Author Topic: Author! Author! (Read 359074 times)

PatH · « **Reply #280 on:** July 24, 2009, 10:08:52 AM »

I do read sci-fi, and I didn't even attempt Oryx and Crake, because I could tell from the reviews I wouldn't care for it.

JoanK · « **Reply #281 on:** July 24, 2009, 08:54:02 PM »

No, Atwood is not very popular here. maybe she should be.

Frybabe · « **Reply #282 on:** July 25, 2009, 09:03:33 AM »

Ok, I have one for you.

Author: I am a very popular writer. Many of my books, most fiction but some non-fiction, were published both before and after my death.

Book: Man helps widow who is being pressured to marry a community bigwig.

Gumtree · « **Reply #283 on:** July 26, 2009, 12:51:00 PM »

I can tell this is going to be a difficult one.

JoanK · « **Reply #284 on:** July 26, 2009, 02:31:13 PM »

HMMMM!

PatH · « **Reply #285 on:** July 26, 2009, 07:51:16 PM »

I'm thinking, I'm thinking.

Frybabe · « **Reply #286 on:** July 26, 2009, 09:21:41 PM »

Yes, the clue is rather sparse. Even if you never read any of this author's books, you know who it is.

Another clue coming in the morning after my contractor has done his walk through with the project supervisor. (I am finally going to get a shower in the bathroom. Hurray!)

JoanK · « **Reply #287 on:** July 26, 2009, 09:46:41 PM »

Hooray! Enjoy.

Mippy · « **Reply #288 on:** July 27, 2009, 09:00:45 AM »

No idea ... more clues please ...

We're in the midst of a big exterior repair and my contractor just called to say he'd come tomorrow not today

Frybabe · « **Reply #289 on:** July 27, 2009, 09:51:38 AM »

Hey Mippy, same problem. I just got the call that my contractor will not be doing his walk through with the project supervisor today. They now plan to just dig in and start work tomorrow.

Next clue:

Author: My books have inspired numerous movies and at least one TV series. There is also a museum named after me.

Book: Widow befriends a young man not of her faith, therefore, incurring the wrath of the elders of her church.

JudeS · « **Reply #290 on:** July 27, 2009, 01:01:48 PM »

One author who has a museum named after him and inspired nuerous movies is Mark Twain. However the plot lines don't fit
any of his books that I have read. Since I haven't read all his books I'll try him as a guess.

Frybabe · « **Reply #291 on:** July 27, 2009, 03:08:10 PM »

Sorry, not Mark Twain.

Frybabe · « **Reply #292 on:** July 28, 2009, 04:35:31 PM »

Time for another clue.

Author: My name is a combination of my mother's family name and my father's family name. My mother's forebearers founded the town I was born in. It also carries the family name.

Book: Oops! Let me first amend the first/second clue. The woman is not a widow. It was her father who died. She inherited the property. Clarification: there are two men. One is a stranger and the young man is a hired hand.
New clue: The stranger is looking for his sister's grave and seeking revenge for her death. After a herd of cattle is rustled, the young man tracks and shoots one of the rustlers and discovers the rider is a girl.

JoanK · « **Reply #293 on:** July 28, 2009, 08:51:43 PM »

Sounds like a Western. Owen Wister? Zane Grey?

Frybabe · « **Reply #294 on:** July 28, 2009, 09:47:34 PM »

It is a western, JoanK. And Zane Grey the author. Depending on what you read, he wrote anywher from 60 to 85 books. His favorite pasttime was fishing. In fact his few non-fiction books were mostly about fishing and his fishing experiences. The latest book of original work by Zane Grey was just published. It is a limited edition (and very expensive) book entitled Tales of the Gladiator. The book is compiled from his journals while fishing off his boat, the Gladiator. His original name was Pearl Zane Grey. He later dropped Pearl (now who would name a guy Pearl?). Zane is his mother's family name and Zanesville, Ohio was founded by her ancestors.

As for the book? It is his most popular novel. Now that you have the author, the name of the book should be easy.

Gumtree · « **Reply #295 on:** July 29, 2009, 05:14:25 AM »

Never in a million years would I have come up with Zane Grey. Of course I know of him but can't remember ever having read him. I know I saw lots of films made from his books but can't remember any details whatever - I guess John Wayne might have acted in some of them.

JoanK · « **Reply #296 on:** July 29, 2009, 01:16:55 PM »

I read one of his books, (probably his best known one, when I was going through a list of 100 most influential books. But I can't remember the title or plot. I could google him, but that's cheating!!

I've been in Zanesville, but had no idea of the connection.

PatH · « **Reply #297 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:24:53 PM »

Zane Grey! Duh. Why didn't I think of that? It's a good thing JoanK was on the ball. As far as I'm concerned, the titles are lost in the mists of time, so I'll take a wild guess and say "Riders of the Purple Sage", but I don't really know, so if that's not it I'm stuck.

PatH · « **Reply #298 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:33:58 PM »

It would be interesting to compare the frontier literature of America with that of Australia, about which I know almost nothing. There were some of the same problems, but some things were very different. Any comments, Gumtree?

Frybabe · « **Reply #299 on:** July 29, 2009, 07:56:43 PM »

Sorry I am late. The bathroom model is started and the guys had stuff pile up in front of the door to my computer room.

Riders of the Purple Sage is indeed his most popular novel, PatH. The last movie made was a TV production which starred Ed Harris as Lassiter. Another book you may have heard of is The Vanishing American which is about the plight of the Native American Indian. I like your idea of comparing our Westerns with the Australian equivalent. Sounds like fun.

Gumtree, Grey wrote about his fishing experience around Australia and New Zealand. In fact, he was instrumental in making sport fishing popular off the New South Wales coast.

JudeS · « **Reply #300 on:** July 29, 2009, 08:26:00 PM »

Zane Grey is an author I have never read. I know the name but that's all.
Any suggestions for a title to try him out?

Couldn't guess an author I never read. I always thought of him as a writer for young boys. Guess I was wrong.

Gumtree · « **Reply #301 on:** July 30, 2009, 12:31:38 PM »

Quote from: PatH on July 29, 2009, 07:33:58 PM

It would be interesting to compare the frontier literature of America with that of Australia, about which I know almost nothing. There were some of the same problems, but some things were very different. Any comments, Gumtree?

Well yes, the first thing that comes to mind is that a decent comparison between the two 'frontier literatures' would be worth a Ph.D from any self respecting institution.

Do you mean literature of the time or literature written about the period. I'm not sure we had much written at the time other than the work of the early bush poets - of whom there are many - and the journals of early settlers or more often, their wives and daughters.

There are plenty of novels written about the early days - we didn't have a 'wild west' but there was plenty of conflict between the European settlers and the indigenous tribes often resulting in massacre of one or the other followed by retribution. The gold rush is another theme and there is also the literature of the outlaws - 'bushrangers' eg. 'Moondyne Joe' who roamed the bush about 50 miles north of here, holding up and robbing whoever chanced to get in his way - and of course Ned Kelly has countless books written about his exploits as did one fellow known as 'Captain Starlight' who was renown for his gentlemanly ways - he was probably a 'remittance man' whose family paid him to stay in the colony and out of England.

As for authors - well, it's really endless - Lawson, Paterson, Boake, Rolf Boldrewood, H.H. Richardson, are among the early ones - more recently aspects of settlement times have been addressed by writers like Tom Keneally, Peter Carey, Kate Grenville et al

I really should sit down and think about this as a topic - maybe then I could give a more sensible answer.

Gumtree · « **Reply #302 on:** July 31, 2009, 12:38:13 AM »

I really haven't given any thought to the topic but after I closed down last night and crawled into bed I realised I hadn't mentioned Patrick White among the 'frontier' writers. He's not generally thought of as such but his 'Voss' and 'A Fringe of Leaves' address the early days and both are based on real life people and incidents.

I can't think of which Americans would be comparable with the Aussies - you'll have to help me out.

JoanK · « **Reply #303 on:** July 31, 2009, 05:29:05 PM »

I guess it's my turn to post a puzzle. I'm working on it, but so far, my mind's a blank. If anyone wants to beat me to it, I won't be hurt.

PatH · « **Reply #304 on:** August 02, 2009, 08:45:07 PM »

OK, I guess the ball's in my court.

Author: I was trained as a lawyer and had an irregular personal life.

Character: I'm young and inexperienced, and had to figure out how to handle a personal emergency with no one to help me.

JudeS · « **Reply #305 on:** August 03, 2009, 07:12:13 PM »

Hi Pat
Is this author John Grisham? He trained as a Lawyer.
In his first book "A Time to KIll" a ten year old girl is raped.

Gumtree · « **Reply #306 on:** August 04, 2009, 02:42:58 AM »

I have no idea.

Tomereader1 · « **Reply #307 on:** August 04, 2009, 11:29:13 AM »

Maybe Author: Grisham; Character: The young boy in "The Client".?

PatH · « **Reply #308 on:** August 04, 2009, 12:50:00 PM »

Not Grisham--earlier than that. I'll be back a bit later with the next clues.

PatH · « **Reply #309 on:** August 04, 2009, 03:49:19 PM »

Author: I was a good friend of Charles Dickens.

Character: The trouble started at my eighteenth birthday party.

JudeS · « **Reply #310 on:** August 04, 2009, 05:11:39 PM »

Is the author Wilkie Collins and the book "The Moonstone"?

PatH · « **Reply #311 on:** August 04, 2009, 05:21:06 PM »

Bingo, Jude, you've got it.

PatH · « **Reply #312 on:** August 04, 2009, 05:29:18 PM »

Collins did train as a lawyer, though I don't think he ever practiced. He lived with a woman he never married, though he had 3 children by her. It's funny how well Grisham fits the first clues.

Mippy · « **Reply #313 on:** August 05, 2009, 06:58:27 AM »

Good one, PatH ! I forgot Collins was a lawyer, though I did read his 2 famous novels.

Gumtree · « **Reply #314 on:** August 05, 2009, 10:25:11 AM »

Ah, Yes! The Dickens clue gave that one away.

Now I wonder just what JudeS will come up with.

JudeS · « **Reply #315 on:** August 05, 2009, 01:08:14 PM »

Here's an attempt to stump you experts. LOL

Author:
I come from a very large family. I tried to become a pilot but didn't succeed. I wrote successfully under two names.

Character:
My humming during a string quartet almost caused my demise.

JoanK · « **Reply #316 on:** August 05, 2009, 01:54:44 PM »

Humming during a string quartet sounds like Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brien's Master and Commander.

PatH · « **Reply #317 on:** August 05, 2009, 02:23:06 PM »

Jude, you didn't realize you had a nest of Aubrey-Maturin fans on your hands. Joan beat me to the draw, though.

PatH · « **Reply #318 on:** August 05, 2009, 10:32:52 PM »

Jack Aubrey is based on a real-life person, Thomas Cochrane. Aubrey's history loosely matches Cochrane's, with additions, and O'Brian uses many of Cochrane's exploits in his books, but some of the things Cochrane did were so wildly improbable that you couldn't get away with them in fiction, and O'Brian had to tone them down. Think capturing the entire navy of a South American country with one ship and a lot of chutzpah. Or, with a small ship manned by 54 men, carrying 14 4-pound (pretty small and short-range) guns, actually boarding and capturing a much larger Spanish ship manned by 320 men, armed with 37 guns, most much larger, all done with a combination of clever bluffing, totally unorthodox strategy, and incredible seamanship. This battle is described in "Master and Commander". Aubrey's Sophie and the Spanish Cacafuego were really Speedy and Gamo, but the description in the book doesn't do full justice to how astonishingly clever the battle really was.

At least 2 other authors have used Cochrane as a model. Frederick Marryat, who served under Cochrane, used him as Captain Savage, and he is also C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower.

Stephen Maturin was in part an alter ego for O'Brian himself.

Thanks, Jude, for giving me a chance to spout off about one of my hobby horses.

JudeS · « **Reply #319 on:** August 06, 2009, 01:18:47 AM »

Oh my Gawd!

Who would know I was snared by Patrick O'Brien fans. went to the web site about him because I HAVE NEVER READ HIS BOOKS!
I read and read about him and can tell you he was 8th of nine children born to a German Physician and an English woman of Irish descent.
He wrote under his real name and became well known but made the change to a pseudonym because he wanted a more reclusive life.
I became interested in him because I have heard so much about him. I loved the fact that he had translated The Papillion from French to English. That book I did read and enjoyed very much.

Does "hoisted by her own petard " fit here?
I will read at least one of his books-I promise.

Joan K. I pass the baton to you.

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Author Topic: Author! Author! (Read 359074 times)