Let's play a game: see if you can match the writer to the fact:
1. Wrote one very popular novel in nine days on a rented typewriter.
2. Chose "Pansy" as the original title for their debut novel.
3. Penned this first book in an infamous series to stop from thinking about an upcoming marriage.
4. Quit working as general manager of a $30 million dollar company after a mid-life crisis in order to write.
5. Wrote in longhand while standing up at a tall desk.
6. Worked for several years as art editor for a national award-winning literary magazine.
7. Paid an editor to take off six months to collaborate on their debut novel.
8. Had a spouse who packed up and subsequently lost the only copies of unpublished manuscripts for eleven stories, one novel, and a number of poems.
9. Wrote with a quill pen dipped in ink.
10. After writing a first novel with a 5K first print run, wrote a second novel that spent 47 weeks on the New York Times besteller list.
A. Margaret Mitchell
B. Ian Fleming
C. Ernest Hemingway
D. PBW
E. Shelby Foote
F. John Grisham
G. Harper Lee
H. George Pelecanos
I. Ray Bradbury
J. Eugene O'Neill
No Googling, now -- and answers will be provided later today in comments.
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Wild guesses all around except for the Bradbury one. I have a reason for believing that one to be true. Ticonderoga.
ReplyDelete1 C
2 A
3 B
4 H
5 I
6 J
7 F
8 D
9 E
10 G
My guesses are not better, probably, but...
ReplyDelete1 - B
2 - D
3 - J
4 - A
5 - I
6 - E
7 - H
8 - G
9 - C
10 - F
There's no chance I can get these right. I thought 1 was Kerouac, and he's not even in the list!
ReplyDeleteI only know one: Ray Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451 on a rented typewriter in 9 days. Look forward to finding out about the rest!
ReplyDeleteLet's see....
ReplyDelete1. I
2. D??? (Tell me it's not true)
3. B
4. ... I left this for last, and it seems Margaret Mitchell quit being manager of a $30 million dollar company to write. *facepalm*
5. J?
6. G, perhaps
7. H?
8. C
9. Sounds like E would do that...
10. F
B-bu-but, Google is my friend!
ReplyDeleteI haven't a clue, but I'll take some wild guesses:
1-I (copying Charlene *g*)
2-A,
3-B,
4-G
5-C,(wanted to copy Carter, but don't see Faulkner. *g*)
6-H
7-E
8-D,
9-J,
10-F
A chance to use some of the trivia I carry around in my head.
ReplyDelete1 I
2 A Scarlett O'Hara was going to be Pansy O'Hara
3 J I'm guessing
4 B
5 H Also guessing
6 D Okay, I'm guessing
7 G
8 C She left them on a train I think.
9 E
10 F (A time to Kill)
Gosh, no clue. I like hearing the stories behind books though so I look forward to the answers. :)
ReplyDeleteJess
Aw geez, I am not good at quizzes that I have not studied for... count me as an Internet searcher.
ReplyDeleteI know the first one is Ray Bradbury - the rented typewriter piece is in the foreward in his book Fareinheit 451, which is one of my all time faves.
ReplyDeleteAnd Margaret Mitchell chose Pansy O'
Hara instead of Scarlet for GWTW, but her editor hated it so much he asked her to change it.
The rest... I'm at a loss. :-(
I have no clue as to any of these but I have a copy of Plague of Memory in my hot little hands - which is way better. Off to enjoy!!!
ReplyDeleteMarie in RI
Good guesses, and lots of people sure know their Mitchell and Bradbury lore. :) Answers to the Match Game follow, so if you don't want to know don't read further:
ReplyDelete1I. Ray Bradbury wrote Farenheit 451 in nine days on a rented typewriter (and paid ten cents per half-hour. The novel took 49 hours and cost $9.80 to write)
2A. Margaret Mitchell chose "Pansy" as the original name for her heroine as well as the title for her debut novel, Gone with the Wind.
3B. Ian Fleming penned Casino Royale, the first James Bond novel, to stop from thinking about his upcoming marriage.
4H. George Pelecanos quit working as general manager of a $30 million dollar company after a mid-life crisis in order to write A Firing Offense.
5J. Eugene O'Neill wrote in longhand (reportedly in very tiny script) while standing up at a tall desk.
6D. PBW. I worked as the art editor (at various times, also a slush pile reader, assistant editor, layout artist and advertising designer) of Sandpiper, my high school literary magazine for four years. Among the many awards we snagged, we won the First Place Award from the National Scholastic Press Association (best magazine in the U.S.) and the All Southern Award from the Southern Interscholastic Press Association. I also won a few literary awards myself -- probably the most lauded, second place in Florida State Board of Education's competition for traditional poetry in 1978 for one of my sonnets. You can close your mouth now, lol.
7G. Harper Lee paid her editor, Tay Hohoff, $5,000.00 so that she could take a six-month leave of absence from her publishing job to work solely on collaborating with her on To Kill a Mockingbird. Some claim that perfect collaboration is the reason why Harper never wrote another novel.
8C. Ernest Hemingway's wife Hadley packed up in a suitcase and subsequently lost while traveling by train the only copies of his unpublished manuscripts for eleven stories, one novel, and a number of poems. Legends say he never forgave her for it.
9E. Shelby Foote, the author of Shiloh and many other of the finest books ever written about the history of the Civil War, wrote with a quill pen dipped in ink.
10F. After John Grisham wrote A Time to Kill, his first novel with a 5K first print run, he wrote a second novel, The Firm, which spent 47 weeks on the New York Times besteller list and became the bestselling novel of 1991.
if the DH lost a bunch of my manuscripts, I'd have a hard time letting it go, too. Although I think I eventually would.
ReplyDeleteafter many many back rubs. and many many foot rubs. and lots of... uh, okay, i'll stop there...
;)
Imagine the uproar now if someone found that suitcase tucked away somewhere...
ReplyDelete