Happy Friendship Day 2019: 5 lesser-known friendships from history to remind you that bonds matter

Samuel Clemens, AKA Mark Twain met Hellen Keller when she was just 14-years-old, at the home of author Laurence Hutton. Even though the American humorist was in his 50s at the time, the two struck up a good friendship which they maintained for a lifetime. Eight years later, when Hellen Keller published her autobiography, The Story of My Life, Twain wrote to her praising her prose. It is also said that he wrote to rich patrons of literature and convinced them to take care of Hellen Keller's education. 

The two supreme names in fantasy fiction - the authors of The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia series of books respectively, JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis had the most unlikely relationship, as peculiar as friendships between literary stalwarts go. Even though they first met in 1926, they did not really hit it off until the 30s, when the two esteemed author kept meeting each other at an elite literary club at the Oxford University, called the Inklings. It is said that this is where they heavily debated against each other on religion, ethics, and morality. Tolkien, a born Catholic held the belief that age-old religious myths hold ancient truths that ringed true within the then agnostic mind of CS Lewis. It is said that their long discussions on this topic eventually led to the fantasy epics being written, although it was followed by reports of spiteful comments against each other. Even then, it was as bittersweet as bonds went between literateurs.

Theirs is an unlikely relationship that has an exciting story right in its inception, which is nothing short of a Classical Hollywood noir film script. A book chronicling the Kennedy family called 'The Kennedy Half Century' put forward the historical connection between the 35th President of the United States and the American influential musical artist. It has been claimed that Joseph Kennedy, the father of John F Kennedy had asked for the help of a downtown mob boss named Sam Giancana to ensure his son won the elections. Giancana, apparently, had a strong influence over the union workers and hence could ensure their votes. In doing so, Frank Sinatra, a mere nobody at the time served as a middleman between the Kennedy family and the mafia in ensuring the votes. Even though he would later go on to become one of the most influential music artists of the 20th century, the FBI has been for long investigating Sinatra's alleged underworld link and his friendship with the US President possibly as a result of that. 

The British writer, best known for his detective fiction and his analytical mind that gave birth to the methodist Sherlock Holmes, was also famous for his belief in psychics and seances. However, Houdini, the master illusionist himself, would take on spiritualists and con artists who used magic tricks to convince a gullible audience of ghosts and spirits and debunk them as cheap parlour tricks. This gave birth to an unlikely friendship between the two that was based on debates around magic, illusion, and myths. Houdini would abhor his friend Conan Doyle talking for hours about psychic powers and unexplainable magical abilities, all of which were very obvious to the famous escape artist himself, having known the tricks of the trade and the art of deceiving people himself. Houdini would even go on to demonstrate the tricks behind his magic acts to the author, but the extraordinary skill required to pull them off would only convince Doyle further of his friend's supernatural abilities. Their friendship later weakened after Doyle wanted to perform a seance to invoke Houdini's dead mother, which the latter, quite naturally, found very disrespectful.  

An Irish novelist and a French wrestler walk into a bar - sounds like the setup to a joke, but it was, after all, reality. In 1953, the same year in which Beckett's most famous work, Waiting for Godot, was published, the author moved into a small commune in France where he met Bulgarian immigrant Boris Roussimoff, whose son André René would later go on to become the world-famous wrestler and actor Andre the Giant. Boris and Beckett played cards in the evening, and it is said that Beckett offered his pick-up truck to chauffeur Andre to his school who, at the age of 12, was already living up to his future moniker by outgrowing the school bus itself. They became good friends on this course, and Andre would later fondly remember this time when he would talk to the Nobel laureate about a variety of topics, mostly about cricket, while on their way to the school.