Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday Trivia

  1. Which gothic writer was better known during his lifetime as the personal assistant of actor Henry Irving and business manager of the Lyceum Theatre in London? 
  2. The moons of Uranus are named after characters from the works of which two famous writers? 
  3. Washington Irving got the idea for the story of Rip Van Winkle from which ancient poet? 
  4. Which author’s genius work ignited a scientific revolution, but failed financially — going out of print for many years after its initial publishing in 1543?
Last Week's Answers 

What was Pulitzer Prize-Winning author John Sanford’s reason for deciding to become a writer? 

His journalism schooling was paid for by the Army. 

Which author gave his 1949 Nobel Prize acceptance speech and was met with only a smattering of polite applause because it was virtually impossible to understand what he was saying? 

While William Faulkner’s speech was unintelligible to the audience in attendance, it was universally acclaimed as one of the best acceptance speeches ever written after its newspaper publication the following morning. 

What was Judy Blume's maiden name? 

Sussman 

Which poet was returned to his city of birth upon his death to be buried but was hidden in a wall to prevent anyone from stealing the corpse — a hiding place was forgotten until 1865, when a construction worker unearthed it during church renovations? 

Dante died of Malaria in 1321 and was returned to his native Florence. A construction worker found the corpse during construction in 1865, and in the time it took to rebury him, several pieces of Dante’s body mysteriously went missing, taken as trinkets.

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