered book tours and long lazy afternoons), so we thought we’d hunt around to see how many other famous writers liked to zoom about on two wheels. Click through to check out our gallery, and let us know if we missed your favorite snap of a writer on a bike in the comments.

Leo Tolstoy, c. 1895. [via]

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Thriller writer Donald Hamilton used a bike while living in Sweden http://www.mmtz.us/dh/dh2.html

Conan Doyle and his wife actually owned a tandem tricycle, not a bicycle. Trikes were a popular option in the days before the 'safety' bike was introduced as an alternative to the big-wheel 'Ordinary' bikes. Ordinaries were understood to be far more dangerous to ride and not appropriate for women like Touie Conan Doyle. The 'safety' bike (c. 1885), which looks more like our modern bikes, opened up the sport to a wider range of people beyond the initial young, male fans who rode, and sometimes raced, the 'big wheel' bikes.

• Is this also Arthur Conan Doyle and the Missus? http://tarastarlight.tumblr.com/post/8221556545/maudelynn-victorian-couple-on-a-tandem-bicycle @Jaime Gray - He also stored absinthe in the handlebars. Or should've.

Maybe it's indicative of the crappy money authors make until/if they get a best seller - they can't even afford public transport!!

Where's Alfred Jarry and his bicycle? He was so enthusiastic about cycling that he wandered the streets of Paris in a bicycle costume!