The OLM Quiz: Last Days!

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Last Days

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If the Mayans were right, and who are we to question them now, 2012 is the final year of human existence. What better way to wait out the coming apocalypse, then, than by answering some lovingly crafted quiz questions about various happenings in literary history? I thought so. Come along, then, and play our quiz while the rest of the universe comes down upon us in an unavoidable (and clearly properly anticipated) endgame of glorious destruction. Enjoy!

Tony Hightower, @TriviaNYC

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Question 1

What popular idiomatic phrase was allegedly coined in reference to the family of Edith Wharton?

A	"The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence"
B	"Keeping up with the Joneses"
C	"There's a sucker born every minute"
D	"The 800 pound gorilla in the room"

Question 1 Explanation:

Edith Wharton, born Edith Newbold Jones, was born in New York City to a relatively affluent family who was partly parodied in a cartoon of that name drawn by Arthur "Pop" Momand.

Question 2

In Edgar Allen Poe's poem "The Raven," first published in January 1845, the titular bird mocks the narrator's loss of Lenore, his true love, while resting on a bust of what Greek deity?

A	Hera
B	Cybele
C	Artemis
D	Athena

Question 2 Explanation:

Pallas was a nymph killed by Athena, who, distraught and remorseful at what she had done, took the name for herself. "Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,/In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore./Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;/But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door/Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door/Perched, and sat, and nothing more."

Question 3

In the land of what modern-day country was the British author JRR Tolkien born on January 3, 1892?

A	South Africa
B	Guyana
C	Bangladesh
D	Indonesia

Question 3 Explanation:

John Ronald Reuel Tolkien was born in Bloemfontein in what was then the Orange Free State, where his father, a bank worker, had been transferred. He moved back to England when he was 3, and fell in love with literature almost immediately after that.

Question 4

The description of the city of Chicago as "Hog Butcher for the World, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler, Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders" comes from a famous piece by what Chicago-based writer?

A	John Dos Passos
B	Carl Sandburg
C	Upton Sinclair
D	Nelson Algren

Question 4 Explanation:

Sandburg, born January 6, 1878, won three Pulitzers in his lifetime, including one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H.L. Mencken, among many others, considered him to be the quintessential American poet.

Question 5

The explorer Marco Polo has lent his name to each of these items, save for one. Which one?

A	a chain of steak houses through the American Southwest
B	a battle in the Sino-Japanese War
C	a breed of sheep
D	a major international airport

Question 5 Explanation:

The lasting influence of Marco Polo on the culture of pretty much the entire world is undeniable, but the only Marco Polo Steak House I could find was a small place in Bintulu, Malaysia. Although to be fair, it does have some good reviews on Yelp. (Marco Polo airport serves Venice, Italy.)

Question 6

Speaking of Open Letters(!), which of these papers published what is probably the most famous open letter of all time, on January 13, 1898?

A	International Herald Tribune
B	Al-Ahram
C	L'Aurore
D	The Daily Telegraph

Question 6 Explanation:

Emile Zola's open letter to the French government, "J'Accuse!", helped to exonerate a Jewish officer, Alfred Dreyfus, who was falsely imprisoned, and was a turning point in the power of the written word to affect public policy.

Question 7

He was born in London on January 18, 1779, and his work has served as crucial, decisive, essential and vital additions to the way writers work today. Name this titan of titles, wizard of wordsmithery and crème de la crème of compiling colloquy.

A	Noah Webster
B	Reginald Oxford
C	Peter Roget
D	Francis Bacon

Question 7 Explanation:

Roget's Thesaurus has been helping non-writers write more good since 1852, when the first edition, containing synonyms for about 15,000 words, was first published, disseminated, diffused, and propagated.

Question 8

She may have been the least popular of the three sisters, but Anne Bronte's most famous novel tells the story of a woman running away from an abusive relationship to live in what mansion?

A	Northanger Abbey
B	Casterbridge
C	Thrushcross Grange
D	Wildfell Hall

Question 8 Explanation:

Suppressed by her sisters upon its early publication, "The Tenant Of Wildfell Hall" is now generally considered to be one of the first examples of modern feminist fiction. Read Rohan Maitzen's essay about it in this month's Open Letters!

Question 9

The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers On A Train and People Who Knock On The Door are all psychological thrillers from the pen of what author, born in January 1921 in Fort Worth, Texas?

A	Clive Cussler
B	Patricia Highsmith
C	Eric Van Lustbader
D	David Baldacci

Question 9 Explanation:

Highsmith got her start writing plots for comic books in the 1950s before turning her pen to longer-form suspense literature. Her misanthropic, tightly wound stories have cumulatively sold in the tens of millions.

Question 10

10. Who was slated to read a poem called Dedication at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy, only to find himself unable to read his printed copy and instead reciting another piece from memory?

A	Robert Penn Warren
B	Vachel Lindsay
C	Robert Frost
D	Stanley Kunitz

Question 10 Explanation:

Frost, 87 years old at the time, was unable to read his own poetry due to bad weather and his own failing eyesight, so he instead recited another poem, The Gift Outright, from memory.

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