He burned the second volume of his novel Dead Souls before dying on the verge of madness in 1852

Harvard Lampoon alumnus, by 1937 he owned 25 daily newspapers & a California castle He & Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay conquered Mount Everest May 29, 1953 He became General of the Army in 1944 & in 1947 became U.S. Secretary of State He became the drummer for Genesis in 1970; he didn't become lead singer until after Peter Gabriel left in 1975 He called his third collection of short stories The Trimmed Lamp and Other Stories of the Four Million He conceived the general plan for Faust in 1770, but it wasn't until 1808 that the complete first part was published He conceived the idea of his revolver pistol by observing a ship's capstan on a voyage to India in 1830 He engraved his poems such as The Tyger, illustrated them & hand-colored the prints he made