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Quiz about Those Scribbling Jailbirds
Quiz about Those Scribbling Jailbirds

Those Scribbling Jailbirds Trivia Quiz


All of us were American or British writers who spent time in jail--writing before, during, or after our imprisonment. Can you guess who we are?

A multiple-choice quiz by alaspooryoric. Estimated time: 5 mins.
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Time
5 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
339,077
Updated
Dec 03 21
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
7 / 10
Plays
919
Awards
Top 10% Quiz
Last 3 plays: Guest 173 (6/10), Guest 120 (5/10), angostura (10/10).
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Question 1 of 10
1. After using my "Common Sense" to get through an "American Crisis", I was much later imprisoned in France, where I was initially an advocate for the French Revolution but later arrested for my criticism of Louis XVI's execution. Who am I? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. In 1846, I left my "walled-in" solitude in Concord, Massachusetts, to spend a night in jail because of my "Civil Disobedience". Who am I? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. Before hearing "The Call of the Wild", leaving my California home, and going to the Klondike to learn "To Build a Fire" in the snow, I travelled to Buffalo, New York, where I spent thirty days in jail for vagrancy. Who am I? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. I was a twentieth-century American poet who first spent time in "The Enormous Room" of a French prison camp during World War I before eventually writing about "a goat-footed balloon man" who danced around "in Just-spring" and about how "anyone lived in a pretty how town". Who am I? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. I was also a twentieth-century American poet, and after spending a year in a New York jail as a conscientious objector to World War II, I drew upon my "Memories of West Street and Lepke" and started working on my "Life Studies". Who am I? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. In the 1400s, I sat in a medieval English prison for the plundering, extorting, and raping I perpetrated during the Wars of the Roses. Rather than focus on my own mortality, I focused on the "Morte D'Arthur". Who am I? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. I was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1603 to 1616 on trumped up charges of treason against King James I. So, obviously, I had a lot of time on my hands to spend on the "History of the World" - certainly a more challenging task than "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd". Who am I? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. I was a Cavalier poet who lived from 1618 to 1657. During one of my periods of incarceration, I decided to write "To Althea, from Prison", where I began to realize, "Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage". Who am I? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. Following the Restoration of King Charles II to the throne of England, I was thrown in prison, despite my being blind, for my service to Cromwell's regime. Though eventually released, I was despondent because of our failed new government and never quite "Regained" my "Paradise Lost". Who am I? Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. I was imprisoned in late Victorian England for my "crime" of "gross indecency" and sentenced to hard labor for two years. Society was not ready to accept "The Importance of [my] Being Earnest" about my relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Who am I? Hint



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Most Recent Scores
Mar 27 2024 : Guest 173: 6/10
Mar 21 2024 : Guest 120: 5/10
Mar 07 2024 : angostura: 10/10
Feb 16 2024 : Guest 89: 5/10
Jan 29 2024 : CardoQ: 8/10

Score Distribution

quiz
Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. After using my "Common Sense" to get through an "American Crisis", I was much later imprisoned in France, where I was initially an advocate for the French Revolution but later arrested for my criticism of Louis XVI's execution. Who am I?

Answer: Thomas Paine

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) was credited by George Washington with having won the American Revolution with his "Common Sense" and "Crisis" publications. After the conflict, Paine eventually left the fledgling United States to return to England, where he began stirring up more revolutionary ideas with his "Rights of Man". Charged with treason, he fled to France, where he began feverishly fanning the flames of revolution there.

However, his hatred of monarchical systems of government waned when he saw how bloody and chaotic France's revolution had become.

He was accused of sympathy for the crown and imprisoned but he escaped trial and most likely the guillotine after the American ambassador to France, James Monroe, talked the French authorities into turning Paine over to him. Paine's American citizenship was renewed, but the incorrigible rebel published "The Age of Reason", in which he attacked institutionalized religion (including Christianity), and ruined his reputation.

He died poor and unliked, and his body, being refused burial in a Christian cemetery, was interred on his own farm.
2. In 1846, I left my "walled-in" solitude in Concord, Massachusetts, to spend a night in jail because of my "Civil Disobedience". Who am I?

Answer: Henry David Thoreau

During his two-year stay at Walden Pond, Thoreau spent one night in the local jail after refusing to pay his poll tax, an act of protest against the United States' war with Mexico. He felt the war was an excuse for more territory for the expansion of slavery, something he vehemently despised.

This experience inspired him to write and publish "Resistance to Civil Government" in 1849; however, the title was suspiciously changed to "Civil Disobedience" in 1866 in another publication. As legend has it, Emerson, Thoreau's mentor and friend, visited him the night of his stay in jail and asked Thoreau, "Why are you here?" Thoreau replied, "Why are you NOT here?"
3. Before hearing "The Call of the Wild", leaving my California home, and going to the Klondike to learn "To Build a Fire" in the snow, I travelled to Buffalo, New York, where I spent thirty days in jail for vagrancy. Who am I?

Answer: Jack London

By the time London was 18, he had worked in a jute mill and a cannery as well as worked as a coal shoveler, a seaman, and a pirate who raided commercial oyster beds. Responding to the economic panic of 1893, he had also crossed much of the nation as a member of "Kelly's Army," a group of disgruntled, unemployed men from the West Coast who were planning to join "Coxey's Army" and march on Washington, D.C. "Kelly's Army" all but fizzled out, and eventually London found himself hobo-ing to New York, where he was arrested for vagrancy in 1894.

He made it back home to finish high school and enroll in the University of California.
4. I was a twentieth-century American poet who first spent time in "The Enormous Room" of a French prison camp during World War I before eventually writing about "a goat-footed balloon man" who danced around "in Just-spring" and about how "anyone lived in a pretty how town". Who am I?

Answer: E. E. Cummings

Cummings had been serving in the ambulance corps in France during the Great War when he and a friend began writing letters home to vent their anger and frustration about France's ineffectiveness at medical care. French officials grew irate and threw the two of them in prison.

While Cummings found this situation outrageous, he also found being thrown into prison by a people he was trying to help to be humorous. He used this experience to create his first literary success--"The Enormous Room"--a prose account published in 1922 that provided an ironic praise of the ordinary soldier and an attack on bureaucracy.
5. I was also a twentieth-century American poet, and after spending a year in a New York jail as a conscientious objector to World War II, I drew upon my "Memories of West Street and Lepke" and started working on my "Life Studies". Who am I?

Answer: Robert Lowell

In 1943, Lowell was sentenced to one year in New York's West Street jail because he refused to support America's policies in World War II, particularly those of unconditional surrender and saturation bombing. At his sentencing, the judge berated him for injuring his family's reputation; the Lowells were an important American family whose members included the founders of Lowell Textiles in Lowell, Massachusetts (a city named for them), a judge during George Washington's administration, the poets James Russell Lowell and Amy Lowell, and the astronomer Percival Lowell (founder of Lowell Observatory). Robert Lowell was incarcerated with Lepke Buchalter, the head of the organized crime syndicate Murder Incorporated. Lowell's book of poems entitled "Life Studies" was published in 1959 and is considered one of the most influential poetical publications of the twentieth century; it brought a new level of autobiographical intensity to American poetry through its poems' confessional style.
6. In the 1400s, I sat in a medieval English prison for the plundering, extorting, and raping I perpetrated during the Wars of the Roses. Rather than focus on my own mortality, I focused on the "Morte D'Arthur". Who am I?

Answer: Sir Thomas Malory

Malory's criminal record includes the plundering of various priories and abbeys, extorting money, raping, and escaping prison. Such a background certainly contradicts the chivalry he celebrates in the lengthy "Morte D'Arthur" ("The Death of Arthur"), which he wrote to while away his time during incarceration. To his credit, however, many of the charges may have been falsified or exaggerated. Malory was a soldier in the Wars of the Roses, and being on the side of the king not currently in power meant a great deal of suffering. Malory switched sides from Lancaster to York to Lancaster again, and after the failed revolt of the Lancasters during the Yorkist Edward IV's reign, Malory's name was on a legal document of Lancaster supporters not to be given exoneration by Edward IV.
7. I was imprisoned in the Tower of London from 1603 to 1616 on trumped up charges of treason against King James I. So, obviously, I had a lot of time on my hands to spend on the "History of the World" - certainly a more challenging task than "The Nymph's Reply to the Shepherd". Who am I?

Answer: Sir Walter Raleigh

King James I suspected Raleigh of opposition to his succession to the throne after Queen Elizabeth I's death, especially since he had been one of her "favorites". Raleigh was an important man to be reckoned with: he was a soldier, philosopher, poet, scientist, explorer, and colonist (remember Roanoke?).

He also had a violent temper. Following his release from prison, he led a voyage in 1617 to Guiana in search of gold, which he did not find. However, he did manage to irritate the Spanish to such an extent that they persuaded King James I to execute him.

He was beheaded in 1618.
8. I was a Cavalier poet who lived from 1618 to 1657. During one of my periods of incarceration, I decided to write "To Althea, from Prison", where I began to realize, "Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor iron bars a cage". Who am I?

Answer: Richard Lovelace

Lovelace fought in the English Civil Wars of the seventeenth century on the side of King Charles I. After suffering defeat, he was sent to prison by Parliament itself, which was dominated by sympathizers of the victorious Puritans. He eventually went into exile where he fought abroad as a soldier of fortune until, as fate would have it, he would be imprisoned in England once again. Upon his release, he was financially ruined and died eight years later while still in his 30's.
9. Following the Restoration of King Charles II to the throne of England, I was thrown in prison, despite my being blind, for my service to Cromwell's regime. Though eventually released, I was despondent because of our failed new government and never quite "Regained" my "Paradise Lost". Who am I?

Answer: John Milton

John Milton was quite the radical for his time. Not only did he write pamphlets and books in support of regicide (particularly that of Charles I) but also in support of divorce on the grounds of incompatibility and of freedom of the press. He so strongly supported Puritanism and the politics of Cromwell's dictatorial Council of State, that he was appointed Cromwell's Latin Secretary.

When the Cromwellian government fell apart and Charles I's son reclaimed the throne, Milton found himself imprisoned.

He would most likely have been executed but for the pleas of friends, like the poet Andrew Marvell, who accomplished Milton's release. He still had to pay a heavy fine that cost him the majority of his property. He was depressed that his dream of a nation without a king had crumbled, but he eventually settled down to "justify the ways of God to men" in his masterpiece "Paradise Lost".

He wrote "Paradise Regained" a few years after that.
10. I was imprisoned in late Victorian England for my "crime" of "gross indecency" and sentenced to hard labor for two years. Society was not ready to accept "The Importance of [my] Being Earnest" about my relationship with Lord Alfred Douglas. Who am I?

Answer: Oscar Wilde

Wilde published his only novel, "The Picture of Dorian Gray", in 1890 and then wrote a series of successful plays culminating in "The Importance of Being Earnest" in 1895. That same year Wilde unwisely began legal proceedings against Lord Alfred Douglas's father, the Marquess of Queensberry for libel.

The Marquess could defend his claim that Wilde was guilty of "sodomy" only by proving that Wilde was indeed participating in homosexual acts, which he did prove to the courts. Such behavior was a felony at the time, and criminal charges were then brought against Wilde.

He was found guilty and sentenced to prison and hard labor. After his release, his reputation in England was destroyed. He moved to Paris, where he died of cerebral meningitis in 1900 under the care of the manager of the hotel where he was staying.
Source: Author alaspooryoric

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