What a large volume of adventures may be grasped within the span of his little life by him who interests his heart in everything.
– Laurence Sterne
Irish writer Laurence Sterne penned the wildly popular comic serial novel The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, and inadvertently spawned some of the first fan fiction when other writers published pamphlets that took place in the Shandean world. Sterne was born 300 years ago.