response 1 of 98:

Dec 24 03:34 UTC 2000

Okay, I'll start.  Here's a quote:

    Of the two females, the aunt now required the most
    soothing, for she was perfectly beside herself with terror.
    As to the young lady, there was something, even in the
    spectre of her lover, that seemed endearing.  There was
    still the semblance of manly beauty; and though the shadow
    of a man is but little calculated to satisfy the affections
    of a lovesick girl, yet, where the substance is not to be
    had, even that is consoling.  The aunt declared she would
    never sleep in that chamber again; the niece, for once, was
    refactory, and declared as strongly that she would sleep in
    no other in the castle: the consequence was, that she had
    to sleep in it alone; but she drew a promise from her aunt
    not to relate the story of the spectre, lest she should be
    denied the only melancholy pleasure left her on earth --
    that of inhabiting the chamber over which the guardian shad
    of her lover kept its nightly vigils.

Remember, the object is to identify the *author*.

response 3 of 98:

Dec 24 04:12 UTC 2000

Winter agora Item 21: That Gosh Darn Mysterious Quote Item - has been
linked to books 96.

response 5 of 98:

Dec 24 07:48 UTC 2000

eagar allen poe

response 7 of 98:

Dec 24 17:48 UTC 2000

Not Thurber, not Poe, not Wharton.

response 9 of 98:

Dec 24 21:28 UTC 2000

Not Cabell.

Hint:  19th century author.

response 11 of 98:

Dec 25 06:18 UTC 2000

Tu Madre

response 13 of 98:

Dec 25 21:34 UTC 2000

John Buchan?

response 15 of 98:

Dec 26 13:30 UTC 2000

Not Buchan, not Bronte.  A further hint:  The author is male
and wrote two of the best-known short stories in the English
language.

Here's another quote:

    Hard by the farm-house was a vast barn, that might have
    served for a church; every window and crevice of which
    seemed bursting forth with the treasures of the farm; the
    flail was busily resounding within it from morning till
    night; swallows and martins skimmed twittering about the
    eaves; and rows of pigeons, some with one eye turned up, as
    if watching the weather, some with their heads under their
    wings, or buried in their bosoms, and others swelling, and
    cooing, and bowing about their dames, were enjoying the
    sunshine on the roof.  Sleek unwieldy porkers were grunting
    in the repose and abundance of their pens; whence sallied
    forth, now and then, troops of sucking pigs, as if to snuff
    the air.  A stately squadron of snowy geese were riding in
    an adjoining pond, convoying whole fleets of ducks,
    regiments of turkeys were gobbling through the farm-yard,
    and guinea fowls freeting about it, like ill-tempered
    housewives, with their peevish doscontented cry.  Before
    the barn-door strutted the gallant cock, that pattern of a
    husband, a warrior, and a fine gentleman, clapping his
    burnished wings, and crowing in the pride and gladness of
    his heart -- sometimes tearing up the earth with his feet,
    and then generously calling his ever-hungry family of wives
    and children to enjoy the rich morsel which he had
    discovered.

response 17 of 98:

Dec 26 13:59 UTC 2000

Hm, I wasn't aware I'd made it *that* easy, but you hit the
bullseye.  Washington Irving it is.

First quote was from "The Spectre Bridegroom", second from
"The Legend of Sleepy Hollow".

Jor's up.  You sure you can't find a quote?

response 19 of 98:

Dec 27 02:08 UTC 2000

        Anticipate charity by preventing poverty.

response 21 of 98:

Dec 27 14:10 UTC 2000

It can be, if I'm not overstepping any boundaries.

response 23 of 98:

Dec 27 18:43 UTC 2000

Hopelessly obscure? Well, I should hope that this author isn't that, but you
will need to retreat much farther back in history than LBJ to find this quote,
which is, btw, a translation.