A LITTLE LITERARY TRIVIA

Good Morning, Students, get out your pencils and paper... and prepare for a POP QUIZ!

Below are thirteen trivia questions about (I hope) some of your favorite authors and fictional characters. How many can you answer correctly? (Answers below, but no peeking!)

QUESTIONS:

1. Other than writing and medicine, what was Arthur Conan Doyle's major interest?

2. What famous poem did the quote "gone with the wind" come from?

3. We know Tarzan was really John Clayton, Lord Greystoke, an Englishman, but where was his wife, Jane, born? (Bonus question: Who performed their wedding ceremony?)

4. What is the title of the book which introduced Buck Rogers to the world? (Bonus: In what form was it published?)

5. How many novels did Margaret Mitchell write? (If you say "one," think again!)

6. Who was the author of "The Curse of Capistrano"? (Bonus: What character did it introduce to the reading public?)

7. What was Bram Stoker's occupation?

8. What was Edgar Allan Poe's rank while serving in the US army?

9. What is the oldest existing piece of English Literature? (WARNING: trick question)

10. What was the incident in his personal life which prompted Jeffrey Deaver to write The Broken Window?

11. What is the oldest known piece of English literature? (Another trick question: see #9)

12. What is a roman?

13. Who wrote the short story in which the Cisco Kid appeared? (Bonus: What was its title?)

ANSWERS:

1. Spiritualism. In fact, the friendship between Doyle and escape artist Harry Houdini was irrevocably fractured because of this subject.

2. It's taken from the 13th line of the poem Cynara by Ernest Dowson: "I have forgot much Cynara! Gone with the wind."

3. Jane was born in Baltimore, Maryland. When Tarzan meets her, she is referred to as "the Baltimore Belle." The wedding ceremony was performed by her father, the Reverend Archimedes Q Porter. (No, it wasn't a shotgun wedding!)

4. Anthony "Buck" Rogers was the central character of Philip Francis Nowlan's novella Armageddon 2419 A.D., published in the August 1928 issue of the pulp magazine Amazing Stories

5. Two: Gone with the Wind and Lost Laysen, a novella which was written in 1916 for a friend and put in a trunk and forgotten until 1996 when it was retrieved and published by Scribner.

6. Johnston McCulley; Don Diego de la Viega, aka Zorro.

7. He was business manager for Sir Henry Irving, a famous Victorian actor. It's thought that Stoker's most famous character "Dracula" was in part patterned after Irving.

8. Sergeant Major for Artillery (the highest rank a noncommissioned officer can achieve)

9. The oldest existing work is Caedmon's Hymn, circa 737.

10. Identity theft.

11. The oldest piece of English Literature known to Man is Beowulf, which began as an oral story and was written down between 800 and 1100 AD.

12. A roman is a story of adventure involving a quest, with supernatural elements and romance. These were originally sung by the bards and wandering minstrels. See how close roman and romance are? Hey, we're all romans writers!

13. O. Henry. "The Caballero's Way," published in 1907.

HOPE YOU ENJOYED THIS LITTLE TEST OF TRIVIA. Your scores? Since I'm no math quiz kid--give yourself whatever points you think you deserve!