Literary History Trivia Questions
Total Questions: 67
What famous London theatre did Shakespeare become a co-owner of in 1599?
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globe
Which author's publishing company first issued 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' in 1885?
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mark twain
Which famous playwright's first folio, compiled by two of his fellow actors, was published in 1623, seven years after his death?
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william shakespeare
Which author had a grandfather named Major Thomas Melville, who was a participant in the Boston Tea Party?
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herman melville
In which European city did a 'generation' of young American writers become known as 'lost' in the 1920s?
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paris
In which southern European country did the Brownings live as neighbors to Nathaniel Hawthorne?
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italy
Which author, who wrote 'The Scarlett Letter,' authored a campaign biography for his old college friend Franklin Pierce?
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nathaniel hawthorne
Which author, known for writing 'The Call of the Wild,' served as a reporter for Hearst during the Russo-Japanese War?
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jack london
Which American author began writing a Jazz Age novel before completing 'Gone with the Wind'?
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margaret mitchell
Which famous author married archaeologist Max Mallowan in 1930, two years after divorcing her first husband, Archibald Christie?
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agatha christie
What type of book was 'The Complete Housewife,' published in 1742, the first of in the U.S.?
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cookbook
Which 20th-century author, who worked as a lawyer from the age of 21, used a dictating machine to write his Perry Mason novels?
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erle stanley gardner
Who is the poet whose final edition of 'Leaves of Grass' was published in 1892?
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walt whitman
What type of 14-line lyric poem did Sir Thomas Wyatt introduce to England in the early 1500s?
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sonnet
Which American writer contributed to the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada, from 1862 to 1864?
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mark twain
Who revised and included a new section on trout fishing in the 1676 edition of 'The Compleat Angler'?
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izaak walton
Who is the author of the novel 'The Pathfinder,' which features Dew-of-june, an Indian heroine?
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james fenimore cooper
Which author wrote 'The True Relation of the Apparition of One Mrs. Veal' in 1706?
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daniel defoe
In which country was Ezra Pound when he wrote 'The Pisan Cantos' during his imprisonment?
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italy
In which country was Elie Wiesel born in the village of Sighet in 1928?
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romania
Which transcendentalist writer called for the 'American Scholar' that people say Thoreau embodied in works like 'The American Scholar'?
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ralph waldo emerson
Which author completed the writing of 'Frankenstein' at Albion House in the town of Marlow?
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mary shelley
Which American author had one of his western novels in the Top 10 list every year from 1917 to 1924?
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zane grey
Which author, unhappy in his marriage, fell in love with his wife's sister and memorialized her in 'Oliver Twist'?
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charles dickens
Which poet was dismissed from his position as a clerk in the Interior Department after the secretary learned he had authored 'Leaves of Grass'?
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walt whitman
Who is the author known for 'Squirrel Nutkin' whose journal was deciphered and published in 1966?
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beatrix potter
Which poet, known for the poem 'Trees,' was killed in action in France on July 30, 1918?
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joyce kilmer
Which author of 'The Three Musketeers' gave writing advice to Jules Verne while he lived in Paris?
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alexandre dumas
Which 30-year-old Danish author published four fairy tales in 1835 due to financial need?
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hans christian andersen
At which Detroit newspaper did poet Edgar Guest work as an office boy in 1895 during his teenage years?
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detroit free press
Which author of the poem 'Trees' was killed on July 30, 1918, while serving with the 165th Infantry near Seringes, France?
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joyce kilmer
Which Illinois poet addressed a joint session of Congress on the 150th anniversary of Lincoln's birth?
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carl sandburg
Which female author had her novel 'Pride and Prejudice', originally titled 'First Impressions', rejected for publication?
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jane austen
Which patron saint of England's feast day is celebrated on April 23 and coincides with the traditional date for Shakespeare's birth?
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saint george
Which country was the first to have a man win a Nobel Prize for Literature with the author Henryk Sienkiewicz, known for writing 'Quo Vadis?'
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poland
Who wrote the 1873 sketch 'Transcendental Wild Oats' that depicted her father Bronson's failed utopia?
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louisa may alcott
Who published his first book, 'Winning Bridge Made Easy,' in 1936?
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charles goren
From which country did writer Carl Sandburg's father originate?
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sweden
Whose very first novel manuscript was destroyed in a fire in Nanking?
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pearl s. buck
Which American author was living at Lamb House in Rye when he wrote 'The Ambassadors' in 1903?
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henry james
Which 17th-century author, known for writing 'Pilgrim's Progress,' was imprisoned in Bedford County Jail from 1660 to 1672?
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john bunyan
Which author served a term in the Indiana state legislature following the publication of his novel 'Monsieur Beaucaire'?
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booth tarkington
Which author never saw the opera adaptation of 'The Trial' because he died before the novel was published?
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franz kafka
Which poet was granted a lifetime pension by Queen Elizabeth I after dedicating 'The Faerie Queen' to her?
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edmund spenser
Which country is the focus of the nonfiction book 'The Fatal Shore' about the convict settlement?
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australia
Which famous author had a historic date with Nora Barnacle on June 16, 1904, the day on which his novel 'Ulysses' is set?
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james joyce
Which American poet was arrested after World War II for making Fascist propaganda broadcasts from Rome?
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ezra pound
In which city did Oscar Wilde spend his last years living under the name Sebastian Melmoth?
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paris
Who wrote 274 essays for 'The Spectator' in collaboration with Richard Steele during 1711 and 1712?
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joseph addison
Which magazine's first editor was written about by Thurber in 'The Years with Ross'?
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new yorker
Which playwright was Richard Brome a servant to before writing his own satirical comedies?
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ben jonson
Which author referred to the original version of his 1929 novel 'Sartoris' as 'Flags in the Dust'?
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william faulkner
Which author saw Audrey Hepburn in France and chose her for the play 'Gigi'?
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colette
Which author, who passed away in 1919, had a series of 'Oz' booklets sponsored by Jell-O in the 1930s?
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l. frank baum
Which north African capital inspired Cervantes' play 'El Trato de Angel' after spending 5 years as an unsold slave there?
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algiers
Which novelist was buried in Kilchberg, near Zurich in 1955, not at the Magic Mountain?
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thomas mann
Which writer, in September 1991, emerged from hiding to accept an award for 'Haroun and the Sea of Stories'?
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salman rushdie
Which author, who served as a royal horse guard during World War II, revisited the war in his 'Sword of Honour' trilogy?
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evelyn waugh
Which author wrote 'Cell 2455, Death Row' and was executed despite its best-seller status?
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caryl chessman
Which poet did T.S. Eliot help release from a Washington mental institution in 1958?
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ezra pound
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