Words in the Wind Trivia Quiz

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822) wrote "Ode to the West Wind" in 1819 while living in Italy and it was published in 1820. A major theme is the rhythm of life and death, perhaps inspired by the death of his son William in 1819 and the Peterloo Massacre in his native England.

Kenneth Grahame (1859-1932) published this classic children's book in 1908. Featuring the characters Mr. Toad, Badger, Ratty, and Mole, the tale has been adapted for the stage, radio, film, and television.

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) won the 1937 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for this novel published in 1936. The Civil War-era novel was well-received at the time and remains a popular book in the U.S. The same-titled 1939 movie won the Academy Award for Best Picture.

"Under the Sea-Wind" was the first book written by Rachel Carson (1907-1964), published in 1941. It was the first book of the "sea trilogy", which included "The Sea Around Us" (1951), and "The Edge of the Sea" (1955). Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist, may best be known for her 1962 book "Silent Spring".

The 1955 play "Inherit the Wind" by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Lee is a fictional account of the infamous 1925 "Scopes Monkey Trial" in Tennessee. The title is from the Bible, Proverbs 11:29 (King James Version), "He that troubleth his own house shall inherit the wind: and the fool shall be servant to the wise of heart."

Herman Wouk (1915-2019) was a WW2 U.S. Navy veteran. His 1951 novel "The Caine Mutiny" was drawn from his experiences on a warship in combat. Twenty years later, he published his second WW2 novel, "The Winds of War", in 1971. That novel and sequel "War and Remembrance" (1978) were sweeping stories of the period 1939-1945 but centered on the experiences of a U.S. Navy officer and his family.

"Whirlwind" (1986) is part of the "Asian Saga" of novels written by James Clavell (1921-1994). Those novels covered various time periods and cultures, including feudal Japan ("Shogun", 1975) and WW2 ("King Rat", 1962). "Whirlwind" is set in Iran in 1979, during the fall of the Shah and rise of the Islamic Republic.

It is chronologically the latest of the novels, although the last-published was "Gai-Jin" in 1993.

John Lewis (1940-2020) was a U.S. civil rights activist in the 1960s and a U.S. Congressman from the state of Georgia from 1987 to 2020. His 1998 autobiography "Walking with the Wind" (co-written with Mike D'Orso) was a bestseller on many lists, won many awards, and was noted by "The Washington Post" newspaper as "the definitive account of the civil rights movement".

"The Wailing Wind" is the fifteenth in a series of crime novels written by Tony Hillerman (1925-2008). The series features Navajo Tribal Policemen named Jim Chee and Joe Leaphorn. In "The Wailing Wind", Leaphorn comes out of retirement to assist officer Bernadette Manuelito in solving a murder that eventually links to past crimes and native myths.

"Blowin' in the Wind" was a song written in 1962 by musician Bob Dylan (b, 1941). In 2011, Dylan published the lyrics in a picture book meant for young readers. The book was illustrated by Caldecott Medal winner Jon Muth.