Women's Autobiographies Trivia Quiz

Answer: True

Much of the book contains spiritual visions, and because it is the only autobiography of the period, or any near period, there is no way to know how typical Kempe's spiritual life was. Some critics have suggested she was mentally ill, and plagued by delusions, while others think that the visions were deliberate fiction, and those portions of the book are religious literature. In any event, other parts of the book appear to render faithfully, mundane details of her life: for example, her difficult first pregnancy, and the running of her two businesses, a brewery and a grain mill, both home-based businesses often undertaken by women in the middle ages.

The book also reports her pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

She was not canonized by the Roman Catholic Church, but both the Church of England, and the US Episcopal Church have days honoring her.

Answer: So her children would know their history.

Several times within the memoir, Glukel repeats that she is writing her memoirs for her children so they will know their history, and the people they came from. This is the reason she documents carefully each process she and her husband went through when they sought out marriage partners for their children, and why they were certain they had made good matches for each one.

Inadvertently, she also records the reason that arranged marriages among European Jews evolved in the first place: Jews who wanted to travel had to request permission from the manager of the larger city where their shtetl was located, in order to get documents granting them permission, and even with the proper documents, Jews often were harassed when they traveled. So when they wanted to make the journey to another shtetl to talk to a marriage broker, and then meet the family of the match they'd chosen for their child, they relied on correspondence at first, in order to try to make the final match in one trip. Parents went outside of their own shtetls in the first place, because the shtetls were usually fairly small, and people understood the advantages of avoiding inbreeding.

Answer: Helen Keller's

"The Story of My Life", by Helen Keller was first published in 1902, when she was still a student at Radcliffe College. It was published the next year as a single volume by Doubleday, Page & Co. This covers only the first two decades of Keller's very long life. She published two more autobiographical books: "Midstream", and "My Later Life".

Annie Sullivan never published anything during her life, but she did keep a diary, and during her early years with Keller, wrote a detailed series of letters to the director of the Perkins Institute for the Blind, which survived, and both of these were also sources for "The Miracle Worker".

Answer: Voluntary Aid Detachment

It's often said that if "Testament of Youth" had been written as fiction, it would be dismissed as too far-fetched to be believable. Vera Brittain endured both hardship and tragedy as a nurse on the WWI front, and also dealt with events in the lives of her brother, her fiance, and her two good friends, all men who were front-line soldiers, and their lives were deeply entwined with hers, so their tragedies were also hers. The book was almost called "Chronicle of Youth", and in the 1990s, a series of her letters, and those of her closest friends and her brother, with connecting text taken from diaries and published works, was published as "Chronicle of Youth". It almost acts as an annotation to "Testament of Youth".

"Testament of Youth" has been dramatized twice, once as a BBC mini-series in 1979, and a 2014 film, by BBC Films.

Answer: Alice B. Toklas's

Although the book was called "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas", it was the biography of Gertrude Stein, told in Alice B. Toklas's voice, but written by Stein. Toklas was Stein's lover and longtime companion.

Gertrude Stein wrote the work in six weeks, and admitted that her primary goal was to make money. Toklas, for her own part, thought the book would not be a success. The book was a commercial success, though, and Stein and Toklas's standard of living improved because of it.

Literary critics note that the book is easier on the casual reader than most of Stein's other works, and this probably had something to do with its reception. Virgil Thomson, who wrote music to libretti authored by Stein, said that the book "reflects [Toklas's] mind, her language, her private view of Gertrude," and anecdotes are related exceptionally well in Toklas' "voice," as opposed to Stein's. It has occasionally been speculated that Toklas really did write it, but generally, this has not been taken very seriously.

Answer: The Diary of a Young Girl

Oddly, this diary, by Anne Frank, never meant for distribution, is probably the most famous autobiography here. It is full of messages of global humanity, and often held up as a paragon of the forgiving spirit. However, one does have to keep in mind that the girl who wrote the diary did not know how her story would turn out. One cannot help but wonder what her final entry would look like, if she had been able to make one knowing it was her final entry, and that she would die in a concentration camp.

"An Interrupted Life" is the memoir of another Holocaust victim, this one an adult named Etty Hillesum.

Answer: William Jefferson Clinton

Angelou was challenged by author James Baldwin, and her editor, Robert Loomis, to write an autobiography that was also a piece of literature. This is why the book displays thematic development, character development, denouement, and other things common to fiction. For this reason, the book is often categorized as "literature," and it is often taught in college classes alongside fiction, but it is nonetheless a factual autobiography.

"I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" covers Angelou's early life. It's a coming-of-age story in which internal fortitude and resourcefulness, as well as the help of literature as a source of companionship, overcomes a traumatic early life of deprivation, one particularly scarred by racism. Angelou is at first plagued by feelings of inadequacy, but by the end of the book, she has acquired dignity and knowledge of her own personal strength.

Answer: Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi spent 15 of the 21 years from July 1989 until November 2010 under house arrest in Burma. Her most recent release was after she had achieved world-wide fame as one of the most prominent political prisoners, as well as one of the most prominent women in politics.

When she won the Nobel Peace Prize for her non-violent approach to the oppression in Burma, she stated, "I do not hold to non-violence for moral reasons, but for political and practical reasons."

While under house arrest, she was once offered the opportunity to leave Burma on the condition that she not return, but she chose not to abandon her people. During the time of her arrest, she devoted herself to Buddhist meditation, and wrote the pieces that were eventually published as "Freedom from Fear."

On April 1, 2012, her party, the National League for Democracy, announced that she had been elected to the lower house of the Burmese parliament. She remains the popular choice for prime minister; however, she is legally barred from that office because she married someone who is not a Burmese citizen.

Answer: Prozac

"Prozac Nation" is the title of the biography that so perfectly draws the reader into the experience of clinical depression. Some people found the title misleading, and thought that Wurtzel was criticizing anyone who relied on antidepressants, creating a "Prozac Nation." It is almost the opposite. Prozac had changed her life, and it was a life of a long and pervasive depression, so she needed Prozac. What she was criticizing was social commentators who lumped everyone on Prozac together, whether they were taking it for lifelong depression, or a transitory melancholy.

She spent a book describing her depression to illustrate the fact that people who are clinically depressed cannot "get over it," and really need the help of drugs. Perhaps the drug was over-prescribed, but that was not her fault, nor her concern, and had no effect on her own need for it.

Answer: for her safety: Ali herself received death threats over the book

Ali fled Somalia for the Netherlands, where she applied for political asylum, and eventually ran successfully for parliament.

In 2004, the Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh created a 10-minute film "Submission", based on a script written by Ali. The movie explores violence against women in Islamic societies. "Submission" is a translation of the word "Muslim" into English. Van Gogh was later murdered by a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim, and Ali received death threats. She received further threats when her book was released.

"Infidel" is an exploration of what it is like to go from a society that is both technologically backward, and oppressive toward women, to one that is ultra-modern and enlightened. The significance of the title "Infidel" is this: according to her experience, every call for change in Islamic countries is countered with the accusation, "You are an infidel."