Mary Oliver - Quiz
Mary Oliver
  • 1. What is Mary Oliver's full birth name?
A) Mary Janet Oliver
B) Mary Josephine Oliver
C) Mary Jane Oliver
D) Mary Jean Oliver
  • 2. When was Mary Oliver born?
A) September 10, 1938
B) September 10, 1935
C) January 17, 1935
D) January 17, 1938
  • 3. When did Mary Oliver die?
A) January 17, 2019
B) September 10, 2015
C) January 17, 2015
D) September 10, 2019
  • 4. Which major literary prize did Mary Oliver win in 1984?
A) Christopher Award
B) Lannan Literary Award
C) Pulitzer Prize
D) National Book Award
  • 5. Which major literary prize did Mary Oliver win in 1992?
A) Pioneer Award
B) National Book Award
C) Pulitzer Prize
D) PEN New England Award
  • 6. Where was Mary Oliver born?
A) Maple Heights, Ohio
B) Bennington, Vermont
C) Austerlitz, New York
D) Provincetown, Massachusetts
  • 7. What was the profession of Mary Oliver's father?
A) Social studies teacher and athletics coach
B) Editor and publisher
C) Botanist and nature writer
D) Musician and orchestra conductor
  • 8. At what age did Mary Oliver begin writing poetry?
A) 17
B) 15
C) 14
D) 12
  • 9. In what year did Oliver attend the National Music Camp at Interlochen?
A) 1951
B) 1963
C) 1955
D) 1950
  • 10. What section of the National High School Orchestra was Oliver in at Interlochen?
A) Percussion section
B) Brass section
C) Woodwind section
D) String section
  • 11. Whose home did Oliver visit at age 17 in Austerlitz, New York?
A) Walt Whitman
B) Emily Dickinson
C) Edna St. Vincent Millay
D) Henry David Thoreau
  • 12. Who was Norma in relation to Edna St. Vincent Millay?
A) Daughter
B) Sister
C) Cousin
D) Mother
  • 13. Which universities did Oliver attend in the mid-1950s without receiving a degree?
A) Bucknell University and Sweet Briar College
B) Bennington College and Tufts University
C) Ohio State University and Vassar College
D) Harvard University and Yale University
  • 14. What was the name of Edna St. Vincent Millay's estate where Oliver worked?
A) Maple Heights
B) Steepletop
C) Green Pastures
D) Provincetown House
  • 15. What was the title of Oliver's first collection of poems, published in 1963?
A) No Voyage, and Other Poems
B) House of Light
C) New and Selected Poems
D) American Primitive
  • 16. How old was Oliver when her first collection of poems was published?
A) 30
B) 35
C) 25
D) 28
  • 17. Which university did Oliver teach at during the early 1980s?
A) Sweet Briar College
B) Case Western Reserve University
C) Bennington College
D) Bucknell University
  • 18. Which poetry collection won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1984?
A) Thirst
B) House of Light
C) Winter Hours
D) American Primitive
  • 19. What position did Oliver hold at Bucknell University in 1986?
A) Poet In Residence
B) Writer in Residence
C) Editor of Essays
D) Chair for Distinguished Teaching
  • 20. What position did Oliver hold at Sweet Briar College in 1991?
A) Director of Creative Writing
B) Catharine Osgood Foster Chair
C) Poet In Residence
D) Margaret Banister Writer in Residence
  • 21. Until what year did Oliver hold the Catharine Osgood Foster Chair at Bennington College?
A) 2009
B) 1995
C) 2004
D) 2001
  • 22. Which awards did Oliver win for her 1990 collection House of Light?
A) Christopher Award and L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award
B) Lannan Literary Award and Pioneer Award
C) Green Prize and Pulitzer Prize
D) Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award
  • 23. Which collection won the National Book Award in 1992?
A) House of Light
B) Winter Hours
C) American Primitive
D) New and Selected Poems
  • 24. In the poem 'When Death Comes', what does Oliver say she was married to all her life?
A) Silence
B) Nature
C) Amazement
D) The ocean
  • 25. In what year was the collection Why I Wake Early published?
A) 2004
B) 2006
C) 1990
D) 1999
  • 26. Which edition of Best American Essays did Oliver edit?
A) 2001
B) 2009
C) 1998
D) 1996
  • 27. Which organization gave Oliver the Pioneer Award for Sustainable Literature?
A) Santa Monica Public Library Green Prize
B) New York Times Literary Board
C) Lannan Foundation
D) PEN New England
  • 28. From which institution did Oliver receive an honorary doctorate in 2012?
A) Dartmouth College
B) Marquette University
C) The Art Institute of Boston
D) Tufts University
  • 29. From which institution did Oliver receive an honorary doctorate in 2008?
A) Ohio State University
B) Marquette University
C) Tufts University
D) Dartmouth College
  • 30. From which institution did Oliver receive an honorary doctorate in 2007?
A) Vassar College
B) Bucknell University
C) Dartmouth College
D) Tufts University
  • 31. From which institution did Oliver receive an honorary doctorate in 1998?
A) The Art Institute of Boston
B) Sweet Briar College
C) Marquette University
D) Case Western Reserve University
  • 32. Which publication called Oliver 'far and away, this country's best-selling poet' in 2007?
A) The New Yorker
B) The Christian Science Monitor
C) America magazine
D) The New York Times
  • 33. What is the principal setting for Oliver's work after she moved there in the 1960s?
A) Bennington
B) Austerlitz
C) Maple Heights
D) Provincetown
  • 34. Which two writers strongly influenced Oliver's work?
A) Rumi and Hafez
B) Emerson and Dickinson
C) Keats and Shelley
D) Whitman and Thoreau
  • 35. According to the 1983 Chronology of American Literature, American Primitive presents a new kind of what?
A) Modernism
B) Realism
C) Romanticism
D) Transcendentalism
  • 36. In her book Long Life, what does Oliver compare herself to on the map of the world?
A) A blue comma
B) A green dot
C) A wandering star
D) A quiet shadow
  • 37. What object did Oliver hide in the trees after finding herself in the woods without one?
A) Notebooks
B) Index cards
C) Pens
D) Pencils
  • 38. What size was the hand-sewn notebook Oliver often carried?
A) 3-by-5-inch
B) 2-by-3-inch
C) 4-by-6-inch
D) 5-by-8-inch
  • 39. Who compared Oliver to 'a patroller of wetlands in the same way that Thoreau was an inspector of snowstorms'?
A) Ruth Franklin
B) Lisa Ampleman
C) Maxine Kumin
D) Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
  • 40. Which historical poets did Oliver list as her favorites alongside Whitman, Rumi, and Hafez?
A) Wordsworth, Coleridge, and Byron
B) Milton, Blake, and Donne
C) Emerson, Shelley, and Keats
D) Dickinson, Poe, and Frost
  • 41. With which classic American poet has Oliver been compared due to a shared affinity for solitude and inner monologues?
A) Walt Whitman
B) Emily Dickinson
C) Edgar Allan Poe
D) Henry David Thoreau
  • 42. How does the Harvard Review describe Oliver's work in relation to social and professional lives?
A) As an antidote to inattention and baroque conventions
B) As a critique of traditional pastoral poetry
C) As a celebration of modern urban complexity
D) As an exploration of industrial isolation
  • 43. According to Lisa Ampleman in America magazine, how did Oliver's writing change as she grew older?
A) It became more politically radical
B) It focused increasingly on urban landscapes
C) It abandoned nature themes entirely
D) It became more and more spiritual
  • 44. What is the title of Oliver's collection of selected poems mentioned by Lisa Ampleman?
A) Winter Hours
B) Devotions
C) Thirst
D) House of Light
  • 45. Who noted that many poems in Oliver's collection would not feel out of place in an unconventional religious service?
A) Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
B) Debra Dean Murphy
C) Ruth Franklin
D) Maxine Kumin
  • 46. Who wrote a review of Oliver's 2006 collection Thirst in Fordham University's publication?
A) Debra Dean Murphy
B) Lisa Ampleman
C) Ruth Franklin
D) Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
  • 47. According to Angela Alaimo O'Donnell, Oliver's collection Thirst shows a movement toward a frank acknowledgment of what faith?
A) Jewish
B) Buddhist
C) Quaker
D) Christian
  • 48. Which poem by Oliver explores engagement with Scripture?
A) The Vast Ocean Begins Just Outside Our Church
B) After Her Death
C) The Poet Thinks About the Donkey and Gethsemane
D) When Death Comes
  • 49. Which two poems by Oliver explore imaginative engagement with Christ's life and words?
A) When Death Comes and Leaf and the Cloud
B) After Her Death and Coming to God: First Days
C) Six Recognitions of the Lord and The Poet Thinks About the Donkey and Gethsemane
D) American Primitive and House of Light
  • 50. According to Debra Dean Murphy, what has Oliver's work always been about pointing readers toward?
A) The gift of presence
B) The rejection of religious tradition
C) The critique of American capitalism
D) The pursuit of political reform
  • 51. In what decade did Mary Oliver meet Molly Malone Cook?
A) Early 1950s
B) Late 1960s
C) Early 1940s
D) Late 1950s
  • 52. What was Molly Malone Cook's profession?
A) Publisher
B) Painter
C) Poet
D) Photographer
  • 53. What role did Molly Malone Cook serve for Mary Oliver aside from being her partner?
A) Publicist
B) Biographer
C) Literary agent
D) Editor
  • 54. In what year did Molly Malone Cook pass away?
A) 2009
B) 2019
C) 2005
D) 2012
  • 55. Where did Mary Oliver move to live after leaving Provincetown?
A) Florida
B) New York
C) California
D) Massachusetts
  • 56. What tree does Mary Oliver specifically state she adores in 'Six Recognitions of the Lord'?
A) Red maple
B) Black oak
C) White willow
D) Silver birch
  • 57. Who directed the documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World?
A) Sasha Waters
B) Benjamin Myers
C) Maxine Kumin
D) Alicia Ostriker
  • 58. What rating did the documentary Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World receive on Rotten Tomatoes?
A) 85% positive rating
B) 97% positive rating
C) 100% positive rating
D) 92% positive rating
  • 59. In what year was Mary Oliver diagnosed with lung cancer?
A) 2005
B) 2019
C) 2012
D) 2015
  • 60. What disease ultimately caused Mary Oliver's death?
A) Lymphoma
B) Heart failure
C) Pneumonia
D) Lung cancer
  • 61. How old was Mary Oliver when she died?
A) 83
B) 79
C) 91
D) 86
  • 62. Which critic numbered Oliver among America's finest poets and compared her to Emerson in a review for The Nation?
A) Bruce Bennetin
B) Sue Russell
C) Alicia Ostriker
D) William Logan
  • 63. Which collection of poetry did Alicia Ostriker review for The Nation?
A) American Primitive
B) Six Recognitions of the Lord
C) Dream Work
D) Thirst
  • 64. Who wrote that American Primitive 'insists on the primacy of the physical'?
A) Maxine Kumin
B) Angela Alaimo O'Donnell
C) Vicki Graham
D) Bruce Bennetin
  • 65. Who wrote that American Primitive 'touches a vitality in the familiar that invests it with a fresh intensity'?
A) Sue Russell
B) Holly Prado
C) Diane S. Bond
D) William Logan
  • 66. In regard to which poetry volume did Angela Alaimo O'Donnell discuss potential misperceptions of pantheism?
A) Our World
B) American Primitive
C) Dream Work
D) Thirst
  • 67. In The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, to whom did Sue Russell compare Mary Oliver to show Oliver was not writing as a contemporary lesbian balladeer?
A) Maxine Kumin
B) Holly Prado
C) Alicia Ostriker
D) Marilyn Hacker
  • 68. In The Harvard Gay & Lesbian Review, to whom did Sue Russell compare Mary Oliver to show Oliver was not writing as a political thinker?
A) Marilyn Hacker
B) Diane S. Bond
C) Adrienne Rich
D) Sasha Waters
  • 69. What book did Mary Oliver compile after Molly Malone Cook's death containing Cook's photos and journal excerpts?
A) American Primitive
B) Thirst
C) Dream Work
D) Our World
  • 70. Which foundation awarded Mary Oliver a Fellowship in 1980?
A) Guggenheim Foundation
B) Harvard University
C) Lannan Foundation
D) PEN New England
  • 71. In what year did Mary Oliver win the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry?
A) 1984
B) 1992
C) 1969
D) 1998
  • 72. In what year did Mary Oliver receive the Lannan Literary Award for poetry?
A) 1998
B) 1991
C) 2003
D) 1984
  • 73. What honorary membership did Mary Oliver receive from Harvard University in 2003?
A) PEN New England
B) Poetry Society of America
C) Pulitzer Board
D) Phi Beta Kappa
  • 74. In what year did Mary Oliver receive an Honorary Doctorate from Tufts University?
A) 2012
B) 2007
C) 2008
D) 1998
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