Novel Beginnings - Random Trivia Answers

• A1) F. Scott Fitzgerald, Tender Is the Night. One of two Fitzgerald novels that The Modern Library ranked in the Top 100 of all time in 1999, its title comes from the John Keats poem "Ode to a Nightingale", followed by "and haply the Queen-Moon is on her throne."
• A2) Ray Bradbury, The Martian Chronicles. Because the action begins in 1999, a 1997 rerelease postponed all of the events by 31 years to keep the sci-fi premises possible.
• A3) Alex Haley, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. The 1976 novel inspired a 12-hour miniseries whose finale still ranks #3 in the all-time Nielsen Ratings.
• A4) Nicholas Meyers, The Seven-Per-Cent Solution. The 1974 novel purports to have come from Watson's lost manuscript and successfully continues the franchise developed by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (this really wasn't meant to be a trick question).
• A5) Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., Cat's Cradle. Vonnegut pays homage to Moby Dick's opening line, "Call me Ishmael", which the American Book Review rated as the best opening line of any novel ever.
• A6) E.B. White, Charlotte's Web. The answer: to turn the runt of the pig litter into breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
• A7) Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter. The structure's purpose was to publicly display those branded with the title mark.
• A8) Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith. Although the novel was selected for the 1926 Pulitzer Prize, Lewis declined to accept because he felt the award was based on popularity rather than literary merit.
• A9) Thomas Hardy, Far From the Madding Crowd. The title, from Thomas Gray's poem "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard", refers to a place of solitude. "Madding", meaning "making insane", has a different root than "maddening", meaning "annoying".
• A10) Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth. The full quote from Ecclesiastes is "The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth". Ignorance is bliss.
• A11) Isaac Asimov, Foundation. Foundation is the name of the initial novel, a collection of five short stories, and an expanded series written over forty years.
• A12) Nicholas Evans, The Horse Whisperer. The 1995 novel inspired the 1998 Robert Redford movie whose screenplay was written by Eric Roth.

The first letters of the twelve authors' first names spell the name of the classic horror story Frankenstein, which opens with a letter, "To Mrs. Saville, England / St. Petersburgh, Dec. 11th, 17-- / You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings."