Non-Fiction Books of the 1970s Quiz

Answer: Deep Throat

Thirty one years later, in 2005, the identify of Deep Throat was revealed. Deep Throat was former FBI Associate Director Mark Felt. Three years later Felt died at age 96. Neither Bernstein nor Woodward betrayed his confidence. Through his position in the structure of the FBI, he able to uncover materials that were not being dispensed. Given the sensitivity of his position it seemed a wiser course to leak information to the press.

Answer: Professional baseball player

Baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn attacked "Ball Four" as he felt it was detrimental to Baseball. This was not a book that held sports heroes like gods nor baseball as pure. Instead, it showed the game and the players as human with all the drama and warts.

Bouton was near the end of his career and the New York Yankees had traded him to the Seattle Pilots, an expansion team. Bouton tells the story of that year--the only year the Pilots had before moving to Milwaukee. "Ball Four" described the seamy side of baseball, including the obscene jokes, drunkenness, womanizing, and drug use, by Bouton himself as well as others. Bouton detailed his unsatisfactory relationships with teammates and management. He exposed the lies and cheating that was apart of the game.

Bouton also recalled his days with the Yankees. As an example, Mickey Mantle showed up for a game too drunk to play and stayed in the clubhouse. He was called to the field late in the game to pinch hit. Mantle crashed a home run to win the game. Asked how he did that, Mantle said he saw three balls and hit the one in the middle.

"Ball Four" made a 1996 list of Books of the Century. Time Magazine named it as one the 100 greatest non-fiction books of all time.

Answer: South Dakota

The title was taken from a Stephen Vincent Benet poem that reads:

"I shall not be there
I shall rise and pass
Bury my heart at Wounded Knee."

An anonymous book reviewer from McMillan publishers said:

"Using council records, autobiographies, and firsthand descriptions, Brown allows great chiefs and warriors of the Dakota, Ute, Sioux, Cheyenne, and other tribes to tell us in their own words of the series of battles, massacres, and broken treaties that finally left them and their people demoralized and decimated. A unique and disturbing narrative told with force and clarity, 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' changed forever our vision of how the West was won, and lost. It tells a story that should not be forgotten, and so must be retold from time to time."

Answer: But were afraid to ask

David Reuben was a California psychiatrist and sex expert. In spite of the titillating title and broad humor, it was a practical guide for the uninitiated to gain a fuller understanding of this biological function.

In 1972 Woody Allen produced a film that used only the title but spurred further interest in the public.

In 1999 Reuben updated the original. Much had happened the intervening thirty years: AIDS, better birth control, openness in film, literature, and television. The theme was changed from 'sex is fun' to 'sex might be dangerous'.

Answer: Veterinary medicine

James Alfred Wight adopted the pen name James Herriot for his semi-autobiographical books on his years as a country veterinarian. Because his books were very short, they did not receive great popularity until these books were re-published with combinations of his previous works. In that era it was considered poor practice to advertise one's professional services, so Wight adopted the name of a footballer--James Herriot--shielding himself, his village, his neighbors and clients, and even his wife from public view.

His books inspired a long-running BBC television program of the same title. The sub-text of his books is the transition from the vet treating large animals (horses, cows, sheep) to smaller animals (dogs, cats).

Answer: Transactional Analysis

Imagine a square divided into four areas.

I'm OK/I'm not OK
You're OK/You're not OK

This presents four possibilities: I'm OK, you're OK; I'm OK, you're not OK; I'm not OK, you're not OK; and I'm not OK, you're OK. Each of these presents a unique set of issues.

We deal with these situations with three roles: as a parent, as an adult, and as a child. Childhood learning, for example, will affect parent and adult roles later in life. This Harris called this the P-A-C.

The book was translated into twelve languages and sold fifteen million copies. Transactional Analysis had its day with its roots in the culture of the 1960s. However, in professional practice today it has not proven as useful as modern medications and talk therapy.

Answer: True

Alex Haley was not prepared for the backlash on what is now considered a novel. It was exposed to the harshest kind of review, generally reserved for scientific papers.

First of all, there were the plagiarism issues. Both Harold Courlander and Margaret Walker Alexander sued him. It was found that Courlander's book, "The Native" (1967), had been plagiarized, accidentally according to Haley, and the suit was settled out of court. A similar book, "Jubilee" (1966) by Alexander, was dismissed without merit.

Donald R. Wright, African historian, along with Gary and Elizabeth Mills, an historian and a genealogist, evaluated Haley's research. They concluded he would have been unable to make all the connections, and that historical documents contradicted his accounts of family history.

Haley relied on the testimony of griots, African elders who keep oral histories, some of whom admitted to telling Haley what he wanted to hear.

Dr. Henry Louis Gates of Harvard, a friend of Haley, said, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. "Roots" is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship. It was an important event because it captured everyone's imagination"

Answer: Wallace

David Wallechinsky was the son of popular novelist Irving Wallace. His sister, Amy, also preferred Wallace as did Sylvia Wallace, Irving's wife and mother of David and Amy, who contributed to later editions of "The Lists".

Irving Wallace was prolific writer equal to both fiction and non-fiction. His novels had popular appeal and nine of them were adapted into films, the most popular being "The Chapman Report" (1962) and "The Prize" (1963).

David Wallechinsky made a career of a series of 'list' books. He is regarded as an expert on the Olympic games and has done commentary on telecasts. The original "Book of Lists" contained such things as famous people who died during sexual intercourse, people suspected of being Jack the Ripper, worst places to hitchhike, and people misquoted by Ronald Reagan. He also included George W Bush on a list of worst dictators.

Amy Wallace is alleged to be the 'ghost' writer for Carlos Castaneda, an anthropologist who studied Indian culture and ate psychedelic mushrooms to become a shaman.

Answer: Gail Sheehy

Gail Sheehy has won numerous awards for her journalism. In "Passages", after three years of research, she analyzed the changes that we encounter as we move from our teens, our twenties, our thirties and beyond. We can anticipate many of these changes (birth of a child, death of a loved one) and how we must deal intelligently and creatively with each decade's roles.

Answer: Erma Bombeck

Erma Bombeck wrote over 4,000 newspaper humor columns based on the life of the suburban housewife. Her twice-weekly columns were syndicated in 900 newspapers and read by an estimated 30 million people. In addition she was a regular columnist for "Parade" magazine and was a contributor to "Good Morning America" (1975-1986). Her books were based on her newspaper columns.

With all the laughs she gave through the years, what she did not reveal to her fans was that she was diagnosed with kidney disease at age 20 that had no cure. She survived breast cancer and mastectomy and kept secret the fact that she had daily kidney dialysis. Erma Bombeck died at 69 in 1996.