This year we are celebrating seven high school graduations.  Seven!!  Four of my cousins produced 5 graduates, our next door neighbor another, and a neighbor/Gage’s sometimes babysitter rounds out the list.  It’s an expensive year.  Let’s see if you can guess these famous authors who never celebrated their high school graduations because they dropped out.

You have until noon Sunday to submit your answers as a comment.  Comment will be hidden until I post the answers.  No Googling!

This round will last til August.  The person with the most points will win a B&N gift card (total $ based on # of total participants, so please play) and a randomly selected participant will win a fun prize from me.

Have fun and Good Luck!  Last week’s Whis is Older Quiz here.  Leaderboard and rules here.

1. This author’s mother was murdered and the case has never been solved.  It led to severe depression and to his dropping out of school.  His confusion and obsession over his mother’s murder led to his interest in Elizabeth Short, The Black Dahlia.  James Ellroy

2. This New York City journalist and novelist (his last being Tabloid City, 2011 ) left school at 15 to work as an apprentice sheet metal worker.  Friends with Bobby Kennedy he was one of four men to disarm Sirhan Sirhan after his assassination.  Pete Hamill

3. This London born bestselling author is best known for her Lucky Santangelo series that has continued over the last 30 years.  She was expelled from school when she was 15.  Jackie Collins

4. This Nobel Laureate repeated his junior and senior years of high school, but even the Sound of his Fury couldn’t help him graduate.  I wonder if he regretted it As he Lay Dying.  William Faulkner

5. This Native Son had been valedictorian of his grade school but had to drop of out school at 15 to help earn money for the family.  Black Boy is his autobiography.  Richard Wright

6. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn couldn’t have cared less about his lack of education.  Mark Twain

7. The hills are alive with the beautiful voice of this actress and children’s book author.  Julie Andrews

8. This early female erotica author dropped out of school at 16.  I wonder if Henry and June approved?  Anais Nin

9. This long time Yankee catcher and manager is famous for his Yogiisms, like, “It ain’t over till it’s over.”  He co-wrote a few books with his sound observations.  He dropped out of school in the eighth grade.  Yogi Berra

10. This author’s Sense and Sensibility weren’t learned in the classroom.  Jane Austen