Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 354011 times)

pedln

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2480 on: November 07, 2011, 11:28:59 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#, 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
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingsworth, Frybabe, 2368, 2373, pedln
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
Irving, John, The World According to Garp, pedln, #2401, straudetwo
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
Lessing, Doris, The Grass is Singing, straudetwo, #2432, frybabe
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
Sagan, Carl, Contact, Eleanor Alloway, #2447, PatH
Saint-Exupery, Antoine de, The Little Prince, the Prince, PatH, #2146, rosemarykaye
Saramago, Jose, Blindness, deems 2, #1652, straudetwo
Sayers, Dorothy L., The Nine Tailors, Lord Peter Wimsey, PatH, #2466, rosemarykaye
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Sewall, Anna, Black Beauty, Frybabe, #1490, Gumtree
Shakespeare, William, Othello, Othello, PatH, #2353, Frybabe, #2355, rosemarykaye
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
Thompson, Morton, The Cry and the Covenant, Ignaz Semmelweiss, #2332, PatH, #2338, straudetwo
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.

























Robert Louis Stevenson?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2481 on: November 07, 2011, 03:09:24 PM »
It still sort of fits the Greene.   Aaaak.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2482 on: November 07, 2011, 08:41:05 PM »
Just a guess - Gerald Durrell.
Also thought of Patrick Dennis, but he was from the US.
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

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2483 on: November 08, 2011, 03:34:15 AM »
Sorry, not Greene, Stevenson, Durrell or Patrick Dennis.

New clues:

Author:  English
             Writer of novels, travel books and biographies
             Was a childhood friend of Rupert Brooke

Book:    Is about a trip
             Is fiction
             Explores, amongst other things, High Anglicanism

Character:   travels with (amongst others) a relative
                   identity is in one way ambiguous throughout the book
                   is racked with guilt

I have just found out that the book was a bestseller in the USA, so I'm sure these clues will allow someone to get it now!

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2484 on: November 08, 2011, 08:23:30 AM »
Never heard of Rupert Brooke so I looked him up. Now I shall have to find a copy of his poem of "The Soldier".

Ah, hah! Found it. Project Gutenberg has his poems.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2485 on: November 09, 2011, 09:28:56 PM »
It's still wide open; we have no idea of time period or author's gender e.g.

Is it Evelyn Waugh ?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2486 on: November 09, 2011, 10:50:45 PM »
E. M. Forster?

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2487 on: November 10, 2011, 04:14:42 AM »
No sorry, neither of those.  I think Rupert Brooke does give you an idea of time period - no?

Anyway, new clues:

Author:  English
             Writer of novels, travel books and biographies
             Childhood friend of Rupert Brooke
             Female, never married, but conducted a long adulterous affair, which informs the book

Book:   Is about a trip
            Is fiction
            Explores (amongst other things) High Anglicanism
            Starts in London and proceeds, by way of various adventures, to Turkey

Character:  travels with (amongst others) a relative
                  identity is in one way ambiguous throughout the book
                  is racked with guilt
                  makes a pilgrimage riding a very particular animal

I hope this does it!

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2488 on: November 10, 2011, 09:45:51 AM »

Rosemary,  was it Gertrude Bell ?

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2489 on: November 10, 2011, 01:37:50 PM »
No sorry, not Gertrude Bell.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2490 on: November 10, 2011, 04:10:27 PM »
Darn.  That looked good to me.  Everyone I can think of doesn't quite fit.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2491 on: November 10, 2011, 09:30:39 PM »
I am thinking Virginia Woolf.  She did have an affair with Vita Sackville-West.  I think I would need to read all Woolf's books if it were she in order to know the right one.  The unusual conveyance sounds a lot like a camel. 

Darn It!  It is not Woolf.  She did marry.

Who then?

A member of the Bloomsbury Group or that set?
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

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2492 on: November 11, 2011, 10:42:37 AM »
Roshanarose - she was not exactly a member of the Bloomsbury Group, but she was certainly around at that time.  Virginia Woolf was quite rude about her.  You are, however, doing well with the animal.....

Author:  English
             Writer of novels, travel books and biographies
             Childhood friend of Rupert Brooke
             Female, never married, but conducted a long adulterous affair, which informs the book
             Won the James Tait Black Memorial prize for this book

Book:   Is about a trip
            Is fiction
            Explores (amongst other things) High Anglicanism
            Starts in London and proceeds, by way of various adventures, to Turkey
            Has a famous first line, that begins "Take my ----- dear....."
           

Character:  travels with (amongst others) a relative
                  identity is in one way ambiguous throughout the book
                  is racked with guilt
                  makes a pilgrimage riding a very particular animal
                  has been involved in a life-changing accident

pedln

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2493 on: November 11, 2011, 12:06:28 PM »
If it's what I think it is, Rosemary, it's a great choice.  I love the search, but it would never have come to mind on its own.  But this is why nothing ever gets done around here. Gotta go get out.   And what I don't need to know is where to buy turkey in Virginia.

straudetwo

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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2494 on: November 12, 2011, 12:48:16 AM »
There's one name that seems to "fit" all the clues :
Rose Macaulay for The Towers of Trebizon.

I admit that the information was furnished by Google.  :(

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2495 on: November 12, 2011, 02:03:15 AM »
Hooray - yes Straude, it is indeed The Towers of Trebizond!

It's a wonderful book that I only discovered a few years ago.  It's about Laurie, the narrator (whose gender is never disclosed), his/her aunt Dot and Father Chantry Pigg, who go on a mission to Turkey accompanied by Aunt Dot's camel.  The famous first line is:

"Take my camel dear" said Aunt Dot, as she climbed down from this animal on her return from High Mass"

The first part of the book is hilarious, as the four of them have all sorts of adventures along the way, meeting a variety of people who 'happen to be wandering about in the Levant this year' - it was apparently fashionable to go there at the time.  They even encounter Billy Graham.  As the novel progresses, however, Laurie is left on his/her own with the camel whilst Aunt Dot and Father Chantry Pigg make a detour across the Russian border.  Laurie's journey on the camel to Jeruslaem becomes one of faith, as he/she debates the nature of religious belief and the impossibility of reconciling this with adultery.

Eventually everyone meets up again, and in a most poignant ending, we discover what has happened to Laurie before the trip.

I know that this may make the book sound self-consciously funny, but it really isn't, it is beautifully written.  Macaulay throws in all sorts of references to Anglicanism, Muslims, Judaism, mystic philosophy, etc - she never patronises the reader by explaining them, which IMO makes it all much more interesting. 

Macaulay had a long affair with a married ex-priest, Gerald O'Donovan, and it is thought that much of the book is autobiographical.  She knew all the literati of her time and was a tireless party-goer.  Virginia Woolf called her "too chittery-chattery" (which for me is yet another black mark for VW  :)).  She was a friend of Victor Gollancz and Elizabeth Bowen.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Well done Straude!

Rosemary

pedln

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2496 on: November 12, 2011, 12:24:40 PM »
Congratulations, Traude.  This was a fascinating, but difficult puzzle. (I thought I had, but not so, due to confusion and memory lapses.)

Rosemary, this was fun to work on, and certainly introduced new material.  I was not familiar with either the book or author.  What a great first line, and how very clever of you to introduce it as you did. (That one would have really stumped our LA students when working on a first line puzzle in the library.)

Delighted to learn about the James Tait Black Awards, which, if I've read correctly, are Britain's oldest literary awards, awarded by the University of Edinburgh.

Quote
In accordance with the wishes of the founder, eligible works of fiction and biographies are those written in English, and first published or co-published in the UK during the calendar year of the award.
The nationality of the writer is irrelevant. Both prizes may go to the same author, but neither to the same author a second time.

Cormac McCarthy was a winner, but I don't know how many others were not from the UK.

James Tait Black Prize

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2497 on: November 12, 2011, 05:46:42 PM »
Good for you, Traude, I was nowhere close to getting it.

Rosemarykaye, that quiz was a lot of fun, because there were so many authors who almost fit but didn't quite.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2498 on: November 12, 2011, 08:18:18 PM »
Wonderful catch Traude. I hadn't a clue.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2499 on: November 12, 2011, 11:47:53 PM »
Good for you Traude. 

Great quiz, Rosemary.
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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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2500 on: November 16, 2011, 10:15:07 PM »
Rosemary,   thank you for this intriguing quiz and clues.  For the longest time I had no idea - until finally a forgotten drawer of my memory sprang open and produced the name Maccaulay.  Thank you also for the synopsis.  The relationship between the book's character Laurie and the married former Jesuit priest must have been solid, for it lasted until his death in 1942.  I'm going to check he library for the book.

I was interested in your remark about "black marks' in re Virginia Woolf.  Would you please comment briefly, if time permits ?

 Years ago, when we had just arrived in Massachusetts, I took a course on VW  offered by he marvelous Harvard Extension Program, an exhilarating experience, also because of the participants. I came away with a fuller understanding of her sometimes uneven work, but could not come to grips with the person of the author. Evidently she had strong opinions (which she confided to her diary).  Initially she wrestled extensively with her husband's Jewishness in surprisingly uncharitable (even tactless) words.  Later she took exactly the opposite stance.  It seems she took snobbishness to new heights.

I am sorry to have fallen behind again.
But we had water damage on the roof and in the garage where the chimney abuts the shingles, water-logged bricks abutting the shingles, and rotting fascia board, all of which had to be replaced, new bricks re-jointed, and had gutter repairs also. Three brisk, clear days of hammering.   A water-logged window and the side door to the garage had to be replaced.  
Checkups came up Monday and Tuesday of this week, the latter at the ophthalmologist's and unpleasant. It took the ret of yesterday and last night before my vision turned to half-normal.

I will be ready with a new quiz before the end of the week.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2501 on: November 16, 2011, 11:51:33 PM »
Goodness, Traude, you're certainly working under difficulties.  If you need someone to spell you, just let us know.

straudetwo

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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2502 on: November 20, 2011, 07:53:44 PM »
Here is the new quiz

Author :       Poet, short-story  and screen writer, playwright, critic
   
Book :             Author's most famous short story

Character :     An Aging Woman


rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2503 on: November 21, 2011, 03:25:35 AM »
Vita Sackville-West?  'All Passion Spent'?  Or is that a novel?  Just guessing  :)

Rosemary

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2504 on: November 21, 2011, 11:20:53 PM »
Than you for guessing, Rosemary.
It is not Vita Sackville West, however. 

This time we are looking for an American writer, a celebrated wit and pblic figure.

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2505 on: November 22, 2011, 03:49:40 AM »
Dorothy Parker?

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2506 on: November 22, 2011, 10:42:47 AM »
It is, Rosemary !  Excellent !

I bet you can also guess the story !

rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2507 on: November 22, 2011, 12:55:51 PM »
Straude, I have to confess I have never read any of her work, I just guessed her from "celebrated wit and public figure".  So I'm afraid the only way I would be able to get the story is by googling it.  Perhaps Frybabe or Pedln or Pat or Roshanarose (or indeed anyone else!) would be able to help us out here?

Rosemary

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2508 on: November 22, 2011, 02:44:20 PM »
Not me, I've read some of her stuff, but not her fiction.

Good job, Rosemary.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2509 on: November 23, 2011, 05:13:42 PM »
The only thing I know by Dorathy Parker is a jingle:

The older I get,
The further I roam,
The less I care about
Who sleeps with whom!

I hope her fiction is better than her poetry.

Frybabe

  • Posts: 10016
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2510 on: November 23, 2011, 05:45:30 PM »
I don't believe I have ever read any of her works. I always thought of her as a columnist and one of the founding members of the famed Algonquin Round Table. I expect there is a bio of her out there. It should be interesting. How did she ever come to the point that her ashes shuffled around for many years, including (according to Wikipedia) seventeen years in her lawyer's file cabinet, without being claimed?

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2511 on: November 23, 2011, 09:50:01 PM »
Ouch!

straudetwo

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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2512 on: November 24, 2011, 01:44:18 PM »
Your responses and reactions to Dorothy Parker, the subject of the latest quiz, are appreciated, and all deserve responses.  

Yes, there is a biography of her with many photographs of contemporaries, titled You Might as Well Lice : The Life and Times of Dorothy Parker,  Simon & Schuster, 1970, from which I'll quote a little later on this Thanksgiving day.  I promise. Things are a bit hectic right now ...

Traude





rosemarykaye

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2513 on: November 24, 2011, 02:04:50 PM »
Are we allowed to Google for the name of the story?

straudetwo

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  • Massachusetts
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2514 on: November 24, 2011, 11:49:24 PM »
Rosemary,  PatH will know the answer to that question.

In the interest of saving time please let me provide the title of the story we sought now.  It is Big Blonde, the best known of her short stories, for which Parker was awarded the O.Henry Prize.
A great number of her quotations can be found on the net, among them

"Men rarely make passes
At girls who wear glasses
"

and the "spoonerism" "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobomy".


Just after World War One,  DP was one of the brightest and newest people on the cultural literary scene in New York. For a while she was rich, famous and powerful, the most talked-about woman in America. She was a central figure at the celebrated Algonquin Round Table  with Alexander Woollcott, Charles MacArthur (husband of Helen Hayes), Art Samuels and Groucho Marx. She wrote for Vogue, Vanity Fair and the New Yorker in various capacities and, later in life, book reviews for Esquire.  Before any of that, she published to volumes of verse that became bestsellers.  Her short stories ( wickedly funny,  sometimes sad) were hailed by the critics. She skewered perceived hypocrites mercilessly;  there would be some hurt feelings. Hearing of the death of Calvin Coolidge, she is reputed to have said : "How could they tell?"
Theater people treasured her remark that one of Katherine Hepburn's performances "ran the whole gamut of emotions from A to B."

In her lifetime she became the inspiration for several plays. Parker herself wrote and/or cowrote plays during her screenwriting days in Hollywood's hey day.  She became a political activist during the trials of Sacco and Vanzetti  (protested and was arrested for a brief time) and an early champion of the civil rights movement.   In her will, she bequeathed her estate to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation.  Her executrix, Lillian Hellman, unsuccessfully contested the disposition. As a result, Parker's ashes were held in different places over some 17 years  -- until 1988, when the NAACP claimed the remains and commissioned a memorial plaque for display in the garden outside the NAACP's Baltimore  headquarters. She died of a heart attack in 1967 at 73. She was an intelligent woman living in a man's world where a woman's intellectual pursuits were not encouraged, and she died too soon to learn that new vistas have opened for women since then.

I had fun with this quiz and hope you enjoyed it too. Thank you for guessing along.  

roshanarose

  • Posts: 1344
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2515 on: November 26, 2011, 12:07:29 AM »
Straude - One of the best parts of preparing these quizzes in what you (the quizzer) find out about the book and the writer.  The best type of learning takes places between the student and the teacher, ie what they teach each other. 

When I was a student teacher our lecturer wanted to discuss the intrinsic and extrinsic values of being a teacher.  We , as impoverished students, were all on the side of the extrinsic value.  In retrospect, I was so wrong.

I was in a department store recently, at the cosmetics counter, and two beautifully made up young ladies approached me and told me how good I looked in glasses.  Somewhat taken aback (WHO ME???) they proceeded to tell me that the intellectual look is very fashionable just now and that many young fashionistas are wearing glasses with no lenses to make them look more intellectual.

Afterthought:  I have been wearing glasses since I was sixteen and never suffered the predicted fate of Dorothy Parker's "girls".  But to be told how terribly fashionable they now are because they supposedly made one look intellectual was a bit of a shock for 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

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2516 on: November 26, 2011, 12:55:10 PM »
Straude - thank you for that information, I knew almost nothing about Dorothy Parker - I can see that it would be worth reading her biography (one day...)

Roshanarose - I have worn glasses since I was 12.  I had a brief flirtation with contact lenses but they were just so much trouble, I was relieved to go back to spectacles.  This afternoon Madeleine and I were walking along the beach in gale force winds, all the sand was blowing straight into our faces - I managed a lot better than she did because the glasses shielded my eyes.  I often think that when I clean my glasses - there is so much muck on them, all of which would presumably have gone into my eyes if I hadn't been wearing glasses.  I now have varifocals and don't find them great for reading - usually I just take them off, although the optician says I just need to look through them at the right level.   ::)

JoanK

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 8685
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2517 on: December 07, 2011, 12:00:42 PM »
This isn't JoanK, it's PatH using her computer.  Any giggles you may hear coming from California are us talking.   
Are we allowed to Google for the name of the story?
Googling is a grey area.  Of course you don't just do a search for an author when you have no clue.  If you think you know the author but aren't quite sure (I think it's X__, but I didn't know he served in the Foreign Legion) then it seems OK to check your facts, find out if X__ served there before making your guess.  We don't usually Google for books, but sometimes when nobody knows the book we do, and admit it.

The rules are kind of a moving target anyway.  Whatever seems fair.

JoanK

  • BooksDL
  • Posts: 8685
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2518 on: December 07, 2011, 12:05:55 PM »
Rosemary, in this case you're the clear winner anyway, since Traude supplied the name of the book.

  Congratulations.  Tag, you're it.

If you're too busy, I'll fill in.

rosemarykaye

  • Posts: 3055
Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #2519 on: December 07, 2011, 12:38:05 PM »
Joan - could you.  I am a bit up to my eyes at the moment.  Thanks lots!