Arts and Literature Trivia  Questions and Answers - Civil War - Short Stories - Famous Artists

 

 

Arts and Literature trivia questions and answers.

What was the name of the ocean liner that provided the setting for Katherine Anne Porter's novel A Ship of Fools?
A: The Vera. It sailed from Veracruz, Mexico, to Bremerhaven, Germany.

What famous author wrote the short story Dry September in 1931 and the novel Light in August in 1932?
A: William Faulkner.

What world-famous artist painted the historic Civil War sea battle between the Union sloop Kearsage and the Confederacy's corvette Alabama?
A: French artist Edouard Manet. The Battle, fought in French waters outside Cherbourg harbor on June 15, 1864, was watched from shore and small boats by more than 15,000 people--one of them, Manet. The naval engagement ended with the sinking of the Alabama, which had defeated more than 60 Union ships in prior battles.

What popular table game does William Shakespeare have Cleopatra play in Antony and Cleopatra?
A: Billiards.

In Herman Melville's famous novel Moby Dick, what was Captain Ahab's peg leg made from?
A: The ivory from the jawbone of a whale. Ahab's leg had been snapped off during an encounter with the whale Moby Dick.

Before settling on the name Tiny Tim for Bob Cratchit's crippled son in his book A Christmas Carol, what three alliterative names did Charles Dickens consider?
A: Little Larry, Puny Pete and Small Sam

Why is the well-known chrome-and-leather chair designed by German-born architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe called the Barcelona chair?
A: He created it for the International Exposition in Barcelona in 1929, to go in the German pavilion which he also designed.

What famous writer bragged that he gave his talent to his work and saved his genius for his life?
A: Oscar Wilde.

What famous artist shocked the art world in 1919 by painting a mustache, eyebrows and a beard on a reproduction of the Mona Lisa and submitting it to a Paris art show?
A: Marcel Duchamp.

What was the name of the orange-and-white kitten in the classic children's books that featured Dick and Jane and their dog Spot?
A: Puff. The book series was called Now We Read.

What title did William Burroughs intend to give his controversial, scatological book Naked Lunch?
A: Naked Lust. Its name was changed by accident. Fellow Beat Generation writer Allen Ginsberg misread Burroughs's handwriting, and the wrong title stuck.

What famous artist in 1953 erased an original abstract expressionist drawing by Willem de Kooning--with his consent--and then framed it and exhibited it as an original work of his own?
A: Robert Rauschenberg. He called the work Erased de Kooning.

How did Madrid's famous art museum come to be named the Prado?
A: It was named for the meadow, or prado, that once surrounded it.

What famous American writer claimed that a brand of cigarettes was named after him?
A: Truman Capote. The brand, True.

Under what title do we know the book that was originally published as Murder in the Calais Coach?
A: Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. The name was not changed until several editions had been printed.