December 23, 2005
The Friday Quiz: Last Gasp

Here's the last Wombat File Friday Quiz of 2005. When we start the New Year, it'll be all about the heart-exploding suspense of the Quiztacular. Don't miss out. We suggest you concoct a fake illness and take the whole month off of work, so that you can really focus. Now, on to this disappointing end to a dreadful year in quizzery:

The daughter of Dwight Whitney Morrow and Elizabeth Cutter Morrow was born in 1906. In 1933, she was awarded the Cross of Honor by the U.S. Flag Association, and in 1934 the Hubbard Gold Medal by a much more well-known society. She received honorary degrees from her alma mater (Smith College), including a Doctor of Letters in 1970.

In 1938, her book Listen! The Wind became one the the top-selling nonfiction books of the year. In 1955, her book Gifts from the Sea was the bestselling nonfiction title of the year.

What was the married name under which she became famous? Bonus question: what was the subject of her (less popular) book published in 1939?

First correct answer to comments wins a holiday phone call from Jesus (as getting a phone call from Santa sounds offensively secular to us). No Googling or outsourcing your guess to some shadowy organization of "trivia answer farms" in Laos. One guess per comment, but comment as often as you like.

Posted by BT at December 23, 2005 10:23 AM
Comments

Beverly Cleary.

Bonus: "Henry and Ramona's Beezus"

Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2005 10:34 AM

Nope.

Posted by: BT on December 23, 2005 10:41 AM

Hmmm...OK, one clue. Her book in 1939 did much less well, perhaps because of its political bent.

Posted by: BT on December 23, 2005 11:46 AM

Eleanor Roosevelt.

Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2005 12:25 PM

Nope. Although in a weird way, you're kind of close. (But only in a weird way.)

Posted by: BT on December 23, 2005 12:28 PM

Eva Braun.

Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2005 12:28 PM

Benita Mussolini.

Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2005 12:29 PM

Dolly Stalin.

Posted by: boxjam on December 23, 2005 12:30 PM

Lindbergh?

Posted by: hackly_fracture on December 23, 2005 12:33 PM

Ex-hackly!

Anne Morrow Lindbergh, who flew many long-distance flights with her husband, is our answer. I'm going to go ahead and spill the beans with the bonus, which in retrospect is overly deducible from the main answer: Anne was the author in 1939 of The Wave of the Future, a book that praised fascism and suggested that democracy was "finished." There might even be mention of it in The Plot Against America -- I can't remember.

Lindbergh never repudiated the anti-Semitism her husband more directly espoused, and in an interview in 1980, made it clear that when Lindy said that the "the Jews" had gotten America into World War II, she believed it to be true -- and still did -- but worried that the remarks would be seen negatively:

'And he said, "But why? It's perfectly true, isn't it?" I said, "Yes, but it's like lighting a match next to a heap of excelsior. That's what you're doing." And which it turned out to be.'

Well guessed, Frater Fracture.

Posted by: BT on December 23, 2005 02:34 PM