"A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules"

From Writer's Almanac:

English novelist Anthony Trollope was born in London in 1815. Many of Trollope's novels originated from daydreams that he had as a child.

When Trollope was 19, he began working as a clerk for the post office, eventually being placed in Ireland as a postal surveyor. In addition to his literary achievements, he is credited with inventing the modern British mailbox. It was in Ireland that he began writing novels, churning them out regularly at a rate of three books every two years. He would write 1,000 words an hour before breakfast; he said, "A small daily task, if it be really daily, will beat the labors of a spasmodic Hercules." He wrote realistic novels about the daily life of ordinary people, including The Warden (1855), Barchester Towers(1857), and Framley Parsonage (1861).