Some Initial Problems Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bean

Leon Leonwood Bean, or L. L. Bean, was responsible for the creation of the New England-based outdoor clothing company of the same name, opening it in Maine in the 1910s as a boot-making business. Over the course of a century, the L.L. Bean name expanded to more than fifty stores, all selling popular hiking, fishing, and leisure gear. Bean, himself, passed away in 1967, and his family would continue to operate the company in his stead well into the twenty-first century.

Answer: Susan B. Anthony

Susan B. Anthony was just Susan Anthony for much of her life, only adopting the middle name Brownell because it was in style to do so in the mid-nineteenth century. Brownell was the married name of her namesake aunt. Susan B. Anthony, of course, was a deeply important figure in the American suffrage movement.

In addition to her fight for equal rights between genders, she fought against slavery, becoming a foremost individual for social reform in her day.

Answer: Edward Estlin Cummings

Writing throughout most of the 20th century but being most well-known for his works in the Modernist era of literature, e e cummings wrote poetry which, like many poets before him, placed great emphasis on deconstruction of form and written word. In addition to uncapitalizing words-- including his own name as a stylistic choice on many occasions, he omitted punctuation and intentionally misspelled words entirely as all of those decisions could affect the reading of a work. Cummings' own name was often left uncapitalized to match his work, but this was often a decision made not by himself, but his publishers over the years.

This being said, the decision stuck.

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Living his life during the Industrial Revolution in the United States, Benjamin Franklin Goodrich's legacy was attached to his work in rubber manufacturing. It was his investment savviness and work with vulcanized rubber creator Charles Goodyear that helped establish his importance in tire production. Most of the advancements in rubber tire creation were ultimately made after his death in 1888; his company would later become one of the leading manufacturers in the field, contributing to creations in the automotive, flight, and space travel fields. B. F. Goodrich's name would later be used on tires owned by the French-owned Michelin company, who bought the business in the 1990s, a century after his passing.

Answer: Wark

One of the early figures in motion pictures, David Lewelyn Wark, or D. W. Griffith, was considered to be at the forefront of cinema in its earliest days. Director of "Birth of a Nation" in 1915, he would later be considered highly controversial for the contents of his films and the sources of his funding, but he also created works of great historical significance, several of which were kept preserved by the U.S. National Film Registry. Along with Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks, and Mary Pickford, he also founded United Artists, a studio which would persist until being acquired by MGM in the 1980s.

Answer: P. T. Barnum

One of the founders of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, claimed to be the 'Greatest Show on Earth', P. T. Barnum has a long and storied life as a showman, an investor, a politician, and a businessman who was able to switch his work and opinions on a dime to get ahead.

In addition to the obvious work of creating a museum of oddities, Barnum worked as a politician at the municipal and state level (in Connecticut). After his passing in 1891, Barnum's establishment was purchased and made into Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

It wouldn't shut down entirely until 2017.

Answer: Kathryn Dawn

Writer and performer of the 1990s adult contemporary tracks "Constant Craving" and "Miss Chatelaine", Kathryn Dawn Lang, stylized in lower case as 'k. d. lang', made it big as a musician throughout the end of the twentieth century and continued on as one of Canada's voices in the industry into the following decades, even performing at Canadian-hosted Olympic Games.

In addition to winning several Grammy Awards for her works, Lang also starred as herself in a number of TV shows and proceeded to back a number of charitable causes.

Answer: Staples

Clive Staples Lewis, who studied at Oxford, is perhaps best-known for his allegorical fantasy novels in the "Chronicles of Narnia" series and for his significant non-fiction writings, many of which touch on religion. Notably, Lewis worked alongside fellow writer J. R. R. Tolkien as part of Oxford's teaching staff and the two discussed their works on a normal basis. Lewis has since been considered one of the UK's most important authors; his works are celebrated the world over with a handful of his most famous books being adapted to film.

Answer: Skinner

B. F. Skinner was most famous in the world of psychology and behavioural science. In addition to being an important figure teaching at Harvard University across nearly two decades, Skinner popularized numerous theories that affected the understanding of what he called radical behaviorism which, at its most basic, implies that behaviours are shaped by learned and lived experiences.

It should come as no surprise that Skinner's research became critical in the development of educational systems, especially in North America.

Answer: Stine

Born in 1943, kids and teen novel author R. L. Stine started getting his books published under the "Goosebumps" label in 1992, shaping horror for younger readers and creating fiction-- generally inspired by the classics-- that would pave the way for a generation of genre media consumers.

In addition to the hundreds of stories in his core series, Stine also wrote the extensive "Fear Street" series throughout the 1990s and 2000s, and both it and "Goosebumps" received films and TV series over the years.