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.....

[satnrose]

568. Who were the real "Black Widowers"?

[ok-mrs-bee]

#566 - I've been trying.

I don't know which historical figures are defined as famous American Puritans, - I may not even recognise the name - so I've been tackling the question using the biography clue.

I started by looking at biographers of George Eliot. That didn't get me anywhere.

I moved on to biographers of Charlotte Bronte and found Mrs Gaskell, but couldn't find any reference to her using a pseudonym for early stories.

I then had my tea, watched a film and now it's time for bed. 🙂

[ok-mrs-bee]

However, before I go ...

568. Is the answer in the Origins section here ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Widowers

?

[256michy99]

568

From Wikipedia

The Black Widowers were based on a literary dining club Asimov belonged to known as the Trap Door Spiders. Members of the Widowers were based on real-life Spiders, some of them famous writers in their own right:

* Geoffrey Avalon (based on L. Sprague de Camp)
* Emmanuel Rubin (based on Lester del Rey)
* James Drake (based on Dr. John D. Clark)
* Thomas Trumbull (based on Gilbert Cant)
* Mario Gonzalo (based on Lin Carter)
* Roger Halsted (based on Don Bensen)

The deceased founder of the club, Ralph Ottur, on whom the plot of the story "To the Barest" turned, was based on the real-life founder of the Trap Door Spiders, Fletcher Pratt. The stage magician The Amazing Larri, from the story "The Cross of Lorraine", was based on James Randi. The arrogant science fiction writer Mortimer Stellar, from the story "When No Man Pursueth", was based on Asimov himself.

[256michy99]

Couple minutes too late.

[satnrose]

Better to have an explanation than a linky.

[oldbookshopnj]

566. The pseudonymous stories were published in 1847-1848.

Ok-mrs-bee was looking in the right direction.

[professorbooknoodle]

# 566 Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell (1810 - 1865) - better known to all of us as Mrs. Gaskell, wrote a couple of early stories using the pseudonym of Cotton mather Mills. She is famous for her biography of Charlotte BrontГ«, who used the pen name of Currer Bell.

[oldbookshopnj]

566. The professor has the right answer.

[satnrose]

Good one!

[satnrose]

569. What science fiction author was also a superb Civil War historian?

[ok-mrs-bee]

568 - #5707 - I posted the linky because I didn't want to spoil it for those who might know the answer without goin' a'googlin'. 😛

566 - I've heard of Cotton Mather.

However, I was surprised by Oldbookshop's and Wikipedia's reference to Mrs Gaskell being best known for her biography of Charlotte Bronte and the Professor's, famous for her biography of Charlotte Brontë. I think that would be 'best known' and 'famous' in the US.

I think we may have a transatlantic difference of opinion.

I would suggest that, in the UK, Mrs Gaskell is most famous and best known for her novels; Cranford in particular. I wonder how many of us know that she wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte. I vaguely remember reading about it somewhere.

Most interesting - thank you, Oldbookshop.

[professorbooknoodle]

I was just following along ok-mrs-bee, for as to myself Cranford is exactly what I think of when I think of Gaskell. A most charming book, and I have seen some very charmingly illustrated editions of that book. Some of the best, in my mind , are the ones done by Hugh Thomson, and those done by C. E. Brock. Thomson is, of course hugely collected. Brock is also , although not to the same extent. Brock is , in my opinion, one of the most civilized illustrators to be seen. His work shares a certain affinity with that of Reginald Birch. For that matter so does Thomson's work - at least in the line drawings.

I never pass up a nice copy of Cranford. It always sells in short order.

By the way - the Thomson illustrated editions may be out of range for some, but Dent issued a lovely Brock-illustrated edition, and copies remain quite affordable.

[ok-mrs-bee]

Thank you, Professor. I was beginning to think that Mrs Gaskell only mattered in the US because she wrote a biography of Charlotte Bronte.

Mrs Gaskell's 'Cranford' is Knutsford, in Cheshire, close to where I, and she, grew up.

Now I must Google the artists to which you refer while putting the SF question on hold.

[vvet696]

Here I am at a coffee joint in Indiana, with free internet - waiting for folks to get through the line.

#569 would be Flethcher Pratt, no?