Author Rebus and Match Two Trivia Quiz

Answer: Alexander

Push + Kin

Alexander Sergeyevich Pushkin was born in June 1799 into Russian nobility in Moscow. Pushkin's literary talent was widespread writing short stories, poems, novels, plays and even librettos. He was widely acclaimed from a young age but his political views concerning social reform led to his exile on a number of occasions.

He died from a bullet wound in the hip on the 10th February 1837 acquired from a duel two days earlier.

* Dates are converted new style.

Answer: Joseph

Hell + Err


Joseph Heller was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1923 and held a number of jobs before joining the US Army Air Corps in 1942 and flew combat missions in Italy. He studied English at University under the GI Bill when he returned home and then worked as a teacher and an advertising copyrighter.

He wrote plays, short stories, autobiographies, screenplays and novels at home throughout this time but is best remembered for his 1961 novel "Catch-22" which took him eight years to finish.

He died in December 1999 from a heart attack.

Answer: Ernest

Hem + Ming + Way

Ernest Miller Hemingway was born in Chicago in July 1899 and produced short stories, non fiction books and novels that have become American literature classics. After serving in WWI as an ambulance driver he became a foreign correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and WWII.

He won the 1952 Pulitzer Prize for "The Old Man and the Sea" which was the last book he published - 10 more were published posthumously.

He died in July 1961 by a self inflicted gunshot wound after suffering many bouts of depression.

Answer: Joseph

Con + Rad

Joseph Conrad (Jozef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski) was born in what is now Ukraine (previously Poland and then Russia) in December 1857. He left home at 17 to join the merchant navy, first in France and then England. He stayed on the ships for 21 years working his way through the ranks until he reached captain.

He then decided on a literary career and the first of his 19 books was published a year later. He also wrote essays and short stories. Most of his work was inspired by the world he had seen while at sea and were critically acclaimed, particularly as he didn't speak fluent English before he was 20.

He died in August 1924.

Answer: Salman

Rush + Die

Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie was born in June 1947 in Bombay, India in the last days of British rule.

After reading history at Cambridge he worked as a copywriter in London. He published his first two novels while working at the agency - "Midnight's Children" winning the 1981 Booker Prize.

He then became a full time writer and has since written numerous plays, essays and both adult and children's novels. He has some of the highest literary honours in the USA, France and the UK, including a knighthood in 2007.

His most famous work is undeniably his fourth novel, "The Satanic Verses", which sparked a major controversy in the Muslim world. Ayatollah Khomeini, Iran's spiritual leader, called the book "blasphemous against Islam" and on Valentine's Day 1989 issued a fatwa ordering his execution. In 2010 an Al-Qaeda hit list published in a magazine still included his name.

He currently, as of 2017, lives in the USA.

Answer: Christopher

Mar + Low

Christopher Marlowe, DOB unknown but baptised in February 1564 was born in Kent, England and educated at Cambridge. He was a well respected poet, translator and playwright. Only three of his plays were published prior to his death and are famous for his use of blank verse. Born in the same year, Shakespeare was said to have been much influenced by his work.

So much that is written of Marlowe has no historical basis; wives tales and written accounts suggest that, in the least, he was a drinker and brawler but go so far as to suggest he was a heretic and a spy.

Even his death is clothed in mystery. It is known he received a warrant for his arrest that is believed to be connected to blasphemy and that he was stabbed to death 10 days later at the age of 29.

Answer: Lewis

Car + Roll

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was born in Cheshire in January 1832 and was educated at Rugby and Oxford. He was many things throughout his life - a photographer for many years, an Anglican Deacon, an inventor and creator of games, a mathematician and a writer.

His writing spanned two very different fields. He was a brilliant mathematician and wrote many books about algebra, logic and recreational maths under his real name. The other was his more well known children's books - the most famous being "Alice in Wonderland" which was published in 1865. The book made him a household name around the world.

He died of pneumonia in January 1898.

Answer: Daniel

De + Foe

Daniel Defoe (born Daniel Foe) was born in London sometime between 1659 and 1662. He was a general merchant dealing in many different goods and aspired to the high society, buying both a ship and country estate. Despite this he spent most of his life in debt even after a fortuitous marriage. He spent time in a debtors prison and also declared bankruptcy at one point.

His writing was prolific and varied, he wrote multiple pamphlets and journals on business, crime, religion and psychology but is most remembered for his novels particularly "Robinson Crusoe" written in 1719. It has the claim to fame of being the second most translated book in history - after the Bible.

Answer: Anthony

Troll + Lope

Anthony Trollope was born in April 1815 in London and was another prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction although he was 32 before he was first published.

He spent the first half of his working life in Ireland with the post office and his first few books were based here, these were not received well due to British disinterest. Trollope changed his background to the English countryside and "The Warden" was published in 1855. This was the first of his six book series which became known as 'The Chronicles of Barsetshire'. The second of these, "Barchester Towers", is his best known work.

Like many authors of the day he received critical acclaim for his works after his death in 1882.

Answer: George

Ore + Well

Eric Arthur Blair (George Orwell) was born in British India in June 1903 but the family moved to England a year later. Upon completing school he joined the Indian Imperial Police and went to work in Burma. Five years later he resigned and returned to England to become a writer. His first novel "Down and Out" was published in 1933. Although he is best known today as a novelist, he only wrote nine novels in his lifetime - the last two of these, "Animal Farm" and "Nineteen Eighty-Four", becoming his most famous works.

The rest of his large volume of work was in journalism, where he covered culture, literature and politics, to name a few. In 2008 'The Times' published a list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945" on which he placed second.

He died in January 1950, at the age of 46, of complications from TB.