47 new of 207 responses total.
"By about four in the afternoon we had crossed the summit of the mountain line, said farewell to the western sunshine, and began to go down upon the other side, skirting the edge of many ravines and moving through the shadow of dusky woods. There arose upon all sides the voice of falling water, not condensed and formidable as in the gorge of the river, but scattered and sounding gaily and musically from glen to glen. Here, too, the spirts of my driver mended, andhe began to sing aloud in a falsetto voice, and with a singular bluntness of musical perception, never true either to melody or key, but wandering at will, like that of the song of birds. As the dusk increased, I fell more and more under the spell of this artless warbling, listening and waiting for some articulate air, and still disappointed; and when at last I asked him what it was he sang - 'Oh,' cried he, 'I am just singing!' Above all, I was taken with a trick he had of unweariedly repeating the same note at little intervals; it was not so monotonous as you would think, or, at least, not disagreeable; and it seemed to breathe a wonderful contentment with what is, such as we love to fancy in the attitude of trees, or the quiescence of a pool."
Jack London?
Not London, but like London, a male.
Richard Haliburton?
Patrick McManus?
J.R.R. Tolkein?
Do I presume you mean Richard Halliburton, the adverturer? Unlike Halliburton, our author wrote both fiction and non-fiction, although they were both well travelled, in fact to even some of the same ports. However they could not have met, and only one would have known of the other's writings. Not McManus, but unfortunately I am not familiar with his work, so I cannot offer contrasts. Also not Tolkein - they indulged in rather different styles of fantasy. I meant to comment on remmer's previous guess of London. It would be interesting if a critic had compared London to the author. They could have met and, in fact, briefly lived within a half-days journey of each other. I am pretty sure that one was familiar with the writings of the other and was probably influenced by them. Now, to advance our story a little. I use only the initial for the name of characters: "F. served my meals in my own apartment; and his resemblance to the portrait haunted me. At times it was not; at times, upon some change of attitude or flash of expression, it would leap out upon me like a ghost. It was above all in his ill-tempers that the likeness triumphed. He certainly liked me; he was proud of my notice, which he sought to engage by many simple and childlike devices; he loved to sit close before my fire, talking his broken talk or singing his odd, endless, wordless songs, and sometimes drawing his hand over my clothes with an affectionate manner of caressing that never failed to cause in me an embarrassment of which I was ashamed. But for all that, he was capable of flashes of causeless anger and fits of sturdy sulleness. At a word of reproof, I have seen him upset the dish of which I was about to eat, and this not surreptitiously, but with defiance; and similarly at a hint of inquisition. I was not unnaturally curious, being in a strange place and surrounded by strange people; but at the shadow of a question, he shrank back, lowering and dangerous. Then it was that, for a fraction of a second, this rough lad might have been the brother of the lady in the frame. But these humours were swift to pass; and the resemblance died along with them."
London was polygon's guess, not remmers' guess. Yes, I meant Richard Halliburton, the adventurer.
It's difficult to deduce the period from the quotes, but if the author could have known London, that pins it down to late 19th or earlier 20th century. The spelling of "humours" suggests that the author is from somewhere in the British Commonwealth. I'll guess Robert Louis Stevenson. The dates and nationality are about right.
Lawrence Durrell.
Stevenson is correct. This is one of the 'lesser known' short stories published by Stevenson, titled _Olalla_, in 1885, when he was in poor health in Bournemouth. During the same period he also wrote _Kidnapped_ and _The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde_. Of course I picked Olalla as being more obscure than those two. I thought I had diverted attention from Stevenson with the (less widely known) information that he had lived (in San Francisco) near London (in Monterey) when London was ca. 3 years old. Your turn, John.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
Um, no, too easy.
<remmers ponders>
Okay, here goes:
Helena came over on a hot July day. She was of that
particular breed which has always made me feel in-
adequate. Tallish, so slender as to be almost, but
not quite, gaunt. The bones that happen after a few
centuries of careful breeding. Blond-gray hair,
sun-streaked, casual, dry-textured, like the face,
throats, backs of hands, by the sun and wind of the
games they play. Theirs is not the kind of cool
that is an artifice, designed as a challenge. It is
natural, impenetrable, and terribly polite. They
move well in their simple, unassuming little two-
hundred-dollar dresses, because long ago at Miss
Somebody's Country Day School they were so thor-
oughly taught that their grace is automatic and
ineradicable. There are no girl-tricks with eyes
and mouth. They are merely there, looking out at
you, totally composed, in almost exactly the way
they look out of the newspaper pictures of social
events.
One hint for now: Author is dead American male.
Random guess: John Cheever?
a wild guess - JFK
John Updike.....whoops, he's probably still alive.
Updike is indeed alive and still writing. Not John Cheever, not JFK.
Robert Penn Warren.
Not Robert Penn Warren.
Another quote from the same work. I've suppressed the name of the
locale in the last paragraph because... because... well, because
that's just the way I am.
I hung up wondering why they didn't think about the
bottom of the lake. She'd had a try at about everything
else except jumping out a high window. What was the word?
Self-defenestration. Out the window I must go, I must go,
I must go...
Then some fragment of old knowledge began to nudge at the
back of my mind. After I had the eleven o'clock news on
the television, I couldn't pay attention because I was
too busy roaming around the room trying to unearth what
was trying to attract my attention.
Then a name surfaced, along with a man's sallow face,
bitter mouth, knowing eyes. Harry Simmons. A long talk,
long ago, after a friend of a friend had died. He'd added
a large chunk onto an existing insurance policy about
five months before they found him afloat, face-down, in
[name of location deleted].
Sounds like it might be Raymond Chandler (The lady in the lake?)
Not too bad a guess, except that the passage refers to eleven o'clock TV news. There was no such thing in the 1940's when _Lady in the Lake_ was written. In any case, it's not Chandler.
Shucks. Did they have the news at 10, then, because people went to bed earlier?
Nah, the just didn't have TV to any great extent.
So to zero in on dating, we need to know that it was late enough for TV news and early enough that $200 was a lot of money for clothes.
late sixties early seventies? john d macdonald, by any chance? and boy did i have to rack my brain to remember, probably in vain...)
To my knowledge John D Macdonald is still alive. But that may be the other one, I think there are two of them in the literary field. I know that one of them is a rather obscure author of young-adult sci-fi books. Hmm, I'll have to do some checking on that the next time I'm at the library.
Re #186: Bingo! John D. MacDonald it is. You got the time period right
too. Quotes are from _The Girl in the Plain Brown Wrapper_ ("A Travis
McGee Novel"), published in 1968. Excellent literary detective work by
wgm and sjones. Shucks, I was hoping it would be harder.
John D. MacDonald passed away a few years ago - sometime in the 1980's,
I think. Although best known for crime novels, especially the Travis
McGee series, he did write a bit of scifi and fantasy (_The Girl, the
Gold Watch, and Everything_, _Ballroom of the Stars_). Nothing
young-adult as far as I know, so sekari's probably thinking of a
different MacDonald.
The location I concealed in the second quote was Biscayne Bay. I felt
that revealing a Florida setting might be too big a clue.
Okay, sjones is up for the next quote.
No, John D. MacDonald did write some young adult science fiction novels. I have one of them, though I don't remember the name of it. I'd read it as a kid, then later tracked it down in a used bookstore. A lot of well-known authors have written science fiction. Dean R. Koontz was a B-grade science fiction author in the 1950's and 60's. (They were *awful*. They gave me hope; if those novels got published, I figured I too would be able to write salable science fiction. When I discovered he was a best-selling horror writer, I was pretty surprised.) Howard Fast wrote some wonderful science fiction novelettes.
Perhaps some of you are thinking of the science fiction author/editor MacDonald and not Remmers' detective-fiction writing MacDonald.
I happened to be in Dawn Treader a little while ago, and I looked to see if they had the MacDonald book I mentioned earlier. They didn't, but they did have a few books in the science fiction section by John D. MacDonald. I opened one of them, and saw a list of his other works, including the Travis McGee series. This isn't proof of anything -- I wasn't familiar with the book I opened, or any other books I saw there by MacDonald -- but maybe it's some indication.
Yeah, I think we are. I am rather sure that there are two of them because I read a book by the sci-fi one and then saw a bunch of books by an author of the same name and wondered about it. I will be going to the library tomorrow, I'll check this out and report back.
well i never! what a set of mixed emotions - i was delighted when sekari said he was still alive, and then secretly rather glad he was dead after all since it meant i was right... sorry, john d! definitely more by luck than good judgement, i must admit, although i've enjoyed the travis mcgee ones i've read - really excellent characterisation, i think. very dark, though, aren't they? in terms of the violence, i mean. okay, here's something from a book i was surprised to see on sale at a ridiculously cheap price today, which lead to me buying it and taking it round to the dinner party i was on my way to, and being rather less social than i should have been... 'And now there was an end of path or road. More than ever the camel seemed insensibly driven; it lengthened and quickened its pace, its head pointed straight towards the horizon; through the wide nostrils it drank the wind in great draughts. The litter swayed, and rose and fell like a boat in the waves. Dried leaves in occasional beds rustled underfoot. Sometimes a perfume like absinthe sweetened all the air. Lark and chat and rock-swallow leaped to wing, and white partridges ran whistling and clucking out of the way. More rarely a fox or hyena quickened his gallop, to study the intruders at a safe distance. Off to the right rose the hills of the Jebel, the pearl-grey veil resting upon them changing momentarily into a purple which the sun would make matchless a little later. Over their highest peaks a vulture sailed on broad wings into widening circles. But of all these things the tenant under the green tent saw nothing, or at least, made no sign of recognition. His eyes were fixed and dreamy. The going of the man, like that of the animal, was as one being led.' well, i hope *some* of that will prove to be misleading...)[but of course that statement itself might be a double bluff...)] ps i think i'd rather be simon than sjones - would i have to go back and create a new account altogether to be able to do that, or is there any way i could shortcut it?
I'm afraid you'd have to create a new account and, as luckj would have it, someone already has login 'simon'.
re #193: If you spend enough time encouraging people to call you "Simon" it will eventually stick but a lot of people around here (myself included) tend to refer to people by login id in the absence of any indication to the contrary. If nothing else it's unlikely to cause serious offense and is almost always unambiguous. You could always change your name in this conference to "Call me Simon".. :-)
thanks for the advice, folks - i can see the sensible rationale behind using login id as a default, and i wondered if such a simple account name might have been taken already - glad to have that cleared up...) and now, thanks to you lot, i'm struggling with the desire to change name to 'Call me Ishmael'...) but happy, as ever, to come in and find that the very next posted message *isn't* 'how obvious and easy, the answer is...'!
Re resp:191 - The John D. MacDonald who wrote the Travis McGee series also wrote some scifi and fantasy, but I suspect it's a different MacDonald who wrote the young-adult stuff. A web search turned up a number of fan sites on the "McGee" MacDonald, and some bibliographies, but nothing about any young-adult scifi that I could spot. I wait clarification from sekari. Re Simon's new quote in resp:193 - Great imagery in that passage. I'm not familiar with it, although I've a guess as to who the author might be. Since I just gave a quote, I'll refrain.
and now i feel as though i'm trying to guess what your guess might be! thanks for the name...) [makes me feel as though i'm really here, which doesn't sound very rational, but i'll ignore that...]
it turns out that I was mistaken. The author I was thinking of is James D. Macdonald. He has written three or four young adult horror novels with his wife Debra Doyle.
is this one not really working for people, then? the first big clue i can think of is that the film version is probably far better known - and also that the tone of the extract is a fair guide to figuring out its approximate date... especially (i think) that 'insensibly driven'...! and happy anniversary, remmers! does your guess have a film version?...)
Thanks! As to film version, not that I'm aware of.
hmm. e. m. forster?
i can see why forster, but this predates him, although not by a great
deal. on the back of my copy, the publisher's blurb describes it as
'the only novel that ranks with 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' as a genuine
American folk possession' - although i'd better come clean and admit
that took me somewhat by surprise.
i'm *fairly* sure, remmers, that if the text you have in mind doesn't
have film connections, it's probably off-course - *i* was very much more
aware of the film than the book.
here's a little more, then:
'Let us add now, the world - always cunning enough of itself; always
whispering to the weak, Stay, take thine ease; always presenting the
sunny side of life - the world was in this instance helped by (his)
companion.
"Were you ever at Rome?" he asked.
"No," Esther replied.
"Would you like to go?"
"I think not."
"Why?"
"I am afraid of Rome," she answered with a perceptible tremor of
the voice.
He looked at her then - or rather down upon her, for at his side she
appeared little more than a child. In the dim light he could not see
her face distinctly; even the form was shadowy. But again he was
reminded of Tirzah, and a sudden tenderness fell upon him - just so the
lost sister stood with him on the house-top the calamitous morning of
the accident to Gratus. Poor Tirzah! Where was she now? Esther had
the benefit of the feeling evoked. If not his sister, he could never
look upon her as his servant; and that she was his servant in fact would
make him always the more considerate and gentle towards her.'
hope that hasn't given too much away...
i'm off home to wales for a fortnight tomorrow, but i'll try and check
in as often as i can...
That characterization of the work as a "genuine American folk possession", ranking with "Uncle Tom's Cabin", *should* be a big clue I guess, though it doesn't suggest anything offhand. (Well, it does tell us that the author is American, I suppose.)
Booth Tarkington.
randomly..'Towers of Trebizond'?
sdf
You have several choices: