What Do the Federal Income Tax and Polygamy Have in Common?

It’s hard to imagine anything more unsexy than income tax. But in chapter three of Business Adventures, “The Federal Income Tax: Its History and Peculiarities,” John Brooks manages to turn this mundane and often stressful part of American life into a page-turning narrative.

Don’t believe us? Here are three fun tax facts:

—When President Lincoln passed the Revenue Act of 1862, requiring an income tax at progressive rates, he also snuck through the bill to banish the practice of polygamy.

—Mark Twain was among the first Americans to pay income tax. “I am taxed on my income!” he wrote in the Virginia City, Nevada, Territorial Enterprise. “This is perfectly gorgeous! I never felt so important in my life before.”

—“Considering the omnipresence of the income tax in American life, however, it is odd how rarely one encounters references to it in American fiction,” writes Brooks.

We wracked our brains and couldn’t think of many novels where income tax is a major plot device. Can you?

Want more? Pick up Business Adventuresand impress your friends with your newfound knowledge.