The Post Quiz: Famous Writers at Home - Answers
Created | Updated Apr 19, 2015
Can they go home again?
Famous Writers at Home: Answers
Writers often put their localities on the maps, so to speak. Sometimes, the localities are grateful. Other times, well, they resent being held up to scrutiny.
Your task was: to decide whether these writers were popular, or unpopular, in their home neighbourhoods.
Popular or unpopular?
- Washington Irving in Tarrytown, New York. Popular. He did a lot for the tourist business, did Mr Irving.
- Erich Kästner in Berlin. Unpopular. At least with the Gestapo. They raided his apartment regularly to make sure he wasn't writing about the Führer.
- Erich Kästner in Munich . Popular. Very. This was after the war, of course, and the local café owner kept his typewriter behind the counter. Having a famous writer in residence was good for selling Bienenstich .
- William Wordsworth in the Lake District. Popular. Wordsworth, too, was great for the tourist business.
- William Faulkner in Oxford, Mississippi. Unpopular. Have you read what he wrote about them? Of course, when the Hollywood people showed up, they thawed a bit…
- Emily Carr in Vancouver. Unpopular. Particularly with her students. She smoked and cursed at them. Temperamental and modern.
- John Millington Synge in Dublin. Unpopular. It seems the playwright insulted Irish womanhood. Oh, and remember that infamous telegram? 'Audience rioted at the word 'shift'…'
- Ernest Hemingway in Paris. Popular. He was the toast of Paree, thanks in no small part to Gertrude Stein. But check her out…
- Gertrude Stein in Pittsburgh. Unpopular. She only lived in Allegheny City for a few years as a small child, but 60 years later, the Pittsburgh Press made mock of her. At least she didn't say about Pittsburgh what she said about Oakland, California – that there was no there, there…
- Charles Dickens in London. Popular. England knows how to appreciate its great writers. And we're grateful for that.
You knew all this gossip. How many Guide Entries have you written? We need savvy people like you to dish the historical dirt. Or share a recipe. (Alice B Toklas brownies, anyone?).
