Edgar Allan Poe's only successful book in his lifetime was a non-fiction work on snails.
The oldest surviving joke book is over 1,500 years old.
As well as writing The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer also wrote the first science book in English.
Charles Dickens's wife wrote a cookbook under the name 'Lady Maria Clutterbuck'.
The Secret Library rediscovers these little-known gems, exploring the history of Western civilization through some of the most curious examples from literature.