Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359159 times)

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1080 on: September 26, 2010, 08:59:31 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
Cronin, A. J., The Citadel, Andrew Manson, JudeS, #1085
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
Gilbert, W. S., The Savoy Operas, Frederick, or the Pirate King, #1108, 1111, 1112
Grey, Zane, Riders of the Purple Sage, Frybabe, #294, 299
Henry, O. Mammon and the Archer, Anthony Rockwall, Ginny  #537
James, Henry, Washington Square, straudetwo, #981, 982
James, Henry, Wings of a Dove, Kidsal, #83
Keller, Helen, The Story of my Life, Anne Sullivan, JoanK #958
Lagerlof, Selma, The Wonderful Adventures of Nils, Nils Holgersson, JudeS #899
LeFanu, Sheridan, Carmilla, roshanarose, #769
McCourt, Frank, Angela's Ashes, Frank McCourt, JoanK, #1062
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
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
Plutarch, ----, Themistocles, roshanarose, #1025, 1027
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
Wodehouse, P. G., Bertie Wooster, PatH, #1046, 1048
Xenophon, Frybabe, #173









Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1081 on: September 27, 2010, 03:16:07 AM »
That's the way I feel too PatH -

 Jude Good clues  - I feel I should know the author but the name is still elusive. I don't think I've read the book
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1082 on: September 27, 2010, 01:07:49 PM »
OK. This should give it away:
Author:The movie and  musical play "Billy Elliot" derived inspiration from the author's forth book.  The book we are searching for is the author's fifth of his 23 novels. He continued writing till his 80th year.

Book and character:  In his rise from poverty to riches the character loses sight of his original goals of helping to change the health system for his countrymen. He has researched a very wide spread disease among the general population but even more wide spread among the workers of a specific  profession.

Come on guys- you know this one.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1083 on: September 27, 2010, 05:19:27 PM »
I give up!

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1084 on: September 27, 2010, 05:57:49 PM »
Still don't have any idea about the author.  I'm certain I never read the book in question.
Therefore I too give up.

The movie Billy Elliott was shown on cable here last year.  I happened on it when it had already started and stayed with it (despite the physical violence and language).  The ballet performance by the young actor was heartbreakingly beautiful. 

It's about a young English lad from a bleak coal mining  region  who dislikes sports and dreams  of becoming a ballet dancer.  The father means to "toughen" him up,  fails and ultimately supports him.  

deems 2

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1085 on: September 27, 2010, 07:21:14 PM »
A.J. Cronin
The Citadel
Andrew Manson

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1086 on: September 28, 2010, 12:41:03 AM »
Yeah! Yeah!
Deems you are a WINNER!!

Yes, it is the book I was going for and the character as well.

The Citadel is the book that really made the author ,A.J.Cronin, famous and influenced the public and the parliament to change the Health Care system in Britain. The Coal Miners plight which is so well described in this book  was also the subject of his forth novel,"The Stars Look Down", the inspiration for Billy Elliot.  The authors named the main musical number of this show after that novel.

A.J.Cronin grew up in Scotland and then went to England for University and Medical School.  He moved to Los Angeles in 1939 and stayed there for some ten years when he finally settled in Switzerland. He was born in 1896 and died in1981. As I mentioned before twelve of his twenty three novels were made into movies.  One of the more famous ones was "The Keys to the Kingdom".

When we were in London and tried to get tickets to Billy Elliot they cost 250 dollars.  In New York the following year they were 200 dollars each.  Needless to say we never saw the play but the movie was wonderful. By the way Gumtree in the U.S. the language was cleaned up to give it a PG13 rating.

 

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1087 on: September 28, 2010, 07:33:38 AM »
Welcome, deems 2!  It's auspicious that in your very first post you got the quiz that had the rest of us stumped.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1088 on: September 28, 2010, 09:42:07 AM »
Excellent work Deems!
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 #1089 on: September 28, 2010, 10:19:08 AM »
Thank you, deems 2, for posting the solution that eluded the rest of us. 
It was a relief ... and also an unexpected pleasure  : Your name evoked the memory of our dear friend Maryal.  Might there be a connection?

Jude,   a great challenge.   I would never have thought of A.J. Cronin,  although I did read him - and also Warwick Deeping - a lifetime ago, and in German. We could call that coming full circle. :)

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1090 on: September 28, 2010, 10:45:55 AM »
Full circle indeed! I didn't give Cronin a thought - I guess he's buried too deeply back in the mists of my time.

 Deems 2 I see your winning post was your first post so Welcome and congrats on guessing the quiz. It had me beaten.

Good quiz Jude!

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

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1091 on: September 28, 2010, 03:19:49 PM »
DEEMS2: WELCOME, WELCOME! Like our beloved DEEMS, you really know your literature!

Your reward (!?) is that you are "it" and can put up the next puzzle.

deems 2

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1092 on: September 29, 2010, 12:01:23 AM »
Hello all.  Maryal is my mother.  ALF said that it would be okay if I came in and listened to you lovely people talk about books.  I love books.  Thank you JoanK, but I can't be it.  I have absolutely no idea how to play.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1093 on: September 29, 2010, 02:33:59 PM »
Deems2:"ALF said that it would be okay if I came in and listened to you lovely people talk about books. " It's more than ok, it's GREAT". Listen away, and if you want to guess, go ahead.  Does someone want to be it? If not, I've got one.

ALF43

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1094 on: September 29, 2010, 04:06:45 PM »
There you are Susan (deems2).  Good for you, you guessed the answer right away.  Have you checked out our "proposed" books that we will be discussing Susan?  We've got some good ones coming up and I know how much you love books.

andy
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1095 on: September 29, 2010, 05:38:31 PM »
Deems 2, if you like that sort of book, we start Ursula K Le Guin's "The Left Hand of Darkness" on Friday.

http://seniorlearn.org/forum/index.php?topic=1645.0

  It should be a good one; the book has a lot of meat.  

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1096 on: September 30, 2010, 10:12:42 AM »
Does someone want to be it? If not, I've got one.
Joan, if you say something like that, you know darn well you're it.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1097 on: October 01, 2010, 01:02:54 AM »
OK. Here goes.

The writer: failed to make a living as a lawyer, but succeeded as a writer.

The book: I have the collection of the author's writings as a book, but you are more likely to have met them on the stage or at the movies.

The character: is an orphan.

ALF43

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1098 on: October 01, 2010, 09:25:34 AM »
I have no idea how to play this but is it Dickens?  I should first look this up, I suppose to avoid looking foolish.   ::)
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1099 on: October 01, 2010, 09:59:07 AM »
You're playing it correctly already, Alf.  Just try to guess the answer from the clues, which are deliberately obscure.  Joan will give more clues each day or so.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1100 on: October 01, 2010, 04:51:19 PM »
Yes you are, and that was a good guess. Dickens is full of orphans, but this character is not one of them. More clues tomorrow.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1101 on: October 01, 2010, 09:16:09 PM »
My favorite orphan story is Kim by Rudyard Kipling.  But Kipling was not a lawyer as far as i Know.

ALF43

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1102 on: October 02, 2010, 10:31:26 AM »
hmmm -deliberatley obscure, are you now?  I must do my research and I shall return. >:(
Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another mind.  ~James Russell Lowell

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1103 on: October 02, 2010, 02:20:55 PM »
Ok, you guys missed the clue under "The book". Look again! This is not a novel.

The writer: failed to make a living as a lawyer, but succeeded as a writer.
Didn't always get along with his collaborator, but they made a great team.

The book: I have the collection of the author's writings as a book, but you are more likely to have met them on the stage or at the movies.
Quotes from it are often repeated til this day (especially by PatH ;))


The character: is an orphan.
Gave up a high position for his profession.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1104 on: October 02, 2010, 07:57:02 PM »
A bit obscure about being a book?  What kind of book?  Not a novel, as you say.  Was the author a playwright perhaps?  For some reason Restoration England comes to mind as the setting.  Perhaps a clue as to the year the "story" is set, would help.
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 #1105 on: October 03, 2010, 01:16:19 PM »
At the moment there's no light at the end of this wide  airless tunnel ...

Traude

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1106 on: October 03, 2010, 02:07:18 PM »

John Galsworthy gave up law to become a writer - he wrote some plays but I think we all know him best as a novelist - so I'd say it's not him.

Lots of other writers have been trained in law -

 Roshanarose suggests the Restoration period which brings to mind playwright William Congreve who also studied law- and we certainly know him through the stage -

Is the 'book' a collection of plays? Or maybe poetry.
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1107 on: October 03, 2010, 02:29:06 PM »
GUM: you're hot!! Don't forget the collaborator!

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1108 on: October 04, 2010, 01:09:02 AM »
Could this be Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan fame?

I think there was an orphan called Buttercup but I don't remember from which opera.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1109 on: October 04, 2010, 12:04:50 PM »
GUM: you're hot!! Don't forget the collaborator!

Not all that hot I fear.  :(

Early on Congreve collaborated with a guy called Dekker (sp) can't think of his first name - but Dekker (or whoever) collaborated with just about everyone.

The only play I can think of by Congreve is The Way of the World

The best known collaborators of the period were Beaumont and Fletcher -

Thomas Otway wrote a play titled The Orphan but in that case the orphan is a female - and to the best of my knowledge Otway didn't train in the law....

This is killing me - I want to check references.

More clues, please

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

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1110 on: October 04, 2010, 02:53:37 PM »
JUDES: YOU'VE GOT IT!! "The Savoy Operas" by W.S. Gilbert.

Do you know the character -- an orphan who gave up a high position for his present occupation? The clue for today was going to be: although he breaks the law, he loves his Queen.

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1111 on: October 04, 2010, 05:31:00 PM »
Could it be Frederic from the Pirates of Penzance?

Never having read their texts all the operas fade into one humorous song.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1112 on: October 04, 2010, 09:12:04 PM »
The Pirates of Penzance is right! I was thinking of the Pirate King, but Frederick will do just as well. 

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1113 on: October 05, 2010, 02:08:23 AM »
Well done Jude - I was way off course
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1114 on: October 05, 2010, 02:33:52 PM »
Pirates are "in" with the younger set, due to the popularity of the Pirates of the Caribbean" series, and the "Pirates of Penzance" is benefitting. But I think Gilbert and Sullivan will always be played somewhere.

OK, Jude, you're "it".

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1115 on: October 06, 2010, 02:01:25 PM »
Brava, Jude!   

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1116 on: October 06, 2010, 04:47:20 PM »
Jude telss me her computer is on the fritz, and her substitute can't get into Author, Author. She dictated the following:

Author: bi'lingual from an early age, multi-lingual writer.

Book: made into an excellant movie

Character: The title and main character have become iconic.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1117 on: October 06, 2010, 06:30:28 PM »
Jude,  this is quite intriguing.  

Is there one book (only) or the book we are trying to divine ?

Are we to understand that the author him/or herself wrote the book(s) in different languages?  
For even authors who are themselves bilingual, or multilingual, generally  have the original text translated into other languages.  

Taking a wild stab in to the complete darkness,  can we assume it is NOT Alexander McCall Smith and NOT Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency?


JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1118 on: October 06, 2010, 07:38:23 PM »
It is not Smith. We are trying to guess one of the author's books. I  don't believe the book was written in more than one language: but I'm not sure. Jude will have to tell us when she gets back.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1119 on: October 06, 2010, 09:00:58 PM »
Thank ou, JoanK.  The guessing field is wide open  :)!!