# Writers who were virgins **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2006, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989 "2006-11-18T23:42:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/61 "2006-11-20T05:40:56Z")
Come to think of it, Hitler (he **did** write a widely-read book) might or might not have ever had “sex” (depending on its definition) in his life. Historians are uncertain on that point. And its probably just as well to let that uncertainty rest. ---
**Author:** ![from\_a\_to\_z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5fc32e/32.png) [@from\_a\_to\_z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/from_a_to_z)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/62 "2006-11-20T07:52:07Z")
[QUOTE=Dr McChoakumchild] Another possibility is Alexander Pope. He suffered from Potts Disease and was physically deformed and apparently quite misanthropic and bitter. [/QUOTE] According to [A Letter from Mr Cibber to Mr Pope](http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=27303489&searchurl=isbn%3D0404701582%26nsa%3D1), as quoted in Frank Muir’s [An Irreverent and Thoroughly Incomplete Social History of Almost Everything](http://www.amazon.com/Irreverent-Thoroughly-Incomplete-Everything-Scarborough/dp/0812822080/sr=1-1/qid=1164008395/ref=sr_1_1/104-8932171-4586340?ie=UTF8&s=books), Alexander Pope visited at least once a “house of carnal recreation”, where he was intimately acquainted with “a girl of the game”. ---
**Author:** ![cranston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@cranston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cranston)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/63 "2006-11-20T08:05:27Z")
[QUOTE=jackelope] James wrote an essay about how, with the aid of imagination and a little knowledge of basic human nature, one can write convincingly about any topic under the sun. [/QUOTE] I am afraid I agree with VS Naipaul: ‘How strange then, that James was unable to do so’. Sorry, couldn’t resist. [QUOTE=jackelope] For more information on Henry James’s virginity, I recommend [The Mystery of Henry James’s Testicles](http://jonathanames.com/james/james.html). (Actually I haven’t read it, but I recommend it anyway, because it recounts the horrifying and possibly apocryphal story of the James family jewels getting “punctured on a fence.”) [/QUOTE] Interestingly - well, I’ll leave that for you to judge - a similar thing happened to Simon le Bon. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 10:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/64 "2006-11-20T10:22:59Z")
I don’t really know one way or another, but from what little I know of Marcel Proust’s life I imagine that he might be a candidate. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/65 "2006-11-20T12:52:28Z")
[QUOTE=Menocchio] Frankly, I have to raise an eyebrow at the suggestion that there’s a correlation between sexual expression and artistic ability. Outside of explicit erotica (you know when you’re feeling a woman’s breasts, and the feel like sand?), what can’t an observant virgin write about? Most writers never experience a fraction of the things they write about. Dante may have gotten laid, for example, but he certainly never visited Hell. [/QUOTE] :dubious: Going to Hell is an act of the imagination. Which few people, Dante being on of them, have been able to pull off. Sex is a basic human experience and a communion with you’re fellow human. It goes way beyond feeling what a woman’s tits are like. Hopefully. There are things you can’t just observe. Not to say virgins can’t write about the human experience. ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/66 "2006-11-20T13:10:51Z")
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton] And I wouldn’t be surprised if St. Paul (he counts as a writer, doesn’t he? in terms of readership, one of the most successful in human history) died a virgin. [/QUOTE] I would be surprised if he did. Despite what he said about marriage, and sex, in his old age (after his conversion) he was a good Jewish boy before that and I don’t see how he could have risen in the Hebrew hierachy not being married with a bunch of rugrats. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/67 "2006-11-20T13:21:41Z")
I’m the first to mention Helen Keller? ---
**Author:** ![Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ac8455/32.png) [@Bippy\_the\_Beardless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bippy_the_Beardless)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/68 "2006-11-20T15:58:15Z")
Anais Nin Doh! ---
**Author:** ![Rodgers01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b19c9b/32.png) [@Rodgers01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rodgers01)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2006, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989/69 "2006-11-21T04:05:42Z")
Alright, with all the talk here of Jane Austen being a virgin, I just gotta post [this](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,2774-2454013,00.html). 😛 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/writers-who-were-virgins/380989.md?page=3)