Ths is the mysterious quote item.  In this item, you have to enter a 
quote which, by its style or its content, should enable a liberally 
educated reader to guess its author without having to do a Google 
search.  If we have to start playing 20 questions, you've probably 
failed.

224 responses total.

Btw, the person who guesses the author gets to enter the next quote.  
Here's one to start:

"While the eyes of all men were upon this event, admiring the justice 
displayed in their deserved deaths, the same eyes were suddenly taken 
off from this sight to admire at the mysterious ways of the same power 
in the melancholy fate of the young and virtuous daughter, the lady 
Cordelia, whose good deeds did seem to deserve a more fortunate 
conclusion: but it is an awful truth, that innocence and piety are not 
always successful in this world. The forces which Goneril and Regan had 
sent out under the command of the bad earl of Gloucester were 
victorious, and Cordelia, by the practices of this wicked earl, who did 
not like that any should stand between him and the throne, ended her 
life in prison. Thus, Heaven took this innocent lady to itself in her 
young years, after showing her to the world an illustrious example of 
filial duty. Lear did not long survive this kind child." 

All I can think of is King Lear by Shakespeare but that passage doesnt 
sound very Shakespearian. 

Nope.

The passage is certainly about King Lear, but it's also certainly
a commentary on the play by some other author.

No author in particular jumps out at me, but the writing style
seems 20th century.  Maybe some current literary critic.  For no
better reason than that he's the first one to come to mind, I'll
guess Harold Bloom.

(Thanks to md for reviving this item, by the way!)

I would have guessed Bloom as well.

This response has been erased.

<linked to games>

*So* not Harold Bloom.

  Elia?

And...?

(That was going to be my next guess.)

But unless Elia was two people, which I don't believe he was, that's 
only half the answer.  McNally probably has it, though, so let's 
declare him the winner.  Tales from Shakespeare, by Charles Lamb 
("Elia") and his sister Mary.  It's a children's book, as evidence the 
glossing over of the ghastly pathos of Cordelia's and Lear's deaths.

McNally's up.

  Was out hiking most of the weekend and not feeling particularly bookish.
  I'm at work right now, but will endeavor to find a suitable quote this
  evening..

  Hmmm..  I'm accustomed to having my own books around me but don't have
  that luxury at the moment -- they're mostly in storage back in Michigan.
  So I'll just make do with what's handy on my sister's bookshelves.

      "Brother to a Prince and fellow to a beggar if he be found worthy.
      The law, as quoted, lays down a fair conduct of life, and one not
      easy to follow.  I have been fellow to a beggar again and again
      under circumstances which prevented either of us finding out whether
      the other was worthy.  I have still to be brother to a Prince,
      though I once came near to kinship with what might have been a
      veritable King and was promised the reversion of a Kingdom --
      army, law-courts, revenue, and policy all complete.  But, today,
      I greatly fear that my King is dead, and if I want a crown I must
      go hunt it for myself."

Mark Twain?

Oh. I think I have read that but for the life of me, I cant remember 
what it is or who wrote it. ARGH.

  Not Twain.

Oscar Wilde?

  Nor Wilde.

This response has been erased.

  To the best of my knowledge this author never resided in DeSmet, SD.

Too refined for Kipling, I think.  Still, with no hope of finding a suitable
quote should I be right, I'll guess Rudyard.

E.M. Forrester?

  re #23:  you shouldn't hedge your bets like that if you're going
  to guess correctly.  It is indeed Kipling (it's the beginning of
  "The Man Who Would Be King.")

Kipling's The man who would be king.

OK.  Don't know why it felt like Kipling, though.

        I scarely know where to begin, though I sometimes facetiously
        place the cause of it all to Charley Furuseth's credit.  He kept a
        summer cottage in Mill Valley, under the shadow of Mount Tamalpais,
        and never occupied it except when he loafed through the winter
        months and read Nietzche and Schopenhauer to rest his brain.
        When summer came on, he elected to sweat out a hot and dusty
        existence in the city and to toil incessantly.  Had it not been
        my custom to run up to see him every Saturday afternoon and to
        stop over till Monday morning, this particular January Monday
        morning would not have found me afloat on San Francisco Bay.

Jack London?

Richard Brautigan?

slynne got it right out of the gate.

It's the first paragraph of The Sea Wolf.

Cool. I havent even read that but it sounded like him and I asked 
myself, "who would write about San Fransisco".

Ok, here is mine....

"The three years that have passed have brought but few changes to the 
quiet family. The war is over, and [NAME DELETED] safely at home, busy 
with his books and the small parish which found in him a minister by 
nature as by grace, a quiet, studious man, rich in the wisdom that is 
better than learning, the charity which calls all mankind `brother', 
the piety that blossoms into character, making it august and lovely. 

These attributes, in spite of poverty and the strict integrity which 
shut him out from the more worldly successes, attracted to him many 
admirable persons, as naturally as sweet herbs draw bees, and as 
naturally he gave them the honey into which fifty years of hard 
experience had distilled no bitter drop. Earnest young men found the 
gray-headed scholar as young at heart as they, thoughtful or troubled 
women instinctively brought their doubts to him, sure of finding the 
gentlest sympathy, the wisest counsel. Sinners told their sins to the 
pure-hearted old man and were both rebuked and saved. Gifted men found 
a companion in him. Ambitious men caught glimpses of nobler ambitions 
than their own, and even worldlings confessed that his beliefs were 
beautiful and true, although `they wouldn't pay'. "

"Little Women" by Louisa May Alcott?

Wow. I figured that one would be easy but I didnt figure it would be 
*that* easy ;) You got it, Twila, so it is your turn. 

15 minutes - that's pretty good!

Yeah, it's a record ejaculation time, for you.

I'll be posting something a bit later today. 

I canht wait.

met too

Hmmm, since Twila has not gotten to it, I'll post a little something
in the interim.

       Mr C(lavius) F(rederick) Earbrass is, of course, the
    well-known novelist.  Of his books, _A Moral Dustbin_,
    _More Chains Than Clank_, _Was It Likely?_, and the
    Hipdeep trilogy are, perhaps, the most admired.  Mr
    Earbrass is seen on the croquet lawn of his house,
    Hobbies Odd, near Collapsed Pudding in Mortshire.  He
    is studying a game left unfinished at the end of the
    summer.

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