Write of Passage Trivia Quiz

Answer: "Leaves of Grass", by Walt Whitman

In Walt Whitman's 1872 edition of "Leaves of Grass" he included a poem called "Passage to India." The poem inspired E. M. Forster to call his 1924 novel "A Passage to India." The theme of human togetherness is raised in both the poem and the novel, the latter exploring the potential fro friendship between the British and their colony, India.

Here is a passage from "Passage to India" by Whitman:
"Passage to India!
Lo, soul! seest thou not God's purpose from the first?
The earth to be spann'd, connected by net-work,
The people to become brothers and sisters,
The races, neighbors, to marry and be given in marriage,
The oceans to be cross'd, the distant brought near,
The lands to be welded together."

Answer: Gone With the Wind

"Gone With the Wind" was the best selling novel of 1937; all the other books listed were written after then. "Gone With the Wind" was, of course, adapted into a renowned Hollywood film blockbuster; "Northwest Passage" was also the basis of a film version that came out in 1940 starring Spencer Tracy.

The novel is about a character named Robert Rogers and his Rangers, a colonial fighting force during the French and Indian War.

Answer: medical school

"Disputed Passage" is about a young medical student named John Wesley Beaven, who has ambitions to become a great surgeon. One of the instructors in his medical school is a brilliant (but seemingly devoid of emotions) doctor named Tubby Forrester who believes that doctors must keep an objective distance from their patients in order to provide the best treatment.

Then an old college friend of Dr. Forrester's named Dr. Cunningham comes into the story with a much warmer humanistic style of doctoring. Add to all this the fact that our protagonist med student is in love with a Chinese girl (played in the movie adaptation by Dorothy Lamour!!) whom Dr. Forrester urges to return to China so that John can pursue his studies undistracted.

Answer: Gail Sheehy

Gail Sheehy, a writer in the school called "The New Journalism" is an American author of seventeen books and many articles for high-profile publications like "New York Magazine" and "Vanity Fair". Subtitled "Predictable Crises of Adult Life", "Passages" examines the personality changes men and women go through during the many phase and passages they encounter throughout life.

Answer: the Iron Fey series

Julie Kagawa's Iron Fey series has been on the best seller lists, winning an audience of fans with its combination of fantasy, magic, and romance. "Winter's Passage" tells the story of a normal girl who one day discovers she's actually a fairy princess. Kagawa incorporates various characters from William Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream" into the story as the young girl Meghan soldiers through her adventures.

Answer: The Clan of the Cave Bear

"The Plains of Passage" continues the story of Ayla from "The Clan of the Cave Bear", played by Darryl Hannah in the film adaptation. Ayla crosses an Ice Age Europe with her male companion Jondalar. The two encounter savage enemies, both human and animal, as well as making new friends."The Plains of Passage" is a part of the Earth's Children series; its sequel was "The Shelters of Stone".

Answer: 2,900 page dictionary of Japanese language

The lead character, Kohei Araki has spent 37 years producing dictionaries but his time to retire has come because he wants to spend more time with his sick wife. So he must find a replacement for himself in the quest to create "The Great Passage". Araki says that a dictionary is like a boat that transports people across an ocean of words.

He finds a candidate in Mitsuya Majime a man working in his company's sales department. He is young, has a background in linguistics and collect antiquarian books.

Answer: Spenser: For Hire

The TV show "Spenser: For Hire" was developed for ABC-TV and starred the late Robert Urich, and aired from September 20, 1985 to May 7, 1988. Parker's "Night Passage" written in 1997 was the fifth novel in the Jesse stone series of which there were nine books.

Answer: Lyndon Baines Johnson

"The Years of Lyndon Johnson" runs over 3,000 pages in its first four volumes, and (at the time this quiz is bein written) Mr Caro is planning a fifth volume. Robert Caro is an American journalist who has also written a biography of Robert Moses. "Book Four: The Passage of Power" dealt with LBJ's years from 1958 to 1964, including the difficulties facing in assuming the presidency after JFK's assassination.

Answer: Vampires

That first book, "The Passage", made the New York Times hardcover fiction best seller list in 2010, debuting at #3 and staying on the list for seven weeks. The setting of the stories is a post-apocalyptic world (of course) with vampires infected with a virus. Good intentions went bad apparently; the virus erupted from a project meant to create a drug that improved immunity, based on a virus derived from a South American bat. Sure, what could go wrong with that plan?