Charts & Graphs

On Tour

On the lecture circuit.

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)