Whose Cat is This? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Dr. Theodor Geisel

The author of the book "The Cat in the Hat" is the American writer, political cartoonist, illustrator, and poet Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), known as Dr. Seuss. He authored over 60 books.

"The Cat in the Hat" (1957), is a children's book; it is about an eccentric cat that wears a red and white striped top hat and a red bow tie. The Cat and his companions "Thing One" and "Thing Two" visit a home where two children are alone and upset. During the visit, they discuss trust, responsibility, social expectations, and honesty.

In the late 1940s and early 1950s, there was a great deal of debate about the efficiency of the approaches used in early childhood literacy. On this occasion, Theodor Seuss was invited to create a more fun literacy booklet. Due to commitments the author already had, the book "The Cat in the Hat" was published by two publishers in two different versions: an educational version that was sold to schools and a commercial edition sold in bookstores.

Answer: Tennessee Williams

The American Thomas Lanier Williams III (1911 - 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, adopted the name Tennessee in honor of his father's home state. With Arthur Miller and Eugene O'Neil, he is considered one of the best playwrights of 20th-century American drama. Williams achieved success at the age of 33 with the release of "The Glass Menagerie" (1944) and from then on, several of his works were successful in the theater and also adapted for cinema.

"Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" which premiered in March 1955 is a 3-act play based on the short story "Three Players of a Summer Game" (1952). This short story, along with 11 others, is part of an anthology by the author published in 1960. This work, Tennessee Williams's favorite, is one of his most important, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. The play, in 1958, was adapted for film with the same name, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman.

Answer: Margaret Atwood

The Canadian Margaret Eleanor Atwood (1939-) is a writer, essayist, literary critic, poet, environmental activist, and inventor (she created the Long Pen device, which allows for remote electronic writing and signing). Since 1961 she has produced numerous works; many have been adapted for cinema and television and received numerous literary awards. She has collected many honorary degrees.

Among her famous novels is "Cat's Eye" (1988), which tells the story of controversial artist Elaine Ridley, who returns to the town of her youth, Toronto, with the aim of rethinking her art, her childhood, and her friendships. While contextualizing her roles as a daughter, lover, wife, and artist, she tries to deal with memories that haunt her. The story spans the period after World War II to the late 1980s.

Answer: Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie (1890-1976) was an English author who wrote 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, some under the pseudonym, Mary Westmacott. Her main detectives were the characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Her books were crime and mystery fiction. Her first success came with the publication of "The Mysterious Affair of Styles" (1920). She is one of the best-selling fiction writers of all time.

In the United Kingdom, the novel "Cat Among the Pigeons" appeared in a series published in the weekly magazine "John Bull" in six chapters from September to October 1959 and was published in book form in November of the same year. In this book, the ruler of a fictional kingdom, sensing danger, packed in his sister and niece's luggage valuable jewelry, without them being aware. His niece, Jennifer, goes to an exclusive school, where several strange things start to happen, including deaths. When she felt that she could be one of the victims, she appealed to Hercule Poirot to unravel the mystery.

Answer: Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) was an American writer who was born into a wealthy family that became impoverished due to Prohibition and the Great Depression. His penchant for writing manifested from an early age; in 1936, he became co-editor of his school's newspaper. During WWII he was sent to Europe, survived the Battle of the Bulge, was captured by the Germans and sent to Dresden, where he survived bombing by Allied forces. He wrote several novels, plays, and short stories, always with a pessimistic and satirical view; he used science fiction to show the horrors and ironies of society in the 20th century.

"Cat's Cradle" (1963) is Vonnegut's fourth novel in which, with dark humor and satire, he explores problems concerning science and technology, religion, and the arms race. In his books, he describes how science, technology, and religion can be used to manipulate society.

Answer: Takashi Hiraide

Takashi Hiraide (1950 - ) has published several books of poetry as well as several genre-bending essays. As of 2022, only two of his works are available in the English language: "For the Fighting Spirit of the Walnut" (2008) and "The Guest Cat" (2014).

"The Guest Cat" received several awards in Japan and became a best seller in France. The novel delicately shows the transience of everyday things and how they affect us. The story comes to us through a couple who are around 30 years old, working from home, and whose life is not very bright. They don't have much to talk to each other about until a cat appears. Little by little the cat becomes part of their lives; through little things, their lives become brighter and happier.

Answer: Mary Stewart

Mary Florence Elinor Rainbow (1916-2014) best known as Mary Stewart, was an English novelist and a long-time teacher at an elementary school. She was very popular in the 1950s-1980s and is one of the most popular fiction writers of our time. Mary Stewart published 20 novels, a book of poetry, and three books for young people. Her books blend fiction, romance, mystery thrillers, and often history, as in the Merlin series.

Mary Stewart called her book "Touch Not the Cat" (1976) a modern adventure story spiced with romance and adventure. In this book, the heroine receives a telepathic message and returns to the UK to learn that her father died after being hit by a car after speaking mysterious phrases. Using her telepathic abilities, and with the help of another character, she manages to unravel the mysteries that hang over the Ashey Court property. One of the solved puzzles is related to the family's arms motto "Touch not the cat".

Answer: Sosuke Natsukawa

Sosuke Natsukawa, 1978, is a Japanese doctor whose debut book is "Kamisama No Karute" ("God's Medical Records"). It tells the story of a doctor who assists people and is always trying to be better in his profession. The work, which was a sales and critical success in Japan, has received numerous awards and has been adapted for film.

His second book "The Cat Who Saved Books" (2017), shows the importance and magic created by reading books. It is the story of Rintaro Natsuki, a young "hikikomori" (a person withdrawn from society, seeking extreme social isolation), who lived with his grandfather, his only relative, owner of a second-hand bookstore. With the death of his grandfather, Rintaro is bewildered and thinks about closing the bookstore, but the situation changes with the appearance of Tigger, the cat, who asks him for help in book rescue missions. This work praises the power of books and friendships.

Answer: Haruki Murakami

Haruki Murakami was born in Kyoto, post-war Japan; he is a novelist, short-story writer, and translator (he has translated works by J. D. Salinger, Raymond Carver, Truman Capote, and others into Japanese). He uses a lot of imagination, is often ambiguous, and is a worldwide success. His first novel "Hear the Wind Sing" was published in 1978. In the late 1980s, he lived in Europe and from 1991 to 1995 he lived in the United States where he taught at Princeton and Tufts universities. Since then he has lived in Japan.

In 2020, Murakami published "Abandoning a Cat: When I Talk About my Father". In this book, the author talks about his childhood and his painful and complex relationships with his father, whom he spent many years without meeting. The work's title is based on the memory of a day in his childhood when he went to a beach, close to his home, to get rid of a cat that his father didn't want to stay at home.

Answer: T.S. Eliot

Thomas Stearns Eliot (1888-1965), best known as T. S. Eliot, considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, was also an essayist, publisher, playwright, and editor. He was born in the United States but at the age of 25 he moved to England and became a British citizen. He was acclaimed for his poems and later for his plays, including "Murder in the Cathedral" (1935). In 1948, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for his contribution to poetry.

In the 1930s, Eliot wrote poems, in the form of letters, under the name "Old Possum", to his godchildren. These letters were collected and published in 1939, with a cover illustration by the author himself under the title of "Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats". In 1940, the work was republished, fully illustrated by the writer himself and illustrator Nicolas Bentley.

This collection of poems deals with feline psychology and sociology and served as the basis for the musical "Cats" by Andrew Lloyd Webber, which premiered in London in 1981 and in New York in 1982. In addition to the characters found in the book, the musical features others characters found in Eliot's unpublished drafts.