All Questions
Tagged with author-identification or identification-request
1,043 questions
5
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What were the works of Tagore that Mistral commented on?
Mistral's first published collection, Desolación, contains a number of prose works in addition to her poetry. In one of them, "Commentarios a poemas de Rabindranath Tagore", Mistral wrote ...
- 18.9k
2
votes
0
answers
35
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Poem About Missshapen Tree
Looking for a poem about a tree that has grown in adverse conditions, but is more interesting because it has more character. Thought it was written by a famous American poet but my searches don't ...
2
votes
1
answer
220
views
What's the title of this sci-fi story about a sentient planet?
It's an early short sci-fi story. 1950 to 1960's maybe.
3 people are on an unusual planet that seems sentient. A young man, a young woman, and a little older man say 30 years old.
The young woman has ...
- 23
3
votes
1
answer
56
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Short Story about a car breaking down in the desert, darts, and maybe cannibals
I read an English textbook many years ago (late 80s, early 90s I think). In that book, I read a short story and can only vaguely remember a very few details.
There was a family driving down a road ...
- 133
1
vote
2
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71
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Looking for a young-adult book about kids that get stuck in a cave
As near as I can remember, I read this book in 7th or 8th grade, so figure it would be written toward 10-15 year olds. I'm looking for a book where 2-4 (can't remember exactly) kids decide to explore ...
Chad Robinson
6
votes
1
answer
1k
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A book I read around 25 years ago including a salt sea that blinds people, "gods" including two called Ari and Paty
I know it's a long shot, but I'm trying to find a book I read about 25 years ago, checked out from a public library in California. Here is was I can remember of it:
Book details: Likely a YA fantasy ...
0
votes
1
answer
79
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Book that ends with someone knocking on the door
The only detail I remember of the book/story was that it ended with someone/something banging/scratching on the front door, but the characters never find out what it is. In the context I heard of it, ...
- 111
2
votes
1
answer
676
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A Title "That in Aleppo Was"
I remember a title, not a book or a story, but a title of some piece of literature I read or heard about decades ago. The title was something like "That in Aleppo Was".
And so I am asking ...
- 977
3
votes
1
answer
83
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Children's book where a boy runs away from his foster home. Encounters a con man and travels with him
I read this when I was a child in the late 1980s to the early 1990s. It was probably a fairly short book, less than a hundred pages. It was set in the United States, probably in the mid 1800s to the ...
- 11.4k
-1
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0
answers
40
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What's the name of this book about a mysterious mansion with a bunch of strange animals?
Does anyone know the name of a Novella about a young man who finds a menagerie of exotic sea creatures, and a girl with a bunch of stuffed animals that look real/alive, in a weird mansion? Thanks.
5
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0
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47
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Locating Babylonian birth-omen tablets
It seems the Babylonian divinatory tablets is in the public domain, however, I'm quite unable to find English translations for it.
https://ancientworldonline.blogspot.com/2013/12/cuneiform-texts-from-...
- 845
3
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0
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68
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Short horror story about a widow seeking help from a healer who takes fingers as payment
I read this short story in – I think! – a horror anthology. I can't recall the title or the author, and I can't find it in the anthologies I have on my shelves. This what I remember:
A woman is ...
- 39
2
votes
0
answers
42
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Poem about a cherry pie being saved, betrayed, and eaten
I once read (in a collection/anthology of children's literature?) a poem about a cherry pie. The title might have been just "Cherry Pie", but it wasn't this or this or this or this (you can ...
- 76.7k
1
vote
0
answers
33
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Thriller book with a climactic scene where the protagonist knows that weapons are being smuggled in the coffins of deceased veterans/POWs
This popped into mind for some reason during Veteran's Day services. The part that has stuck with me was a scene near the end of the book, but I think it featured a military investigator who ...
- 11.4k
23
votes
1
answer
3k
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Who is the "Celebrated New Zealander that is to be"?
In Henry Dunbar: The Story of an Outcast by Mary Elizabeth Braddon, set around 1850 and published 1864, we have the following:
This diary-keeping is a very foolish habit, after all. Why do I keep
...
- 2,583
2
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0
answers
35
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Illustrated children's book about animals travelling world in hot air balloon
A random redditor and I have been separately looking for this book for nearly a decade. We are both Canadian and are looking for a book likely from the 1980s-1990s. It is a large format (hardcover?) ...
- 29
2
votes
0
answers
66
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Name/author of future war sci-fi book?
Trying to find details of book read in my teens so late '80's. Narrative from a (former) soldier. Warfare takes place in another dimension/rift where tanks and weaponry etc are "thin" in ...
- 29
4
votes
1
answer
110
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Book series with a character who is forgotten by everyone
I'm trying to find this book series I read in middle school with a character who no one could remember. He had a girlfriend later in the series who was blind and wore a bracelet with his name in ...
- 49
2
votes
1
answer
94
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Identify a children's pop-up picture book about a murder mystery
I would have read the book around 2000 to 2005. I have very faint memories of it so these details may be wildly off:
Portrait orientation, at least 6 inches by 9 inches or so. Illustrations were ...
andrew
5
votes
1
answer
812
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What song about a little eagle is the widow of a Chernobyl clean-up worker referring to?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), the widow of a clean-up worker talks to Svetlana Alexievich about the heroism they believed in before the demise of the Soviet Union and says,
At one ...
- 51.1k
6
votes
1
answer
340
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Poem ascribed to Anna Akhmatova (Spanish required)
In some Spanish language social media posts and websites the following poem is attributed to Anna Akhmatova:
Mi vida ha transcurrido en algún sitio/
del que yo estaba ausente./
¡Cuántas veces se ...
- 193
5
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1
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290
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Identity of a story anthology containing "Murders in the Rue Morgue" and "The Great Stone Face"
I think I remember two specific books which I read in the summer of 1962.
One was The Wonderful Wizard of Oz one of several borrowed from the Cape May, New Jersey public library that summer. And the ...
- 977
1
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0
answers
30
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Searching for '70s anthology of young writers' work, with stories about death during the sinking of Atlantis and a girl who sees a ghost in lamplight
I am looking for an anthologies of stories from young writers in the '70s.
It was an A4-sized hardback with a whitish cover and contained two particularly memorable stories.
One was a first person ...
1
vote
2
answers
130
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Children's magic/fantasy anthology featuring excerpts from stories like LOTR and The Phantom Tollbooth
I'm looking to find a 'possibly 1980s' hardback book which I read in the UK with a very busy cover of witches and wizards etc.
Inside were excerpts from more famous longer fantasy/magical stories like ...
- 41
6
votes
1
answer
97
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Children's book featuring a girl in a blue dress riding a broom
At a Halloween event recently, my daughter and I walked past a free book table, and we are trying to find a book she saw but didn't grab based on the details she remembers:
The title is in gold ...
- 298
7
votes
1
answer
326
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Sci-fi book about a pebble with a telepathic message, might've been called / had a phrase "Fortress of the mind"
Please help me identify this sci-fi book.
The book is about the main character finding a pebble that contains a secret power and many factions in the galaxy are after it.
The Church is a central power ...
- 71
3
votes
1
answer
1k
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Book about Pirates, something to do with Angels, kids in a marketplace drawing portraits that depict people as their true character
I have a very vague memory of this book about pirates. I'm pretty sure there was something to do with Angels, might have been in the title. Other than that just that there's some young kids as the ...
- 133
3
votes
1
answer
101
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Who wrote The Cleaners and what is the book about?
In Chernobyl Prayer (or Voices from Chernobyl), one of the persons interviewed by Svetlana Alexievich says,
As a boy, I read a marvellous book called The Cleaners — I've forgotten who wrote it — ...
- 51.1k
5
votes
1
answer
380
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Novel mentioning a talk between Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde and a beast of Dartmoor
I recall to have read a book in which there is a scene where Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Oscar Wilde are talking to each other at a kind of dinner party, as Wilde advises Doyle to make Holmes more ...
0
votes
1
answer
73
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Title of Work about "Barber? who tries to make everyone like him buts ends up destitute"
My friend told me once that there was a literary work (book, play?, etc.) about a barber who tries to make everyone like him but ends up destitute because of that singular focus. It may have been ...
- 109
2
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0
answers
47
views
Book with a major plot point revolving around a diorama and amnesia
I read a book in the late 90s but I don't know when it was written. I feel like the genre is a thriller but I can't be sure. The only part I can remember clearly is that the main character has always ...
- 29
0
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1
answer
83
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Looking for a children's story from the 1950s about a little girl that sews a clown
I read a story as a child about a little girl named Janie with red hair. Her mother and she sewed a clown out of scraps of material. Would anyone remember this story?
3
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0
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33
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A police agent is sent to prison to expose a gang, and then he finds himself in danger
When did you read the story/poem/novel, etc., and how old was it?
I read it about 5-9 years ago, so somewhere between 2015 and 2019. I'm not sure when the book was first published but I suppose that ...
- 139
0
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0
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56
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Horror novel where a babysitter is stalked by the kid she's baby-sitting. Part of his tools involve something like electronic LEGOs
I honestly don't remember exactly when I read this, at least 10 years ago, maybe over 20. I actually thought that I'd found the answer here, or on the Science Fiction and Fantasy Stack Exchange, but I ...
- 11.4k
3
votes
0
answers
57
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Book about four friends going on a cruise, a fortune teller predicts that one of them will be left behind
The book is about four friends—who are excited about their upcoming cruise—visit and they visit a carnival after school is out, where a fortune teller ominously predicts that one of them will be left ...
Alicia Gil
2
votes
1
answer
52
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What volume/publication does this poem by Janko Jesenský belong to?
I have a Hebrew translation of a poem by Slovak poet Janko Jesenský, entitled "בחירות דמוקרטיות", or in English, "Democratic Elections". It was supposedly written in 1929, although ...
- 123
6
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1
answer
519
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Book where a parent recounts an anecdote about a painting of a Russian sled pursued by wolves
I was recently reading a story (a piece of Worm fanfiction) where a character cited a "Russian proverb" about a sled being pursued by wolves where they had to decide who would be thrown to ...
- 11.4k
6
votes
1
answer
109
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Looking for a German short story about how "there is no worse taste than half a cherry"
I think about this story so often and would love to own a copy of it.
The story tells of a man sitting in the train in post World War II Germany. He is eating a bag of cherries, enjoying the rare ...
- 169
2
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1
answer
378
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What is the title of this book about a female writer embroiled in a murder mystery?
I recently read a book and can’t remember the title or author. The plot included a female writer who had been in a car accident and kept having dreams about fire. She was living in New England for the ...
3
votes
1
answer
73
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Looking for a non-fiction work about U.S. politics in the 21st century
Some time between 2006 and 2015 I read a book about contemporary U.S. politics. I was struck by the cogent description of the core values of Republicans (or perhaps conservatives in general) and how ...
- 1,516
3
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0
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318
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Trying to find an old scientific story / puzzle book
This question reminded me of a book I had in the early 80s. I am in the UK and the book was in English, but may have originated in the US rather than the UK.
It was a series of short stories, each ...
- 299
1
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0
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43
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Book with a line about morality of building orphanages
There was a book I read several years ago and can't remember much about. I read it as an e-book but I'm pretty sure it was published after 2000. The main detail I can remember is an exchange that goes ...
- 159
0
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0
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42
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A childrens/young adult book about a boy in a secret organization
Looking for a book I read long ago, so my memory is very blurred, some details are likely not accurate. All I can recall is a boy that is taken to an organization of a bunch of kids in similar age, ...
- 9
1
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0
answers
63
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Book about a new student in a cruel school
This novel was used as part of a UK secondary school lesson (or several lessons?) in the early 90s. We might have read the whole thing, or just some excerpts. I think it was before English literature ...
4
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0
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54
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Children's book about a one way street where everything goes one way
It's one of those things where I remember it extremely clearly while also not remembering useful details or being sure of my "clear" memories. But it's a children's picture book, in verse, ...
- 49
4
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0
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69
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Comic with a worm with a bandage at the end of the body
I suddenly remembered a comic that I read as a child, but I can't remember much.
I read the comic in Catalan, but I think it was a translation, so the comic should exist in other languages.
In the ...
- 179
9
votes
1
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858
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Looking for a short story on chess, maybe published in Playboy decades ago?
Many years ago a friend received a massive collection of antique Playboy magazines. Hundreds of them, dating from the 1950s to the 1980s, if I recall. One of them had a chess short story, and I'm ...
4
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0
answers
54
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Identify a book about travellers in a desert telling stories
It was a book I read somewhen 2010 to 2020 from one of the numerous Soviet publications of adventure novels and stories collections or an imitation thereof (borrowed from one of my then-friends' home ...
4
votes
1
answer
266
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Father and Son treasure hunters that ends with finding one last shipwreck (childrens/young adult)
Looking for a book that I read in school (mid 1990's, USA), so likely published in the 1980s or early 1990s. It was about a father and son treasure hunting team mainly looking for shipwrecks. The ...
- 4,310
6
votes
1
answer
2k
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Two sisters live alone in a house after the rest of their family died
I read this in the mid-90s while in Ashland, KY, from a shelf of books in our house that was largely occupied by books my parents had owned before us kids, so there's a good chance that the book is ...
- 11.4k