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

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1280 on: November 15, 2010, 03:15:12 AM »


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#

Anonymous, Beowulf, Beowulf, PatH, #1301
Atwood, Margaret, The Blind Assassin, Gumtree, #277
Austen, Jane, Pride and Prejudice, Mary Bennett, #158
Baum, L. Frank, The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy, JoanK, #342
Blackmore, Richard, Lorna Doone, Lorna Doone, Frybabe, #462
Bronte, Emily, Wuthering Heights, Heathcliff, Gumtree, #252
Buchan, John, 39 steps, Richard Hannay, PatH, #396
Carroll, Louis, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice, JoanK, # 426
Cervantes, Don Quijote, Don Quijote, PatH, #701
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Christie, Agatha, Death on the Nile, Hercule Poirot, JoanK, #752
Clancy, Tom, Hunt for Red October, Frybabe, #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
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
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
Galsworthy, John, The Forsyte Saga, Irene, PatH, #615,620
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Goodman, Carol, The Night Villa, the slave girl, Gumtree, # 1165
Greene, Graham, The Third Man, Holly Martins, PatH, ##1175, 1179
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
Lamb, Charles and Mary, Tales From Shakespeare, Macbeth, JoanK, #1301
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
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
Peterson, Roger Tory, Field guide to the Eastern Birds, Mockingbird, JoanK #202
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Rhys, Jean, Wide Sargasso Sea, Jane Eyre, straudetwo, #1230
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
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
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
Tyler, Anne, Digging to America, Maryam Yazdan,Mippy, #735
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
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Woolfe, Virginia, Orlando, Orlando, PatH, #1141
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173


Only the latest heading is up to date.














H'mmm - should know this one - Lewis Carroll had a stammer and took clerical orders - Henry James had a stutter too...
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1281 on: November 15, 2010, 03:23:00 PM »
Ok, thisw should do it. Reread the "book" clue: I've reworded it.

Author: was banned from a career as a cleric by a stutter.
Spent years looking after a sick relative.
Had a collatorator on this book, but not in his other works

Book: was considered a minor masterpiece, even though it uses another author's plots and words.

Although intended for children, is also read by adults.

Character: a well known murderer.
Had an unhappy marraige.
The prize that he saught was his doom.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1282 on: November 15, 2010, 11:59:19 PM »
Joan,
I am flummoxed' A book about a murderer meant for children? Also read by adults? A masterpiece?
Please, please another hint.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1283 on: November 16, 2010, 02:40:06 AM »
Yes, please! I am completely stuck.

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1284 on: November 16, 2010, 08:30:09 AM »
Eureka!

Author, Charles Lamb.

Book, "Tales From Shakespeare", written with his sister Mary.

Character, I'm guessing Macbeth, though Richard III would fit too.

I didn't know about the stutter, but Lamb's sister Mary was mentally ill, and he cared for her, with occasional periods of institutionalization when she got too bad.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1285 on: November 16, 2010, 03:26:23 PM »
HOORAY!!! I won't have to think of any more clues! I hope I'm right, that many of you read it as a child or adult, as Pat and I did. As a teenager, it kept me from being afraid to read Shakespeare, since I already knew the plots.

My copy says that Shakespeare's own words were used as much as possible: of course that's the "other author".

Charles Lamb's sister Mary in a rage stabbed their mother and killed her. After that, Charles spent many years "taking care" of her. She wrote the "Tales from Shakespeare" (published in 1807) with him: she did the comedies and he the tragedies. He wrote many other things as well, while he worked for the East India House for 33 years.

Now that you know that the plots are from Shakespeare, you should have no trouble identifying the character.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1286 on: November 16, 2010, 04:59:21 PM »
My deprived childhood kept Charles Lamb from me. However the N.Y. public schools  taught us one Shakespeare play a year from 5th to 12 th grade. Also his Sonnets from 5th thru 8th.
The murderer could be Othello.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1287 on: November 16, 2010, 08:17:26 PM »
The last two clues finally rang a bell, a distant bell.  

Things did not gel or me until PatH solved the quiz. Only then did I remember reading some years ago about Charles Lamb, his life, and his being the caregiver for his unstable sister. That remained with me.  I did not retain the fact that Lamb stuttered, and did not read the masterpiece.

In high school, we were exposed to Shakespeare. We studied  (in German, of course) Midsummer Night's Dream.  The foreign language program in our school was extensive, but English was not offered until we were 16. Ours was a small class, fewer than 20, all girls  --- simply because co-education was unknown until after WW II.
 
The first teacher was English, hired by the school for one year.  She was wonderful. We adored her.  Her method, I realized ever more as time passed, was spontaneous and innovative, given the time.  She did not focus on the written word  or  gramma, at first, but on  listening and pronunciation.  She began with reading  old English folk songs.
we lmemorized then,  recited them, first in unison, then individually, and we sang them.  There could have been no better introduction to i any foreign language, IMHO.  
___________________________________
My absence from this folder is due to my scaling back my time on the computer, involuntarily for sure, because of poor vision.   I have an appointment with the eye doctor next month - something I both dread and anticipate. It will show whether the progress of the malady ihas remained  slow.
___________________________________
As promised, I presented the case of picking up Paul Scott with [i]Stayaying On[/i].   To my huge delight, the response was favorable. I could have jumped for joy and could not be happier.

Planning, of course,  is of the essence in any venture,  and we are fortunate to have our  truly incomparable techies see to the intricate details.  

At this point, we envision Staying On to be offered in either February or March of next year,  in the separate folder, alongside the admirable, long-running SOC.
I am grateful beyond words.

 


 




PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1288 on: November 16, 2010, 08:26:57 PM »
I've got my copy of Staying On, won't touch it until close to starting time.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1289 on: November 16, 2010, 09:03:24 PM »
PatH  :) :)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1290 on: November 17, 2010, 01:07:02 AM »
Traude  YIPPEE  That is such good news. I recently acquired the book but I'll wait and read it closer to the time. Thank you for going in to bat for us.

I began Scott's Six Days at Marapore which is also absorbing but am not very far into it as yet.

I do hope your eye report is positive - I'm still having problems with my left eye so am in empathy with you.
 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1291 on: November 17, 2010, 01:11:22 AM »
Lamb's Shakespeare !!  G'rrr  - I have it on my shelves but didn't give him a thought even though the clue about the sick relative was rolling around in the back of my mind. What an admirable thing he did in caring for his sister - although I daresay there were very few other options open to him. 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1292 on: November 17, 2010, 10:56:35 AM »
OK, JoanK, I suggested 2 possible characters and Judy suggested one.  Is it one of those?

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1293 on: November 17, 2010, 03:22:35 PM »
PAT: I was so excited that you got it, I didn't notice your character suggestions. I hadn't realized that Macbeth and Othello both fit my clues. I happened to be thinking of Macbeth.

I'm sorry that most of you hadn't read the book. Since I read it in childhood, I thought everyone had. It's hard to think of something that most of us will know.

Okay, Pat -- you're it.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1294 on: November 17, 2010, 04:45:35 PM »
I can see that it's really hard to think of things, but this really is one of my favourite parts of SeniorLearn.

At Christmas I nag my family into compiling a quiz - we each do different topics and I always do books.  I inevitably think that I have made all of the questions far too easy - and they hardly ever get any of them.   I suppose this may be partly a reflection on my husband and children's ignorance (!), but I think it's also true that we always think whatever we know is obvious, when to most other people it isn't.

Pat - I await your questions with bated breath...

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1295 on: November 17, 2010, 06:28:42 PM »
Pat - I await your questions with bated breath...
Rosemary
So do I--I'm working on it.

It's impossible to be sure you're getting the right level of difficulty.  If you know the answer, the clues seem too obvious.  Then there's chance.  Someone once posed a very reasonable quiz here, but, by chance, no one had read the book, although you would have thought some of us would have, so no one got anywhere.  Another time, someone gave what should have been a very obscure clue to Patrick O'Brian's "Master and Commander", but several of us, including myself, are O'Brian fanatics.  She probably couldn't have thought of a clue that we wouldn't have gotten instantly.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1296 on: November 17, 2010, 08:28:20 PM »
I'm not feeling too brilliant.   This will have to do.

Author: I am unknown.

Book: You may have had to read this in school.

Character: I am valiant.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1297 on: November 18, 2010, 05:11:18 PM »
DUH!

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1298 on: November 18, 2010, 07:17:06 PM »
My skimpy clues didn't click with anyone.  Here's more:

Author: no one knows much much about me, but I sure had a way with words.

Book: was made into a movie a few years ago.

Character: my mission was to help a ruler free his land from a marauder.

Just for the record, I know some of you have read this.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1299 on: November 18, 2010, 10:36:05 PM »
Maybe a Robin Hoodish type ?  I think Piers Plowman wrote about Robin

"neither a knight nor a peasant or 'husbonde' but something in between."
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 #1300 on: November 18, 2010, 10:50:59 PM »
It's not Robin Hood, Roshanarose, but you're getting the spirit.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1301 on: November 19, 2010, 02:07:07 PM »
Could this possibly be Beowulf? (Author unknown)

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1302 on: November 19, 2010, 03:46:25 PM »
YES, it could indeed be Beowulf.  Good for you, Judy.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1303 on: November 19, 2010, 06:47:07 PM »
A very high-tech movie was made of Beowulf three years ago.  Although they shot most of the scenes live, they then digitalized the actors, which had the effect of making their faces look waxy and blunting the expression (if any) of their acting.  There were also some unfortunate plot choices.  The mother of the marauder Grendel is Angelina Jolie, dressed in nothing but gold paint and high heels.  She looks pretty good, but hardly the "monstrous hag" whose blood melts the blade of Beowulf's sword as he slays her.  A couple of times, for a moment or two, quality wins out, and you get the feel of the poem, but it doesn't last.  But if you just want a flashy action flic, it's OK.

When I looked up the date of this movie in IMDB, I learned that there is a 1999 sci-fi movie, a post-apocalyptic retelling of the story.  This I've got to see.  It's in my queue.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1304 on: November 20, 2010, 12:19:45 AM »
Hi Pat-
The reason it resonated was the fact that someone turned it into a stage play and presented it on a small stage at Stanford, where I saw it.  I found it rather comical and not at all what I learned in college.
Anyhow it helped me guess this quiz because you also presented it in a humorous manner.
Lots of fun.
I'll take up the banner but give me a bit of time.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1305 on: November 20, 2010, 12:23:51 AM »
Where do I find the list of Authors who have already been used? Its not on page one.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1306 on: November 20, 2010, 02:48:09 AM »
Great get Jude - Beowulf didn't enter my mind...

Several years ago we saw a stage 'reading' of Beowulf. The guy recited from memory in the original Anglo Saxon and accompanied himself playing the theorbo. It was a powerful theatrical performance. There were subtitles  but I didn't really bother with those - he conveyed so much by expression and demeanour and I knew the tale well enough to just let the old language take over. Wonderful.

After the performance he took a break and came back on stage to field questions about the work and his interpretation etc. I can't think of his name or exactly where he was from but do remember that he was primarily an academic specialising in early Anglo Saxon and perhaps medieval literature at a British university.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1307 on: November 20, 2010, 09:53:17 AM »
Where to find already used authors:  There is a list at the top of each page.  However, only the latest page is current.  When I add new authors, I don't go back and change all the previous pages.  Sorry, Jude, I hadn't yet gotten to putting it on this page.  I've now done that, and will update it it a few minutes.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1308 on: November 20, 2010, 12:53:44 PM »
Here we go..Hope this is easy enuff to finish in a day or two as I am expecting a house full of guests  before Thanksgiving.

1)An American author.

2)Character is an unpleasant  and mean person

3) This book was the authors first success and was made into a very popular movie.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1309 on: November 20, 2010, 02:39:17 PM »
Way to go, JUDE. As usual, I awqait more clues.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1310 on: November 20, 2010, 04:03:18 PM »
Dr Seuss?

How The Grinch Sold Christmas?

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1311 on: November 20, 2010, 07:52:47 PM »
Oh Rosemary its a no but I wish I would have thought of Dr. Seauss.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1312 on: November 21, 2010, 02:20:43 AM »
Never mind  :)  Will keep trying, and have just realised it was "stole" not "sold" - I must have been overcome by all the shop windows I have seen in Edinburgh over the weeekend!

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1313 on: November 21, 2010, 01:48:40 PM »

Jude,  could it be Milo from Catch-22 by Joseph Heller ?

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1314 on: November 21, 2010, 02:11:11 PM »
No Straude-but a good guess.

Second clues.

The writer is not just American but a writer from the South.  His/her Southern roots are felt in all the books.

The book so angered his\her father that they didn't speak for many years.

The  character is very cruel but the author claims that he was crueller in real life.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1315 on: November 22, 2010, 02:47:14 PM »
William Faulkner was from Mississippi, which was the setting of many of his books. I don't recall ever seeing anything about he and his dad having a falling out, though.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1316 on: November 22, 2010, 07:06:37 PM »
OK Frybabe you are closing in.  It is not Faulkner but some one born in 1945.

Since Thanksgiving is almost upon us and my guests will be here soon I will throw hints at you that hopefully will reveal the author.  If you haven't read his books you have missed out on an exciting read.

The author is not only Southern but went to a Military school "The Citadel".

The characterization of his fathe rin the book was so harsh that his mother,ashamed, picketed stores that sold the book.  It didn't help. The book  was a bestselerl as were all his (yes it's a him) books following this.

The character is an Alcoholic and a military man.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1317 on: November 22, 2010, 10:15:30 PM »
Oh, goodness, I've got to know who this is, if only my brain will come up with it.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1318 on: November 23, 2010, 12:24:16 AM »
Is the author Pat Conroy (born in Georgia) and the book The Great Santini ?

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1319 on: November 23, 2010, 01:10:35 PM »
Oh straude YES,YES,YES!

The great Santini it is. Pat Conroy is perhaps better known for Prince of Tides but I haven't read that one so I chose one I had read by him.  I just presented at my f2f bookclub his latest novel: South of Broad.  About half the peoplee loved it and half didn't.  Since he was so present in my mind I thought to use him for this quiz. Personally I really enjoy his writing and the fact that he brings up many taboo subjects like child abuse, mental illnes, and in his latest book the Aids epidemic and Priest abuse. Not easy to pull off these subjects in a literary context.

Pat Conroy was the oldest of seven children.  His father  was a brute but presented a different face to the world.  The father had a popular lecture series for military families on "Tough Love". Through reading Pat's books on the effect of his brutality he apoligized to Pat after years of no contact.
Conroy has been married three times and his present wife is the writer Cassandra King. He notes that sometimes he hears her laugh as she writes.  "I only weep" he says.

Happy Thansgiving to you all!