response 113 of 224:

Nov 7 13:02 UTC 2003

Okay, ready or not, here comes the next Mysterious Quote:

    Haven't you heard about the new truant officer?
    Nobody knows [who he is].  He wears disguises.  All
    the kids say he's so slick he can see around two
    corners.  Thirty kids played hooky from Bugmont
    School last week, and he caught every one of them.
    That's enough for me!

response 115 of 224:

Nov 7 23:28 UTC 2003

Not Jim Carroll.

response 117 of 224:

Nov 8 14:27 UTC 2003

(Should've be "The popular works..." in the response above.)

response 119 of 224:

Nov 8 14:48 UTC 2003

Not Judy Blume.  Our author's active period is somewhat earlier.

response 121 of 224:

Nov 8 20:57 UTC 2003

Hm, perhaps so.  But I notice that you're not going so far as to
guess explicitly that the author is P. G. Wodehouse.  Good thing
too, as you'd be wrong.  :)

response 123 of 224:

Nov 9 02:42 UTC 2003

I wasn't going to go for the gold, because I have no quote to offer
should I get it.  But guessing is fun anyway.

response 125 of 224:

Nov 9 10:52 UTC 2003

Not A.A. Milne.  Our author is American.

Here's another quote:

    I have startling news this evening, listeners.  News from
    the vast reaches of outer space.  Our latest satellite,
    orbiting the earth over two thousand miles out, has sent
    back the most amazing pictures ever seen.  It peeked
    around the edge of the moon from away out at the apogee
    of it's swing, and what do you think it saw?  Another
    moon!  Another moon that hides in the dark sky beyond
    our regular moon.  The moon is smaller than our regular
    moon, but -- oh brother! Is it rich!  It's not 
    a *silvery* moon -- it's a *golden* moon!  Scientists
    checked its spectrographs and verified that it is...
    TWENTY-FOUR CARAT SOLID GOLD!

response 127 of 224:

Nov 9 19:04 UTC 2003

Interesting guess, but not Asimov.

Another hint:  The author's most creative period extended from the early
1940s to around 1960.

Another quote:

    Two thousand years ago, a Mayan ruler tossed his crown
    into a "well of sacrifice."

    "We must appease the angry gods.  They made the
    mountains rain fire on our city.  Perhaps our
    jewels and groceries will soothe them."

    But the gods stayed grumpy, and the great Mayan city
    slowly became a deserted ruin.  Soon no one could tell
    that a city once stood by the dark pool that had been
    a "well of sacrifice."

response 129 of 224:

Nov 9 20:18 UTC 2003

Not Steinbeck.

response 131 of 224:

Nov 9 22:15 UTC 2003

Not H. Allen Smith.

I can't emphasize enough how popular this author's works were.  I've
been unsuccessful so far in tracking down sales figures, but I'd guess
that the original editions sold in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps
millions.  And this author turned out a *lot* of stuff.

Another hint:  The author is deceased.

Another quote:

    Ladywimmin an gints, I never expected to see this here
    gold agin, so I'm gonna do a right handsome thing with
    it!  I'm gonna spend the WHOLE MILLION for MORE PENICILLIN
    for these brave boys to fly to more sick Eskimos!

response 133 of 224:

Nov 9 22:26 UTC 2003

Not Baum.  He died in 1919, long before penicillin and orbiting
satellites.

response 135 of 224:

Nov 10 02:02 UTC 2003

Not Heinlein.

response 137 of 224:

Nov 10 04:36 UTC 2003

Walt Kelly?