Join BookBrowse today and get access to free books, our twice monthly digital magazine, and more.

Before They Were Famous Authors: Literary Quiz

BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS AUTHORS


Before they became famous for their writing, what unexpected jobs did Harper Lee, John Grisham, Kurt Vonnegut, Franz Kafka, J.D. Salinger, Vladimir Nabokov and Douglas Adams do?

What job(s) did Harper Lee do before she was published?

  • Sorry, not correct.

    The correct answer is Airline booking agent.

    Scroll down for Next Question button

    Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honor the doctor who had saved the life of her older sister Louise. Nelle was her grandmother's name spelled backwards. Nelle attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery for a year, and then transferred to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she studied law for several years, dropping out one semester short of completing her degree.

    In 1949, aged 23, she moved to New York City where she first worked in a bookstore and later as an airline reservation agent. She published a few short stories and found an agent but was struggling to find the time to write. This changed on Christmas Day, 1957 when she opened an envelope from close friends, Broadway lyricist and composer Michael Brown and his wife Joy, which read "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Harper Lee wrote about the importance of this gift in an article in 1961 (link opens in a new window), but the names of her generous friends remained a secret until 2012.

    Photo by Truman Capote (a childhood friend), from the first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)



  • Correct!


    Scroll down for Next Question button

    Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honor the doctor who had saved the life of her older sister Louise. Nelle was her grandmother's name spelled backwards. Nelle attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery for a year, and then transferred to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she studied law for several years, dropping out one semester short of completing her degree.

    In 1949, aged 23, she moved to New York City where she first worked in a bookstore and later as an airline reservation agent. She published a few short stories and found an agent but was struggling to find the time to write. This changed on Christmas Day, 1957 when she opened an envelope from close friends, Broadway lyricist and composer Michael Brown and his wife Joy, which read "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Harper Lee wrote about the importance of this gift in an article in 1961 (link opens in a new window), but the names of her generous friends remained a secret until 2012.

    Photo by Truman Capote (a childhood friend), from the first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)



  • Sorry, not correct.

    The correct answer is Airline booking agent.

    Scroll down for Next Question button

    Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honor the doctor who had saved the life of her older sister Louise. Nelle was her grandmother's name spelled backwards. Nelle attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery for a year, and then transferred to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she studied law for several years, dropping out one semester short of completing her degree.

    In 1949, aged 23, she moved to New York City where she first worked in a bookstore and later as an airline reservation agent. She published a few short stories and found an agent but was struggling to find the time to write. This changed on Christmas Day, 1957 when she opened an envelope from close friends, Broadway lyricist and composer Michael Brown and his wife Joy, which read "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Harper Lee wrote about the importance of this gift in an article in 1961 (link opens in a new window), but the names of her generous friends remained a secret until 2012.

    Photo by Truman Capote (a childhood friend), from the first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)



  • Sorry, not correct.

    The correct answer is Airline booking agent.

    Scroll down for Next Question button

    Nelle Harper Lee was born in Monroeville, Alabama. Her parents chose her middle name, Harper, to honor the doctor who had saved the life of her older sister Louise. Nelle was her grandmother's name spelled backwards. Nelle attended Huntingdon College in Montgomery for a year, and then transferred to the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, where she studied law for several years, dropping out one semester short of completing her degree.

    In 1949, aged 23, she moved to New York City where she first worked in a bookstore and later as an airline reservation agent. She published a few short stories and found an agent but was struggling to find the time to write. This changed on Christmas Day, 1957 when she opened an envelope from close friends, Broadway lyricist and composer Michael Brown and his wife Joy, which read "You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas." Harper Lee wrote about the importance of this gift in an article in 1961 (link opens in a new window), but the names of her generous friends remained a secret until 2012.

    Photo by Truman Capote (a childhood friend), from the first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird (1960)



Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more


Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Daughters of Shandong
    Daughters of Shandong
    by Eve J. Chung
    Daughters of Shandong is the debut novel of Eve J. Chung, a human rights lawyer living in New York. ...
  • Book Jacket: Anita de Monte Laughs Last
    Anita de Monte Laughs Last
    by Xochitl Gonzalez
    Brooklyn-based novelist Xochitl Gonzalez is an inspiring writer to follow. At forty, she decided to ...
  • Book Jacket: Icarus
    Icarus
    by K. Ancrum
    The titular protagonist of K. Ancrum's young adult novel Icarus lives a double life that mixes the ...
  • Book Jacket
    The Moon That Turns You Back
    by Hala Alyan
    The poignant, accessible poems in Palestinian American author Hala Alyan's fifth collection, The ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Romantic Comedy
by Curtis Sittenfeld
A comedy writer's stance on love shifts when a pop star challenges her assumptions in this witty and touching novel.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    This Strange Eventful History
    by Claire Messud

    An immersive, masterful story of a family born on the wrong side of history.

    Read the Reviews
  • Book Jacket

    The Stolen Child
    by Ann Hood

    An unlikely duo ventures through France and Italy to solve the mystery of a child’s fate.

    Read the Reviews
Win This Book
Win Only the Brave

Only the Brave by Danielle Steel

A powerful, sweeping historical novel about a courageous woman in World War II Germany.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F T a T

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.