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First Names of Authors #2

Difficultly level: hard. Try to guess the first names of these famous writers in history.
Quiz by Quizmaster
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Last updated: December 11, 2019
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First submittedAugust 1, 2012
Times taken26,249
Average score50.0%
Rating4.13
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First Name
Last Name
Charles
Dickens
Salman
Rushdie
Alexandre
Dumas
Sylvia
Plath
Rudyard
Kipling
Victor
Hugo
Albert
Camus
Louis
L'Amour
First Name
Last Name
Don
DeLillo
Ayn
Rand
Mark
Twain
Maxim
Gorky
Jonathan
Franzen
Barbara
Kingsolver
Roald
Dahl
Dave
Eggers
First Name
Last Name
Horatio
Alger
John
Updike
Susan
Sontag
Agatha
Christie
Emily
Dickinson
Norman
Mailer
Gore
Vidal
Thomas
Pynchon
31 Comments
+1
Level 60
Aug 1, 2012
Its not Ronald Dahl?
+1
Level 60
Aug 1, 2012
Wow, its not, huh? All that time I think its ronald :P
+5
Level 75
Jul 2, 2015
Why is it so surprising that a dyslexic can write brilliant books? Alexander Graham Bell, Faraday, Einstein, Pierre Curie, and Edison were all dyslexics. Many with learning disorders find it difficult to learn to read in the traditional way, but it has nothing to do with their level of intelligence. They just have to find nontraditional ways to learn. My son has a learning disability but he became the second-youngest person in our state ever to graduate from law school and be admitted to the bar. His daughter is autistic but received the reading award in kindergarten for reading on a 4th grade level. One of my grandsons has dysgraphia, another learning disability which makes it difficult for him to write, but he was moved up a grade in school and is a fantastic goalie on his hockey team. We all have something to overcome in our lives. It doesn't make us extraordinary. Writing brilliant books is what made Dahl extraordinary.
+2
Level 85
Jul 22, 2015
I've always been fascinated that he wrote only with pencils, and always on yellow legal pads...
+3
Level 82
Nov 1, 2016
Same as Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole.
+3
Level 75
Dec 22, 2016
Alexander Graham Bell, Faraday, Einstein, Pierre Curie, and Edison weren't authors of children's books...

But yeah, having dyslexia doesn't mean you can't write a good story

+2
Level 54
Aug 1, 2012
Good quiz. Missed Eggers and DeLillo.
+1
Level 73
Feb 5, 2019
If you want to entertain yourself aliberti68, you can check out one of Dave Eggers projects: https://www.mcsweeneys.net/
+1
Level 57
Jan 5, 2013
shouldn't i be on the list too? my name is jonathan and my ela/creative writing teacher says i have a great vocabulary, plot layout, etc... jkjk
+1
Level 67
Apr 29, 2014
I was so sure it was Herman Mailer, I kept retyping it *slow headdesk* How could I forget?!?
+3
Level 77
May 16, 2014
Max Gorki, Maxwell Gorki and Marx Gorki. The less well known Gorki-brothers.
+1
Level 76
Mar 9, 2019
I once went to the library in Keene, New York, built the year before Gorky wrote Mother - his most famous novel - in that little town. I asked the librarian if there was anything in the library commemorating his stay in Keene. She asked if had looked in the shelves under "G."
+1
Level 83
Sep 16, 2014
Columns 1 & 3, no problem. Column 2, got the 3 biggies but that's all. :P
+1
Level 70
Nov 16, 2014
Have read Falling Man by DeLillo. Very unusual book.
+1
Level 36
Dec 21, 2014
I'd never heard of jonathan franzen, but looked him up and need to read him. Thanks! I loved that you included Barbara Kingsolver. Fan for 20 years... I have heard of Susan Sontag but thought she wrote musical plays for Broadway.... This site sure reminds me I am not nearly as smart as I think I am. ;) Now that my mom isn't here any more to tell me... Camus, Dumas, Alger, of couse I know of them, but never read them...even Rushdie, I did not read, just skim. Dave Eggers is the last I never heard of...gotta look him up now.
+1
Level 75
Jul 22, 2015
I agree that this site does not do wonders for one's ego. I am constantly humbled by seeing how little I really know, and even more so by some of the enlightening remarks posted by others.
+1
Level 75
Jul 22, 2015
I hadn't heard of Jonathan Franzen either. I just thought of Peter Franzén, a Finnish actor and writer.
+1
Level 58
Dec 26, 2016
As in "Franzen Comes Alive."
+1
Level 76
Mar 9, 2019
It was the last one I got. I struggled to get the Detroit Red Wings' Johan Franzen out of my mind.
+1
Level 59
Nov 28, 2019
Stephen Sondheim does that, writes musical plays, which is really close to Susan Sontag, I can see why you mixed that as I mix far less close names in my head all the time. Hockney and Warhol for instance ... I know really not the same at all but ... there I am.
+1
Level 52
Jul 22, 2015
Knew I would do awful on this quiz (only got five even though I recognized three more). The so called "classics" rarely interest me.
+1
Level 56
Jul 22, 2015
For "Sontag," I kept typing Guy, Guy, Guy over and over again. Then I realized that it was Guy Montag, not Sontag, and that that man was fictional.
+1
Level 66
Jul 22, 2015
Even worse, I thought it said "Montag" and tried typing "Heidi"
+1
Level 56
Jul 22, 2015
I have never heard of several of these and I am a keen reader! And I don't mean Jackie Collins!
+1
Level 86
Jul 22, 2015
Mixed up Franzen the hockey player with Franzen the writer. Very similar first names.
+1
Level 55
Jul 22, 2015
Christie! Can't believe I missed that because all I could think of was the NJ governor (and I knew it wasn't him). And I used to be such a huge fan, too.

I didn't have to try to hard to get the right answer, but for some reason I was convinced it was Dom DeLillo.

+1
Level 87
Jul 4, 2018
Thinking of Dom DeLuise, perhaps?
+1
Level 89
Jul 9, 2019
I tried Dom DeLillo too but moved on when it wasn't accepted. So close!
+2
Level 89
Oct 17, 2019
Any reason Sylvia Plath is used in both of the First Names Of Authors quizzes and both Who Wrote That Book quizzes?
+1
Level 81
Jun 29, 2020
I think on the first one it accepted my misspelling of Silvia, too
+1
Level 91
Apr 9, 2022
Always bugs me when there are multiple quizzes on the same subject that reuse names. Why not swap plath out for someone who wasn't already an answer in #1?