Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 360522 times)

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #480 on: November 11, 2009, 08:54:10 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 queses 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
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
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

Herman Melville?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #481 on: November 11, 2009, 09:06:25 PM »
YES!

The character should be easy now.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #482 on: November 11, 2009, 09:42:24 PM »
The White Whale from Moby Dick

It is the only Melville story I know anything about.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #483 on: November 11, 2009, 10:53:19 PM »
You got it, Frybabe, the whale is the character.

Moby-Dick is the only Melville story anyone reads.  Omoo frequently, and Typee occasionally, appear in crossword puzzles, Billy Budd was made into an opera by Benjamin Britten, occasionally someone reads Bartleby the Scrivener, and that's about it.

I was greatly impressed by Moby-Dick when I read it in high school, wonder what I'd think of it now.

Ball's in your court.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #484 on: November 12, 2009, 02:45:35 PM »
Good one, Pat and Frybabe!

Has anyone read Omoo ot Typee? I know them only from crossword puzzles. But I did read Billy Budd years ago.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #485 on: January 20, 2010, 10:35:33 PM »
Author: I was born in Russia and grew up in the communist system.

Book: Autobiographical novel about life under communism.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #486 on: January 20, 2010, 11:23:54 PM »
Hooray, revival of a good site.  I'll think a bit about the clues.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #487 on: January 21, 2010, 07:27:21 PM »
Nobody else noticed.  I'm guessing Aleksander Solzhenitzyn (I'm sure I have the spelling wrong) but since I haven't read his works, I'm not sure which fits best.  I'll guess "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich".

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #488 on: January 21, 2010, 09:08:07 PM »
Nope!

My clue list never made to work with me, darn.

Author: I left Russia to visit family in the US and never went back. I moved to Hollywood to try my luck at screenwriting.

Will have to give book clue when I get home or tomorrow morning. Oh, I remember something. It is the author's first novel.


PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #489 on: January 21, 2010, 10:31:48 PM »
It's not going to be dead easy, then.  I'll have to think about it.  I'll have to point out to JoanK that we're back in business--she's the Russian maven.

But I have to feed in a totally irrelevant bit about Solzhenitzyn.  His son, Ignat, is a pianist and conductor.  I was lucky enough to hear him 3 times.  The first time he was 18, technically perfect on the piano, but without much personal style.  Two years later, he really knew what he wanted to say, and had a wonderful personal interpretation.  The third time, heard with JoanK, was conducting a chamber orchestra.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #490 on: January 23, 2010, 09:41:04 AM »
Author: I met my husband one week after I began work in an Hollywood studio. We remained married 50years, until his death.


Book: The theme is the individual vs. the state and revolves around the Heroine, her boyfriend and an officer of the Soviet Secret Police.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #491 on: January 23, 2010, 01:31:38 PM »
Wild guess: Stalin's daughter? I don't know enough about her life to know if she fits. Nor her name, and name of her book.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #492 on: January 23, 2010, 06:29:45 PM »
Nope, again.

You all know the name even if you never read the books. The author has been in the news again lately. It seems several of the novels have become popular again.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #493 on: January 25, 2010, 08:38:45 PM »
Author: I moved from Hollywood to New York where I worked on my last and best work of fiction. In this last novel I advocate a philosophical system I developed called Objectivism. From this time forward, I concentrated on lecturing and furthering my philosophy. On the occasion of publishing my last novel, Random House decided. For this I made some changes and wrote a new forward.


Book: After a prolonged exile, our heroine and family return to Petrograd where she enrolls in the Technical Institute to learn engineering. There she meets a fellow student who is also a member of the secret police. They become life long friends despite deferring political beliefs. At some point she also meets her love who shares her political beliefs and passion. Meanwhile her life long friend falls in love with her but is afraid to say so because he believes it would destroy their special relationship of trust. And so it all goes downhill from there.



PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #494 on: January 26, 2010, 05:15:32 PM »
This is driving me nuts, Frybabe.  I don't want to resort to looking in reference works, but I'm stumped.  Maybe I should email a few people to point out we're back in business here.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #495 on: January 26, 2010, 06:13:37 PM »
Additional hint: A made for TV movie about the author starred Helen Mirren in the title role. One of the author's two most famous books has been made into a movie the other one is scheduled  for release in 2011. Her first novel was also made into a movie. Italian made, one of the stars was Rozanno Brazzi. (Remember him? I sure do - South Pacific.)


What happened the rest of my sentence in my last post. I must have accidentally deleted it.

Quote
On the occasion of publishing my last novel, Random House decided.


the rest of it should say ...to re-release my first novel.



JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #496 on: January 27, 2010, 02:36:08 PM »
It's driving me nuts too. But if the movie stars Helen mirran, I want to see it.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #497 on: January 27, 2010, 06:47:04 PM »
You are going to kick yourself if I have to tell you. Not everyone likes her.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #498 on: January 27, 2010, 11:49:39 PM »
DUH!

It's Ayn Rand.  I don't have any idea what that first novel is, though.

Don't laugh too hard, but the clue that gave it to me was "Not everyone likes her".  That made everything click into place, and I remembered that Objectivism was the name of her philosophy.

That was a masterful job of accurate but misleading or unhelpful information.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #499 on: January 28, 2010, 01:00:58 AM »
I haven't been on this site for ages.  I have a bit more time now and will try to get reinvolved in the various games.

Ayn Rand's first book was The Fountainhead (1943) with the superhero-Howard Roark.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #500 on: January 28, 2010, 10:09:54 AM »
Right PatH! I found her a little hard to pin down without giving it away right away. That is one of the reasons I went for her very first novel instead of The Fountainhead or Atlas Shrugged.

So we have the author but not the novel which was originally published in 1936. The Italian made film was done without Ayn Rand's permission.  Benito Mussolini's government almost censured the film but finally allowed it because it was anti-Russian. In 1986 new release with English subtitles came out with her estate's permission. I vaguely remember the title, but don't think I ever saw the movie. I wasn't big on foreign films with subtitles.

Another interesting thing about Ayn Rand. She befriended a guy named Nathaniel Branden and his wife. He was Rand's "intellectual heir apparent" until they dissolved their partnership. It seems his name appeared in early edition(s) of Atlas Shrugged but in later printings, Rand had his name removed.  The name was familiar so I looked him up. Sure enough, I had TRIED to read one of his books on self-esteem when I was much younger.  Couldn't get through it.  Barbara Branden also wrote a book about Rand.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #501 on: January 28, 2010, 07:07:31 PM »
Hmm--I should look in my crumbling paperback and see if Branden is in it, assuming I can find it.

I could only get the title by looking it up (straightforward, I'm sure) someone else will have to come up with it.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #502 on: January 29, 2010, 06:22:19 PM »
I looked it up and found the name of Rands first book: "We the Living" was the name of it.

The site didn't say anything about it or who the characters were. 

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #503 on: January 29, 2010, 07:03:10 PM »
Right JudeS. The only name I recognized in film We the Living was Rossano Brazzi.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #504 on: May 01, 2010, 03:53:57 PM »
Looks like PatH got the author,  but left the title and JudeS got it. Jude S, I am thinking,   would now  normally take the next one but she's out with an operation or so I understand, hope she recovers better than before!!

In the meantime, I'll give it a go to keep things running till she returns and can pose one worthy of your mettle.  Maybe she'll look in and solve this one!

Ayn Rand is certainly au courant today, that's all you hear about, and yet it's been ages since I read anything of hers.

Did you hear that Gordon Gekko (sp) is back in a new movie about money and greed, certainly good timing.

Those were fantastic clues, Frybabe, I am sure I can't do anything as good.

OK new author and book: I'll check back once a day in the evening  to see if anybody has guessed the title and author:

Not as easy as it looks either, and you're all a very well read bunch.  

I just did a search on this website for this author and tho (this author) has been mentioned many times on this website and even quoted  (this author) has not appeared here so here goes:


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?

Who am I?


PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #505 on: May 01, 2010, 07:18:22 PM »
Aaaack! no ideas so far, but don't forget, Ginny you have to give us a character too

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #506 on: May 02, 2010, 12:48:30 AM »
The Mick Jagger bit has thrown me - who's he anyway?

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

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #507 on: May 02, 2010, 09:05:58 AM »
Yikes, I have to give a character, too? YIKES! Ok I'll be back with a character this afternoon, we really need the heading up here, I've put it up, a wonderful group of challenges met. How on earth some of you got them is beyond me!  Love it!

Gum, has Mick Jagger not penetrated into Australia? I ...can't...get...no.......satisfaction.....

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #508 on: May 02, 2010, 09:23:13 AM »
OK I've got a character also.


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?

Who am I?


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

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #509 on: May 02, 2010, 09:53:54 AM »
Ah, "The Game is afoot".

Ginny, this is a real puzzler.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #510 on: May 02, 2010, 09:54:51 AM »
Gum, has Mick Jagger not penetrated into Australia? I ...can't...get...no.......satisfaction.....[/color]

Ginny - just joking - Aussie style.


I've still no idea on Author or character
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #511 on: May 02, 2010, 02:12:52 PM »
No ideas as to author, character, OR Mick Jagger.

I'll take a wild stab. That book on the Coffee Trader? that we read.

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #512 on: May 02, 2010, 05:36:53 PM »
Nope, but a good guess actually.

Now what do I do? Do I have to give a new clue daily ? The book wizard did one a week. :)

Ella Gibbons

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #513 on: May 02, 2010, 06:00:22 PM »
Oh, I just stumbled in here and I'm not good at games,  I've always wanted to learn, can't even play card games as I can't remember what was cards were played. 

I have to say this, I read WE THE LIVING by Ayn Rand, years ago and I might have guessed that.  I love anything Russian and I remember liking that book.

I can't get no satisfaction, a song by Mick Jagger, was it by the lady from Australia that made such a hit with the song I AM WOMAN.  Something like that, I can't think of her name.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #514 on: May 02, 2010, 11:55:42 PM »
Ella:  the woman from Australia with the hit I AM WOMAN was Helen Reddy. She and  Ray Burton wrote the song. Not sure where Mick Jagger fits in. I think Delta Dawn was her biggest hit.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #515 on: May 03, 2010, 10:10:11 AM »
Author clue:  Do I have a connection to Mick Jagger?

could this be a connection extra terrestials -aliens - Jagger claims to have seen UFO's more than once - maybe the author is a sci-fi writer - if so, I'm dead in the water.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #516 on: May 03, 2010, 05:46:59 PM »
Now what do I do? Do I have to give a new clue daily ? The book wizard did one a week. :)
New clues tend to be daily with this game.  I'm certainly going to have to wait for a further clue.  I feel like I should know it, but I'm sure not coming up with anything.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #517 on: May 03, 2010, 06:55:50 PM »
Mick Jaggar played in a few movies including the lead in the 1970 film Ned Kelly. Movie connection maybe?

As for the author changing his/her real name occasionally. That is totally bizarre. I know pen names are often changed, but a real name? And more than once?

ginny

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #518 on: May 03, 2010, 09:08:09 PM »
I really love the conversation here, reminds me of the old Book Wizard.

I am not sure I am capable of giving two clues a day!!  Can we have a....er.....Dummy Challenge where the Challenger is too thick to give 2 a DAY and give them on a less frequent basis?

Already the speculation on the Mick Jagger clue is profitable, it's supposed to be challenging, says the woman who could never have gotten any of them.

Anyway here's one:

Author changed the spelling of the author's  real name, not the author's name itself.

Oh well I'm half way there:

 Book Clue: It's a love story, but will money win out?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #519 on: May 03, 2010, 10:09:40 PM »
The only one I know who changed his name spelling is William Faulkner (ne Falkner). Actually, it appears to have been accidental. His publisher (printer?) spelled his name wrong and he decided to keep it that way.