From the Lives of English-writing Authors Quiz

Answer: Thomas Hardy

Trollope, born in Bloomsbury, London (1815). Died in London (1882).
Hardy was born in a cottage in Higher Bockhampton, 2 June 1840. His father was a master mason/ builder. Dorset often is the background of his novels. Dorchester is re-named Casterbridge. Bere Regis becomes Kingsbere, Bournemouth is Sandbourne. Hardy died in 1928.For the last 32 years of his life he had written poetry only.
Thackeray was born in India on 18 July 1811. He died on Christmas Eve 1863.
Dickens was born at Landport, Hampshire,1812. He died at Gadshill Place near Rochester in 1870.

Answer: Robert Louis Stevenson

R.L. Stevenson was born in Edinburgh on 13 November 1850. One of his first works was "Travels With a Donkey in the Cévennes" 1879. Other important works followed: Treasure Island (1883); Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) and The Master of Ballantrae (1889). Fell in love with an American woman, Fanny, who first had to divorce so that he could marry her. In 1888 he decided to sail around the Pacific. In 1889 he arrived at the port of Apia in the Samoan Islands. Died there in Dec. 1894.
Somerset Maugham was born in Paris (1874), spent some years at Whitstable, Kent. Later, after his divorce from Syrie Wellcome, he went with his friend Haxton to USA and was successful at Hollywood. He died at his "Villa Mauresque" in Cap Ferrat in the South of France.
Greene was born at Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire (1904). Took strong interest in adventure-stories. Travelled a lot. Briefly joined the Communist Party -by way of amusement. Also converted to Catholicism in order to be able to marry the woman he loved.(1926). Separated from her in 1948, but never divorced from her. Spent the last years of his life in Switzerland where he died at Vevey in 1991.

Answer: John Donne

"Dean Swift" was not Dean of St. Paul's, but Dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin.
Dr. Johnson may have been very ceremonious at times, but he was not a member of the clergy.
Oliver Goldsmith wrote the "Vicar of Wakefield", but this did not entitle him to becoming a Dean.

Answer: Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens (1812-1870 ) was the oldest of the Dickens children and as a result of his father's imprisonment for debt,was sent to work in a shoe-dye factory. After his father's release from prison, he was able to return to school. His schooling was again interrupted at age 15, and young Dickens became a clerk in a law firm.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge,born at Ottery St Mary 1772- died on 25 July 1834. Poet. Critic. Alcohol addict. Opium user. Was introduced by Robert Southey to William Wordsworth.
Wordsworth was born at Cockermouth (1770), in the heart of the Lake District. With Coleridge he published the "Lyrical Ballads". Also with
Coleridge he made a trip to Germany. At the time of his death on April 13, 1850, Wordsworth was widely considered as "the greatest poet in the world".So great was his influence on the Romantic Movement.

Answer: Governor General of Canada

John Buchan was born in Perth, 1875. Became a barrister, a Member of Parliament, writer, soldier, and publisher. Was happily married to Susan Grosvenor. Became Lord Tweedsmuir of Elsfield in 1935 and the 35th Governor General of Canada. Held this position until his death in 1940.

Answer: False

It was Lord Byron who kept a bear at his digs at Cambridge.
Shelley however ran into trouble for other reasons. At Eton he stabbed somebody. At Oxford he was sent away for an atheistic pamphlet.

Answer: Joseph Conrad

Mrs Aphra Behn (Oronoko)(°1640- d.1689) was probably the first woman ever who could live from her writer's income.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti(°1828 - d. 1882) was the son of the exiled Italian patriot and scholar Gabriele Rossetti, and brother of the poet Christina Rossetti.
Conrad was born in the Ukraine as Josef Teodor Konrad Korzeniowski. His father was a translator of English and French literature. When his parents died, he was sent to Switzerland.
Joined the French merchant marine in the mid-1870s. Then continued his career at sea for 16 years in the British merchant navy. He had a moment of good luck when his uncle discharged him of his debts. Was given British citizenship and officially changed his name into Joseph Conrad. The last years of his life were shadowed by rheumatism. Died on August 3, 1924.

Answer: Daniel Defoe

Ben Jonson too had his share of "trouble" when in a brawl he killed an actor. He was released after pleading 'benefit of clergy'. As a minor punishment he was forfeited of all his possessions and branded on his thumb.

Answer: P.G.Wodehouse

Ezra Pound lived in Italy and it was Mussolini's Fascists whom he supported.
Pelham Grenville Wodehouse (in his letters "Plum") was born at Guildford, Surrey, in 1881.
When nazitroops occupied France, he was captured and interned in Germany. At one time he agreed to make a radiobroadcast to America, which caused great controversy in England.
In 1955 he obtained American citizenship.
Early on in 1975 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
He died on St.Valentine's Day of the same year.

Answer: Brendan Behan

Behan was born in Dublin in 1923. In 1942 he fired at a detective during an IRA parade and was sentenced to fourteen years' penal servitude. Released in 1946 as part of a general amnesty he soon had to serve new, but shorter prison terms either for Republican activity or as a result of drunkenness. He died in Dublin on 24 March 1946.
Oscar Wilde was imprisoned at Reading Gaol because of the "scandals" he had caused by his homosexual behaviour.

William Sidney Porter (1862-1910) was accused of having embezzled money during his employment at the First National Bank. He was sentenced to 5 years' imprisonment. While serving time, he started writing short stories and became O. Henry, "the master of short stories".