Ask a question about an American writer & see if anyone knows the answer w/o using google

[red dog 1]

Last edited Sun May 30, 2021, 06:14 PM - Edit history (1)

(American writer, living or dead)








What was Jack Kerouac's first novel? (answered)

[First Speaker]

1. What famous American writer was offered the editorship of a major New York newspaper...

...when he was only 21 years old? (Hint: he refused, because he didn't want to move to New York.)

[wnylib]

21. Mark Twain?

[First Speaker]

28. Nope. A bigger hint--he lived in Baltimore.

[rurallib]

43. Edgar Allen Poe?

[First Speaker]

44. Nope.

[TexasBushwhacker]

50. F. Scott Fitzgerald

[First Speaker]

53. Not him, either...but a good guess...major hint--

...he was a Baltimorean, and perhaps the most famous journalist of the first half of the 20th century...

[July]

54. Mencken? nt

[First Speaker]

55. That's the one!

[Harker]

2. The Town and the City.

At the secondhand and antiquarian bookshop where I was hired in the mid-eighties, during my first week on the job, the owner handed me a stack of books to put on the dollar shelf that included a pretty nice copy of this book without a dust jacket. I said, "ummmmm... you might want to reconsider putting this out for a buck."

He sold it for $500 a day or two later.

[red dog 1]

3. Did he give you a cut of that $500?

[Harker]

5. Nope.

Thanked me, though.

[red dog 1]

7. A friend of mine had a rare copy of "Fahrenheit 451" (I think it was with asbestos cover)

and in 2003 or 2004, needing cash, he asked his friend Harlan Ellison if he knew anyone who might want to buy it.
Harlan told him that he'd get back to him.
Next day, Harlan called him back & told him that Ray Bradbury would buy it for $500.
(It might have been $600)
It was right around the 50th anniversary of Fahrenheit 451.

[Harker]

8. That's neat!

I've never seen the first edition, at least asbestos I can recall..

[red dog 1]

9. Fun fact - Ray Bradbury never had a driver's license..He would either take the bus or bicycle

(when he was a kid, he would run around LA in roller skates)

[Harker]

10. You have more fun facts than an almanac. n/t

[red dog 1]

14. Well, I've often been told that I'm "full of it"

[Harker]

15. You and me, both, Red! n/t

[red dog 1]

4. Name one of the jobs Harlan Ellison had before he became a writer

[First Speaker]

29. Assistant Demon in Hell...?

[MatthewHatesTrump2]

36. I think he once drove a nitroglycerine truck

[red dog 1]

61. Ding!

[red dog 1]

6. What writer did Thomas Pynchon dedicate "Gravity's Rainbow" to?

[VGNonly]

11. Who wrote the novel

which included the characters Seldom Seen Smith, George Hayduke, Bonnie Abbzug and Doc Sarvis?

[miyazaki]

12. Edward Abbey

[Brother Buzz]

22. Who did the cover artwork on the tenth anniversary edition?

[VGNonly]

23. R. Crumb

Remember The Furry Freak Brothers?

[Brother Buzz]

30. Zap was my portal

I've met Crumb numerous time, but he's so damn socially inept and private, I never really got to know him. It wasn't until I saw Terry Zwigoff's film, Crumb, that I discovered why.

The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was Gilbert Shelton's creation, no?

[red dog 1]

63. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers was done by Gilbert Shelton

(One of my all-time favorite comic book series)

I, too, watched the doc "Crumb" and it depressed me.
Especially when he visited his older brother Charles in that flea-bag hotel.
It seems to me that Crumb, who was wealthy by that time, could have helped his brother out somehow...like giving him some dough for a nice apartment or something.
(His brother Charles committed suicide before the film was released)

[Brother Buzz]

64. There's a lot of Would have, Could have with Charles

He WAS helped as much as he would allow it, but even by the sixties, he was to totally broken. It is what it is.

Maxon was the one that blew me away. Making a living sitting on a bed of nails, and that three day body flossing? Apparently his crazy artwork was discovered and started selling after the film was released.


And the sisters. I can understand why they refused to be filmed, but I always wonder about the story they could have told.


It's sad how a fucked up dominating ex-Marine can totally fuck up a family!

[red dog 1]

65. Do you think R. Crumb gave Charles any money that time he visited him for the film?

[Brother Buzz]

67. Was Crumb even there when Terry Zwigoff filmed Charles?

I need to believe I would have remember any exchanges between Robert and Charles, but with my Swiss cheese brain these days....

I do know he refused to acknowledge the dentures that he was given. I'm not privy to how that went down, but I understand Charles was Hellbent on traveling his own path, alone.

[red dog 1]

68. Crumb was definitely there...Charles would say something & Crumb would snicker at it, whatever

it was.
It was like he was "amused" by whatever Charles said,
(and Crumb actually did talk to Charles)

[Brother Buzz]

69. I'm gonna have to chase down a copy of the film

and watch it again. Thanks

[red dog 1]

71. I'm gonna' be watching it again, too

(Ordered it online from local library)

[red dog 1]

75. Well, I saw it again the other night, and

Charles wasn't in some flea-bag hotel, he was living with his mother at home.

Their mother was almost as crazy as Charles was.

(Charles admitted that he only bathed once every two weeks)

[Brother Buzz]

76. But Robert was present, correct?

I totally got it stuck in my mind that Terry filmed Charles, alone.

And after seeing Charles, I started wondering about the sisters.

On edit: Maxon totally lived in a flea-bag hotel, and it screamed SF's Tenderloin district to me.

[red dog 1]

78. Robert was present.

[red dog 1]

79. R. Crumb's son Jesse was also in the film

Jesse was killed in an auto accident on Highway 101 in Northern CA
The accident happened on New Year's Eve, but he never regained consciousness and died a few days later in January 2018
Jesse lived in Eureka, CA

[Brother Buzz]

80. Whoa, I did not know that!

Last I heard of Jesse, he was pressed into service to crate up R. Crumb's 78 collection in Winters, California, for the move to France. Was that in the film?

[red dog 1]

83. Yes, I think that was in the film

R. Crumb hired movers too, and he made sarcastic comments about them from inside the house.
(I don't think he actually ever talked to the movers, his wife did that)

[miyazaki]

13. Author who described holding the brains of Paul Broca?

[Harker]

16. Carl Sagan. n/t

[miyazaki]

17. yay

[Harker]

18. Whenever I've read his writings, I have heard his voice.

It's nice.

[red dog 1]

19. What actress did J.D. Salinger start dating in 1942?

[VGNonly]

25. Oona O'Neill

[red dog 1]

31. Ding!

[Harker]

20. What was F. Scott Fitzgerald's name at birth?

[VGNonly]

24. Franklin

Scott Key Fitzgerald

[Harker]

26. O, say, can you see...

Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald.

[VGNonly]

27. Ed Ricketts

was an oceanographer and biologist, What writer was his close pal?

[petronius]

33. John Steinbeck

[VGNonly]

34. It's been said

that Steinbeck's writing suffered after the death of Ricketts. East of Eden was his last great work.

[red dog 1]

32. How long did it take Jack Kerouac to write the first draft of "On the Road"?

[VGNonly]

35. 2 hours and 3 rolls of toilet paper...

... I think it was about 3 weeks on a rolls of paper cut thin and taped together.

[red dog 1]

37. Ding!

[red dog 1]

38. What traumatic ocurance happened to Ernest Hemmingway during WW1?

[VGNonly]

39. Severely wounded

while driving an ambulance.

What was the actual river in The Big Two Hearted River?

[red dog 1]

40. In spite of his severe wounds, he helped some Italian soldiers get to safety

The Italian Govt. gave him a medal for that

(As far as your question, I have no idea...I never saw that movie)

[VGNonly]

42. It was a short story

written by his autobiographic alter ego, Nick Adams. Hemingway wrote in what he described as the iceberg theory; being far greater than what it seemed.

The river was the Fox.

[red dog 1]

41. Name one of the jobs Sci-Fi author Michael Shea had before he was successful as a writer

[jmowreader]

45. Hunter Thompson ran for sheriff. Name one of his campaign promises.

[GumboYaYa]

46. Legalize weed!

Just guessing!

[jmowreader]

47. No, but drugs were on his campaign platform

He planned to erect a bastinado platform and a set of stocks on the courthouse lawn to punish dishonest drug dealers.

He also stated that "no drug worth taking should be sold for money."

Some of his other plans were to rename Aspen to "Fat City" and tear up all the asphalt in the city center, replacing it with sod.

[red dog 1]

62. Ha!

[red dog 1]

48. What famous writer was Best Man at Richard Farina's 1963 marriage to Mimi Baez?

[red dog 1]

49. What famous TV variety show host wrote 54 books?

Last edited Wed Jun 16, 2021, 06:53 PM - Edit history (1)

(Guesses are welcome)

[TexasBushwhacker]

51. I'm going to guess Steve Allen

I know he was a prolific composer.

[TexasBushwhacker]

52. What author pitched their first novel in the trash

because they thought it wasn't any good?

[Mad_Dem_X]

56. Stephen King

[TexasBushwhacker]

57. Yup. His wife fished it out and told him it was interesting n/t

[red dog 1]

58. What American writer wrote a short short story called "The Kool-Aid Wino"?

Last edited Thu Jun 17, 2021, 10:05 PM - Edit history (1)

[red dog 1]

59. What was Stephen King's first published novel?

[Mad_Dem_X]

70. Carrie

[red dog 1]

72. That's it!

[red dog 1]

60. What sport did Tom Wolfe excel at while in high school and in college as well?

[red dog 1]

66. Who is the best selling American writer still alive?

[Harker]

81. Tom Clancy?

[red dog 1]

85. Nope

[Harker]

87. Good.

[First Speaker]

84. Stephen King?

[red dog 1]

86. Nope

[jmowreader]

73. There are two authors named John Muir

One of them wrote, among other things, "The Mountains of California," "The Story of My Boyhood and Youth," and "Travels in Alaska."

What did the other one write?

[Harker]

82. Ah! Took me a while...

"How to Keep Your Volkswagen Alive..."

I had an oil stained, dog-eared copy.

[red dog 1]

74. What was the cause of Tennessee Williams' death?

[red dog 1]

77. What was Dan Brown's occupation prior to the release of "The Da Vinci Code"?

[red dog 1]

88. What was Stephen King's first professional sale?

[MatthewHatesTrump2]

89. What was the cause of Richard Brautigan's death?

[MatthewHatesTrump2]

90. He shot himself (suicide)

I think he shot himself with a shotgun, (possibly in Bolinas, CA)