People E-G Trivia

1. Marcus Garvey was born in Jamaica in 1887, and traveled throughout Central America as a young man. Where did he eventually attend college where his majors were law and philosophy?

From Quiz Marcus Garvey, National Hero of Jamaica

Answer: London, Birbeck College, University of London

Marcus Garvey was a bright student who once remarked that the worst racism he ever experienced was from teachers. In a very 'colorist' society like Jamaica, a dark skinned Black man was not expected to become educated or successful. His father's extensive library led the way for Garvey to become self-educated. Eventually he attended college in England.

From Quiz The Accomplishments of Stephen Fry

Answer: University Challenge

Whilst reading for a degree in English Literature at Queens' College, Cambridge, Stephen Fry joined the college's "University Challenge" team and appeared in the 1980 television series as a contestant. His team came second in the series, being beating in the final by Merton College, Oxford. It was whilst he was at Cambridge University that Stephen Fry joined the "Footlights" society and met his soon-to-be comedy partner, Hugh Laurie.

From Quiz Bertrand du Guesclin - The Eagle of Brittany

Answer: Dinan

Bertrand du Guesclin, the eldest of ten children and one of only two to reach adulthood, was born in around 1320 at Motte-Broons, a small village commune near the town of Dinan in north-eastern Brittany. His father was Robert du Guesclin from a family of minor Breton nobility, the seigneurs of 'Motte-Broons'; his mother was Jeanne de Malesmains, a Lady of Sens, a city in central northern France. The du Guesclin family were said to be one of the oldest families in Brittany, claiming their descent from the Saracen king Aiquin, a vanquished rival of the Frankish emperor Charlemagne. However, in reality, records show that the family only arrived in Brittany around two generations before the birth of Bertrand du Guesclin.

From Quiz Going Up and Down a Staircase at the Same Time

Answer: Mauk

M. C. "Mauk" Escher was born in 1898, the youngest of the five sons of a civil engineer named George Arnold Escher. He spent much of his childhood in the Dutch city of Arnhem where his talent for drawing and carpentry began to emerge - although he struggled with other subjects, including the mathematics that he later used extensively during his career. A common way of forming nicknames in the Dutch language is to truncate the name and add either a 'k', 'p' or 's' to the results. Therefore Maurits can often become Mauk, Maup or Maus. Alternatively diminutive versions of names are formed by adding a 'je' to part of the name - in this way boys named Cornelis are sometimes known as Ceesje or Keesje. Mork was an alien played by Robin Williams on the US TV show 'Mork & Mindy'; Morph was an animated clay character produced by Aardman Animations (best known for their 'Wallace and Gromit' films); and Neelix was the Talaxian ship's cook on 'Star Trek: Voyager'.

From Quiz The Life and Works of Mrs Gaskell

Answer: Elizabeth Cleghorn Stevenson

Most of Elizabeth Gaskell's novels were published under the name 'Mrs Gaskell' - perhaps symbolic of the formalities observed during the Victorian period in England. As it happens though, she didn't start her writing career until several years after she was married - her first work was a collection of poems, 'Sketches Amongst the Poor', which was jointly authored with her husband and published in a magazine in early 1837 - so she never had the opportunity to use her original name, Elizabeth Stevenson, professionally. The incorrect answers are all names belonging to female English writers during the Victorian era. Moulton-Barrett was the maiden name of the poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning; Elizabeth Missing Sewell was an author of religious and educational works and the sister of Henry Sewell, the man often considered to be the first Prime Minister of New Zealand; and Lady Elizabeth Eastlake (nee Rigby) was an author, historian and critic.

From Quiz Bold Forbes

Answer: Morristown, New Jersey

Steve Forbes was born Malcolm Stevenson Forbes, Junior on July 18, 1947 in Morristown, New Jersey. His parents names were Roberta Remsen and Malcolm Forbes, Senior.

From Quiz Thomas Gainsborough, Artist

Answer: the eighteenth

The eighteenth century, although often described as "the golden age of English portrait painting", produced several men of genius - William Hogarth and Joseph Wright of Derby, to name but two - who could not restrict themselves to such a narrow remit as portraiture just because it was so lucrative. Gainsborough deserves to be considered alongside these great artists, in that (although, like Hogarth and Wright, he produced many wonderful and supremely skilful portraits) his main preoccupation is traditionally thought to have lain elsewhere, in landscape painting. In one of his letters the artist, referring to himself in the third person, expressed himself "sick of portraits and wishing to take his Viol de Gamba and walk off to some sweet village where he can paint landskips", and although this can scarcely be taken as his final word on the matter, it remains the case that he continued to paint landscapes enthusiastically throughout his career. The young Gainsborough was evidently much inspired by the eighteenth-century park scenes of Jean-Antoine Watteau with their pairs of gallant lovers, especially in his youthful untitled oil-painting which has often been supposed to depict the newly-married young painter and his wife seated on a bench in a parkland setting (they appear almost "faux-galant" in Gainsborough's version). As Nicola Kalinsky has observed of this piece, "the decorative leafy setting, complete with an Arcadian temple, and Gainsborough's scintillating handling of paint, are all characteristic of Watteau and the French Rococo".

From Quiz William Faulkner

Answer: September 25, 1897

William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi. He was the son of Murry Cuthbert Faulkner and Maud Butler.

From Quiz Goethe

Answer: Frankfurt am Main

From 1562 onwards the Holy Roman Emperors were crowned in Frankfurt. The city was and still is also a major trading and financial centre. The young Goethe attended school for two years (1756-1758) but apart from that he was homeschooled by his father and private tutors. In addition, he attended classes in various 'gentlemanly accomplishments', such as dancing.

From Quiz All About Robert Frost

Answer: 1874

Robert Frost was born on March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, California. He died on January 29, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts. He died at the age of 88.

From Quiz In the Air with Amelia Earhart

Answer: Atchison, Kansas

Although Amelia's parents lived in Kansas City, her mother went to her parents house in Atchison in order to give birth. Amelia moved to Des Moines Iowa with her father when he got work at a railway company.

From Quiz He Took a Licking ...Lewis Grizzard

Answer: Moreland, GA

He was born at Ft. Benning, GA, but was raised near, and loved his hometown of Moreland. It was the subject of many of his columns.

From Quiz Max Ehrmann, Author of "Desiderata"

Answer: German-American

Max Ehrmann's parents emigrated from Bavaria in the 1840s. Max Ehrmann was born on September 26, 1872 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Max's parents, Maximilian Ehrmann, Sr. and Margaret Barbara Lutz Ehrmann had five children. Max was the youngest.

From Quiz The Basics about Ben Franklin

Answer: Boston, MA

Ben Franklin is permanently linked in our minds with Philadelphia -- but yes, he was born in Boston. Sometimes he is called 'Boston's Most Famous Philadelphian.'

From Quiz Jose Gaspar: Myth or Pirate?

Answer: 1756

What the stories claim that Jose Gaspar was born in Spain, in the region of Seville. His parents were aristocrats/upper-class and provided Jose with a cultured upbringing. Jose, himself, was reportedly short but had great stamina. http://www.josegaspar.net/AboutJose.htm Unfortunately, there there are no records of the birth or upbringing of Jose. http://searchwarp.com/swa123000.htm

From Quiz Allen Ginsberg: Beat Poet and Much More

Answer: June 3, 1926

Irwin Allen Ginsberg was born in Newark, New Jersey on June 3, 1926, to Louis and Naomi Ginsberg.

From Quiz Rosalind Franklin

Answer: Newnham College, Cambridge

Franklin was awarded a 'decree titular,' since women could not earn degrees from Cambridge until 1947. Jane Goodall, Sylvia Plath, Germaine Greer and Margaret Drabble also attended Newnham College.

From Quiz The Life and Works of Bret Easton Ellis

Answer: Bennington College

Bennington College, located in Bennington, VT, maintains an undergraduate enrollment of only 571 students. Ellis fictionalized the school as "Camden College" in his novel "The Rules of Attraction" (1987).

From Quiz The Life of M. C. Escher

Answer: Maurits Cornelis Escher

M. C. Escher was born on June 17, 1898. He came to be nicknamed "Mauk."

From Quiz Nikki Giovanni

Answer: June 7, 1943 in Knoxville, TN

Though born in Tennessee, Nikki Giovanni grew up in suburban Cincinnati, Ohio. She has one child, Thomas Watson Giovanni, born in that city in 1969.

From Quiz The Life of Jane Goodall

Answer: the study of chimpanzees

Jane Goodall is best-known for her work with chimpanzees, where she studied their social behavior and daily life. She has spent over forty years studying chimpanzees, greatly improving the knowledge of this species.

From Quiz An Honest Courtesan

Answer: Venice

Veronica Franco was born in Venice. She only left Venice twice: once to make a pilgrimage to Rome, the other time was when she was in hiding during the plague. She lived from 1546-91.

From Quiz The Legend of Belle Gunness

Answer: Selbu, Norway

Belle was born on November 22, 1859. Her birth name was Brynhild Paulsdatter Storset. She changed her name to Belle in 1881 when she came to the United States.

From Quiz Pablo Escobar: A Criminal Against a Country

Answer: Tomb and car thief

Pablo Escobar began his criminal record in Medellin as a car thief and tomb pillager. Then he turned to drug smuggling from Ecuador. A few years after, he formed the Medellin Cartel with the Ochoa Brothers, Carlos Lehder and Gonzalo Rordiguez Gacha (aka El Mexicano). The Medellin Cartel was responsible for 80% of cocaine "exports" to the US at its height.

From Quiz Nell Gwyn

Answer: 1650

A horoscope (prepared by the antiquarian and astrologer Elias Ashmole) survives, and shows the day of her birth as Saturday, September 2, 1650. This date is generally accepted. Her birthplace, however, is disputed. Some people believe she was born in Hereford in what was then called Pipe Well Lane but is now known as Gwyn Street. Others say that she was born where she grew up, in the neighbourhood of Drury Lane in London. Anthony à Wood, the 17th-century Oxford historian, says that she was the granddaughter of Dr Edward Gwyn, a Canon of Christ Church, and Parker thinks that Oxford is perhaps the most likely birthplace.

From Quiz The Works of Neil Gaiman

Answer: Duran Duran

The biography of this popular 80s group was published in 1985 and approved by the band members themselves. It is now out of print and is something of a collectors' item for Gaiman's fans.

From Quiz The Tragic Life of Galileo

Answer: Pisa

Galileo has lived in all these cities, but he was born in Pisa.

From Quiz Portrait of an Artist: Giacometti

Answer: Switzerland

Giacometti was born into a family of artists. His father, Giovanni, was a rather successful Post-Impressionist painter who had achieved a moderate amount of fame. Giovanni encouraged his four children, of whom Alberto was the eldest, to pursue careers in the arts and for the most part they excelled.

From Quiz The Murder Of Dian Fossey

Answer: December 27, 1985

Wayne McGuire, a research worker, found the body of Dian Fossey on the morning of December 27, 1985. Dian was the world famous primatologist who brought the Mountain Gorillas' plight to the world's attention. McGuire found that Dian's metal sheeting to her cabin was cut open. The opening allowed the murderer to gain access to Dian's bedroom. McGuire also found Dian's gun, unloaded, but with the bullets on the floor of her bedroom. Dian was killed by a machete. The machete actually split her skull and face open. Dian's frightened expression was frozen on her face. In her hands was human hair of European nature. Because of the hair, which was later identified as Fossey's own hair, the Rwandanese officials laid claim that a white person had murdered Dian. Unfortunately for Wayne McGuire, he was he only white person, besides Dian, in camp at the time of her murder, so naturally he was accused of her murder. But did Wayne McGuire actually murder Dian? If not, then who did?

From Quiz The Life of Veronica Franco

Answer: 1546, Venice

She died in 1591 at the age of 45.

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