Literary Figures Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 153
Which 17th-century poet named Ben was considered the literary father by Sir John Suckling and other 'Sons of Ben'?
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ben jonson
Whose unfinished Philip Marlowe novel was completed by Robert D. Parker in the book 'Poodle Springs'?
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raymond chandler
Which author wrote 'The Making of Americans' while living in Paris for 43 years?
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gertrude stein
Which Massachusetts author wrote 'The Marble Faun,' his last completed novel set in Italy?
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nathaniel hawthorne
Which author, born on July 3, 1883 in Prague, passed away on June 3, 1924 in an Austrian sanitarium after battling tuberculosis and is known for 'The Trial'?
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franz kafka
Which 19th-century Scottish novelist purchased an estate in Samoa around 1889, naming it Valima or 'Five Streams'?
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robert louis stevenson
Which brothers, who later became famous for collecting folk tales, studied law at the University of Marburg?
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brothers grimm
Who told James Boswell, 'The better a man is, the more afraid he is of death'?
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samuel johnson
Which author's novel, 'The Garden of Eden,' was published in 1986, 25 years after his death?
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ernest hemingway
Which literary figure, whose mother was feminist author Mary Wollstonecraft, lost her mother 11 days after her birth?
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mary shelley
Who wrote the 1963 book that introduced the term 'Feminine Mystique' to describe the image of women?
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betty friedan
Which author, known for his contributions to children's literature, was born in a slum in Odense, Denmark on April 2, 1805?
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hans christian andersen
What is the name of A.A. Milne's son, who inspired Winnie-The-Pooh's human friend and passed away in 1996?
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christopher robin milne
Who is the author who died in 1975 shortly after publishing his last Nero Wolfe novel, 'A Family Affair'?
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rex stout
Which author from Georgia left the Atlanta Journal in 1926 after injuring her ankle and spent the next ten years writing a novel?
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margaret mitchell
Which poet, who had six children, wrote 'The Children's Hour'?
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henry wadsworth longfellow
Who is the author that took her own life a month after the publication of 'The Bell Jar' in 1963?
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sylvia plath
Which Longfellow character is honored by a statue in St. Martinsville, Louisiana, that commemorates exiled Acadians?
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evangeline
Who is the author who created crossword puzzles for a Russian newspaper in Berlin before writing the novel 'Lolita'?
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vladimir nabokov
Who is the author of the 1859 book that implied humans have a shared ancestor with monkeys?
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charles darwin
Which Chicago-born writer created the famous character Tarzan?
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edgar rice burroughs
Which author, known for writing 'Silas Marner,' became a recluse after the death of her lover George Lewes?
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george eliot
Who was the author buried on July 6, 1961, in Ketchum, Idaho?
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ernest hemingway
Who was the master of the high court in Transvaal before writing 'King Solomon's Mines'?
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h. rider haggard
Which heroine created by Defoe experiences numerous misfortunes, including accidentally marrying her own brother?
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moll flanders
Whose tomb in Amiens, France, was represented in the logo of Amazing Stories magazine in the 1920s?
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jules verne
Which Algerian-born novelist wrote 'The Stranger,' a novel based on his essay 'The Myth of Sisyphus'?
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albert camus
Which author of 'The Bonfire of the Vanities' began writing a biography of Napoleon at the age of 9?
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thomas wolfe
What is the name of the cleric created by G.K. Chesterton who is a full-time priest and a part-time detective?
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father brown
Which author, commemorated by a bust unveiled in Dublin in 1982, was born in 1882?
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james joyce
Who is the author that Mark Twain said he initially liked but later got over, known for creating Poker Flat?
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bret harte
Who served as the surveyor of the port of Salem, Massachusetts from 1846 to 1849?
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nathaniel hawthorne
Which Harlem Renaissance poet asked, 'What happens to a dream deferred?'
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langston hughes
Who is the author of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' who was formerly married to actress Patricia Neal?
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roald dahl
Who is the novelist that wrote a series of stories about the traveling petticoat sales lady Emma McChesney?
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edna ferber
Who is the author of 'The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas,' a book that is about Alice B. Toklas but written by another woman?
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gertrude stein
Who aided jailed writer Jack Henry Abbott in being released in 1981, known for writing 'The Executioner's Song'?
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norman mailer
Which renowned author of 'The Gulag Archipelago' taught mathematics while in exile in central Asia?
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aleksandr solzhenitsyn
Which count does Jonathan Harker assist with purchasing property in England early in the novel?
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dracula
Which author kept the last name of her ex-husband Edwin P. Parker II even after her divorce and remarriage?
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dorothy parker
Who is the 'Little House on the Prairie' author associated with a Burr Oak, Iowa hotel that is now a museum?
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laura ingalls wilder
Which notable resident of Walden Pond is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord, Massachusetts, along with Ralph Waldo Emerson?
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henry david thoreau
Which English author stopped writing novels after the backlash to his book 'Jude The Obscure'?
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thomas hardy
Who was the author of 'Endgame' and a friend of James Joyce, but was not his secretary despite the rumor?
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samuel beckett
Who was the great English lexicographer that described Dryden as 'The father of English criticism'?
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samuel johnson
Which detective, created by Arthur Conan Doyle and partly based on Dr. Joseph Bell, is renowned for his exceptional observation and deduction skills?
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sherlock holmes
Which author, after age 35, rarely left the cork-lined room where he wrote 'Remembrance of Things Past'?
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marcel proust
Who is the husband of Ariel and author of the quote 'The health of nations is more important than the wealth of nations'?
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will durant
Which country's Balzac is Naguib Mahfouz often compared to?
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egypt
In the 1920s, which female author's home at 27 Rue de Fleurus in Paris was a renowned gathering place for writers and artists?
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gertrude stein
Which black American author, who moved to France after 1948, wrote 'Go Tell It on the Mountain'?
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james baldwin
Who was the Smith Barney spokesman whose 4th volume of memoirs was published posthumously in the U.S. in 1989?
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john houseman
What was O. Henry's original middle name, which some say begins with 'Si' but others spell it 'Sy'?
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sydney
Who is the eccentric poet known for smoking cigars and being the sister of astronomer Percival?
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amy lowell
Who is the playwright of the play 'Winterset,' which is based on the case of Sacco & Vanzetti?
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maxwell anderson
Which author was living on the continent and working on 'Dubliners' when he made his final visit to Ireland in 1912?
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james joyce
Which British lord and poet had a mistress named Teresa Guiccioli who published a book about him in 1868, 44 years after his death?
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lord byron
Whose ashes were scattered by Eddie Rickenbacker over Broadway, known for writing 'Guys and Dolls'?
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damon runyon
Who served as the Postmaster of the University of Mississippi from 1922 to 1924 and is a renowned American author?
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william faulkner
Which woman author, who died in 1953, was buried in Island Grove, Florida, in the middle of Cross Creek country?
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marjorie kinnan rawlings