Rudely Interrupted by Death Trivia Quiz

Answer: Moses

We started with an easy one. The biblical book of "Exodus" describes Moses' efforts to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land. After the ten plagues afflicted Egypt, the Pharaoh freed the Israelites, and Moses led them across the Red Sea.

He later received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai; and when he returned, he had to destroy the Golden Calf idol that had arisen among the people. He eventually reached the banks of the River Jordan and went to nearby Mount Nebo to see the land of Canaan, but he died before setting foot in the Promised Land.

Answer: Schubert

Franz Schubert was born in 1797 in Austria. Before he died in 1828 he had composed over 600 vocal works, eight symphonies, sacred music, operas, and chamber music. He started his famous "Unfinished Symphony" at age 25 and completed the first two movements and part of the third of the planned four movements.

In 2017 scholars believe they found fragments in Schubert's notes to complete the third movement.

Answer: Charles Dickens

A letter from Dickens to a friend that described the planned plot and hints within the story indicate that Jasper was planning the disappearance and murder of Edwin Drood.

In the story Edwin Drood, an orphan, was engaged to Rosa Bud. Edwin was the nephew of John Jasper, the choirmaster at the cathedral; and Rosa was a student of Jasper. The engagement was the result of an arranged marriage, set up by their fathers. Edwin disappeared shortly thereafter; and the reader discovers that Jasper was in love with Rosa and had made enquiries about about obtaining quicklime, which could dissolve the body.

Several writers have attempted to complete the story, but none have done so satisfactorily.

Dickens suffered a stroke in April of 1869. After recovering his health he embarked on a strenuous series of readings and started this book. On June 8 1870 he suffered a final stroke from which he never regained consciousness.

Answer: Sue Grafton

Sue Grafton was the author of a popular series of books featuring the female detective Kinsey Milhone. After many years writing screen plays, Grafton started her alphabet series of detective novels with the novel "A is for Alibi". The novels were set in the fictional town of Santa Teresa, modeled after Santa Barbara in California. The last of the series was supposed to be titled "Z is for Zero", but she died of cancer in 2017.

Grafton's daughter said that her mother did not want a ghostwriter to finish the series.

Answer: World history

Will Durant and his wife Ariel wrote the monumental eleven volume "History of Civilization", which covered a 2500 year period. The first volume was "Our Oriental Heritage" and the last completed one was "The Age of Napoleon", which was published when Will Durant was 90 years old.

Although they realized that they could not complete the series, the Durants left notes for two more planned volumes, "The Age of Darwin" and "The Age of Einstein". Their books covered more than just the wars and politics of countries, including large sections on the arts, culture, and religion of the time periods.

Answer: Christopher Columbus

Hudson, his son, and seven other crew members were set adrift by mutinous crew members, who did not want to press on to try and find the Northwest passage. Hudson was never seen again.

Cook was exploring the North Pacific and had to return to Hawaii to repair one of his ships. Cook attempted to kidnap the Hawaiian king after one of his small boats was stolen. The natives stabbed Cook while rescuing their leader.

Drake, besides being a privateer and English naval officer, was the a noted explorer and completed the second circumnavigation of the world. He died of dysentery while conducting raids against Spanish forces in the Caribbean.

Columbus died in Spain after his voyages had finished. He had been appointed Viceroy and Governor of the new territory, but had been removed. He also had disputes with the King about obtaining additional compensation.

Answer: J. R. R. Tolkien

Tolkien was a professor at Oxford and published mainly academic research dealing with Old and Middle English. His book "The Hobbit" originated from tales he told his children and "The Lord of the Rings" followed after the success of his earlier book. Many of his unpublished works had either been rejected by his publishers or were too expensive to publish.

His initial posthumous work "Silmarillion" was published in 1977 and has continued for many years, covering both scholarly works, translations, and other works in the Middle earth saga. August 2018 is the scheduled release date for the latest of these treasures, titled "The Fall of Gondolin".

Answer: Richard Harris (Albus Dumbledore)

Richard Harris was an accomplished Irish actor, who had been nominated twice for Academy Awards in the best actor category. He took the role of Albus Dumbledore at the insistence of his eleven-year old granddaughter, even though he was in declining health. He died in 2002 of Hodgkins lymphoma and was replaced in the role of Dumbledore by Michael Gambon. The films did not account for a change in the actor, and many muggles may have been unaware of the change.

Alan Rickman died in 2016 of pancreatic cancer after the entire series of films had completed.

Answer: George Mallory

Mallory supposedly was asked "why climb Everest" and responded "because it's there", but some believe the story is apocryphal.

Mallory and Andrew Irvine perished on their third attempt to climb Everest. Support members of their team saw them within 850 feet of the summit, and they were not seen again. Later Mallory's ice axe was found in 1933 and his body was discovered in 1999. There is controversy whether Mallory and Irvine fell while descending from the summit or had failed to reach it; however, the general consensus is that the climb was too hard, they had insufficient oxygen, and no evidence was left at the top of the summit that would normally occur when reaching it.

Somervell was part of Mallory's second attempt at Everest that reached 26,980 feet before weather and lack of oxygen tanks forced them to turn back. Simonson led the 1999 expedition that discovered Mallory's body. Anker was also part of that expedition and returned in 2007 to attempt to retrace Mallory's last climb.

Answer: Herman Melville

Melville had several successful novels from 1845 to 1854, including "Moby Dick", "Omoo", and "Typee". He had a series of unsuccessful books and was gradually ignored. Melville enjoyed a small revival in England towards the end of his life. Melville's first biographer, Raymond Weaver, discovered the unfinished novella "Billy Budd", edited it, and included it in a new collected works of Melville.