Legendary Quotes from Legendary Men Quiz

Answer: Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí was born on May 11th, 1904 in Figueres,Spain. After training at the Academia de San Fernando, Madrid he left for Paris where he met Pablo Picasso. He also met Joan Miro, the Spanish painter and sculptor who introduced him to painter René Magritte who in turn introduced Dalí to Surrealism. Dali died January 23rd, 1989 at Figueres.

Answer: Walt Whitman

Walter Whitman was born on Long Island, New York, on May 13th 1819.
Whitman wrote in the preface to the 1855 edition of "Leaves of Grass", "The proof of a poet is that his country absorbs him as affectionately as he has absorbed it." He believed there was a vital, symbiotic relationship between the poet and society.

Whitman died on March 26 1892. He was inducted in the New Jersey Hall of Fame in 2009.

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born on 16 October 1854 in Dublin. In 1871 he was awarded a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin and three years later a scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford.

In 1892 his first play, 'Lady Windermere's Fan', was a great hit with the public and the critics. By 1895 he was having an affair with Lord Alfred Douglas. A visiting card left by Douglas's father, the Marquis of Queensberry, read, 'Oscar Wilde. Posing Sodomite'. This led Wilde to launch a private prosecution for libel. The trial revealed evidence of Wilde's homosexuality and led to him being charged with 'gross indecency' (in other words, with committing homosexual acts). Wilde was convicted on May 25, 1895 and sentenced to two years in prison. On his release from prison he left for Paris, where died on November 30 1900.

Answer: Robin Williams

Robin Williams was born July 21, 1951 in Chicago. In 1973 he attended Julliard School where he met Christopher Reeve (of Superman fame). Williams' breakthrough was in the TV series 'Mork and Mindy' where they allowed him to adlib and improvise.
He's confessed to addiction to drugs and alcohol, but his wake up call coming when his son was born.

As well as standup comedy he has done voice overs, movies and theatre work.

Answer: Friedrich Nietzsche

Of course, Nietzsche is also famous for saying, 'You're going to the women? Don't forget the whip'. (!)
Friedrich Nietzsche was born in Prussian Saxony on October 15 1844. In 1864 he enrolled at the University of Bonn where he studied classical philology and theology but soon lost his faith. The famous statement 'God is dead' crops up in two of his works. On January 3, 1889, Nietzsche suffered a nervous breakdown caused, it is said, by tertiary syphilis. He died on August 20, 1900 of a stroke.

Answer: Arthur Conan Doyle

Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on 22 May 1859. After studying at Edinburgh University he set up as a medical doctor in Portsmouth. He had too few patients and started to write detective stories. His character Sherlock Holmes was based on Doctor Joesph Bell, a criminal psychologist and surgeon.

In 1922 he published his book 'The coming of the Fairies'. He was taken in by the hoax of two young girls, Frances Griffiths and Elsie Wright from Cottingley near Bradford. They had taken five photographs of supposed fairies near their home.

The photographs were found to be fake. Conan Doyle died in East Sussex on 7 July 1930.

Answer: William Makepeace Thackeray

Born in Kolkata, India on July 18, 1811, Thackery was sent to England after his father died when he was five years old. After leaving Cambridge and travelling abroad he briefly decided to study Law. In 1848 he had written 'Vanity Fair' which made his name. He died on 24 December 1863.

Answer: Lord Byron

George Gordon Byron was born 22 January 1788. He was educated in Aberdeen and at Harrow. In 1816 he left England because of the scandal of a failed marriage and incest with his half sister resulting in a daughter. After living in Italy for six years he joined the Greek rebels in their fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire. On the 19 May 1824 he succumbed to fever.

His body was bought back to his ancestral home in England.

Answer: Henry James

Henry James was born on 15 April 1843 in New York City. As a young child he travelled extensivly in Europe, his father believing that educating his children was the most important thing for them. In 1864 James decided he would become a writer after attempts at Science studies.

In 1897 he retired to Rye in East Sussex. He died 28 February 1916. A memorial was set up for him in Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey in 1976.

Answer: O. Henry

William Sydney Porter was born in Greensboro, North Carolina September 11 1862.
In 1898 he was imprisoned for embezzling funds from The First National Bank, he served five years in an Ohio jail. His time in jail was spent writing short stories. He served three years and to hide his true identity he became O. Henry.
He died an alcoholic on June 5, 1910 in New York City.