Arts Trivia
What is the name of Dr. Seuss's egg-hatching elephant?
A: Horton.
Who was Clark Kent's high school sweetheart?
A: Lana Lang.
What novel contains the longest sentence in literature?
A: Les Miserables, by Victor Hugo, with 823 words.
What famous book begins: "Chug, chug, chug. Puff, puff, puff"?
A: The Little Engine that Could.
What was the first published Sherlock Holmes story written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle?
A: A Study In Scarlet, in 1887.
To whom did Herman Melville dedicate his novel, Moby Dick?
A: Nathanial Hawthorne.
What was the name of the girlfriend of Felix the Cat?
A: Phyllis.
Under what assumed name did Oscar Wilde live out the last three years of his life, in "France?
A: Sebastian Melmoth.
What was Scarlett O'Hara's real first name?
A: Katie.
Trivia
Who was the first writer to incorporate himself?
A: Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, who became a corporation in 1923.
How many years did Robinson Crusoe spend shipwrecked on his island?
A : 24.
The title of what artist's painting was used to name the Blue Rider (Blaue Reiter) school of German expressionist painters?
A : Russian Wassily Kandinsky.
George G. Moppet was the father of what comic strip character?
A: Little Lulu.
What one word was intentionally left out of the movie version of Mario Puzo's novel, "The Godfather". even though this word was the working title of the book?
A: "Mafia".
Ernest Hemingway once wrote that a man must do four things in his life to demonstrate his manhood. What were they?
A: Plant a tree, fight a bull, write a book, and have a son.
In the comic strips, what was the name of Mandrake the Magician's giant partner?
A: Lothar.
Where did Samuel Clemens get the idea for his pseudonym, Mark Twain?
A: It was the river call used by boatmen on the Mississippi to signify two fathoms of water.
What was the name of the pig leader in George Orwell's Animal Farm?
A: Napoleon.
Tess Trueheart is the wife of what comic strip character?
A: Dick Tracy.
In the Little Orphan Annie comic strip, what was the name of Daddy Warbucks's Giant bodyguard who wore a turban?
A :Punjab.
What comic strip character was named after heavyweight boxing champion James J. Jeffries?
A: Jeff, of Mutt and Jeff.
The Terror of the Monster was an early title for a best-selling novel which inspired one of the highest-grossing movies of the mid-70's. Under what name did it eventually terrify the reading and film going public?
A: Jaws.
Who wrote the story upon which Alfred Hitchcock based his 1963 suspense film The Birds?
A: Daphne du Maurier, best known for Rebecca.
What famous American writer was granted a patent for a best-selling book that contained no words?
A: Mark Twain. It was a Self-Pasting Scrapbook containing blank pages coated with a gum veneer.
Where will you find a 24-foot long, 3,500-pound aluminum lipstick tube mounted on a caterpillar tractor tread?
A : On the Yale University campus in New Haven, Connecticut-- it's a sculpture donated by pop artist Claes Oldenburg.
What famous American poet was a West Point cadet for two weeks, but was forced to leave after failing arithmetic and grammar?
A :Carl Sandburg, in 1899,
The Emerald City was the working title of which classic novel?
A: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
What book was Mark David Chapman carrying with him when he killed John Lennon on 12/8/80?
A: J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye.
What writer worked as a Pinkerton detective on cases involving movie comic Fatty Arbuckle and gambler Nick Arnstein?
A: Dashiell Hammett.
What writer was expelled from West Point for showing up for a public parade wearing only a white belt and gloves?
A: Edgar Allan Poe.
What was the working title of Joseph Heller's a best-selling Catch 22?
A: Catch 18.
What Frenchman wrote about two fantastic space odysseys--one to the moon and one to the sun--more than 200 years before Jules Verne?
A: Cyrano de Bergerac.
What kind of tree was Betty Smith referring toin her book "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"?
A: An ailanthus, known as "the tree of heaven."
Men Against the Sea and Pitcairn's Island were two sequels to what famous novel?
A: Mutiny On The Bounty.
In what comic strip would you have found an animal called the "Schmoo"?
A: Li'l Abner.
What couple live next door to Dagwood and Blondie Bumstead in "Blondie"?
A: Herb and Tootsie Woodley.
What is the only novel to top the best-seller lists for two consecutive years?
A: Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
What classic gothic novel of 1818 was subtitled, The Modern Prometheus?
A: Frankenstein.
Who was the Lone Ranger's great grand-nephew?
A: The Green Hornet.
Psychologist William Moulton Marston, inventor of the polygraph, or lie detector, also created a famous comic book heroine,. Who was she?"|
A: Wonder Woman.
The Max Fleischer cartoon character, Betty Boop, was based on which real-life actress?
A: Helen Kane, known as the boop-boop-a-doop girl.
"Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again," was the first line of what Daphne du Maurier novel?
A: Rebecca.
What is the actual title of Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa"?
A: La Gioconda.
Who did cartoonist Milton Caniff use as his inspiration for the Dragon Lady, in his "Terry and the Pirates" comic stirp?
A: Joan Crawford.
In Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem, Hiawatha, what was the name of Hiawatha's wife?
A: Minnehaha.
What famous American writer worked as an entertainer aboard a Swedish ocean liner cruising the Caribbean before being drafted to serve in World War II?
A: J. D. Salinger.
To whom did Helen Keller dedicate her autobiography, The Story of My Life?
A: To inventor Alexander Graham Bell, who helped direct her education and considered himself, first and foremost, a teacher of the deaf.
What did famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright reply when an important client called to complain that water on the roof of his newly completed house was leaking onto a dinner guest?
A : "Tell him to move his chair".
What were the first names of L'il Abner Yokum's parents in the popular Al Capp comic strip?
A: Mammy was Pansy; Pappy, Lucifer.
How many husbands did the Wife of Bath have, as reported in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?
A: Five.
What were the first names of Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde?
A: The good doctor was Henry; the evil Mr. Hyde, Edward.
In what unusual way did writer Nathan Weinstein follow publisher Horace Greeley's advice to "Go west, young man"?
A: He changed his last name to West--and became famous as Nathanael West, author of "Miss Lonelyhearts" and "The Day of the Locust."
What was the name of the she-ape that rescued the infant Tarzan and raised him to be Lord of the Apes?
A: Kala.
In what best-selling book did an author offer acknowledgement to a friend who later killed him?
A: "The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet," in which Dr. Herman Tarnower thanked his friend Jean Harris.
What was the title of Mac West's 1959 autobiography?
A: Goodness Had Nothing to Do With It.
How many copies did Doubleday run off the presses in its first printing of Bill Cosby's 1987 book Time Flies?
A: 1.5 million.
Complete this Biblical quotation: "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than...
A: "...for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." The words are those of Jesus, from Matthew 19:24.
What is unusual about the 50,100-word novel Gadsby, written by Ernest Vincdent Wright in 1937?
A: It doesn't contain a single letter "e" -- the most frequently used letter in the English alphabet. Wright made sure he didn't use it by tying down the "e" bar on his typewriter.
What words did Lewis Carroll combine to come up with the term "chortle" in Through a Looking-Glass?
A: Chuckle and snort.
What literary animals "dined on mince, and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon"? And just what is a runcible spoon?
A: The Owl and the Pussy-Cat did the dining in the poem of the same name by Edward Lear. A runcible spoon is a three-pronged fork, that's curved like a spoon and has a cutting edge.
Who wrote, "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and never the twain shall meet"?
A: Rudyard Kipling, in "The Ballad of East and West."
Who was the subject of the 1968 biography Always on Sunday?
A :Ed Sullivan.
Where did mystery writer Agatha Christie acquire her extensive knowledge of poisons?
A :In a hospital dispensary--where she worked during World War I.
What was Truman Capote's last name before he was adopted by hisstepfather?
A: Persons.
What book knocked Henry Kissinger's White house Years out of first place on the best-seller list in November 1979?
A: "Aunt Erma's Cope Book," by Erma Bombeck.
Shakespeare wrote that "brevity is the soul of wit." What did noted wit Dorothy Parker say it was?
A :"The soul of lingerie."
Puddleburg was the hometown of what cartoon character?
A: Woody Woodpecker.
"The temperature hit ninety degrees the day she arrived" was the opening line of one of the best-selling novel ever. What was it?
A :The Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann.
What is the native country of Agatha Chrisitie's detective Hercule Poirot?
A: Belgium.
What was the hometown of Sgt. Snorkel in Beetle Bailey?
A: Pork Corners, Kansas.
In the Robin Hood stories, what was the real name of Little John?
A: John Little.
Most of us are familiar with the faces of Dr. B. H. McKeeby and Nan Wood, but who are they and where have we seen them?
A: The farmer and his wife in Grant Wood's classic painting, American Gothic.
The Last Of The Really Great Whangdoodles and Mandy are children's books written by what well-known Oscar-winning actress?
A :Julie Andrews.
By what pseudonym is writer Frederick Dannay Manfred Bennington Lee better known?
A :Ellery Queen.
Why did 70-year-old Miguel Ramirez sue writer Ernest Hemingway?
A: The Cuban fisherman claimed Hemingway stole his story, the Pulitzer Prize-winning 'The Old Man and the Sea. The suit was thrown out.
What was the title of Harpo Marx's 1985 autobiography?
A: The zany, but silent Marx brother called his book Harpo Speaks!
How many references are there to crying in Tammy Faye Bakker's two books, I Gotta Be Me and Run to the Roar?
A: 60.
What well-known writer appeared in the 1981 movie Ragtime as Stanford White, the celebrated architect who was shot to death in the sensational Girl in the Red Velvet Swing murder?
A :Norman Mailer.
What did Jughead, the buddy of comic strip character Archie, become when he grew up, according to a 1990 TV movie about the two Riverdale High School grads?
A: A psychiatrist--known by his given name, Forsythe, rather than Jughead.
What was the name of the dog that was with Rip Van Winkle when he fell asleep for 22 years?
A: Wolf.
What was Dr. Frankenstein's first name in the famous novel by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly?
A: Victor.
What cartoon character's "racy lifestyle" once led to a ban on his comic books in youth club libraries in Helsinki, Finland?
A: Donald Duck's, in 1978.
What was the name of the cat Alice left behind when she fell down the rabbit hole in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll?
A: Dinah.
What was Rembrandt's last name?
A: Van Ryn.
What American novel was the first to sell over one million copies?
A: Uncle Tom's Cabin.
What comic strip character was the first to grow up and age in the strip?
A: Skeezix, who first appeared in the Gasoline Alley comic strip as a baby left on bachelor Walt Wallet's doorstep.
What is the name of the gypsy girl the hunchback Quasimodo falls in love with in Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame?
A: Esmeralda.
Who wrote the poem The Pied Piper of Hamelin?
A: Russian Wassily Kandinsky.
By what score was Mudville defeated in Ernest Thayer's classic poem Casey at the Bat?
A: The score was 4 to 2.
For what career was Western writer Zane Grey trained?
A: Dentistry.
What famous play served as the inspiration for the 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet?
A : Shakespeare's The Tempest.
What is the name of the town in which Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Our Town takes place?
A: Grover's Corners, New Hampshire.
What famous writer is believed to have made the first reference to tennis in English literature?
A: Geoffery Chaucer, in 1380, when he wrote of "playen racket to and fro " in Troilus and Criseyde.
How much was poet John Milton paid for his epic poem Paradise Lost, which was first published in 1667?
A: Ten pounds-- five down and another five pounds when all 1,300 copies in the first printing were sold. After Milton's death, his widow gave up all future claims for an additional eight pounds.
In Gulliver's Travels, what was a professor at the Grand Academy in Lagado busily trying to extract from cucumbers?
A: Sunbeams.
What was the first name of super capitalist war profiteer "Daddy" Warbucks in the Little Orphan Annie cartoon series?
A: Oliver.
What play opens with "Now is the winter of our discontent"?
A: Shakespeare's "The Tragedy of King Richard III."
What was the title of the biography of Thomas Crapper, the British sanitary engineer who invented the modern flush toilet in 1878?
A :Flushed with Pride; The Story of Thomas Crapper.
What is the origin of the expression "Cowabunga!"--the war cry of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?
A :It was the greeting exchanged by Buffalo Bob Smith and Chief Thunderthud on the "Howdy Doody" TV show in the 1950s.
How many times did Ernest Hemingway revise the last page of A Farewell To Arms?
A: 39 times.
What is the name of the elementary school attended by Lucy, Linus and Charlie Brown in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip?
A :Birchwood.
How many syllables are there in a Japanese haiku poem?
A :17, arranged in 3 lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables.
In Lewis Carroll's poem The Hunting of the Snark, what did the elusive, troublesome snark turn into to fool hunters?
A: A boojum.
What unflattering observation did poet Dylan Thomas make about writer T.S. Eliot's name?
A : Backward--but for one misplaced letter--it would spell toilets.
In the original L. Frank Baum story The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, what color were Dorothy's slippers?
A: Sliver.
What was art-world guru Andy Warhol's name at birth?
A :Andrew Warhola.
What phrase did French impressionist artist Paul Cezanne teach his pet parrot to say over and over again?
A: "Cezanne is a great painter!"
What was the maiden name of Blondie Bumstead, the comic-strip wife of hapless Dagwood Bumstead?
A: Boopadoop.
Whose autobiography is entitled The Wheel of Fortune?
A: The answer is not Vanna White, who was only eight years old when the book was published in 1965. Its author was French singer Edith Piaf.
What famous comic strip character was inspired by the 1936 Henry Fonda film Trail of the Lonesome Pine?
A: Al Capp's Li'l Abner.