Brain Snacks: Tasty Tidbits of Knowledge
The screenwriter for the 2002 film The Bourne Identity was told not to read the novel when preparing his script. He worked from an outline prepared by director Doug Liman. (source)
Robert Ludlum, like his character Jason Bourne, had several aliases. He wrote some books under his own name, others under the name Jonathan Ryder, and one—The Road to Gandolfo—under the name Michael Shepherd. (source)
The Road to Gandolfo was a humor book. Of all things. (source)
The name "Bourne" came from Anselm Bourne, a Rhode Island preacher who forgot who he was one day in 1887 and started a new life in Pennsylvania under the name Brown. Several months later he woke up, remembered Bourne, and forgot Brown. (source)
Robert Ludlum's estate couldn't agree on a royalty rate with e-publishers, so electronic editions of his novels were late in coming. One New York Times columnist even wrote in 2012 about how, unable to find a licensed copy, he had illegally downloaded The Bourne Identity for his 15-year-old-son. (source)