Phinney Books 30 Degrees of Literary Separation Quiz, Indie Bookstore Day 2024

Below find the answer key to the connections that link the 30 books featured in our Indie Bookstore Day window.

1. James by Percival Everett to Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: James rewrites Huck Finn from Jim’s perspective

2. Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain to Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant: Twain was the publisher of Grant’s Memoirs

3. Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S. Grant to Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin: Grant was Lincoln’s general

4. Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin to Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper: Team of Rivals was the source book for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, who also starred in Last of the Mohicans

5. Last of the Mohicans by James Fenimore Cooper to Collected Poems by Cecil Day-Lewis: Daniel Day-Lewis, who starred in the adaptation of Last of the Mohicans, was the son of poet Cecil Day-Lewis

6. Collected Poems by Cecil Day-Lewis to The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard: Cecil Day-Lewis had an affair with Elizabeth Jane Howard (and later died in her house)

7. The Light Years by Elizabeth Jane Howard to Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis: Elizabeth Jane Howard was married, tumultuously, to Kingsley Amis

8. Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis to Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis: Kingsley was Martin’s dad

9. Time’s Arrow by Martin Amis to Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle by Stephen Jay Gould: they just share part of a title, nothing fancier than that

10. Time’s Arrow, Time’s Cycle by Stephen Jay Gould to Father and Son by Edmund Gosse: Gould once called the ideas of Philip Gosse, the subject of his son’s memoir, “spectacular nonsense”

11. Father and Son by Edmund Gosse to Father and Son by Jonathan Raban: yes, same title (and, one imagines, Raban had Gosse’s book in mind)

12. Father and Son by Jonathan Raban to Surveillance by Jonathan Raban: same author

13. Surveillance by Jonathan Raban to Full-Rip 9.0 by Sandi Doughton: Raban’s novel (spoiler alert!) ends with a giant earthquake and tsunami destroying Seattle, the prospective subject of Doughton’s nonfiction book

14. Full-Rip 9.0 by Sandi Doughton to Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz: Schulz wrote a notorious New Yorker article on the same subject as Doughton’s book: the Big One hitting Seattle

15. Lost & Found by Kathryn Schulz to Furious Hours by Casey Cep: Schulz is married to Cep, and their relationship is one of the subjects of her memoir

16. Furious Hours by Casey Cep to To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee: Furious Hours is a biography, of sorts, of Lee

17. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee to In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: Lee was childhood friends with Capote, and helped with the research for In Cold Blood

18. In Cold Blood by Harper Lee to Great Plains by Ian Frazier: Frazier, in his travelogue of the American West, visits the home of the Clutters, the site of the In Cold Blood murders

19. Great Plains by Ian Frazier to Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid: Frazier and Kincaid were longtime New Yorker colleagues, and Frazier wrote the introduction to Talk Stories

20. Talk Stories by Jamaica Kincaid to Remembering Mr. Shawn by Ved Mehta: Kincaid was once the daughter-in-law of William Shawn, her New Yorker editor

21. Remembering Mr. Shawn by Ved Mehta to Picture by Lillian Ross: Ms. Ross and Mr. Shawn had a long affair

22. Picture by Lillian Ross to An Open Book by John Huston: Picture is a behind-the-scenes account of Huston’s film production, The Red Badge of Courage

23. An Open Book by John Huston to Love Child by Allegra Huston: After her mother’s early death, Allegra Huston was raised by her mother’s ex-husband, John Huston

24. Love Child by Allegra Huston to Sicily by John Julius Norwich: Huston was the daughter of Norwich’s affair with her mother

25. Sicily by John Julius Norwich to Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper: the historian Norwich was the writer and government official Cooper

26. Operation Heartbreak by Duff Cooper to Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre: Operation Heartbreak is a fictional account of the World War II operation detailed in Operation Mincemeat

27. Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre to Ian Fleming by Nicholas Shakespeare: Fleming was one of the chief architects of the wartime caper in Operation Mincemeat

28. Ian Fleming by Nicholas Shakespeare to Dr. No by Percival Everett: Everett’s novel borrows a title from one of Fleming’s James Bond novels

29. Dr. No by Percival Everett to James by Percival Everett: two books by the same author brings us back to where we began