Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359125 times)

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #880 on: August 09, 2010, 01:57:32 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
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
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
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
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  537
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
Melville, Herman, Moby-Dick, the whale, PatH, #482
Milton, John, Paradise Lost, Frybabe, #413
Mitford, Nancy, roshanarose, #839, 840
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
Scott, Sir Walter, Ivanhoe, Ginny, #602
Shelley, Mary, Frankenstein, the monster, PatH, #451
Smith, Alexander McCall, Mma Ramotswe, JudeS, #145
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
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
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173








Is the character Lady Jane Grey?

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #881 on: August 09, 2010, 02:01:17 PM »
Sounds right, JudeS. Innocent Traitor: A Novel of Lady Jane Grey. Is that what you came up with?

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #882 on: August 09, 2010, 03:11:36 PM »
Antonia Frazer also wrote detective stories.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #883 on: August 09, 2010, 09:24:55 PM »
Congratulations to Gumtree on naming the character:  Lady Jane Grey

Congratulations to Jude on naming the author:  Alison Weir

Frybabe is correct - the title of the book is "Innocent Traitor".  

Well done all!

I have read Antonia Fraser's biography of Mary Queen of Scots.  Fraser is a consummate biographer, but Weir is also.  Have a look at her books.

May I suggest Jude be the next "quizzer"?  If Gumtree is OK with that.  As I understand it frybabe had already looked up the details.  If I am wrong, you should work it out between you three who has next "go".
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

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #884 on: August 10, 2010, 06:40:25 AM »
I'll be delighted if either Jude or Frybabe does the next quiz - I only got the character after the clues gave her to me on a plate.  :D

Thanks Roshanarose - good quiz - took me out of my comfort zone a bit.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #885 on: August 10, 2010, 12:44:31 PM »
Ok, I'll give it a whirl but don't expect such an erudite, historical background as the last quiz.

Give me a day to prepare . I'll put the first clue up this evening.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #886 on: August 10, 2010, 11:41:51 PM »
Thanks Gumtree and Jude. 

Good luck Jude!
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

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #887 on: August 10, 2010, 11:56:56 PM »
The Author was born with a hip injury and a later childhood accident left him\her lame for a number of years .  This gave the writer a chance to become a life long reader and later a writer.

The character liked to eat and sleep and make mischief.

More clues tomorrow.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #888 on: August 11, 2010, 10:16:59 AM »
There is an Australian autobio entitled "I can Jump Puddles" by Alan Marshall, but somehow I don't think it is the name of Jude's book.
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

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #889 on: August 11, 2010, 10:38:40 AM »
I think you'd be right there Roshanarose... Long time since I read that one. Time passes and things improve but those with disabilities are still fighting much the same prejudices as Alan Marshall did.


How about Sir Walter Scott ?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #890 on: August 11, 2010, 03:21:40 PM »
Sounds like the character is either a child or an animal.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #891 on: August 11, 2010, 07:22:13 PM »
The author is not Alan Marshall or Walter Scott. Wrong ballpark.

Joan K. You wrote sounds like an animal or a child. This may be right ballpark.

The author worked as a country schoolteacher for ten years. Then began writing.

The character was the subject of three movies:One in German, One in Swedish and one in Japaneses. 

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #892 on: August 11, 2010, 07:27:27 PM »
Good grief!

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #893 on: August 11, 2010, 08:03:03 PM »
And the movie was NOT done in English?  hmmmmm!


roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #894 on: August 11, 2010, 11:47:10 PM »
Good grief! is right Pat.  Japanese, hmmmm, I can only think of Godzilla! 

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

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #895 on: August 12, 2010, 07:04:22 AM »
This is difficult!  No idea on the movie.

An author who had a bed-ridden childhood makes me think of Robert L. Stevenson,
and Child's Garden of Verses could not be a movie.   Cannot recall his novels  ...
quot libros, quam breve tempus

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #896 on: August 12, 2010, 10:53:32 AM »
Mippy: Stevensons novel was "Treasure Island" and the movie was indeed done in English. Good guess.

Perhaps these next clues will help:
The Author's first book was written at age 33.  The first chapter was sent to a Literary Magazine and won first  prize.  A publishing house bought the rights to the book and paid her\him enough to let the author become a full time writer.  The writer wrote in a romantic and imaginative manner about the people and landscapes of her\his country.


The character goes on a journey all over all his country.  His mode of transportation was very original and is currently pictured on one of his country's banknotes.
one of his country's banknotes.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #897 on: August 12, 2010, 03:03:36 PM »
The character sounds like Sancho Panza on his donkey.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #898 on: August 13, 2010, 12:14:36 PM »
Seems you are having trouble with the author and one of her books.  hope this hint works for you.

Author received the Nobel Prize for Literature. Many Silent Movies were based on the writers books.  Greta Garbo starred in one.

Now if you know the book this is a giveaway.

The character is turned  into an Elf by an angry Tomte.



straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #899 on: August 13, 2010, 10:42:10 PM »
Aha!  I suddenly remembered.
  
The author is Selma Lagerlőf.  The book is Die wunderbare Reise des kleinen Nils Holgersson, which I read in German ages ago and had almost forgotten.

Years later I read Gősta Berling, the work for which she was awarded the Nobel.  
I never saw the movie with Greta Garbo.












JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #900 on: August 14, 2010, 01:49:25 AM »
Hurray Traude!!!

Yes, yes.

Not only did Lagerloff win the Noble Prize (in 1909) but one of my favorite authors of all time, himself a Nobel Prize winner, Kensaboro Oe , say in his speech to the academy that reading and rereading Selma Lagerloff made him the Author he is today.

I too loved Nils and his goose and read and reread it.  However unlike Oe, I won no Nobel Prize.

Nils and his Goose are on the Swedish  20 Kroner Note.  The Tomte, is a Swedish troll who shrunk Nils and sent him on his way.  The book is used till this day to teach Swedish children about the geography of their country.Lagerloff herself was an amazing person, very forward for her time. She lived from 1858 till 1940. 

Among other, things she saved Nelly Sachs , a wonderful German Jewish Poet, from the hands of the Nazis by providing her with a Swedish Visa.
 When she met and fell in love with another Swedish female writer, they became lifelong companions and lived openly as a couple.
Though her books were romantic  and fantasy  the underling theme was exploring the differences between Christian and Socialist Morals.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #901 on: August 14, 2010, 03:45:50 PM »
Jude,  thank you for telling us about Lagerlőf's later years.  I am glad she was happy. The adventures of little Nils Holgersson are among my own  favorites, and they certainly gave wings to my own imagination!

I read other Scandinavian authors,  too :  Sigrid Undset for one,  also a Nobel prize winner, and her monumental trilogy Kristin Lavransdatter , about life in Sweden in the middle ages.
 
She was born in Denmark and grew up in Norway.  She was one of Hitler's early outspoken critics and her books were "forbidden" in Germany.  My father hada a copy in the library which I read. When the Germans invaded Norway in 1940, Undset fled to the United States and returned after the war.  She lived in Rome for some time, and she too (like Miuriel Sparks for example) converted to Catholicism.

This challenge was special : it reopened a forgotten drawer of my memory. Thank you.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #902 on: August 14, 2010, 11:44:00 PM »
Not sure who writes up the list at top of page, but my name as challenger has been omitted.
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 #903 on: August 15, 2010, 07:55:14 AM »
Not sure who writes up the list at top of page, but my name as challenger has been omitted.
Thanks for catching that, roshanarose.  I see I left off JudeS, too.  It's fixed now.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #904 on: August 15, 2010, 09:44:33 AM »
A newcomer to this game, I have a twofold question regarding the list, specifically the name of the participant appearing next to author and work.

(i) Is the person named the creator of the challenge or the one who solved it ?

(ii) The most recent challenge came from Jude, the answer came from me. Is it my turn now to continue ?

Thank you
Traude









PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #905 on: August 15, 2010, 10:15:42 AM »
Traude:

(i) The person is the challenger, i. e. the creator.

(ii) Yes, the solver creates the next challenge.  In this game, you get punished for winning  ;).  If the solver feels unable to take a turn for some reason, they can ask for help, and usually someone else will come up with a challenge.

The list somehow got started with the challenger being named.  What does everyone think? Is that fair enough, since the solver gets named as the next challenger?  If you want both, I can add the extra names, but it might be confusing.

In Blanko, it got started the other way around--only the solver is named.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #906 on: August 15, 2010, 10:33:06 PM »
Sounds good Pat. 

Pat - I realise that "freedom of choice" reigns as to if and what each member of SeniorLearn contributes, but is it possible to promote "Author, Author" to the members who tend to frequent other discussions?  Vice Versa, too, of course. 
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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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #907 on: August 16, 2010, 10:43:00 AM »
PatH,  far be it from me to suggest changes in the m.o.  of something that has worked splendidly long before I arrived on the scene.  

Still,  with respect, in this particular case, both the initiator and the solver contribute to the resolution of the original question; they are complementary in that both are needed.




straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #908 on: August 16, 2010, 01:43:40 PM »
Here's the new challenge.

1.  The author came literally 'out of nowhere' and the book became the blockbuster of the
decade.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #909 on: August 16, 2010, 05:19:32 PM »
Hi Traudee-
I think you have to give 2 clues each day.  One for the Author and one for the character in the book you are proposing.

Two blockbusters that come to mind are "Gone With the Wind" and "Harry Potter".  But without a clue about the character it would be impossible to guess which one.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #910 on: August 16, 2010, 06:14:51 PM »
Samuel Butler's Erewhon (nowhere spelled backwards) comes to mind, but although it did well, I don't think it rose to blockbuster level.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #911 on: August 16, 2010, 07:40:40 PM »
Thank you for setting me n the right track, Jude. Sorry.

The book's main character was a shrewd manipulator.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #912 on: August 16, 2010, 09:18:55 PM »
Sounds a bit like Thackeray's Becky Sharp.  But don't think Thackeray was a "bolt out of the blue" so to speak.
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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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #913 on: August 17, 2010, 06:14:38 PM »
2.  The author went to astonishing lengths in the research for this book and would surely have been flattered to be compared with Thackeeray.

The character was a "status seeker" well before the term was coined.



JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #914 on: August 17, 2010, 07:21:05 PM »
Sounds like Margeret Mitchell and Gone with the Wind to me. But someone guessed that.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #915 on: August 18, 2010, 01:54:43 PM »
3. The novel  sold 100,000 copies in the first week after release.  It was praised by some  for its relevance, but critics soon descended on it in droves.

The character was an opportunist,  rather than a villain.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #916 on: August 18, 2010, 06:14:46 PM »
Gaaaahhh!

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #917 on: August 18, 2010, 10:32:59 PM »
Hmmmmmmm?  My brain is full of cotton wool this morning which is not helping.  A clue as to approximately the time/setting of the book would help.  Although my fuzzy thinking allows that it must be fairly recent to sell 100,000 copies in its first week.
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

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #918 on: August 18, 2010, 10:35:40 PM »
Although, that of course, does not help with the character's setting.
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

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #919 on: August 19, 2010, 10:20:17 AM »
Sounds like the character could be a politition  ;D