The Wombat File Is Yours to Keep: The Friday Quiz: Late As Usual

Let's get to questions as quickly as possible.

1. What bestselling novel of 1974 resurrected a literary character created by an author who had been dead since 1930? What was the character, and what was the substance alluded to in the novel's title?

2. After starring in such memorable films as Eight on the Lam, The Private Navy of Sgt. O'Farrell, this author had nonfiction bestsellers in her 49th and 50th year (the first with "Housekeeping" in the title, the second with "Marriage"). What is her name?

3. His first, and perhaps most famous book was published in 1968. The last of his books to make the Publishers Weekly list of annual bestsellers was The Eagle's Gift, although he continued to publish into the nineties, until his death in 1998. Who was he?

First correct answer posted to comments wins a fulsome apology from yours truly on the subject of your choice. No Googling,and no choogling on down to New Orleans, either, not even if you were born the bayou. One guess at each part per comment but bethink ye, in the bowels of Christ, that maybe you ought to go ahead and comment a-plenty.