Writers' Homes Trivia Quiz

Answer: F. Scott Fitzgerald

F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda lived here for two years starting in 1922. The opulence of the house and the neighborhood served as influences for Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby". Fitzgerald wrote the novel's first three chapters here before he and Zelda moved to Paris in 1924.

Answer: William Faulkner

In Faulkner's study, visitors can view and read an outline of "A Fable" which he wrote on the wallpaper when he was planning it out. That novel won Faulkner a Pulitzer Prize in 1954. Rowan Oak is known also for the many plant species that live on the grounds, though the Rowan Oak of the house's name is not a real plant.

Answer: Daphne du Maurier

Menabilly was the inspiration for Manderley, the fictional estate in "Rebecca". The description of Manderley in the novel fits Menabilly perfectly. Both were large estates that could not be seen from the road as they were hidden by forests and woods. Du Maurier did not live in Menabilly when she wrote "Rebecca" but lived nearby.

She did, however, lease the manor for a few years after "Rebecca" was published.

Answer: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf wrote some of her most famous novels at Monk's House, including "To The Lighthouse" and "Mrs. Dalloway". Woolf had lived in London mostly but she had always found the solitude of Monk's House to be more suitable for writing, especially during World War II. Virginia Woold drowned herself in the River Ouse which ran near Monk's House in March 1941 after a battle with depression.

Answer: Washington Irving

Irving wrote a short story called "Wolfert's Roost" about Sunnyside, though the name of that story is similar to his previous home's called Wolfert's Nest. Irving designed Sunnyside himself and hoped it would remind visitors of the Mediterranean. During Irving's lifetime, the house was well known by name, akin to that of Mount Vernon, George Washington's plantation.

Irving's classic "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is gloomy and dark in tone. As a result, many readers may find it odd he lived in a house called Sunnyside.

Answer: Agatha Christie

The "Poirot" series adaptation of "Dead Man's Folly" was actually filmed at Greenway Estate. In that novel, a murder hunt at a fair goes awry when the teenager playing the victim is actually murdered and the hostess disappears. Greenway Estate or parts of it, where also used as inspiration in several other Christie novels.

Christie and her second husband, Max Mallowan, bought Greenway Estate in 1938 and lived their until they died, she in 1976 and he two years later. Christie's daughter, Rosalind Hicks, also lived in the house until she died in 2004.

Answer: Edith Wharton

Edith Wharton wrote a few paranormal or ghost stories during her career because she was inspired by the ghostly visions she claimed to see at the Mount. Although she lived there at the time, the Mount is not known to be an inspiration for "The House of Mirth" though Wharton did write "The Decoration of Houses" when she was decorating the Mount.

Answer: Robert Frost

Stone House was poet Robert Frost's house where he wrote such classics as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Stone House is a picturesque little red house that embodies that classic Vermont/New England feeling with bright leaves in the fall and snowy banks in the winter. Visitors can also see some of Frost's famous apple trees on the grounds.

Answer: Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott lives in Orchard House for decades prior to the publishing of "Little Women". She and her husband had actually once sold it to Nathaniel Hawthorne but they bought it back in 1857. According to Alcott, she wrote "Little Women" in the house on a desk her father built. The desk can still be seen in the house today, which is a museum.

Answer: Anne Frank

Anne Frank wrote her famous diary, which was published in 1952 in English with the name "The Diary of a Young Girl," during the Holocaust when she and her family were hiding in what she called the Secret Annex of their home. The Franks were Jewish and went into hiding to avoid capture by Nazis. Anne Frank had always wanted to be a writer and detailed her life in hiding in a journal she had received for her birthday. Anne Frank House is now a well-visited museum in Amsterdam.