20 Quiz Questions about Literature in the 1960s

John Ernst Steinbeck was awarded the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social perception. He is widely known for the novels The Grapes of Wrath (1939), Cannery Row (1945), and East of Eden (1952).

The Nobel Prize in Literature has not been awarded to Truman Capote or Arthur Miller. Ernest Hemingway was awarded the prize in 1954.

Several of John le Carré's spy novels from the sixties featured the fictitious British intelligence organization, The Circus and its agents George Smiley and Peter Guillam.

Mikhail Sholokhov was a Soviet/Russian novelist and the 1965 Nobel Prize in Literature winner. He was born in Veshenskaya, Russian Empire, which later became the Soviet Union.

Nelly Sachs was a Jewish German poet and playwright. She was born in Schöneberg, Germany. In 1940, she fled to Sweden and lived there to her death in 1970.

She shared the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature with Shmuel Yosef Agnon.

Up the Down Staircase is a novel by Bel Kaufman, published in 1964. In 1967 it was released as a film starring Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, and Eileen Heckart.

Beautiful Losers is the second and final novel by Canadian writer and musician Leonard Cohen. It was published in 1966 before he began his career as a singer-songwriter.

In His Own Write is a book by John Lennon, first published in 1964. It consists of poems, short stories, and line drawings. With the Beatles' success at the time, an initial printing in England sold 50,000 copies on the first day. In 1965, it was followed by a second book by Lennon, A Spaniard in the Works.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is Irving Stone's classic biographical novel of Michelangelo.

Slaughterhouse-Five is Kurt Vonnegut's classic anti-war novel, first published in 1969.

The Outsiders is a novel by S. E. Hinton, first published in 1967. Hinton was 15 when she started writing the book, but she did most of the work when she was 16 and a junior in high school.

Miss Marple is a fictional character in Agatha Christie's crime novels and short stories. She lives in the fictional village of St. Mary Mead.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is a 1969 autobiography about the early years of American writer and poet Maya Angelou.

Catch-22 is a novel by Joseph Heller. It is set during World War II, from 1942 to 1944. It mainly follows the life of Captain John Yossarian, a U.S. Army Air Forces B-25 bombardier.

Mellors is the gamekeeper on Clifford Chatterley's estate and the lover of Lady Chatterley in the novel Lady Chatterley's Lover.

William Fisher is the main character in Keith Waterhouse's novel Billy Liar.

Felix Leiter is a fictional character created by Ian Fleming in the James Bond series. The character is an operative for the CIA and Bond's friend.

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is a 1964 children's novel by British author Roald Dahl. It tells the adventures of young Charlie Bucket inside the chocolate factory of eccentric chocolatier Willy Wonka.

Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote, published in 1958. The novella was loosely adapted into the 1961 movie Breakfast at Tiffany's, starring Audrey Hepburn and directed by Blake Edwards.

Doctor Zhivago is a 1965 epic romantic drama film directed by David Lean based on the 1957 Boris Pasternak novel Doctor Zhivago.

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett. He was awarded the 1969 Nobel Prize in Literature. Beckett lived in Paris for most of his adult life and wrote in English and French.