Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359053 times)

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #520 on: May 03, 2010, 10:41:49 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#

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
Christie, Agatha, Hastings, JoanK, # 127
Clancy, Tom , The Hunt for Red October, Mippy #553
Collins, Wilkie, The Moonstone, Rachel Verinder, PatH, #311
Conrad, Joseph, Heart of Darkness, Marlow, Gumtree, #226
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan, Study in Scarlet, Dr. Watson, PatH, #380
Eliot, George, Daniel Deronda, Gumtree, #190
Eliot, T. S., Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats, Bustopher Jones, PatH, #110
George, Elizabeth, Lynley and Havers, Tomereader1, #168
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Ginny  537
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
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
Rand, Ayn, We the Living, Frybabe, #498, 502
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
Steinbeck , John, Journal of a Novel, Gumtree, #53, 60
Tolkien, J. R. R., Lord of the Rings, Frodo, PatH, #238, 241
Trollope, Joanna, The Best of Friends, Sophie, Mippy, #218
Vreeland, Susan, The Forest Lover, Emily Carr, Mippy, #364
Wethers, Beck, Left for Dead, Ginny, #29
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173






Frybabe's post:

Gumtree, MJ was in a SciFi movie called FreeJack. Robert Sheckley wrote the novel. I looked him up. His novel titles are rather uninspiring if you ask me. Except for one If at Faust You Don't Succeed. That title intrigues me.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #521 on: May 03, 2010, 11:59:09 PM »
Sheckley doesn't seem to have changed his name, though.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #522 on: May 04, 2010, 02:38:05 PM »
Yeah, I know Pat. I just brought Sheckley up because Gum mentioned possible Scifi connections to MJ. Actually, I didn't know Jagger claims to have seen UFOs.

This is still one big major puzzle.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #523 on: May 04, 2010, 03:35:07 PM »
This business of the author changing his real name from time to time because he can't spell it should be a dead giveaway.  Who can't spell his own name?  The only one I can think of is Shakespeare (they were pretty casual about spelling then) but he totally doesn't fit any other way.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #524 on: May 05, 2010, 10:44:10 AM »
Mick Jagger ... yikes!   I can't think of anything about him at all!
This is way too difficult for moi.
quot libros, quam breve tempus

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #525 on: May 05, 2010, 06:22:56 PM »
I have no idea who this person is.  However  I thought to amuse you by giving you some info on pseudonyms.

1) Zane Grey was originally Pearl Gray (Male Name!) but thought it inappropriate for adventure stories.

2) Angela Knight  a Romance Novelist was originally Julia Woodcock.  (You know why she changed her name.)

3) Dav Pilkey writes a series of popular childrens books under the name of Sue Denim(Pseudonym).

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #526 on: May 05, 2010, 07:32:21 PM »
Ginny is so careful to avoid using pronouns about the author -- makes me think the author was a woman. Love and money sounds like Jane Austen, but she and Mick Jagger boggles the mind.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #527 on: May 05, 2010, 07:42:34 PM »
JoanK, you made my day.  The thought of Jane Austen meeting Mick Jagger--intersection of alien life forms. :) :) :)

Austen didn't shift her name around though.  I'm just going to wait for Ginny to take pity on us and give us another clue.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #528 on: May 06, 2010, 08:19:13 AM »
Ok next clues, first:  (I am not sure why the spelling of the author's real name changed, that will require a trip to the library to find out, if the someone other than the author misspelled it or of the author misspelled it on purpose, an interesting premise).

1. Author: I've had an unusual life. My name is a pen-name which I picked up in my reading. I've sometimes had difficulty spelling my real name correctly; so I change it from time to time.  You've all heard of me but I bet you don't know my true story. Do I have a connection to Mick Jagger?

2.  Author: Although I'm considered quintessentially American, I actually lived out of the country for some time. I have an interest in medicine.



Who am I?


2. Our character, while clean, is firm in the belief that money can buy anything in the world, regardless of what it is.

3. Our character's story actually contains several references to the classics, which are not recognized by most readers, specifically  Cupid's arrows,  and a saying, now a motto of one of the states of the US, famously said by Archimedes.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #529 on: May 06, 2010, 10:18:55 AM »
Motto from Archimedes - that would have to be Eureka! I have found it
famously pronounced as he stepped out of the bath.

Don't know which US state uses it - well, I'm not a Yank!


(this is something of an aside and won't help in solving the puzzle)
In Australia the miners' rebellion known as the Eureka Stockade of 1854 took place in Ballarat Victoria. The stockade was built at the Eureka Lead where the miners were following a lead of gold - they objected to high prices for equipment and the imposition of an unfair licence tax. It was a bloody battle between miners and police supported by a garrison of soldiers. It's the only example in Aust. history of armed rebellion leading to reform of law and is often referred to as the birthplace of Aust democracy.

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

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #530 on: May 06, 2010, 11:04:12 AM »
It's California, I guess referring to the discovery of gold.

No, I don't know all the state mottoes, but thought that was right and checked it.  My own state, Maryland, has the motto Fatti maschii, parole femine (manly deeds, womanly words), which inspires a lot of sarcasm.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #531 on: May 06, 2010, 03:50:35 PM »
Could the relationship to Mike Jagger be because his face always reminds me of a frog?
If so, I will guess the story by Mark Twain ""The Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" which indeed takes place in Gold Country in California.

There are many stories with frogs if that face is indeed the common factor. Not sure how many we can guess in one day.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #532 on: May 06, 2010, 08:46:34 PM »
I'm not sure, either, but that one nearly gave me a heart attack, it's not the winning answer but it still nearly threw me over, too close!

I really love the conversation here and the eclectic things which come out in the discussion.


JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #533 on: May 07, 2010, 03:37:23 PM »
OK.  Next shot.
"Cupids Arrow" by Rudyard Kipling.
The ugly man is Bar-Saggot who tries to buy the affection of the lovely miss with a diamond bracelet.

If this is incorrect I will need another BIG clue to solve this.

By the way "Eureka" is the state Motto of California. 

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #534 on: May 07, 2010, 07:24:08 PM »
That's not it either, but it's a good guess. More clues coming up on Mother's Day.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #535 on: May 08, 2010, 02:00:02 PM »
I'm thinking instead of tomorrow I better get these in today, an early Mother's Day Present:

 Author Clues:

1. Author: I've had an unusual life. My name is a pen-name which I picked up in my reading. I've sometimes had difficulty spelling my real name correctly; so I change it from time to time.  You've all heard of me but I bet you don't know my true story. Do I have a connection to Mick Jagger?

2.   Although I'm considered quintessentially American, I actually lived out of the country for some time. I have an interest in medicine.

3. In the area of names, as it turned out, I am the one who  changed my own real name's spelling. In addition  I had another real name! I dropped the real first name  I was given at my christening  and used my middle name from then on, changing the spelling when I was 36.

4. I've tried several occupations in my life. I've been a sheep herder, a mail carrier, a banker, a cartoonist, a reporter, a news columnist, and an editor.





Book Clues:


1. Our character, while clean, is firm in the belief that money can buy anything in the world, regardless of what it is.

2. Our character's story actually contains several references to the classics, which are not recognized by most readers, specifically  Cupid's arrows,  and a saying, now a motto of one of the states of the US, famously said by Archimedes.

3.  The story revolves around a debate on buying one's way into society: can it be done? Our character remarks that were it not for the fare for the steerage  passage, no Astor would have been able to rule the exclusive circles of society. (Interesting, that, because of the death recently of Mrs. Astor).

4. How can money influence a pair of young lovers who are on their way to be separated by a cruise trip lasting two years?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #536 on: May 10, 2010, 08:42:02 AM »
Now you wouldn't be talking about O'Henry would you, Ginny? The only O'Henry's I am familiar with are The Gift of the Magi and The Ransom of Red Chief(kind of). Mick Jagger did the theme song to Ruthless People which was apparently based (loosely) on the latter. The things you find out when you are forced to go hunting.

By the way, are we still doing that short story discussion? I don't remember seeing anything for a long while. When I was young I used to read a lot of essays and some short stories. My current in home library has Mark Twain, Ray Bradbury, Isaac Azimov, and other scifi authors, Washington Irving and several anthologies that include short stories, essays and other writings.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #537 on: May 10, 2010, 06:37:59 PM »
Now you wouldn't be talking about O'Henry would you, Ginny?

hahahaa

I might be, you smart thing! How on earth did you get it?





1. Author: I've had an unusual life. My name is a pen-name which I picked up in my reading. I've sometimes had difficulty spelling my real name correctly; so I change it from time to time.  You've all heard of me but I bet you don't know my true story. Do I have a connection to Mick Jagger?

O. Henry's given name was Wiliam Sydney (earlier spelled Sidney) Porter.

Mick Jagger is the lead singer of The Rolling Stones.

O Henry was the editor and publisher of the humorous magazine The Rolling Stone.

See  below for the origin of the pen- name.


2.   Although I'm considered quintessentially American, I actually lived out of the country for some time. I have an interest in medicine.


Charged with embezzlement, O Henry fled the country for Honduras. Returned to the US he served in the prison pharmacy.

3. In the area of names, as it turned out, I am the one who  changed my own real name's spelling. In addition  I had another real name! I dropped the real first name  I was given at my christening  and used my middle name from then on, changing the spelling when I was 36.


O. Henry's given name was  William. He chose the name O. Henry (Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia) from Etienne-Ossian Henry, a French pharmacist, which he found in the US Dispensatory, a reference work Porter used in the prison pharmacy, in which he worked for the three years of his sentence.


4. I've tried several occupations in my life. I've been a sheep herder, a mail carrier, a banker, a cartoonist, a reporter, a news columnist, and an editor.




Book Clues:

Since O Henry was an extremely prolific author,  writing between  December 1903 to January 1906 a story a day, it would not be possible for anybody to guess the title, so I'll give it and declare Frybabe the winner!

The title of the Story is Mammon and the Archer from  The Four Million.


1. Our character, while clean, is firm in the belief that money can buy anything in the world, regardless of what it is.


The lead character, Anthony Rockwall, who made his fortune manufacturing Eureka soap, revels in his  status bought by money and believes there is nothing money can't buy.

2. Our character's story actually contains several references to the classics, which are not recognized by most readers, specifically  Cupid's arrows,  and a saying, now a motto of one of the states of the US, famously said by Archimedes.

Eureka was gotten by the contestants and the Archer refers to Cupid's bow as it's a love story, as well.

3.  The story revolves around a debate on buying one's way into society: can it be done? Our character remarks that were it not for the fare for the steerage  passage, no Astor would have been able to rule the exclusive circles of society. (Interesting, that, because of the death recently of Mrs. Astor).

Rockwell's son Richard, six months home from college has fallen in love with a high society  girl who won't look at him. Old Rockwell thinks anything can be bought with money.

4. How can money influence a pair of young lovers who are on their way to be separated by a cruise trip lasting two years?

There's a time element as she's leaving on a cruise and trip to last 2 years abroad but has agreed that Richard can accompany her to the train station where her mother and party will go to the ship.

Enter a ring, and a sudden pile up of carriages on the way in, and the coachman can't go forward, so the two young people get to talk and long story short, they fall in love or she does.

The next day O Henry says: "The story should end here. I wish it would as heartily as you who read it wish it did. But we must go to the bottom for the truth."

And the truth arrives with red hands and a blue polka dot tie who was reimbursed another $1,300 in addition to the $5,500 he had already spent on the drovers, haulers, wagons, cabs, motormen and others who created the traffic jam.

Rockwell asked him , "you didn't see a kind of a fat boy without any clothes on shooting arrows, did you?" hahaaa

Quintessential O Henry!

How did you get it, Margie, and you're up next!!





ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #538 on: May 10, 2010, 06:39:05 PM »
I don't know what happened to the short story thing, maybe you should bring it up in the Suggestion Box?

I love short stories!

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #539 on: May 10, 2010, 07:34:29 PM »
Ginny, your #4 occupation list got me to thinking about Mark Twain, but Jude already tried that on. Thinking about Mark Twain got me thinking about short stories. First I considered James Thurber, then Will Rogers (not really a short story writer). Then I thought of O'Henry and our short story discussion of The Ransom of Red Chief. You did say the author was discussed and quoted here. All the while I was wracking my brain for a Mick Jagger connection. I never thought of Rolling Stone magazine. Jagger had been in several movies, but couldn't find an acting connection. However, he did the theme song for Ruthless People which was based on Red Chief. That was good enough for me to take a stab.  Wow, was that ever difficult.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #540 on: May 10, 2010, 07:43:28 PM »
Wow, I think you should win a prize for that one. That Ruthless People and the Ransom of Red Chief alone is stunning!) Congratters! :

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #541 on: May 10, 2010, 09:24:07 PM »
FRY, you're the best. Good one, Ginny!!

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #542 on: May 11, 2010, 03:39:56 AM »
Good one, Frybabe - 
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #543 on: May 11, 2010, 08:18:48 AM »
Give me a day or to to come up with something. I will be out again this morning doing errands.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #544 on: May 11, 2010, 10:59:18 AM »
Margie!   Wow!   What a terrific literary trivia gal you are!  Congraters!

           and not too shabby either, Ginny!  That was really difficult!
quot libros, quam breve tempus

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #545 on: May 11, 2010, 11:52:11 PM »
Ye Gads!
O.Henry.

So simple and yet.....
Brilliant puzzle.  Kudos to the solver.

" You're a better man than me, Gunga Din."

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #546 on: May 12, 2010, 06:53:47 AM »
Thank you, Joan K,  Mippy and Jude, I would never have gotten that one myself, Frybabe is amazing!

This is fun! .

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #547 on: May 12, 2010, 08:32:54 AM »
Persistence pays, I guess. I even tried the if I were Ginny which author would I choose ploy. And I thought back over authors we discussed recently. Anyhow, it kept my mind from ruminating too much over being laid off and other little daily crises.


PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #548 on: May 12, 2010, 09:37:12 AM »
Well, Frybabe, I was trying to be persistent too, and I never would have gotten it.  Good thing you were playing.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #549 on: May 16, 2010, 08:29:18 AM »
I am dedicating this one to Deems.


Author: Born in Annapolis but never served in the military because of poor eyesight.


Book:The first novel ever published by the US Naval Institute.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #550 on: May 16, 2010, 09:53:03 AM »
Boy, that's a real puzzle.  Deems is probably looking down and laughing at us.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #551 on: May 17, 2010, 07:21:34 PM »



Author: Born in Annapolis but never served in the military because of poor eyesight.
             My name is "branded" which means other authors can write using my
                   name in the title.

Book:The first novel ever published by the US Naval Institute.
          President and Mrs. Reagan both praised this first of a series involving a CIA
                    analyst.
         

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #552 on: May 17, 2010, 08:52:28 PM »
Aaaarrrggghh!  I feel like I know it.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #553 on: May 18, 2010, 08:54:06 AM »
Tom Clancy? 
his first novel:  The Hunt for Red October.
quot libros, quam breve tempus

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #554 on: May 18, 2010, 09:06:16 AM »
I was thinking of Nelson DeMille but I don't think there is a connection!

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #555 on: May 18, 2010, 09:41:51 AM »
Hurray, Mippy!

Tom Clancy and his Hunt for Red October it is.

Regarding Tom Clancy's branded name. Anytime you see Tom Clancy's ------, it is written by someone else under his name. Those that just say Tom Clancy are his. Clancy co-founded a multimedia group back in 1996 which produced the video games. It was later sold to another company. There will be a new movie coming out in 2011 which, if I remember right, is Without Remorse.

I have two of his co-authored non-fiction books in my TBR pile. Has anyone read any of his non-fiction?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #556 on: May 18, 2010, 09:47:28 AM »
Ginny, I never heard of Nelson DeMille so I looked him up. The only title I know is The General's Daughter but only because it is a John Travolta movie. I think I saw some of it.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #557 on: May 18, 2010, 03:00:00 PM »
Wow! Mippy - too good for me!
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #558 on: May 18, 2010, 08:01:39 PM »
Mippy! How ever did you get that? I had no idea! Well done!

Frybabe,  oh do read DeMille's The Gold Coast, I absolutely loved it, not the sequel tho. It's a great book. It was so good he tried again and messed it up, I don't recommend the sequel.

I have never read a Tom Clancy! Or a Baldacci,  but I've got two of his so will try one asap.

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #559 on: May 19, 2010, 06:45:00 AM »
Thanks, Margie, Gumtree and Ginny
I used to read Clancy, but have not in years.   The Hunt for Red October used to be a favorite movie, but it's been so long, I don't know if I'd still like it.   But will forever like Sean Connery!  
Here's a link, in case anyone is interested: 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099810/
        
I assume now I have to think of one, so please give me a day to find a book:
   not too hard
     not too easy
       just ....   right      :)
quot libros, quam breve tempus