War Lit and the Authors Trivia Quiz

Answer: Leo Rosten

Leo Rosten wrote "Captain Newman, MD", which was made into a memorable movie starring Gregory Peck as the kind psychiatrist, Angie Dickinson as his nurse, Tony Curtis as an affable orderly, and Bobby Darin and Robert Duvall as patients.

Wouk wrote "Winds of War" and the sequel "War and Rememberance", and also was awarded the Pulitzer for "The Caine Mutiny". Shaara's Civil War novel "Gods and Generals" was made into a film starring Robert Duvall as General Lee. James Jones, of course, is known for many great WWII novels, the most famous of which is perhaps "From Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line", and "Guadalcanal Diary".

Answer: Nevil Shute

Shute's novel "On the Beach" is set in a coastal Australian town in the wake of nuclear war, and was made into a movie starring Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner and directed by Stanley Kramer. It was remade into a TV movie in 2000, starring Rachel Ward. Shute wrote 25 books, including "A Town Like Alice" and "The Far Country", before dying in 1960 in Melbourne, Australia.

Answer: Alexander Solzhenitsyn

Solzhenitsyn wrote "August 1914" which is considered Vol. I of his "Red Wheel Series." After being awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970, Solz was arrested and deported out of Russia. He lived for a time in Europe with Boll and Rostropovich before accepting a position at Stanford University in 1978.

He was able to return to Russia in 1994, where he died in 1998. Voinovich, another dissident Russian writer, published "A Portrait Against the Background of a Myth," which credited Solz for revealing the evils of Soviet Russia, but also denounced him for being a poor writer, anti-Semitic, and greatly harmed and hindered by his own egoism.

Answer: Philip Caputo

All four men were in the country during the Vietnam War, Caputo as a soldier, and Sheehan, Herr and Halberstam as correspondents. Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie" centers around John Paul Vann, a U.S. Army officer who provided Sheehan much information during the early years of the American involvement in Vietnam.

The book earned Sheehan a National Book Award and a Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction. David Halberstam won a Pulitzer for reporting, and his many acclaimed works include "One Very Hot Day", "The Best and the Brightest", and "The Making of a Quagmire".

Answer: Irwin Shaw

Shaw wrote "The Young Lions". Heller is known for the classic "Catch 22". While Dickey is best known for his poetry and "Deliverance", he also wrote "To the White Sea" about a pilot downed over Japan in WWII. O'Brien wrote "Going after Cacciato" and "The Things They Carried".

Answer: Michael Herr

Herr also co-wrote the screenplay for the movie "Full Metal Jacket", which was based upon Hasford's novel "The Short-Timers" and directed by Stanley Kubrick. That screenplay received an Oscar nomination. Stone received the National Book Award in 1974 for "Dog Soldiers".

Answer: Charles Frazier

All four authors wrote of Civil War events. Frazier's "Cold Mountain" was turned into the movie starring Nicole Kidman and Jude Law and for which Renee Zellweger won a supporting actress Oscar. Crane's iconic novel of the Civil War is "The Red Badge of Courage", and Deeb's are "Duty and Honor" and "Duty Accomplished". Michael Shaara wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning "The Killer Angels."

Answer: Philip Caputo

Caputo, who wrote the searing "A Rumor of War", won a joint Pulitzer in 1972 for reporting on election fraud in Chicago. Robin Moore, wrote "The Green Berets," made into the 1968 movie starring John Wayne and is one of the few pro-Vietnam novels from the era.

Heinemann was awarded the 1987 National Book Award for Fiction for "Paco's Story". He served as an infantry soldier in the Vietnam War and also wrote "Black Virgin Montain" and "Close Quarters". Stone's "A Flag at Sunrise" was awarded a Faulkner Award.

Answer: Steven Pressfield

Pressfield's works usually revolve around wars in ancient history, such as "The Afghan Campaign" and "The Virtues of War" which concern the campaigns and times of Alexander the Great. Patton was, of course, the WWII general who chased Rommel across the North African desert. Jeffrey Shaara, son of Pulitzer Prize winner Michael Shaara, has written Civil War novels completing his father's legacy as well as two WWII novels, "The Rising Tide" and "The Steel Wave".

Answer: John Hersey

Hersey was a war correspondent turned novelist who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1945 for "A Bell for Adano". In addition to "Hiroshima" he wrote "The Wall" and "Of Men and War", the latter of which contains several true war experiences --including that of young naval officer Jack Kennedy and his PT109. "The Forever War" (Joe Haldeman) and "The War of the Worlds" (Herbert George Wells) are memorable works of fiction.

Answer: Norman Mailer

Mailer's WWII novel was entitled "The Naked and The Dead". He was awarded Pulitizer Prizes for Non Fiction in 1968 ("Armies of the Night") and for Fiction in 1979 ("The Executioner's Song"). He was a prolific writer of over 40 books, including biographies of Lee Harvey Oswald, Muhammad Ali, and Marilyn Monroe.

He died in 2007. MacKinlay Kantor wrote "Andersonville", "Gettysburg", and "Valley Forge", while Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front", set in WWI, remains a quintessential anti-war novel.

Answer: Sydney Schanberg

After his work in Vietnam, Schanberg was sent to Cambodia where he won a Pulitizer for International Reporting in 1976. His Cambodian translator, guide and friend, Dith Pran, was taken captive by Pol Pot's Khymer Rouge after non-nationals and correspondents were allowed to leave the country.

The book detailing these events was made into the movie "The Killing Fields" starring Sam Waterston and Hang Ngor, the latter of which won an Academy Award for his performance. Graham Green wrote "The Quiet American" about the US's early involvement in Vietnam. Trinh T. Minh-ha immigrated from Vietnam in 1970.

She teaches at UC Berkeley and published "When the Moon Waxes Red" in 1991 about post-war culture in Vietnam.

Answer: Barbara Tuchman

Tuchman won the Pulitzer Prize for "The Guns of August", which advanced the thesis that none of the great powers of WWI had wanted nor were prepared for a lengthy, wide-scale war-- but had merely fallen into it. Byrd wrote "Through the Wheat", and Cobb's "Paths of Glory" is about WWI from the French viewpoint. Al Gowen wrote "Santiago Rag: A Novel of the Spanish-Cuban-American War".

Answer: James Michener

Although largely known for his century-spanning historical novels, Michener also wrote "The Bridges at Toko Ri", "Sayonara", and "The Bridge at Andau". "Andau" is based on the 1956 revolution, as well as the short period of independence the Hungarians had before the Russians returned in larger force to brutally suppress the revolution. Forester wrote "The General (Great War Stories)" and John Dos Passos wrote the 1921 novel "Three Soldiers", both set in the WWI era.

Answer: Joe David Brown

Brown's book "Kings Go Forth" explored then-controversial miscegenation, or the interbreeding of races, although WWII had been fought against Hitler's concept that the races should be kept pure. The 1958 movie starred Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis and the luminous Natalie Wood as a young woman whose father had been black. Delmar Daves directed. Brown also wrote "Addie Pray", set in the Depression era and made into the movie "Paper Moon". Styron wrote "The Confessions of Nat Turner" and "Sophie's Choice".