Authors and Their Middle Names Quiz

Answer: Klapka

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) is chiefly known for his comic tour de force "Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog)" published in 1889. Still in print, and enjoyed by many, it features the hilarious adventures of three friends as they boat along the Thames with their dog, Montmorency.

A sample: "I can't sit still and see another man slaving and working. I want to get up and superintend, and walk round with my hands in my pockets, and tell him what to do. It is my energetic nature. I can't help it."

The follow-up, "Three Men on the Bummel" (1900) featured the characters on a cycling tour in Germany.

Answer: Herbert

D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) was one of the most influential English language novelists of the 20th century. The controversy about his works - "Lady Chatterley's Lover" (1928) could not be published fully in the UK until the 1960s - tended to affect his reputation for some time. His major novels included "Sons and Lovers" (1913), telling the story of an artist, Paul Morel, which was somewhat autobiographical. He was versatile, producing a diverse body of work including short form novels, like "The Virgin and the Gypsy", short stories such as "The Rocking-Horse Winner" and poetry.

An extract from "Bat"

"Swallows?
Dark air-life looping
Yet missing the pure loop ...
A twitch, a twitter, an elastic shudder in flight
And serrated wings against the sky,
Like a glove, a black glove thrown up at the light,
And falling back.

Never swallows!
Bats!
The swallows are gone."

Answer: Kathleen

J. K. Rowling was born plain Joanne Rowling in 1965. Prompted by her publishers to go with an authorial name that didn't reveal that she was a woman, and needing two initials, she chose "Kathleen" from a grandmother.

Apart from her "Harry Potter" series, she has written "The Casual Vacancy" (2002) as J. K. Rowling, and other novels such as "The Cuckoo's Calling" (2013) as Robert Galbraith.

Answer: Boynton

J. B. Priestley (1894-1984), born in the Yorkshire city of Bradford, was a prolific writer in many genres. "The Good Companions" (1929) was the novel that made him famous, and has been adapted into movies, plays and musicals. His World War II radio broadcasts were influential and inspirational and he contributed to the wartime resolution of the British nation to establish the Welfare State.

A quote: "When I was young there was no respect for the young, and now that I am old there is no respect for the old. I missed out coming and going.

Answer: Kindred

Philip K. Dick (1928-1982) was a prolific American science fiction author whose fantastic and original ideas captured the imagination of readers and film makers alike.

"The Man in the High Castle" (1963) was an alternative history novel in which the Axis powers had won World War II. It drew heavily on the ancient Chinese text "I Ching". "Ubik" (1969) featured psychic powers and explored the nature of reality. Dick's non-science fiction works included the very funny "Confessions of a Crap Artist" (published in 1975, although written in the 1950s) with its obsessive lead character who believes in discredited theories about the world and joins a group who predicts an apocalypse.

A quote: "The pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Parmenides taught that the only things that are real are things which never change... and the pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitus taught that everything changes. If you superimpose their two views, you get this result: Nothing is real."

Answer: Butler

W. B. Yeats (1865-1939) was one of the 20th century's leading literary figures. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 and also served as a Senator in the Irish Parliament.

His poem "Easter, 1916" showed his feelings about the Easter Uprising that was a precursor to Irish independence from the UK.

"I write it out in a verse-
MacDonagh and MacBride
And Connolly and Pearse
Now and in time to be,
Wherever green is worn,
Are changed, changed utterly:
A terrible beauty is born."

Answer: Edward

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) was a celebrated scholar of Roman and Greek classics, some of whose works are still regarded as definitive. He was also highly popular as a poet in Victorian and Edwardian England. "A Shropshire Lad" (1896) was his best known work, consisting of sixty-three poems, such as "Loveliest of Trees, the Cherry Now", of which this is the final verse.

"And since to look at things in bloom
Fifty springs are little room,
About the woodlands I will go
To see the cherry hung with snow."

Answer: Keith

G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) was a prolific and influential man of letters, whom George Bernard Shaw called a man of "colossal genius". He is best known for his "Father Brown" stories of a Roman Catholic priest with a gift for detective work. The stories have inspired multiple movies and TV productions, most memorably the 1970s series starring Kenneth More.

A quote: "'Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously."

Answer: Estlin

E. E. Cummings (1894-1962), often self-styled e e cummings, was, among other things, a poet, playwright and novelist. In common with other American literary notables, he served as an ambulance driver in World War I. His poetry was experimental and laconic, often dispensing with capital letters.

A snippet from "dive for dreams":

"...honour the past
but welcome the future
(and dance your death
away at this wedding)".

Answer: Hugh

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) was one of the most prominent English poets of the twentieth century. Among his works are "September 1, 1939", which marked the start of World War II, and echoed Yeats's "Easter, 1916". He worked on the libretto for Stravinsky's opera "The Rake's Progress" (1951), together with Chester Kallman. One of his best known works was written for the influential 1936 documentary "Night Mail".

"This is the Night Mail crossing the border,
Bringing the cheque and the postal order,
Letters for the rich, letters for the poor,
The shop at the corner and the girl next door."