SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

[lludwig]

SATNROSE’S BOOK QUIZ

2. What is the most valuable printed book?

Answer in invisible ink: 2. Was The Gutenberg Bible; now it is the Caxton Canterbury Tales

Note: I think a complete Gutenberg would beat the Canterbury if offered up to auction. However, the Caxton Canterbury is currently the most expensive printed book ever to change hands. 13 million? I forget.....

[ksmrkt]

Just to keep this old thread alive, I'm going to call this question # 745 ( I think there was a 744, but I am not sure about that) 

From another thread:  

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@impertinentwit wrote:

first appearance of the television in fiction

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@ argon wrote:

would make a good quiz question. But what's the answer?

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SO -- question #745 is:   What was the first fiction book to reference the television?  

I have no idea what the answer may be.  I'm not even sure that my post makes sense!

[sigmapsidelta]

There was a novel published in the 1890s entitled 'Golf in the Year 2000' that mentions a device very similar to television.

The earliest mention of TV on an aircraft appears to be in '2001: A Space Odyssey'.

There has to be something from the 1920s or '30s that mentions it, but I can't find it.

.

[ksmrkt]

sigmapsidelta wins ice cream  for that answer about 'Golf in the Year 2000' and  '2001: A Space Odyssey'!

[argon38]

A quote from a major 20th-century publisher:

"I bought a couple of them later and grew to despise them. They were cowardly, stupid , disloyal and full of self-pity, and they kept running away.  One died, and I gave the other to a kennel. I wish I'd picked a better dog for our imprint."

Question #746: name the publisher. For a bonus point, name the breed. (Googling of the quote is not permitted, and will be severely punished if attempted).

[jeanpaulbooks]

Knopf? The dog is a borzois, Russian wolf-hound.

[argon38]

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@jeanpaulbooks wrote:
Knopf?

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Knopf is right, but... Mr or Mrs?

[jeanpaulbooks]

Mrs.

[argon38]

Yes, it was Blanche W. Knopf. Full marks + bonus +  special gift (a free borzoi).

George T. Hellman, in Portrait of a Publisher 1915-1965 (New York: The Typophiles,1965), Vol. II, 67:

 " A picture of a borzoi has always appeared on the title page and jacket of every Knopf book, in every Knopf colophon, on nearly all Knopf office stationery, and in practically all Knopf advertising.  A carved wooden borzoi, three feet long, is nailed to the wall of the company's reception room.  Mrs. Knopf, who has been associated with her husband's business since the start, was crazy about borzois in 1915, or thought she was, and suggested that they use a drawing of one as a trademark. 'I bought a couple off them later, she says, 'and grew to despise them. They were cowardly, stupid, disloyal, and full of self-pity, and they kept running away.  One died, and I gave the other to a kennel.  I wish I'd picked a better dog for our imprint.'  

Her disposition of her second pet may have been hastened by a weekend Hergesheimer spent with the Knopfs in the country.  Knopf had published his The Three Black Pennys and Java Head.  He was the firm's best-selling author.  After being kept awake most of the night by the moans and whimpers of the surviving borzoi, Hergesheimer came down to Sunday breakfast wearing a rather drawn look.  'I bet Charles Scribner has no such da.mn dog,' he said. The Knopfs exchanged glances, and Mrs. Knopf went in for Yorkshire terriers."

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.collecting.books/huNnHD0JSrM

[lyceumdreams]

Never a question unanswered.

[ok-mrs-bee]

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@lyceumdreams wrote:

Never a question unanswered.

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It would be a shame to let the thread die, there must be some interesting questions to be posed.  The TV one was challenging.

[lludwig]

.

Question #746 - Who is considered as the founder of the State Library of Pennsylvania?

[rockmaple · Accepted solution]

Is it Benjamin Franklin?

[lludwig]

.

Opps, I numbered it wrong. The question on the founder of the State Library of PA should be numbered #747

rockmaple - #747 You are correct!

Books, archives survive in chilly home: Secrets of the Pa. Capitol

http://tinyurl.com/pqsd9ky

[lludwig]

trophyhusbandus  - The is the thread I mentioned on the "From the Collected Works of Bookseller Hints" that I thought you might be interested in reading. It is an elephant so one or two bites at a time. 

The link that I provided on the Hint thread did take you to the beginning which starts with Question 2, which to the best of my knowledge is still true. If you are curious as to why the Book Quiz questions start with 2, let me know. I'll tell you what the first question was and the story of why I didn't use it when I started the thread here. When I first started posting the quiz questions, I found it interesting that no one asked "What happened to Question 1?" Obviously, it wasn't a typo since I did not correct the numbering with the next question or two or three.

You will also find some interesting informative posts about the questions: sometimes more information and sometimes updated information.  

Or instead of going back to the Hint thread for the link which takes you to the beginning, here is the link:

http://tinyurl.com/ll6lh3d

[oldbookshopnj]

747.  New Year's greetings were much commoner in Europe than Christmas greetings until the 20th century.

What is the first known printed New Year's greeting, and who designed it?