Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359135 times)

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #920 on: August 19, 2010, 11:59:32 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#

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
Dumas, Alexandre pere, The Three Musketeers, D'Artagnan, PatH, #939, 941
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
Windsor, Kathleen, Forever Amber, Amber, Traude, #927, 928
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173












Thank you for still being here.  I did not mean to make this nebulous.  

4. The fifth draft of the manuscript was accepted.     Still too long, it was pared down to just under a thousand pages and became a blockbuster, as mentioned.

The book was banned in fourteen U.S. states  (Massachusetts was first)  "for its blatant sexual  references" (all of which Boston enumerated and categorized).
  
Readers were undeterred : they made the book the bestseller of the decade.  The heartthrobs of the era starred in the movie spectacular.

For the author his was the expected, fortuitous outcome of the teenage dream : to write a bestseller and become rich.








Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #921 on: August 19, 2010, 12:24:22 PM »
Hi Traudee and all -

Why do I keep thinking of  John Steinbeck's East of Eden

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

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #922 on: August 19, 2010, 12:46:31 PM »
Gumtree,  not Steinbeck.  

Here's another clue, one I'd thought of including in today's hints.

The novel is set in Restoration England and seen through the eyes of the precocious heroine, who aims for the top of the social ladderand succeeds.  

                


Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #923 on: August 19, 2010, 06:02:33 PM »
Lady Chatterley's Lover had a time of it with the censors in a number of countries. I never read it, so I don't know the time period in which it was set.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #924 on: August 19, 2010, 06:18:13 PM »
Frybabe, not Lawrence, sorry.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #925 on: August 19, 2010, 10:10:56 PM »
Restoration England - Charles II had a plethora of mistresses.  Perhaps one of those?  Maybe a "mattress of mistresses" is a better descriptor than "plethora".  :o
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 #926 on: August 19, 2010, 10:34:15 PM »
"A mattress of mistresses"--I like that. :)

Please, everyone, don't miss today's clues, which are just under the heading.  (If I don't catch the start of a new page, I have to paste the heading into the first post on the page.)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #927 on: August 20, 2010, 03:28:55 AM »
I've got it !   Restoration England gave it away...

Forever Amber  - can't think of the author tho

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

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #928 on: August 20, 2010, 09:50:12 AM »
Hurrah!  We have the book!  Forever Amber, written in the Forties.

Now for the author.
5. The author's second book also became a commercial success.  Though billed as  a novel, it could be (and was) taken as a thinly veiled description of the author's own life, both before and after F.A.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #929 on: August 21, 2010, 12:31:02 AM »
The Author was Kathleen Windsor.

Forever Amber is a book that passed around our class in Elementary school with certain pages marked out.  That year we had a teacher who was in her own world so we got our first taste of "sexy" writing from that book. I never read the full book since we couldn't get it in the public library and in our world of that time no one bought books.  The book we passed around came from one of the boys older sisters.  He pinched it from her after overhearing her speak about it with her friends.
 
Ah, a little piece of Americana.

straudetwo

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Re: Yes, Jude, a piece of Americana indeedAuthor! Author!
« Reply #930 on: August 21, 2010, 12:22:12 PM »
Gumtree named the book yesterday: Forever Amber, and that effectively  ended the challenge - except for the mention of the author's name, Kathleen Winsor. And with your indulgence, I'd like to elaborate.

In the mid-fifties in Washington, when my young family was absorbing myriad new impressions of our new country,  I happened on Winsor's second book, Star Money, a fictionalized telling  of Winsor's own deliberate labors to conceive and bring forth Forever Amber. At that time I knew nothing about Forever Amber or the movie-- but learned quickly.  

For me, a fairly new immigrant, Star Money  was an eye-opener, disturbing, ultimately appalling.  Never before had I come across such naked hunger for money, fame, status; and the means and ruthlessness needed to get it.  It all worked for Winsor.

She got the money and fame she craved, and then some: She became Artie Shaw's sixth wife a few days after divorcing her college sweetheart, who had served in the Marines for five years in WW II.  Only a few years earlier, Artie had scolded his then wife Ava Gardner "for reading such trash" (!)

Winsor wrote five more books with exotic or historic backgrounds;  none had the impact of Forever Amber or Star Money.  
Sic transit gloria mundi.

Thank you for your guesses and for this forum.





 





                                                          
  

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #931 on: August 21, 2010, 03:12:49 PM »
That was a good one, Amber. Goody-two-shoes me never read it, but I knew it was out there.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #932 on: August 21, 2010, 07:14:18 PM »
I never read it either.  I bet it would seem pretty tame now.

Good quiz, Traude, I was close to getting it, but fortunately Gumtree got there first.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #933 on: August 21, 2010, 09:09:36 PM »
Thanks for that quiz Straude.  I remember seeing that book on my mother's bedside table and asking if I could read it.  She said - NO!.  I still haven't read it.  I think the first racy book I read was "Dr No" by Ian Fleming.  At least I thought it was racy - I was about 11.  I read it under the bedclothes by torchlight, an activity with which I am sure many can relate. 
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 #934 on: August 21, 2010, 10:39:41 PM »
I read it under the bedclothes by torchlight, an activity with which I am sure many can relate. 

Indeed I can relate, though the issue was I was supposed to be asleep, and there was allegedly eyestrain from reading too much.  Current thought is that you're not hurting your eyes by such activities, but since I've been incredibly nearsighted all my life, I'm not proof.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #935 on: August 22, 2010, 02:31:34 AM »
Oh Lord! I've done it again - or half done it - does anyone else want to start the next quiz pleeeaaze!

Thanks Traude -that was a good one - tantalizing.

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

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #936 on: August 22, 2010, 08:35:11 AM »
Roshanarose,

Quote
I read it under the bedclothes by torchlight

Me too!  ;D

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #937 on: August 23, 2010, 10:33:14 PM »
Gumtree, here is one if you haven't already thought of one. If you have, you can either trump mine, or hold yours until you guess mine, then use it.

Author: I had an extravagant lifestyle.

Character: my touchy pride both made me enemies and won me some stalwart friends.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #938 on: August 24, 2010, 05:21:33 AM »
PatH - I love you - thanks for taking the initiative. I'm still tied to my ophthalmology guy so will happily forgo this turn - maybe I can step in another time  when no one wants to.

Thanks bigtime Pat.

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

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #939 on: August 24, 2010, 02:26:44 PM »
The Three Musketeers?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #940 on: August 24, 2010, 04:54:29 PM »
Good grief!

A hole in one!  Who's the character?

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #941 on: August 24, 2010, 06:35:59 PM »
I was right?!? Wow! I assume it's D'artignon, although it could be any of the four: Athos, Porthos and Artemis (is that right? It's been decades since I read it.)

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #942 on: August 24, 2010, 08:09:28 PM »
Yes, It's Dartagnan.  Tag, you're it.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #943 on: August 24, 2010, 08:31:27 PM »
Gosh Joan.  You must be psychic, or better still, very well read.   ;)

Congratulations.
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 #944 on: August 25, 2010, 01:24:12 AM »
Yep, she's well read - but maybe the fact that Pat and Joan are twins had something to do with it. More things between heaven and earth sort of thing...

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

Mippy

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #945 on: August 25, 2010, 08:54:18 AM »
Hurray for the Amazing Twins ~  JoanK and PatH  !
quot libros, quam breve tempus

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #946 on: August 25, 2010, 03:04:55 PM »
Gulp! OK, here goes:

Author and book: although the author lived a long life, the book was written in youth.

Character: only rock-hard determination allowed me to succeed,

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #947 on: August 25, 2010, 03:07:19 PM »
I got the last because I tried to reread The Three Musketeers a few years ago, and was struck by the rediculous prickiliness of Dartagnon. It seemed so silly to me, I abandoned the book.

Frybabe

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #948 on: August 25, 2010, 07:18:27 PM »
The version of The Three Musketeers I read was a children/young adult version. That means it was "cleaned up" a bit.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #949 on: August 25, 2010, 08:59:44 PM »
I got the last because I tried to reread The Three Musketeers a few years ago, and was struck by the rediculous prickiliness of Dartagnon. It seemed so silly to me, I abandoned the book.
 
It's interesting that put you off, Joan, because when I reread the book 18 years ago I found this side amusing.  It's pretty dysfunctional to have the King's Guards killing each other off even in peacetime, but it all fits into a consistent, picturesque whole.  At one point the musketeers are debating some course of action and D'Artagnan's lackey says (not a quote) better let me do it, since a lackey doesn't have to worry about honor.

Frybabe, our family read the unedited version aloud--not sure when, maybe junior high or younger.  There's a lot of implied sex in it too, but it all sailed over our heads and did us no harm.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #950 on: August 26, 2010, 04:17:56 AM »
I reread a lot of Alexandre Dumasperein the mid 1990s along with others like Victor Hugo, Honore de Balzac and Emile Zola. I just wanted to see if their work held up. It does!

 One has to remember the period in which it was written and the effects of translation on all aspects of the writing especially the humour. Another thing to be borne in mind is the development of the novel up to that time and what authors were trying to do with the genre - expectations of their reading public was also important. Happily authors are still attempting 'novel' ways to tell a story and the expectations of the reading public is as varied as there are people on the planet.

Dumas' son wrote the timeless Carmen - so true and poignant today.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #951 on: August 26, 2010, 02:46:47 PM »
hERE'S A NEW SET OF CLUES.

AUTHOR AND BOOK: although the author lived a long life, the book was written in youth.
AUTHOR: was famous for an acomplishment other than writing books.

BOOK: Although listed by The NY Public library as one of the most influential books of the last century, it was not as popular as the later movie was

CHARACTER: only rock-hard determination allowed me to succeed.

I was devoted to the main character in the book.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #952 on: August 26, 2010, 02:56:22 PM »
Well, now we know that the character isn't the main character.  ???

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #953 on: August 26, 2010, 04:46:48 PM »
Notice, I added to one of my clues above:

BOOK: Although listed by The NY Public library as one of the most influential books of the last century, it was not as popular as the later movie was.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #954 on: August 26, 2010, 05:56:10 PM »
Are we to understand then that there is more than one main character, or is the last line a   parenthetical, personal remark ? ::)

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #955 on: August 27, 2010, 05:02:46 PM »
We not only pick a particular author and book, we pick, and give clues for a particular character IN the book. That gives more clues to work with. The character that I chose is not the main character of the book, although the same cannot be said of the movie (extra hint)..

OK, this should get you started:

AUTHOR AND BOOK: although the author lived a long life, the book was written in youth.
AUTHOR: was famous for an acomplishment other than writing books.

My most astonishing accomplishments occurred in my childhood.

BOOK: Although listed by The NY Public library as one of the most influential books of the last century, it was not as popular as the later movie was.

The book is an autobiography.

CHARACTER: only rock-hard determination allowed me to succeed.

I was devoted to the main character in the book.

Although I am not the subject of the autobiography, without me, the book would never have been written.



JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #956 on: August 28, 2010, 01:55:36 PM »
No guesses this morning!! Am I makiing this too hard? Some of you may not realize that SHE (another hint) wrote an autobiography, but I'll bet you have all either seen the movie, or know her story from elsewhere.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #957 on: August 28, 2010, 05:00:10 PM »
More hints: concentrate on the movie:

In the movie, Patty Duke played the author/ subject of the autobiography, and won an Oscar. The woman who played the character also won an oscar.


straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #958 on: August 28, 2010, 08:59:33 PM »
JoanK,  every new challenge is a stab into the dark,  involves anxiety and trepidation.
Right or wrong, here's mine.

Book author : Helen Keller
Movie : The Miracle Worker
Honored : Patty Duke and Ann Bancroft  (unforgettable)





JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #959 on: August 28, 2010, 09:49:17 PM »
HOORAH!

Helen Keller's autobiography, "The Story of My Life".

She wrote it while she was in college; it portrays her journey to being able to communicate. She went on from there to finish college, have a long career of public speaking, and live until 80.

And the character of course is Anne Sullivan, the incredible educator who taught her.