How to Survive an Avalanche Trivia Quiz

Answer: Cookery

The British Len Cyril Deighton (1929 -) after graduating from the Royal College of Art, worked as an illustrator of books and magazines and in advertising agencies. In 1962, he published his first novel, "The IPCRESS File", which was a critical and commercial success. He wrote numerous novels (many of which have been made into films and TV series), history books and five books on cooking.

Len Deighton liked to cook and worked during some time in a restaurant. To avoid taking his cookbooks to the kitchen he made sketches to remember some of the steps in the recipes. With this, he combined his skills as a cook and illustrator.

After the publication of a cookery cartoon illustration in The Daily Express in 1961, he was hired by the Observer to do the "Cookstrip" for the paper's magazine, an activity he maintained between 1962 and 1966. He alternated the publication of his books on cooking, espionage and history. In 2015, Deighton created 12 new cookstrips that appeared in the Observer Food Magazine.

Answer: John Donne

In 1940, Ernest Hemingway published the book "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The title was taken from one of the numerous works by the English poet, scholar and soldier John Donne (1572-1631).

Donne wrote a serie of meditations and prayers published under the title "Devotions upon Emergent Occasions" in 1624; the 17th Meditation is most famous for its claims: "No man is an island" and "... for whom the bell tolls". The whole sentence is very interesting: "No man is an lland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; ... any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." (John Donne's original spelling and punctuation).

Answer: B. Traven

The novel "The Treasure of Sierra Madre", originally published in 1927, is authored by B. Traven, whose identity remains unknown. He is one of the most enigmatic authors in literature. His real name, nationality, date of birth and other details are subject to discussion. Everything indicates that he used several identities and pseudonyms. Although his novels have been translated into several languages, no European or American publisher has met him personally. Traven wrote 13 novels and sold millions of copies.

It is said that B. Traven was Churchill's favorite writer. And also by Einstein, who, when asked what book he would take to a desert island, was used to reply: any book written by B. Traven. The great difficulty is to understand how someone being this famous managed to maintain anonymity.

Answer: Romain Gary

Roman Gary (née Roman Kacew is also known by the pen name Émile Ajar) was born in 1914, in Vilnius, which at the time was part of the Russian Empire, and died in Paris in 1980. He was a French novelist, diplomat, film director and World War aviator. He published more than thirty novels, essays and memoirs; he was fruitful and very popular.

The Prix Goncourt is granted, by statute, only once to an author. Roman Gary is the only person to win the Prix Goncourt twice. Gary received the award in 1956 for the book "Les Racines du Ciel", which was translated into English in 1957 as "The Roots of Heaven". He published "La Vie devant soi" ("The Life Before Us") under the pseudonym Émile Ajar in 1975. The Académie Goncourt awarded the prize without knowing his identity. The truth was revealed in his posthumous book "Vie et Mort d'Émile Ajar". "The Life Before Us" was adapted for cinema in 1977 with the participation of Simone Signoret and in 2020 with the participation of Sophia Loren.

Answer: Truman Capote

Nelle Harper Lee (1926-2016) was born in Monroeville, Alabama and was the daughter of a newspaper editor and lawyer who defended a case similar to the police case considered in the book "To Kill a Mockingbird". During her childhood and her life, she was a friend and neighbor of Truman Capote who was a model for the creation of the boy Dill, who appears in the book.

Published in 1960, "To Kill a Mockingbird" received the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and is considered an important literary work. The book is based on the fictional trial of a black man accused of a crime who is defended by a white lawyer in Alabama in the 1930s. Racial discrimination and justice were, and remain, major issues in our society.

Answer: The elaboration of the Oxford English Dictionary and a murder.

The book "The Professor and the Mad Man", written by Simon Winchester and published in 1998, has two main intertwined story-lines.

First, there is the story of the elaboration of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), which began in the second half of the 19th century, counting on the collaboration of numerous volunteers for the construction of entries.

Second is the story of Dr. William Chester Minor (1834-1925), captain surgeon of the American army who suffered from some type of schizophrenia, committed a murder in London in 1872 and was incarcerated in an asylum in Broadmoor, Berkshire, between 1872 and 1910.

The two stories come together as William C. Minor volunteered to develop entries to the dictionary and became one of the largest contributors to the OED to which he dedicated most of his life. It is a sad but very educational novel, based on real facts.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci is the author of the "Codex of Leicester", also known as the "Codex Hammer". The document is handwritten by Leonardo da Vinci, using his characteristic mirror writing. It contains a collection of thoughts, theories and observations about the world as well as drawings and diagrams. It does not have a linear text; it is a mixture of observations and theories about the most diverse areas: celestial light, water properties, rocks and fossils, astronomy, etc. The document consists of 18 sheets of paper, each folded in half and written on both sides, forming a document with 72 pages.

The document was owned by Giovanni Della Porta, Giuseppe Ghezzi, the Leicester and Hammer estates and was purchased by Bill Gates in 1994, for US$32 million, an amount considered the highest paid for a document or book until today.

It is interesting to know that the Estate of Armand Hammer hired the da Vinci specialist Dr. Carlo Pedretti to assemble the Codex in its original form and translate it into English, a task that was completed in 1987.

Answer: True

The "Bay Psalm Book" was printed in 1640 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. This is a metrical Psalter and contains the metrical translation of part of the Book of Psalms in vernacular poetry that can be sung as hymns. Its production a few years after the Pilgrims' arrival at Plymouth, Massachusetts was a milestone.

The book was printed by Stephen Day press and contains 148 small quarto leaves. The title page of the first edition reads: "The Whole Booke of the Psalmes". It is estimated that 1700 copies were printed in the first edition. Only 11 copies, of which 5 are complete, are known to exist today. The book has been reissued several times.

In 2013 a copy of the first edition, dated 1640, was auctioned by Sotheby's and sold to the American philanthropist David Rubinstein for US$14,165,000, the highest amount paid for a printed book, to that date.

Answer: Levi's exile in a remote place in Italy

The Italian Carlo Levi (1902 - 1975) was a painter, writer, activist, anti-fascist and doctor. He wrote several books and essays, being best known internationally for his book "Christ Stopped at Eboli", published in 1945. In the book he reports his time of exile, from 1935-1936, to Grassano and Aliano, in the region of Lucania (today known as Basilicata), after being arrested for his political activism.

Lucania at this time was one of the poorest and most backward regions in southern Italy. The title of the book comes from an expression used by the people of the region that said of themselves "Christ stopped short of here, at Eboli". The roads did not reach the villages and the residents felt excluded from Christianity, from history, from human experience itself.

It is a very interesting book and in 1979 it was the basis of the film with the same name, directed by Francesco Rosi.

Answer: True

Gaile Parkin was born and raised in Zambia, studied in South Africa and England and worked in several countries in Africa. In her debut book, "Baking Cakes in Kigali", Angel, the central figure, is the wife of a retired university professor who lived in Tanzania.

The couple had only two children in order to be able to give them a good education and thought that as they grew older they would be cared by their children, according to the tradition. However, the death of their adult children due to AIDS changed the couple's plans. They had five grandchildren to raise and educate, which meant that the elderly couple needed to keep working. Angel's husband takes a job in Rwanda and Angel starts making cakes.

In her activity, Angel becomes the "ear" of her clients and friends at the same time that she begins to take care of his own problems in relation to the death of her children and the raising of her grandchildren. This book highlights a very serious problem occurring in areas affected by AIDS and drugs, in which adults die young and it is up to the elderly to raise children.