Charles Dickens (1868–1869)
Stops: London, Manchester, Brighton, Edinburgh, Glasgow
Duration: 7 months with 72 events
Purpose: Read from his novels, most frequently the murder scene from Oliver Twist
Notable Events: Dickens said that once “a dozen to twenty ladies” fainted due to excitement; his pulse rose from 72 to 124 when performing the murder scene; the readings’ intensity contributed to his death in 1870
Fee: £60 per reading
Oscar Wilde (1882)
Stops: New York, Chicago, Louisville, Sioux City, Omaha, Montreal
Duration: 260 days with 140 lectures
Purpose: Promote Gilbert and Sullivan’s Patience, because he resembled a lead character; lecture on Aestheticism
Notable Events: Wilde said upon arriving at customs, “I have nothing to declare but my genius”; his first lecture sold out, the box-office take totaling $1,211; he drank hot toddies with Walt Whitman
Fee: $18,000 total
Nikita Khrushchev (1959)
Stops: Washington, DC, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Camp David
Duration: 2 weeks
Purpose: Talk with President Eisenhower about U.S.-USSR relations; take his wife and children on vacation
Notable Events: Khrushchev attracted some 100 reporters at all times; drove through Harlem at 7 am and remarked, “This isn’t bad. We have a lot of areas just like this in the Soviet Union”
Fee: None (reached agreement with the president to hold summit about the future of Berlin)
Andy Warhol (1967)
Stops: Colleges in Utah, New York, Montana, Oregon
Duration: 1 week
Purpose: Lecture to college students, show clips of films
Notable Events: Warhol grew bored and sent a silver-hairsprayed actor to play him; someone at the University of Utah discovered the ruse four months later, and Warhol refunded money and redid some lectures
Fee: $1,000 per lecture
J.K. Rowling (2007)
Stops: Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York
Duration: 4 days
Purpose: Promote seventh and final book of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
Notable Events: Rowling signed 1,600 books for LA schoolchildren, all of whom had competed in an essay contest; sweepstakes were held for a Carnegie Hall event; she announced that Dumbledore was gay
Fee: None (part of her own publicity)