Once in Every Lifetime Trivia Quiz

Answer: Sully Prudhomme

In 1865, Prudhomme published his first collection, "Stanzas and Poems", which included "Le vase brisé". Later in his life his writings began reflecting his philosophical interests. The prize money was used to establish a poetry prize to be awarded by the Société des gens de lettres (founded by Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, and George Sand in 1838).

Answer: Rabindranath Tagore

Poems that he had written at eight years of age were not published until he was sixteen. Two of the songs he composed were chosen to be national anthems: the Republic of India's "Jana Gana Mana" and Bangladesh's "Amar Shonar Bangla". He also authored plays, short stories and novels.

Answer: Sinclair Lewis

Lewis' first published works were included in the "Yale Courant" and the "Yale Literary Magazine", where he attended from 1903 until receiving his bachelor's degree in 1908. Lewis was a commercial success after publishing "Main Street" in 1920.

Answer: Pearl S. Buck

Buck won the Nobel Prize in 1938 "for her rich and truly epic descriptions of peasant life in China and for her biographical masterpieces." Though born in West Virgina, her missionary family returned to China when she was about three months old. Buck spent most of her time there until 1934.

Answer: T. S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns or T. S. Eliot, was born in the US in 1888. He moved to the United Kingdom when he was 25 and was naturalized as a British subject when he was 39. The poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" was published in 1915. In addition, he authored seven plays.

Answer: Winston Churchill

Although Churchill is remembered for his leadership of the UK during World War II, he began his working life as a journalist. The majority of his works are historical and biographical, although he also wrote one novel, 'Savrola', published in 1899. Churchill received the Nobel Prize primarily for his six volume history called 'The Second World War'.

Answer: Boris Pasternak

'Doctor Zhivago' was originally published in Milan, in 1957, having been smuggled out of the USSR, as it then was, where it had been banned. Pasternak's award of the Nobel Prize the following year caused great humiliation to his country, and he was forced to decline the prize.

The film of the book, starring Omar Sharif and Julie Christie, came out in late 1965 in the USA and won several Academy Awards, including for Art Direction and Adapted Screenplay. All the options are Russian winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature - Bunin won in 1933, Sholokhov in 1965 and Solzhenitsyn in 1970.

Answer: Huis Clos (No Exit)

Apart from being an author, Sartre was also known as a philosopher, screenwriter and political activist, especially in Marxism. 'Huis Clos' was published in 1944, and is a play about three dead people being confined in one room together with no way out.

It includes Sartre's famous comment 'hell is other people'. The other works are also by French Nobel laureates. 'L'Étranger' was written by 1957 winner Albert Camus, and 'L'Invitation' by Claude Simon who won in 1985. Anatole France won the award in 1921 and among his works is 'L'Île des Pingouins'.

Answer: South Africa

John Maxwell Coetzee was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1940 although he moved to Australia in 2002 and became an Australian citizen in 2006. Among his works are 'Dusklands' from 1974 and 'Waiting for the Barbarians' (1980). In 1999 he won the Booker Prize for his novel 'Disgrace'.

Answer: Spanish

Llosa was born in Peru in 1936, although he spent much of his childhood in Bolivia. His first novel, in English called 'The Time of the Hero', was published in 1963. It reflected his own experiences at a Military Academy. Films have been made of his novels, including 'Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter', although the setting was moved from Lima to New Orleans and the title was changed to 'Tune in Tomorrow' (1990). Llosa also wrote several plays and many newspaper articles.