Best Sellers of the 1960s #1 Trivia Quiz

Answer: A Nation of Sheep

William Lederer had collaborated with Eugene Burdick on various books, including "The Ugly American" (1958). His 1961 study, "A Nation of Sheep" concludes that when people are not informed thoroughly about their government's foreign policies and objectives, the effect becomes hypnotic, and the people as a result may turn to passive behavior since they are unable to make sound decisions on their own behalf.

This book looks at events involving Laos, Thailand, Formosa, Korea, and other international trouble spots to show that there is a high level of misinformation which make accurate understanding and action difficult for the public.

Answer: The Leopard

Giuseppe Di Lampedusa wrote only one novel, his classic 1961 novel, "The Leopard". Interestingly, he never saw in print what is called one of the greatest novels written in the 20th century. The novel deals with an Italian aristocrat, trying to understand the changes overcoming the world he had known. Don Fabrizio rejects change and finds comfort in astronomy, among other things.
Readers have called this book "one of the great lonely books" and, to a person, have praised its terse and evocative writing style.

Answer: To Kill a Mockingbird

Harper Lee, author of "To Kill a Mockingbird", was a descendant of Robert E. Lee. This prize-winning novel is narrated through the perspective of a six-year-old tomboy, Scout. It explores Atticus Finch's defense of Tom Robinson, a black man falsely accused of raping a white girl.

The story of the trial is juxtaposed with the story of Scout and her brother who have a friendship with the enigmatic Boo Radley. The novel is a coming of age novel. One of the main learning moments is that people are not to be judged by external factors only.

They find through much suffering that there is a goodness inside most people.

Answer: The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man

Marshall McLuhan radically revised people's ideas of the written word and national boundary lines. To him, type itself had a radical effect on people, and he argued that, in fact, people could re-invent themselves in the printed word. His thinking shifted attention from interior private meanings in statements to seeing that the rapidity and internationality of the medium by the late twentieth century itself was the message. McLuhan explores differences between people's consciousness in a movable type world and, later, in an electronic age.
McLuhan considers four stages: 1)Oral tribe culture 2)Manuscript culture 3)Gutenberg galaxy and 4)Electronic age.
One simple interpretation of this process should indicate some implications of its truly far-reaching and revolutionary process: "For McLuhan the coming of the electronic age will precipitate a return to the tribalism and pleasure in diversity that collapsed in the age of movable type." (The Electronic Labyrinth)

Answer: Unsafe at Any Speed:The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile

In 1965, Ralph Nader argued that American car manufacturers resisted efforts to improve car safety--both in terms of not spending money for research and development and also not putting in place safety improvements which would protect the American driver.

He became very famous for his writing on the Chevrolet Corvair, a vehicle which had a built-in defect with the tire pressure. His book also took on problems resulting from some cars' gigantic stylistic features.

Answer: Conscience of a Conservative

"Conscience of a Conservative" was ghostwritten by a relative of William F. Buckley. Barry Goldwater and his book had an enormous effect on conservatives in the United States. Some people say that they paved the way for the popularity of Ronald Reagan.

Answer: For Your Eyes Only

Before "For Your Eyes Only", Ian Fleming had written full-length novels. "For Your Eyes Only" has five short stories in all: "From a View to a Kill", "For Your Eyes Only", "Quantum of Solace", "Risico", and "The Hildebrand Rarity".

In the 1981 film with Roger Moore and Carole Bouquet, Agent 007 is searching for a lost encryption device.

Answer: Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Richard Hofstadter wrote a book which questioned the democratization of education and the corresponding blurring of the lines between education and excellence once access to education became an expectation. In short, this novel was concerned about a growing suspicion of the mind, of learning, of public intellectuals.

In his historic overview of the intellectual in America, Hofstader wrote that intellectuals are "felt to have played an important part in breaking the mold in which America was cast, and in consequence he gets more than his share of the blame" (43).

Answer: In Cold Blood

With this book, Capote became famous for inventing the non-fiction novel.
In it, Capote mingles fact and fiction, historical records and psychological interpretation. Capote took six years to complete the novel. The reader sees his characters, Richard "Dick" Hickock and the tormented Perry Smith, both as objects of a police chase and as complex characters on their own in memories of their own pasts.
Truman Capote's involvement in writing this book was brought to life in the 2005 film "Capote" starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, who won an Academy Award for his rendition of Truman Capote.

Answer: The Green Berets

Robin Moore called his book "a book of truth." In his introduction, he stated that finally he found it would work better as a piece of fiction than a work of non-fiction.

The film "The Green Berets" starred John Wayne, George Takei, David Janssen, Jim Hutton, and Aldo Ray,

Incidentally, in October 1961, President John F. Kennedy authorized the wearing of the Green Beret by the special forces.

Answer: Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death

This 1969 novel is a mix of genres--science fiction, philosophical speculation, non-linear narrative. Simultaneously, Billy Pilgrim is in Tralfamadore, in Dresden, in the War, walking in deep snow before his German capture, in his married life in the U.S.A. after the war in the 1950s, and in the moment of his murder.
The novel also plays mercilessly with subjects of identity--Billy says and thinks, "That was I. That was me. That was the author of this book." The book is both an anti-war novel and a profound piece of post-modernist writing.

Answer: Dearly Beloved

Anne Morrow was the wife of the pilot Charles Lindbergh. She was the first woman to win a first-class glider pilot's license. Charles and Anne were the first to fly from Africa to South America. In the later part of their lives, their marital infidelities came to light. They had, however, a highly important 45-year marriage which had to bear the famous kidnapping of their son.

"Dearly Beloved" is a best-selling novel published in 1962 which, on the surface, focuses on a June wedding. During the ceremony, there is profound speculation on the nature and potentials of matrimony, positive and negative. Many readers compare it to her conclusions in her famous "Gift from the Sea".

Answer: In His Own Write

John Lennon impressed readers by his verbal fluency--his punning, artful mispellings, strange imagery and non-linear patterns. This book was followed by the 1965 "A Spaniard in the Works".

Here is an excerpt from Lennon's 1964 book:
"There were no flies on Frank that morning - after all why not? He was a responsible citizen with a wife and child, wasn't he? It was a typical Frank morning and with an agility that defies description he leapt into the bathroom onto the scales. To his great harold he discovered he was twelve inches more tall heavy! He couldn't believe it and his blood raised to his head, causing a mighty red colouring." (beatlesnumber9.com)

Answer: One Hundred Years of Solitude

Gabriel García Márquez's novel takes place over a hundred year period. Some readers say actually it takes more time than that. This uncertainty about its actual length spills over into its characterization. The novel introduces many features of what will be known as magical realism in its manner and method. The novel presents seven generations associated with the Buendia family. It becomes a speculation of time as non-linear. The novel deals simultaneously with both character and place. Its conclusion is quite a surprise after seeing the timeless themes repeating and overlapping. (The town of Macondo will be destroyed.)

In 1967, The New York Times called the novel "the first piece of literature since the Book of Genesis that should be required reading for the entire human race."

Answer: The French Lieutenant's Woman

Sarah's characterization in the novel is double. That is, she is at one time a woman who has been sorely misused. At the same time, she is also sly and calculating.

Of course, the novel became an excellent movie in 1981 directed by Karel Reisz with Meryl Streep playing Sarah.

One of the fascinating features of John Fowles' novel is that it has three (yes three) conclusions. In this highly complex poststructural novel, the narrator appears complexly at the novel's end.

Ultimately, the novel is not just about the actions of the characters; it is also about the control or lack of control an author can have in his/her own novel.