"It was a Dark and Stormy Night" Trivia Game | Literature

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. In 2001, the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library (not the Calaveras County Library) held a contest to write a conclusion to which author's short story, "A Murder, a Mystery and a Marriage"?

Answer: Mark Twain

Mark Twain had originally planned for the story to be serialized in "The Atlantic Monthly" journal, with other famous authors contributing to the story. This never happened however, and the work remained unfinished. The Buffalo and Erie County Public Library, home of the original manuscript of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" bought the publication rights to the story and conducted a contest to write a conclusion to it.

The winner of the international competition was actually a Buffalo native and was selected by a panel of scholars and bestselling authors.

The winning entry was appropriately published in "The Atlantic Monthly".

2. A contest celebrating the 200th anniversary of this author's birth asked teenage writers to submit stories focusing on social and moral issues. The great expectation was that the students would compare social injustices of today with those written about by which author?

Answer: Charles Dickens

The contest, announced in 2010, asked 11-14 year old writers to submit stories "in the spirit of the work of Charles Dickens". The contest was intended to coincide not only with the birthday of Charles Dickens but also with the 2012 London Olympics. Besides addressing social topics, students could also compare the Olympic ideals with Dickens' books.

3. A contest celebrating the 150th anniversary of this author's death was held in 1999, with contestants asked to submit a story using a work of the author or the author himself as a character. For which author might a participant have purloined a few lines in the hope of ushering in a writing career?

Answer: Edgar Allan Poe

The contest was sponsored by the Short Mystery Fiction Society and the "Murderous Intent Mystery Magazine". Participants were told to write a short detective, mystery or suspense story connected to Edgar Allan Poe, with the winning story published in the sponsoring magazine.

The winner was "The Montressor Hit", a Mafia adaption of "The Cask of Amontillado". Perhaps some of the other contestants used Poe's "The Purloined Letter" or "The Fall of the House of Usher".

4. A WritersCafe.org contest, announced in 2008, asked writers to modify any of this author's works or portions of a work into a fantasy story. For which author might a contestant have submitted "Ten Little Elves"?

Answer: Agatha Christie

The contest allowed participants to use a short story, chapter or full novel of any of Agatha Christie's works and change it into a work of fantasy, using whatever fantasy creatures the contestants wanted to include. The story line had to remain the same, but the tone could be changed to make the story humorous or scary, if desired.

5. The niece of this author started a contest in 1990 in which participants were required to parody the style, plots or characters from the author's works. For which author were entries such as "The Round and the Furry" and "As I Lay Dieting" submitted?

Answer: William Faulkner

The Faux Faulkner Contest was inspired by the Imitation Hemingway Competition. The contest required participants to write a short story parodying Faulkner's works, with some of the entries from the early years being published in a book, "The Best of Bad Faulkner".

The first winner of the contest was a graduate student from London who parodied Faulkner's "Delta Autumn" with his "Delta Faulkner".

6. In 1999, contests for children across the United States began in celebration of this author's birthday. The winners, however, didn't win animals in attire or colored breakfast food for writing in the style of which author?

Answer: Dr. Seuss

The contests were sponsored locally by various companies and were held as part of the National Education Association's "Read Across America" campaign. Elementary school children were encouraged to write a poem or story in the style of Dr. Seuss. Most likely, there were a few "Fox in Socks", "Cats in Hats" and lots of "Green Eggs and Ham'.

7. A contest held in 2009 celebrated the 200th anniversary of the arrival of this author to an English village where she did much of her writing. It was a universal truth that the winning entries would be published in an anthology of stories inspired by which author?

Answer: Jane Austen

Contestants were asked to submit a short story inspired by Jane Austen, her writings or by Chawton House, in the village of Chawton, Hampshire. The winning entry was "Jane Austen over the Styx": "a story about the author going to Hades to be judged by some of the more unpleasant characters she created in her novels".

The top eighteen stories were published in a book called "Dancing with Mr. Darcy: Stories Inspired by Jane Austen".

8. This author apparently believed that he could do a decent imitation of himself, so he entered contests held by the "New Statesman" magazine for parodies of his writing style. For which author did the end of the affair not turn out as he expected?

Answer: Graham Greene

The prize for the 1949 New Statesman Weekend Competition was one guinea, and Greene didn't win it. He ended up in second place under the pseudonym of "N. Wilkinson". His entry evolved into a screenplay for a 1954 film, "The Stranger's Hand". Sources vary as to his results in the 1965 contest; most show him receiving an honorable mention.

9. A 2004 "Atlantic Monthly" contest asked participants to revise a famous monologue so that it could pass a college admissions essay test. Which author's soliloquy was apparently not how they liked it?

Answer: William Shakespeare

Changes to the SAT exam, a college admissions test, had inspired some writers to review a few classic essays and speeches to see if they would meet the requirements for a passing grade. Shakespeare's "All the World's a Stage" monologue from "As You Like It" only scored two out of six points.

The comments were: "This essay is poorly organized, with only one paragraph (though, to Mr. Shakespeare's credit, the topic sentence does speak to what the rest of the sentences in his one paragraph are about).

It is riddled with errors in syntax, incomplete sentences being the most noticeable problem. Although his supporting sentences are vivid in their description, they are vague and general, not true examples. And he unfortunately spells 'honor' with the extraneous 'u'." (John Katzman, Andy Lutz, and Erik Olson, "The Atlantic Monthly").

10. One of the most notable contests dedicated to a famous author was started as a restaurant promotion in 1977 and ran for nearly 30 years. The last winning entry, "Da Moveable Code", was a parody of which author?

Answer: Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway had a collection of favorite bars around the world, including "Harry's" in Venice, Italy. Harry's Bar and American Grill in Century City, California, decided to start a contest to earn publicity from the name connection with the requirement that contestants submit a "really good page of really bad Hemingway".

Some of the entries over the years included "The Old Man and the Flea", "The Snooze of Kilimanjaro" and "A Farewell to Arms (and Legs and Feet and Neck...)".

Source: Author PDAZ

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

"It was a Dark and Stormy Night" Quiz

"It was a dark and stormy night" were the first words of Edward Bulwer-Lytton's novel, "Paul Clifford", and they led to an annual contest to write a bad opening to a novel. Can you identify these other authors who have been honored with contests?

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>

NEXT>