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