How to Live on 24 Hours a Day

Enoch Arnold Bennett was an English author who lived from May 27, 1867, to March 27, 1931. He was best known for writing a lot of novels. From the 1890s to the 1930s, he wrote 34 books, seven collections of short stories, 13 plays (some with other writers), and a daily journal with more than a million words. He wrote stories and pieces for more than 100 newspapers and magazines. During the First World War, he worked in and briefly ran the Ministry of Information. In the 1920s, he wrote for movies. At the time, he was the most famous British author in terms of money made from book sales. Bennett was born in Hanley, in the Staffordshire Potteries, into a modest but highly mobile family. His father was a solicitor, and he wanted Bennett to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. Bennett first worked for his dad as a lawyer. When he was 21, he became a clerk at another law firm in London. He first worked as a junior editor and then as editor of a women's magazine. In 1900, he quit his job as an editor to just write full-time. He moved to Paris in 1903 because he loved French culture in general and French writing in particular. The laid-back atmosphere there helped him get over his severe shyness, especially around women.