Professor of Triviology
Our brain teaser is:
Dr. Conundrum says:
That dentist turned novelist was Zane Grey. He started out his career as a
professional baseball player and a "traveling tooth puller," but entered
dental school at the University of Pennsylvania in 1892. Upon graduation in 1896,
he opened his dental office in New York two years later.
He wished to give
up denistry in 1904 to pursue writing full time. Grey, who came to New York from
Zanesville, Ohio, wrote his first novel, Betty Zane, that same year; however,
he could find no one interested in publishing it, so he did it himself! By the way,
this is a time-honored American tradition used by such literary luminaries as Mark
Twain with Huckleberry Finn, Edgar Allan Poe with Tamerlane and Other Poems,
and Henry Robert of Robert's Rules of Order fame--just to name a few.
Even then, there still wasn't much interest in his printed book, though. The story
was based on the journals of his ancestors and noted frontiersman, Colonel Eb Zane.
Grey did achieve fame eight years later with Riders of the Purple Sage
after it was published by Harpers.
While Dr. Grey wrote about the
West in such books as Riders of the Purple Sage, Doc Holliday, a dentist turned
gunslinger, lived it! Beginning his practice in Georgia, Holliday eventually moved
to Dallas, Texas. He suffered from tuberculosis, and he thought the move might improve
his health. Of course, he eventually ended up in Tombstone, Arizona, where he joined
up with the Earp Brothers, Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan, who together defeated Ike Clanton,
his brother, and their cronies at the infamous "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral."
This battle, which was over in less than a minute, was actually fought at an empty
lot near the corral and not in the corral itself as legend and some in Hollywood
said. Speaking of dentists . . .
The next conundrum:
WHO WAS THE FIRST PERSON TO PATENT HIS DISCOVERY OF THE WIRELESS TELEGRAPH? I hope you can DELIVER the answer on this one.
Text and illustrations copyright 1999 by Ron Ferguson
Home Page/Comix
Corner/Adam of Arcturus/What Stinks?/Nuts and Bolts/Magic Hairball/
Quarter
Note Corral/Head Cheese/More Elbow Room