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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through "Some Women," "The Long Distance Runner," "Last Words" Part I.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In "Last Words," what is Hemingway said to have done to his letters after Ford Madox Ford told him to "write a letter thinking of how it would read to posterity"?
(a) He locked up all his letters.
(b) He published his letters.
(c) He burned his letters.
(d) He rewrote all of his letters.

2. In "Why I Write," Didion refers to writing as "the tactic of a secret" what?
(a) Introvert.
(b) Snob.
(c) Bully.
(d) Genius.

3. What are Didion and the TV crew there to observe Nancy doing in "Pretty Nancy"?
(a) Writing her memoir.
(b) Whatever she would do on an average Tuesday morning.
(c) Helping her son with his homework.
(d) Cooking for a dinner party.

4. In "Long Distance Runner," what does Didion think is one of the reasons for Richardson's behavior?
(a) A desire to please.
(b) A lack of interest in other people.
(c) A general disdain for others.
(d) A desire to provoke.

5. What does Skip tell Joan about his son in "Fathers, Sons, Screaming Eagles"?
(a) He has been missing since Mother's Day.
(b) He moved to Canada to avoid the draft.
(c) He hasn't talked to him in years.
(d) He went AWOL.

Short Answer Questions

1. In "Some Women," what writer does Didion say is quoted as saying that talking about his novel was bad luck?

2. In "Some Women," what does Robert Mapplethorpe say is present in the way he arranges things for his photo shoots?

3. Who found Hemingway after he had shot himself in 1961?

4. What is F. Scott Fitzgerald quoted as calling Hemingway in a letter to Maxwell Perkins in "Last Words"?

5. What did Hemingway instruct his executors to do in a letter written a few years before his death?

(see the answer key)

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