Do you have a trivia question  books or the peole who write
them?

   This will work like the quote item, in the the person that is correct
posts the next question


    I'll lead things off with this question---

 What do the initials "J.D" stand for in  J.D Salinger's name?

70 responses total.

John Doe?

Jerome David, I think.

That's correct.  What was Edith Wharton's maiden name?

I thought that alfee was supposed to get the next turn.

Yea...

Yeah, it's my go!  Besides, her maiden name was Newbold.  Here's your
new question::::::
   What famous turn-of the century fiction writer began his prolific 
career in an Ohio federal penitentiary?  I'll accept the author's given
name or nom-de-plume.

 William Sidney Porter aka O Henry.

So, what's *your* trivia question, omni? 

 I'll post one soon.

 Alright here goes....
  
 What profession was John Stienbeck trained for, but never practiced?

A doctor?

I know he attended Stanford U, but never graduated. Lawyer, perhaps?

I know what he practiced, but wasn't trained for - bricklaying.

 nope times 3.... keep a guessin'

No, omni, only "nope times 2". Read #13 again. Anyway, can we say he
was "trained" for anything at Stanford, if he didn't graduate? Majored
in? Chemistry?

That was sort of what I was trying to say.  Nothing I've ever read in his 
bio info indicates that he apprenticed for anything, only that he attended
classes at Stanford and never took a degree.  I've never even seen a field
of study connected with him.  

 the clues lie in his books.... Cannery Row... Sweet Thursday... Tortilla
Flat... or have I said too much?

Cooking! (Home economics?)

 NO!!
;)

Refrigeration! 

 Not exactly.   I don't know what bigger clue I could have given,

Agriculture?

 no.

Journalism?

 we could go on forever like this... However I will give the answer
on Sunday if no one has guessed by then.

Law?

 Marine Biology. 

 He wrote of it in Cannery Row, and Sweet Thursday, and some in 
Tortilla Flat. Little bits of it show in other books.

Rane, go ahead and post a question. I am not prepared at this time.

Famous novelist who otherwise was trained for the ministry, entered
business but went bankrupt, and was at various times a political gadfly,
pamphlateer, spy, and jailbird. 

Was our novelist sitting in ire?  Was this person Gad to Fly from a
dentist?  Was this Jailed Bird in "proper", "legal" repose at all times?  And,
what did this person think of the American West? To wit: sharpen our most
curious ity.

M.

Your ity is indeed curious: but _^Hw_^Hh_^Ho_^Ha! You propose, and I
dispose. However, I know of no observation of this novelist upon the
American West.

O.K., O.K., it was just a wild guess.  One, Seriously, Could Actually
Reveal What Is Likely Debatable Evidence.  Someone help before this satire
becomes a satyr.

The name of the game
Is to guess a name
From the trivia I gave,
which you should save.

Ernst Seton-Hall?

Now, why is that name familiar? It is, but I can't find the name in
my local sources. No, not Seton-Hall - and whoever this is, the novelist
you seek is *much* more famous than Seton-Hall. I have already given
a list of trivia about the novelist, none of which are the least bit
connected with the most famous novels. Here are some more trivia, which
are also not associated with the novels: the novelist at other times
was also a dry-goods merchant, a soldier, and the operator of a tile
factory. 

Well, I don't think that's Kipling, although he did some wierd stuff.

Not Kipling but, like Kipling, English. Of similar stature, too, as
a novelist. 

Seton-Hall wrote the very dry "The Sand Hill; Slag".  It was the more
popular Seton-Thompson who wrote the hunting saga "The Sand Hill Stag".

  The Gadfly business and jailbird business had me thinking 
         O ne S eriously C ould A... R...  WILDE,   a day or so ago.  Buy I
don't know about his being some of the latter clues; Wilde was Irish, so I'm
shamed to silence.   

^V ^X ^MOONWALKING ^FLASHING ^MODIFIED TEXT ^PYROTECHNICAL CODE SEQUENCE:

      ....
                      ....Momentarily.   (Darn! Controllus interuptus.) 

Not Seton-Hall, Steon Thompson, nor did the novelist attend Seton Hall.
Also not Wilde but, like Wilde, went to jail, but not like Wilde for
homosexuality, but for libelling the Church, which Wilde would have
gladly done too. Hey Folks! This is the "The literary trivia relay item",
and this case should be closed by now - haven't I given you enough
trivia? You want more? 

Well, it turned out not to be trivial. The novelist is Daniel Defoe.
  
I'll turn this literary trivia relay over to mwarner, who tried the
hardest (?) to solve the quiz.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss