Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 340891 times)

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2280 on: September 08, 2011, 10:26:41 PM »
 


Welcome to Author! Author!  

This is a game in which the contestants match their wits with a  challenger, who suggests a character in literature, non- fiction or fiction. The challenger may or may not provide more clues, his prerogative,, and never more than one a day.


Once a day the challenger will say if the guesses are correct or not. The winning contestant gets lots of acclaim and the chance to pose the next challenge. If he does not want to post a new challenge he can say so and whoever does can begin a new game.

Of course you could look these up on google in an instant, what challenge is that? The  idea is to rack one's brain to try to remember where this particular character appeared and who wrote about him/ her. Should be great fun.

The challenger also has the option not to mention the name of the character, but only a description.


Authors used so far:

Author, Book, Character, Challenger, Post#, winner

Anonymous, Beowulf, Beowulf, PatH, #1301
Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Banks, Lynn Reid, The L-Shaped Room, Jane Graham, Rosemarykaye, #1785, unguessed
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Bennett, Alan, Uncommon Reader, Queen Elizabeth II, rosemarykaye, #1605, pedln
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Burns, Olive, Cold Sassy Tree, pedln, #1594, rosemarykaye
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Chesterton, Gilbert K., The Father Brown books, Father Brown, PatH, #2179, JoanK
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Clarke, Arthur C., Rendezvous with Rama, roshanarose, #2064
Clemens, Samuel, see Twain, Mark
Coetzee, J. M., Disgrace, David Little, Straudetwo, #1336
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Conroy, Pat, The Great Santini, Conroy's father, JudeS #1319
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
Davies, Robertson, The Cunning Man, Jonathan Hullah,  straudetwo, #1382
Dickens, Charles, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Drood, PatH, #2227, rosemarykaye, #2283, Gumtree
Dostoevsky, Fyodor, Crime and Punishment, Roskolnikov, JudeS, #1209, 1213
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Dumas, Alexandre pere, The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, PatH, #939, 941
DuMaurier, Daphne, Rebecca, the nameless narrator, Gumtree, straudetwo and rosemarykaye, #1924
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
Essex, Karen, Leonardo's Swans, Isabella d'Este, Mippy, #591
Faulkner, William, The Sound and the Fury, Caddy, 1429, 1439, Frybabe
Forster, E. M., Passage to India, Frybabe, #2240, rosemarykaye
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Gibbon, Edward, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Zenobia, Frybabe, roshanarose, #2003, 2011
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Goodman, Carol, The Night Villa, the slave girl, Gumtree, # 1165
Grahame, Kenneth, The Wind in the Willows, Mr. Toad, rosemarykaye, #3362, PatH
Greene, Graham, The Third Man, Holly Martins, PatH, ##1175, 1179
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Hardy, Thomas, Far From the Madding Crowd, roshanarose, #1741, rosemarykaye
Henry, O., Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
Hesse, Herman, The Glass Bead Game, straudetwo, Frybabe, #1962
Hugo, Victor, Les Miserables, JoanK, # 1904, Gumtree
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Johnston, George, My Brother Jack, Gumtree, #2311, roshanarose
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
Lahiri, Jhumpa, The Namesake, the boy, Frybabe, #4110, pedln
Lamb, Charles and Mary, Tales From Shakespeare, Macbeth, JoanK, #1301
Lampedusa, Giuseppe di, The Leopard, Don Fabrizio, Gumtree, Frybabe and straudetwo, #2031, 2032
Larson, Erik, Devil in the White City, pedln, #2226, Frybabe
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
Li, Cunxin, Mao's Last Dancer, Li Cunxin, Gumtree, #1713, roshanarose
Maupin, Armistead, Tales of the City, rosemarykaye, #1553, pedln
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
McCullers, Carson, Member of the Wedding, straudetwo, pedln, #1859
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Miller,Arthur, Death of a Salesman, Gumtree, #1005, 1006
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
Murdoch, Iris, The Sea, the Sea, Charles Arrowby, straudetwo, #1197, 1198
Nabokov, Vladimir, Lolita, Lolita, JudeS, #1124
O’Brian, Patrick, Master and Commander, Jack Aubrey, JudeS, #319
Orwell, George, Frybabe, #97
Ovid, Metamorphosis, Frybabe, roshanarose, #1985
Pearl, Matthew, The Dante Club, pedln, #1629, deems 2
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Potok, Chaim, The Chosen, Danny Saunders, pedln, #1890, JoanK
Potter, Beatrix, Jemima Puddleduck, rosemarykaye, #1478 pedln, #1482 deems2
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
Preston, Douglas, Dinosaurs in the attic, Frybabe, #1456 rosemarykaye
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Rowling, J. K, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Harry, PatH, #1409
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre, straudetwo, #1230
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de, The Little Prince, the Prince, PatH, #2146, rosemarykaye
Saramago, Jose, Blindness, deems 2, #1652, straudetwo
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Sewall, Anna, Black Beauty, Frybabe, #1490, Gumtree
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Smith, Alexander McCall, 44Scotland Street, Cyril, rosemarykaye, #1238, 1243
Spark, Muriel, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Miss Brodie, Gumtree, #671, 672
Stead, Christina, The Man Who Loved Children, straudetwo, #1690, Gumtree
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Stoker, Bram, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, JudeS, #631, 632
Stone, Irving, Depths of Glory, Camille Pisarro, Gumtree, #802
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Tolstoy, Leo, War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov, PatH, #1267
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Tuchman, Barbara, A Distant Mirror, Frybabe, #2117, straudetwo, #2118, PatH
Twain, Mark, Life on the Mississippi, the author, JoanK, #2192, Frybabe
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
Urrea, Luis Alberto, The Hummingbird's Daughter, Saint Teresa de Cabora, Frybabe, #1835, straudetwo
Voltaire, Candide, Candide, straudetwo, #1809, Frybabe
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Weir, Alison, Innocent Traitor, Lady Jane Gray, roshanrose, #883
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Wharton, Edith, The Age of Innocence, Frybabe, rosemarykaye, #2054, Gumtree #2055
Wilde, Oscar, The Importance of Being Earnest, Lady Bracknell, #2131, rosemarykaye
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Wolfe, Tom, The Right Stuff, Chuck Yeager, roshanarose, #2091 Gumtree, #209x Frybabe
Woolf, Virginia, Flush, Gumtree, #1511, 1513, rosemarykaye
Woolf, Virginia, Orlando, Orlando, PatH, #1141
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173
Zola, Emile, Germinal, Etienne Lentier, Gumtree, #1352


Only the latest heading is up to date.

































May we please have a new clue that might allow for further guesses ?
At this point I'm not ready to accept that we are looking for a British author, again.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2281 on: September 09, 2011, 06:43:08 AM »
Traude, yes, it really is Dickens, as I told Rosemary.  All that's needed is the book, and character.  Clues:

Book: One of his lesser known works.
  Of a somewhat different type than most of his books.

Character: My future is very uncertain (that's a bigger clue than it looks).
  I broke my engagement.

That should do it.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2282 on: September 09, 2011, 10:04:22 AM »
StraudeTwo - I am kind of surprised regarding your comment about the fact that you are "Not ready to accept that we are looking for a British author again".  Knowing your appreciation of books from many different parts of the world, I am surprised that you have made this remark.  Or, perhaps, I have misread it.  Please enlighten me.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2283 on: September 09, 2011, 12:06:41 PM »
Is it Edwin Drood?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2284 on: September 09, 2011, 03:00:01 PM »
Yes, it is.  Drood's future is uncertain because, although he is presumed to have been murdered, the book is unfinished.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2285 on: September 09, 2011, 03:09:34 PM »
WINNERS!

Rosemary for the author--Charles Dickens

Gumtree for book and character--Edwin Drood

You can fight a duel for the honor: pistols at 48 million paces.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2286 on: September 09, 2011, 09:51:10 PM »
STRAUDE: we American are brought up on US and british literature. We must rely on you to broaden our horizens.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2287 on: September 10, 2011, 08:45:51 AM »
Quote
pistols at 48 million paces.

Whew! That's a long way - maybe twice as far as we need!

Actually, I wouldn't have guessed Drood except for Rosemary naming Dickens so I think she is the winner.

What say you, Rosemary - 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2288 on: September 10, 2011, 07:00:17 PM »
Quote
pistols at 48 million paces.

Whew! That's a long way - maybe twice as far as we need!

Gumtree, you're very right; I was speaking off the top of my head.  Assuming you and Rosemary are 9500 miles apart (determined by the elegant method of stretching a string on my globe and measuring it off on the scale) and also assuming a hearty British and Australian stride of 2.5 feet--my own stride is 2 feet, but I'm short--then you are only 20 million paces apart.  You'll still need pretty good pistols.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2289 on: September 10, 2011, 07:23:06 PM »
Rosemary, are you OK with being next?  If not, I'll provide a fill-in.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2290 on: September 11, 2011, 07:34:36 PM »
Only 20 million paces? PAT: I insist you pace that off! I know you can walk on water.

CONGRATS, AUSSIES!

Great to see an Aussie tennis player winning a Grand Slam event!

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2291 on: September 11, 2011, 11:39:31 PM »
Thanks again JoanK, we are seriously chuffed and proud of Sam.

The Rugby World Cup happening in New Zealand is grabbing all the attention. 

With Sam it is another one for the girls!
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2292 on: September 12, 2011, 05:15:01 AM »
RR -  It's rugby only if you follow rugby -

Tennis does it every time for me. Sam Stosur is the first Aussie grand slam female winner since Evonne Goolagong Cawley got her last one in 1980. It's a well deserved win - Sam's worked hard and paid her dues.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2293 on: September 12, 2011, 05:27:26 AM »
PatH  I'll do the next quiz if you like - provided Rosemary agrees...

And yes, 20 million paces is more like it although my stride would be flagging after the first 19 million  :D
Podes to antipodes is interesting  - lots of work going on in relation to the question of measuring that distance - but I think these days they're using more sophisticated methods than your tried and true string and scale.  :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2294 on: September 12, 2011, 12:49:56 PM »
Gum - please do  :)

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2295 on: September 12, 2011, 03:29:09 PM »
Go for it, Gum.

By the way, you and I are very close to antipodal; I make it 11,600 miles, 24 1/2 million paces.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2296 on: September 12, 2011, 10:35:25 PM »
RR -  It's rugby only if you follow rugby -

Gumtree - I don't understand what you mean here.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2297 on: September 13, 2011, 11:01:25 AM »
PatH If we both leave now I think could meet in the middle in time for Christmas - though we'd have to make sure we both go the same way or we'll each end up halfway but still be antipodal one to the other.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2298 on: September 13, 2011, 11:08:49 AM »
New Quiz  Get your thinking caps on:


Author:  I'm a novelist, non fiction writer, as well as a journalist and war correspondent who achieved a certain fame due to my wartime dispatches during WWII.                 

Book:     This is the first volume of a classic trilogy. It's semi-autobiographical and an award winner

Character: Is one of two brothers whose lives and personalities are contrasted throughout the novel.


Lots of obvious clues there to get you started   :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2299 on: September 15, 2011, 05:30:13 AM »
Not a bite from anyone... here's another clue or two...


Author:  I'm a novelist, non fiction writer, as well as a journalist and war correspondent who achieved a certain fame due to my wartime dispatches during WWII.
          I left my native country and for ten years, together with my second wife, I enjoyed an ex-patriate life on an idyllic island                 

Book:     This is the first volume of a classic trilogy. It's semi-autobiographical and an award winner.
             The novel was adapted for the stage as well as a very successful series for TV.

Character: Is one of two brothers whose lives and personalities are contrasted throughout the novel.
              My brother is my hero. He is brave, noble and courageous and represents the aggressive male. I regard myself as being none of those things. I am something of a social (and family) misfit.



More obvious clues - go!  go!  go!     :D   :D


                 

Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2300 on: September 15, 2011, 10:46:37 AM »
Well, I'm stumped. There are a number of well know WWII correspondents I could list, but I am not familiar with a trilogy about two brothers.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2301 on: September 16, 2011, 12:32:20 PM »
Has everyone gone to ground?
 - except for Frybabe ...

Author:  I'm a novelist, non fiction writer, as well as a journalist and war correspondent who achieved a certain fame due to my wartime dispatches during WWII.
          I left my native country and for ten years, together with my second wife, I enjoyed an ex-patriate life on an idyllic island.
            I wrote a few novels jointly with my wife and was also successful in writing thrillers under a pseudonym.                 

Book:     This is the first volume of a classic trilogy. It's semi-autobiographical and an award winner.
             The novel was adapted for the stage as well as a very successful series for TV.
              Deals with the aftermath of WWI, the interwar period and WWII and considers the question of identity on several levels - personal - family - social - community - national.

Character: Is one of two brothers whose lives and personalities are contrasted throughout the novel.
              My brother is my hero. He is brave, noble and courageous and represents the aggressive male. I regard myself as being none of those things. I am something of a social (and family) misfit.
              My brother is a tough, honest salt-of-the-earth type whilst I have an intellectual and cosmospolitan outlook which alienated me from my brother and my family.


Special Clue for Frybabe: The author was one of the journalists on board the USS Missouri when the Japanese surrender was signed.


Handed to you on a plate now   :D

 


Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

pedln

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2302 on: September 16, 2011, 07:02:34 PM »
Not gone to ground, GUm.  Just can't get all the pieces to fit together.  Of course Ernie Pyle was my first thought, but no fit there, nor some others.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2303 on: September 16, 2011, 08:34:19 PM »
Same here.  I've got to know it, but sure can't think what it is.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2304 on: September 16, 2011, 10:09:44 PM »
Gumtree, an intriguing new quiz, bound to stimulate !  Gosh, I've thought of (and dismissed) a few illustrious persons -  none fitted.
Your elegant, alacrious clues are linguistic gems and sheer pleasure.

Sorry to have been AWOL.  A  (hopeful) participant in the ongoing discussion here  of Berlin 1961   I've been reading virtually around the clock,  and the library copy is overdue ... There are 2 grace days, the daily fine is small, but I have ethical questions, especally if there's a long waiting list for a book.  Just by way if excuse.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2305 on: September 16, 2011, 10:36:11 PM »
Traude, it's good to see you back here.  Yes, the Berlin discussion is time-consuming, but I hope you will continue your valuable input.  I'm struggling to keep up, but enjoying it.

Gumtree is the master artist of clues that actually tell you everything, but in such language that you don't realize what you have.  I just thought of another promising candidate, but when I looked him up, he didn't fit well enough.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2306 on: September 17, 2011, 09:41:46 AM »
Since Gum is an Aussie, I thought of Alan Moorehead, but he doesn't fit either. Has anyone read his books? I remember seeing some of his titles throughout the years, but never read any. (Gallipoli, Darwin and the Beagle).

Whenever anyone brings up WWII journalists in the Pacific, I immediately think of Ernie Pyle. He didn't live to write books.

Still puzzling.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2307 on: September 17, 2011, 10:59:19 AM »
Traude & PatH  Such accolades! I'm blushing - but happy to know at least I've managed to get you thinking.


Pedln & Frybabe: As you've discovered, it's not Ernie Pyle.

It's not Alan Moorehead either - but that was a good guess as his career has certain parallels to that of our mystery author but I doubt that Moorehead wrote any fiction - he was an acclaimed war correspondent and went in for writing history. Gallipoli is recognised as one of the definitive texts on that campaign. He wrote a biography of General Montgomery - and there is one on Aussie explorers Burke and Wills and their legendary but ill fated last journey - I've been meaning to read that one for years....


and yes, Frybabe - Gum is an Aussie   :D

Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2308 on: September 17, 2011, 11:08:17 AM »
 ;D

pedln

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2309 on: September 17, 2011, 02:12:35 PM »
Gum, we need more clues.  This is driving me crazy and I can't tell you how much time I've spent investigating different thoughts.  They're either too young, no second wife, not an ex-pat or not a journalist.  I thought I had something with Irwin Shaw and Rich Man, Poor Man, but it doesn't all fit.

But what a great list of authors/and books TO BE READ and/or revisit --  like John Hersey's The Wall.  I think I want to read that again.  Peter Carey's on my shelf.

In the meantime -        aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhc   >:(

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2310 on: September 17, 2011, 10:09:58 PM »
A stab in the dark.  Could it be one of the Durrell brothers?  Perhaps Lawrence?
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2311 on: September 17, 2011, 10:26:11 PM »
I checked - The Alexandrian Quartet is a tetralogy. 

I think the one Gum wants is George Johnston - "My Brother Jack". 

I remember he and his wife (Charmian Clift) because they spent some time on Kalimnos and Hydra, both Greek islands.  Also my ex husband had to study it for his final year at school and hated it.  I haven't read it.  I tried one of Clift's books about life on a Greek island, but it didn't hold me.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2312 on: September 17, 2011, 10:46:44 PM »
Oooh! I looked up Johnston, and he totally fits.  Good thing you got him, roshanarose, I'd never heard of him.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2313 on: September 18, 2011, 06:13:53 AM »
WINNER  WINNER WINNER

Roshanarose to the rescue! I thought you might be the one to twig
the answer. I agree with your assessment of Clift's work - pretty second-rate in my view though a great fuss has been made of her at times.

and Yes, George Johnston and wife Charmian Clift lived on Hydra for about ten years and were really the central focus of an ex-patriate group who came and went - writers, artists, film stars etc - Sidney Nolan, Peter Finch et al. Johnston and Clift's relationship has been likened to that of Zelda and F Scott Fitzgerald.

Johnston was an acclaimed journalist - the first Australian war correspondent - worked for the Times -nicknamed 'The Golden Boy' by his Australian editor - he was later appointed to head up the Associated Press office in London - all the while writing novels etc as well as his work for the press. He had a great facility with words and could and often did write 10,000 words a day.


My Brother Jack and the others in the trilogy - Clean Straw for Nothing and A Cartload of Clay - were begun after Johnston became seriously ill with tuberculosis which he contracted on Hydra. It's semi-autobiographical and follows events throughout Johnston's life fairly closely but My Brother Jack  is a novel not biography and deals with many aspects of Australian life over a period of about thirty years. The questions he examines can be read in the particular sense and in the broader general sense. It is one of the best and truest accounts of the period in Australia. There are some powerful passages which stay in the mind.

My Brother Jack and Clean Straw for Nothing both won The Miles Franklin Award - Australia's most prestigious literary award - Johnston died just before completing the third novel but there was sufficient for it to be published as a novel - and it certainly doesn't leave one up the air or wanting more - being unfinished adds a note of realism to the end as the character was dying along with the author.


When people ask me what novels to read to find out what Australia was like I usually recommend Johnston's  Meredith Trilogy for 20th century  along with Henry Handel Richardson's trilogy The Fortunes of Richard Mahony for the gold rush era of late 19th century. There are lots of others too...

I guess it's now over to Roshanarose...

 

Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2314 on: September 18, 2011, 10:23:43 PM »
Thanks for the congrats.  One tries to keep one's mates happy. :o

Give me a couple of days please.

I was kind of surprised that Johnston contracted TB in Hydra.  Come to think of it, all those islands, wouldn't be the best place to be during a Greek winter.  Cold, bleak and damp.  Did you know that to this day Hydra doesn't have any motor vehicles.  If transport is needed donkeys and mules help out. 

Leonard Cohen was in Hydra too.  It's a nice little island, but there are others that are much more beautiful, imho.  Maybe it was the company of expats that appealed.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2315 on: September 19, 2011, 05:49:21 AM »
I meant to ask whether anyone here had actually read My Brother Jack.

- I think Johnston is the first Aussie I've put up. I always hesitate to nominate Australian writers - they're not widely read elsewhere and even the best are often overlooked in other countries.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2316 on: September 19, 2011, 06:56:06 AM »
Good Job, Roshanarose!

No, Gum, I haven't read any of Johnston.  My loss, obviously.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2317 on: September 19, 2011, 09:43:10 AM »
PatH - Ta muchly.
How can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state?  - Plato

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2318 on: September 19, 2011, 07:01:24 PM »
Congratulations, Roshanarose !

Gumtree,  to you many thanks  for another intriguing quiz, enhanced by your elegant phrasing of both  the initial presentation and any clues. Therein lies a special pleasure for me - even when I have no earthly idea of the solution, as in the present case. Just to be here edifying !! And there's always interesting tibits  to learn.

For Roshanarose and Joan K.
As I typed that earlier post I was not being critical or judgmental (not my style), and for a brief moment I actually considered  not sending it.  However,  thinking of the richness and infinite varieties of world literature  from all ages and parts of  the globe, I felt a tinge of sadness, a feeling I could not suppress and thought to share with you.   I did not want to offend anyone's sensibilities and apologize if I have unwittingly done so. Please forgive me.  May I throw out a name at this point ?   Here it is Rabindranath Tagore.

Gumtree,, I'm still here.  More demands have been made on me this summer than usual.  But when it has to do with family, our place is by their side. Thank you for asking.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2319 on: September 19, 2011, 08:49:55 PM »
STRAUDE: Since you mentioned Rabindranath Tagore, we are celebrating the birth of PatH's new grandchilds. And I was just thinking of one of hios poems abouit children: "COLORED tOYS"

http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems/rabindranath-tagore/colored-toys/