You'll Never Guess What.... Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bram Stoker

Ah yes, Bram Stoker, how could I forget. If you asked the people of London at the turn of the century, they might have known Stoker as the director of Lyceum Theatre, rather than as a horror writer. 'Dracula' was written in 1897 after Stoker met a Hungarian who regaled him with stories of the Carpathian Mountains.
Stoker wrote novels and short stories, fiction and non-fiction. The three stories on my play list have all been made into movies; of course, Dracula and his relatives have shown up in hundreds of movies.

Answer: H. G. Wells

Of course, Herbert George Wells, it's just that I don't think of him as a horror writer. But he did write lots of works in many genres. I think he's best known for science fiction; works like 'The War of the Worlds' and 'The Time Machine'.
In 'The Shape of Things to Come', published in 1933, he predicted World War II would start in January, 1940 - he was only off by four months. Many of his later works were political in nature.

Answer: House of Seven Gables

The book Hawthorne wrote was 'House of Seven Gables'. Hawthorne grew up in New England and many of his stories took place in eastern United States. He and his wife were very shy people but seemed to be a mutual admiration society.
In 1850, when he wrote 'The Scarlet Letter', it was one of the first to be mass produced and became a best-seller. Hawthorne died when he was only 59. He was buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts.

Answer: J. Sheridan LeFanu

LeFanu, that was the French looking name I was trying to remember. But LeFanu was Irish through and through. One of his most famous works was 'Uncle Silas', published in 1864. 'Carmilla' was published in 1872 as part of a collection of short stories. It was about a lesbian vampire and some claim that Stoker's 'Dracula' was influenced by LeFanu's 'Carmilla'.

Answer: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

It's so obvious, Irving wrote 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. He actually was one of the first American writers to make a living as such, others wrote as a sideline and needed 'legitimate' jobs to make ends meet. Irving was well known in the States and in Europe for his biographies and historical works.

When the multi-millionaire John Astor died, Irving was appointed as the chairman of the Astor library, which eventually became the New York Public Library. Irving died at age 76 and was buried in in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery (I wonder how many of these exist?), Sleepy Hollow, New York.

Answer: H. P. Lovecraft

Lovecraft, Lovecraft, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, why is that so hard to remember? He was another fine American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. There were a number of themes that showed up in Lovecraft's works; he often wrote that people were not in control of their actions, families couldn't escape blame for crimes committed by forebears, and creatures played a role in shaping our world.

He was another author who was not financially well off and when he died, his name was just added to the headstone of his parents.

Many years later, some of his fans bought a headstone for him with his name and dates of birth and death etched on it. Stephen King, John Carpenter, Guillermo Del Toro and Clive Barker all admit to being influenced by Lovecraft's stories.

Answer: Mary Wollstonecraft (Godwin) Shelley

Mary Shelley, wife of poet Percy Shelley, of course. Some of her real life may have influenced her macabre writing. Her mother died just after she was born, she fell in love with and bore a child by a married man - Shelley. That child and two more died prematurely. Percy Shelley's wife committed suicide, and finally Percy and Mary married and managed to have one boy that lived.

Then Percy drowned. To provide for herself and her son, she made a living as an author. She wrote biographies, short stories and travel guides but was best known for her Gothic horror novel. Mary was only 53 when she died.

Answer: The Fall of the House of Usher

Quoth the raven, 'The Fall of the House of Usher' (or something like that). Poe was another great American writer born early in the 1800s and who died at the young age of 40. The circumstances surrounding his death sound as if they could be one of his short stories. Cause of death and why he was wearing someone else's clothes are still not known. During those 40 years, Poe wrote essays, poems, a play, and many Gothic short stories, or tales.

Most people that have heard of Poe also know that he married his 13 year old first cousin. Most people have also heard of the 'Poe Toaster'. Starting in 1949 and continuing until January 19, 2009, the bicentennial of Poe's death, someone toasted Poe at his gravesite with cognac and left three roses.

Answer: The Monkey's Paw

'Tarzan' was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs, 'The Monkey's Paw' was written by William Wymark Jacobs. I need to keep them straight. Actually, the story has nothing to do with jungles and such. It was about being given three wishes and the consequences of making those wishes.

Jacobs was an Englishman who wrote mostly humorous short stories. His working life started as a postal employee but he was able to quit the post office and make a life for himself and support a much younger wife, a child, a sister, an in-law, and a couple of servants from his writing.

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Oh yes, Irishman Oscar Wilde. When I think of him, I think of his play 'The Importance of Being Earnest', or 'Salome', written in French. 'Dorian Gray' was his only novel.

Wilde was having an affair with the Marquess of Queensberry's (rules of boxing anyone?) son and started legal action against the Marquess for libel. Much of Wilde's private life was exposed during the trial and he was arrested for sodomy and indecency. He was found guilty and imprisoned. When he was released, he was not well but moved to France and became an advocate for prison reform. He died at age 46.