Author Topic: Author! Author!  (Read 359170 times)

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1120 on: October 06, 2010, 10:26:53 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









JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1121 on: October 07, 2010, 03:34:17 PM »
Now to find the second set of clues. I have an awful feeling I put them somewhere so I wouldn't lose them. If so, I'll never find them.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1122 on: October 07, 2010, 03:44:30 PM »
ok, I found them.

Author: bi'lingual from an early age, multi-lingual writer.
Two of his novels are on the list of the 100 most important books of our time. One non-fiction book is on the list of the 100 most important non-fiction books

Book: made into an excellant movie

Character: The title and main character have become iconic.

Book/character: the title character is connected to a poem by Edgar Allen Poe.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1123 on: October 08, 2010, 02:36:44 PM »
No guesses yet? Here's Jude's next set of clues:

Author: born very wealthy, had dual interests: literature and a type of insect.

Character: preoccupied with contemporary American pop culture

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1124 on: October 08, 2010, 02:44:03 PM »
Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, Lolita

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1125 on: October 08, 2010, 02:45:14 PM »
YOU GOT IT!! HOORAY!

Did the insects give it away?

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1126 on: October 08, 2010, 02:56:42 PM »
Yes!  If it had been your clue, I would have suspected you of setting me up.  Nabokov was a well-known lepidopterist (butterflies).

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1127 on: October 08, 2010, 02:58:33 PM »
Me! Set you up! ;D

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1128 on: October 08, 2010, 03:00:33 PM »
I've never been able to read Lolita, though.  I've tried 3 times.  His writing is just as good as everyone says it is, but after a few pages I get fed up with Humbert Humbert and give up.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1129 on: October 08, 2010, 03:01:27 PM »
Yeah, right!  You would never set me up.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1130 on: October 09, 2010, 10:20:17 AM »
I haven't forgotten my penalty for guessing right.  I'll think of something today.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1131 on: October 09, 2010, 12:56:26 PM »
I should have got Nabokov BEFORE the insects were mentioned - but No!

- good quiz from Jude via JoanK

Well done PatH - looking forward to seeing your punishment.  :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1132 on: October 09, 2010, 03:47:41 PM »
Yeah! I,m back posting again.

Mucho, mucho gracias to Joan K for seeing me through this mini crisis.
If someone out there in the Techy world fixed this for me thanks to them as well.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1133 on: October 09, 2010, 06:20:42 PM »
Jude, that was a good one.  Welcome back.

While I didn't see the last clue about insects,  I'd still not have thought of Nabokov.  I had him totally shut out of my mind.
I tried to read)  Speak, Memory and Ada but got nowhere.   I am certain it was after Lolita, which I never read.  The movie (with James Mason, Shelley Winters and Sue Lyon as the 12-year-old) was shown on TV a few times.  Each time I happened on it but could never bear watching. to the end. The subject made me cringe.  Forgive me for being candid.  :)

Nabokov attracted my curiosity when I learned he too, like I,  was an immigrant and multilingual.  One of my languages is Russian.  But  the style of the two books I mentioned set me off.   Also, by that time it was known that the author was a lepidopterist, and that turned me off for good.

I had the same experience reading The Collector by John Fowles, who is  probably best known  for The Magus,  which Fowles re-wrote in its entirety).  
The protagonist in The Collector  also was a butterfly collector, a lone man,  who abducts  a young woman in the vain hope that she'd come to love him.  Despite my revulsion,  and against my better judgment, I went to see the movie (with Samantha Eggar and Terrence Stamp), and it still haunts me.
Sorry to go on so, but it was on topic :) :)
Thank you.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1134 on: October 09, 2010, 09:23:40 PM »
Also, by that time it was known that the author was a lepidopterist, and that turned me off for good.

That would have turned me on, not off.  Different people have different geekiness.  (But I admit most scientists aren't good writers.)

Judy, in spite of the crisis, you managed to keep things going.  You get a virtual gold medal.

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1135 on: October 09, 2010, 09:29:16 PM »
OK, (gulp) here goes.

Author: although my marriage was happy, I did have affairs.

Character: my life weaves oddly through place and identity.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1136 on: October 10, 2010, 09:15:09 AM »
There isn't much to focus on, yet  ???

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1137 on: October 10, 2010, 04:13:42 PM »
Yes, that's pretty obscure.  More clues:

Author: Subject to mood swings.

Book: has been made into a movie.

Character: based on a real person.

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1138 on: October 10, 2010, 09:19:14 PM »
Yes, JUDE, you did a great job. Glad I could help. You never found out what the problem was?

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1139 on: October 11, 2010, 06:45:23 PM »
Pat-Thanks for the gold medal.  I will keep it shiny.
Joan K _ I never found out what the problem was but the solution is great.

An author with mood swings.  Hmm, something is on the cusp of my conscious.  perhaps this shadow will turn into a real person with the next clues.



PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1140 on: October 11, 2010, 07:20:56 PM »
Perhaps this new set of clues will help.  I'll repeat the old ones too:

Author: Although my marriage was happy, I did have affairs.
      Subject to mood swings.
      Part of a prominent literary group.

Book: has been made into a movie.

Character: My life weaves oddly through place and identity.
      I'm based on a real person.
      My experiences in the Middle East had a profound effect on me.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1141 on: October 12, 2010, 01:59:15 AM »
Is this Orlando by Virginia Woolf?
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1142 on: October 12, 2010, 02:37:51 AM »
You got it, Gumtree!.

straudetwo

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1143 on: October 12, 2010, 11:27:18 AM »
Excellent, Gumtree !  And one of those affairs was Vita Sackville-West ...

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1144 on: October 12, 2010, 12:23:08 PM »
... and Vita Sackville-West's main affair was with Violet Trefusis whom Woolf depicted in the novel as the Russian princess, Sasha.

I must put the film on my queue - Tilda Swinton was superb.

Now to think up the new challenge....
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JudeS

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1145 on: October 12, 2010, 02:14:14 PM »
Congrats Gumtree!
As I was rereading the clues Virginia Wolf passed through my mind.  I didn't know all the information others seemed to have re: her personal life,
 so I brushed the thought away. Sometimes our subconscious should be listened to.

 

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1146 on: October 14, 2010, 03:29:07 AM »
Yes Jude - we should always listen to our subconscious. There's a lot of literature around Virginia Woolf and her coterie of so-called 'intellectuals' which taken broadly makes for a fascinating exploration of their life and times as well as their literary output.

Violet Trefusis who was Sackville-West's lover leads us backwards to her mother Mrs. Keppel who was King Edward VII's mistress - and through her (Violet) sister forward to Camilla Parker-Bowles, who is the present wife of Prince Charles - Mrs Keppel being Camilla's great-grandmother.
Connections, connections, connections!
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1147 on: October 14, 2010, 03:42:40 AM »
Sorry to be so slow putting this up- I got caught up elsewhere yesterday.

Author: 1. I am an acclaimed novelist but began my literary career writing short stories and award winning poetry.

Book 1. This is an evocative tale of intrigue, romance and treachery - a complex and lyrical literary thriller.

Character 1. I am a strong willed person who desires and actively seeks personal freedom.




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

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1148 on: October 15, 2010, 06:04:57 AM »
Wot - no guesses? I thought someone would have the answer straight off.



Author: 1. I am an acclaimed novelist but began my literary career writing short stories and award winning poetry.
                       2. My work has been translated into eight languages and I am a contributor to literary journals.

Book 1. This is an evocative tale of intrigue, romance and treachery - a complex and lyrical literary thriller.
                    2. There are stories within the story and abundant plots and sub-plots.

Character 1. I am a strong willed person who desires and actively seeks personal freedom.
                           2. I am a real-life person though my story is told through the diary of a fictional character.





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

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1149 on: October 15, 2010, 07:40:49 AM »
Well, I felt, and feel, that I should know the answer straight off, but it hasn't clicked yet.

Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1150 on: October 15, 2010, 10:59:06 AM »
It will Pat, - it will  :D
Reading is an art and the reader an artist. Holbrook Jackson

JoanK

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1151 on: October 15, 2010, 02:31:18 PM »
Gulp.

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1152 on: October 15, 2010, 11:35:22 PM »
Gulp and Doh!
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 #1153 on: October 16, 2010, 12:32:29 PM »
Gumtree, fascinating !

My first thought was Les Liaisons dangéreuses --- promptly dismissed.  
Even so, if one considered only the themes, intrigue, romance, betrayal, countless  novels could technically be contenders.  But in our challenges we are looking for more than themes.

From the information given about the author, I have a hunch the author is younger than Pierre Choderclos de Laclos. 8)

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1154 on: October 16, 2010, 09:59:35 PM »
I am thinking in the vein of Dumas, The Count of Monte Cristo, but I don't think he wrote poetry.  Am I close in time period?
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 #1155 on: October 17, 2010, 04:37:47 AM »
Traude Interesting guess - I quite see why Chonderlos would come to mind - But alas, NO!

Roshanarose Again, interesting.  Dumas pere and Dumas fils both wrote novels and plays but no poetry that I recall.


Author: 1. I am an acclaimed novelist but began my literary career writing short stories and award winning poetry.
                       2. My work has been translated into eight languages and I am a contributor to literary journals.
                       3. I am a present day author and I also teach.
Sometimes I draw on my partner's work and include it in my novels.


Book 1. This is an evocative tale of intrigue, romance and treachery - a complex and lyrical literary thriller.
                    2. There are stories within the story and abundant plots and sub-plots.
                    3. The book is a melding of contemporary life, ancient history, research, mythology, religion/cult worship, mysteries - which are contrasted and paralleled in the telling


Character 1. I am a strong willed person who desires and actively seeks personal freedom.
                           2. I am a real-life person though my story is told through the diary of a fictional character.
                           3. I belong to a cult which became influential and widespread. Other characters are involved in other cults.


 :D





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

roshanarose

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1156 on: October 17, 2010, 10:46:18 PM »
Gum should be able to hear my brain creaking in Perth!

I thought of Arthur C. Clarke, Ayn Rand and Isaac Asimov - but know that none of those are right as they are no longer with us :'(
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 #1157 on: October 18, 2010, 11:56:56 AM »
Another thought came - but was quickly dismissed.

James Patterson and his resourceful co-writers whose ideas he re-shapes. He's now writing for adolescents as well.

But I don't believe he wrote poetry,  and I doubt he has time to teach, as he churns out one violent thriller after the other.


Gumtree

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1158 on: October 18, 2010, 12:19:31 PM »
Roshanarose: I did wonder what that noise was  :D
Again, good guesses from both you and Traude - but none are right.

Author: 1. I am an acclaimed novelist but began my literary career writing short stories and award winning poetry.
                       2. My work has been translated into eight languages and I am a contributor to literary journals.
                       3. I am a present day author and I also teach.
Sometimes I draw on my partner's work and include it in my novels.
                       4. I took inspiration for this story from several visits to an ancient site and a chance remark from a teaching colleague.


Book 1. This is an evocative tale of intrigue, romance and treachery - a complex and lyrical literary thriller.
                    2. There are stories within the story and abundant plots and sub-plots.
                    3. The book is a melding of contemporary life, ancient history, research, mythology, religion/cult worship, mysteries - which are contrasted and paralleled in the telling.
                    4.  For the most part the novel has an idyllic setting among ancient ruins. For the rest it is set in Texas.


Character 1. I am a strong willed person who desires and actively seeks personal freedom.
                           2. I am a real-life person though my story is told through the diary of a fictional character.
                           3. I belong to a cult which became influential and widespread. Other characters are involved in other cults.
                           4. My lover is a learned older man who has a penchant for recording everything he sees in the places he visits. Sometimes he is more than a trifle pompous but fundamentally he is a good and decent man.


I'm beginning to wonder whether anyone here has read this one. It's staring you in the face if you have read it.

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

PatH

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Re: Author! Author!
« Reply #1159 on: October 18, 2010, 12:28:54 PM »
I'm beginning to wonder whether anyone here has read this one. It's staring you in the face if you have read it.
Sometimes it seems that way to the person making the clues, but they take time to click with the guessers.