Welcome to Lit Trivia, the Book Review’s regular quiz about literary culture. This week’s installment salutes the tenacity of the literary strivers who worked a variety of jobs before finding success as novelists. In the five multiple-choice questions below, tap or click on the answer you think is correct. After the last question, you’ll find links to some of their most popular works.
1 of 5
Which author worked as a business writer — creating such works as “Telecommunications and You” for IBM — before hitting the New York Times best-seller list with “The Joy Luck Club” in 1989?
Laura Esquivel
Dave Barry
Katherine Dunn
Amy Tan
2 of 5
Which author worked as a night manager at the Kenmore Hall Hotel on Manhattan’s East 23rd Street before going on to publish several novels – including “Miss Lonelyhearts” in 1933 and “The Day of the Locust” in 1939?
Dashiell Hammett
Nathanael West
S. J. Perelman
Raymond Chandler
3 of 5
Which author worked as a nurse before publishing “The Mysterious Affair at Styles” and enjoying a career as an extremely successful mystery writer?
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy B. Hughes
Agatha Christie
Patricia Highsmith
4 of 5
Which author worked in a range of jobs — including as a potato chips inspector — before becoming a popular science fiction novelist with works that include “Parable of the Sower” in 1993 and “Parable of the Talents” in 1998?
Ray Bradbury
Octavia E. Butler
Harlan Ellison
Anne McCaffrey
5 of 5
Before publishing “The Metamorphosis” in 1915, this author was a co-owner of a European asbestos factory. Who is it?
Gertrude Stein
Theodor W. Adorno
Franz Kafka
Djuna Barnes