Kilted Kanga's Homeland Literature Online Quiz | Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. Scottish author Ian Fleming famous for his James Bond spy series of books and films also wrote this famous children's book which was made into a successful film in 1968. Which book/film am I talking about?

Answer: Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

"Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" starred Dick Van Dyke and has become a children's favourite. Cubby Broccoli who produced the Bond films also produced this one.

Submitted by scotsbluebell

2. This writer of a famous children book was born one of ten to a Scottish weaver in Kirriemuir Scotland. He has brought joy to millions of children with his most famous character. This writer was played in a film recently by Johnny Depp and Great Ormond's Street Hospital to whom he bequeathed the rights of the book still benefits greatly from it. To which of these Scottish writers am I referring?

Answer: J.M. Barrie

J.M. Barrie is the author of "Peter Pan" (which was originally a play) and he was made a Baronet and given the Order of Merit. The Book has spawned many films including "Hook", "Finding Neverland" and Walt Disney's "Peter Pan".

Submitted by scotsbluebell

3. Who wrote "The Ballad of Reading Gaol"?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde wrote of his experiences with a fellow convict who was hanged for slitting his wife's throat. Wilde spent two years in jail for homosexual offences between 1895 and 1897.

Submitted by harry98765

4. Born in West Virginia, USA in 1892, I spent many years in China as the child of missionaries. My novel "The Good Earth" won a Pulitzer Prize in 1932. In 1938 I was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. In 1935, back in the USA, I took up the cause of women's and minorities' rights and gave all effort for Asian and mixed-race adoptions. Who am I?

Answer: Pearl S. Buck

This is me! Born Pearl Sydenstricker in West Virginia, my Presbyterian minister father and mother travelled to China after my birth. I married my husband, an agricultural economist, John Lossing Buck, in 1917 and we moved to Suzhou, Anhui Province where I based my novels until our return to the States.

Willa Cather was an American author whose works focused on frontier life on the Great Plains. Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote the famous anti-slavery novel, "Uncle Tom's Cabin". Katie O'Hara was the given name of the heroine of "Gone with the Wind," but she was always called Scarlett.

Submitted by Jinxgirl

5. Frank Hardy, Melbourne author, (1917 to 1994) was charged with criminal libel for one of his novels; which one?

Answer: Power Without Glory

Hardy was a well known celebrity in Melbourne. He was a member of the Communist Party and extremely politically active. During Hardy's time with the Army he was editor and writer for their newspaper, journalist, and artist. "Power Without Glory" was Hardy's most famous novel, about a Melbourne businessman, John Wren. Although the work was fiction, including being based in the suburb of Carringbush, it was based on a real life business man. Hardy was arrested for criminal libel for implying the wife of John Wren was having an affair. After his acquittal this became the last criminal libel case, all new cases are heard as a civil case.

Submitted by ClaudiaCat

6. Who wrote the "Billabong" series?

Answer: Mary Grant Bruce

Mary Grant Bruce was born in Gippsland, Victoria in 1878. The "Billabong" series focused on a family living in the Victorian countryside during World War One.

Submitted by jb1405

7. What was the first published work of Tim Winton?

Answer: An Open Swimmer

Tim Winton is an Australian author, born in Western Australia in 1960. His first novel, "An Open Swimmer", won the Australian/Vogel Literary Award when he was just 21.

Submitted by jb1405

8. Which of these novels is NOT one of the four great classics of Chinese Literature?

Answer: "The Art of War" by Sun Tzu

The wrong answer is "Art of War" by Sun Tzu. This is an ancient Chinese military treatise by the great strategist, Sun Tzu and has been translated into many languages and used by military strategists and business leaders up to the modern day.

The fourth great novel is "The Water Margin" by Shi Naian.

Submitted by bagoftricks

9. "Oh Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done, The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won..." These are the first two lines of a poem written about President Abraham Lincoln after his death. Which American poet wrote this tribute?

Answer: Walt Whitman

Written in 1865, "Oh Captain! My Captain" refers to Abraham Lincoln as the captain of a ship -- that ship being the United States. The poem starts with the heralding of the end of the Civil War and unification of the country but ends with the mourning of Lincoln's death. The poem was included in the collection "Leaves of Grass" by its third edition.

Walt Whitman had a unique view of the United States, having been born in 1819 during the early formation of the country and living through the division brought about from the Civil War and the subsequent Reformation. He was a staunch supporter of Lincoln and the abolition of slavery.

His unkempt appearance inspired Todd Anderson (Ethan Hawke) in "Dead Poet's Society" to describe Walt Whitman as a "sweaty-toothed madman".

Submitted by kapulani3

10. Some authors write only one book that is so profound, with it being their sole endeavor they become a permanent fixture in the annals of literary history. Other authors secure their legacy with sheer volume. This American author has written more than 120 novels, including both romance and children's books. Who is she?

Answer: Danielle Steel

Danielle Steel has succeeded in selling hundreds of millions of books, with nearly two dozen adapted into made-for-TV movies, putting her number four on the all-time most sold authors list. The only authors to outsell Steel are Shakespeare, Agatha Christie and Barbara Cartland first to third, respectively.

Publishing her first book in 1973, Steel writes as many as five books per year that are distributed in multiple languages in 48 countries.

Steel's penchant for writing romance novels with typically happy endings has not translated to her personal life; she has been married and divorced five times.

Submitted by kapulani3

Source: Author ClaudiaCat

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor agony before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

Kilted Kanga's Homeland Literature Quiz

Kilted Kangas want to share the diversified literature of their homelands...

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