A-Z of the Greatest Authors

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A is for Austen, Jane.

For the humour, the absurdity of manners, the snobbery and the descriptions of an era when men had proper manners and girls giggled a lot.

Testament to her longevity are both Clueless and Bridget Jones. Replace the village ball with the school prom and shake the sex out from behind the curtains.

A is also for Adams, Douglas.

Above all for making sci-fi humourous and absurdity, readable. And for the scene with Arthur Dent and the biscuits at Victoria station. A Jane Austen scene if ever there was one.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Thursday, 5 February 2004 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Brilliant! *snarf* When I'm more alert and witty I'll make a contribution here.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Thursday, 5 February 2004 13:07 (twenty-two years ago)

"B" is for Barth, who, in The End of the Road, wrote one of the most amazing novels about a despicable character whose resemblance to most readers is probably quite uncomfortable.
"B" is for Barth, who, in Lost in the Funhouse and The Chimera, wrote classical mythology for the modern world so masterfully Lucian would smile reading it.
"B" is for Barthelme, arguably the driest, slyest, absurdest, funniest, most humane American short story of the 20th century.
"B" is for Barthelme who, in The Dead Father, crafted the most loveable experimental novel there is.
"B" is for Brautigan, for Trout Fishing in America.
"B" is for Bellow, for Henderson the Rain King, a tour de force stuffed so full of life you float for weeks after reading it.
"B" is for Bukowski, fearless, shameless, peerless humanist.

― otto, Thursday, 5 February 2004 17:36 (twenty-two years ago)

"C" is for Clarke, science-fiction novelist extraordinare, who touched our minds and our imaginations with "2001."

My, I'm blanking on more "c"s.

― Joseph J. Finn, Thursday, 5 February 2004 17:47 (twenty-two years ago)

C is for Christie, Agatha. I never read any of her books, but you have to admit she's stood the test of time.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Thursday, 5 February 2004 18:30 (twenty-two years ago)

C is for Conrad, who set the tone for the 20th C.

― Huckadelphia (Horace Mann), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:31 (twenty-two years ago)

No, C is for Crane, who set the tone for the 20th C.

― scott seward (scott seward), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:37 (twenty-two years ago)

This is an arbitrary list culled from my bookshelves:

A is for Auden, Akhmatova, and Auster
B is for Bulgakov, Borges, and Ambrose Bierce
C is for Calvino, Cavafy, and Chekov
D is for Lawrence Durrell, Robertson Davies and Michel Déon
E is for Eco, T.S. Eliot, and Paul Eluard
F is for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Fuentes, and Forster
G is for Gide, Greene, and Galsworthy
H is for Houellebecq, Huysmans and Hašek Jaroslav
I is for Ishiguro, Ibsen, and Irving
J is for Joyce, Henry James, and Alfred Jarry
K is for Kipling, Keats, and Khayyam
L is for Lessing, Lovecraft, and Lermontov
M is for Marquez, Maugham, and Mahfouz
N is for Nabokov, Neruda, and Naipaul
O is for O’Neill, Flann O’Brien, and Orwell
P is for Perec, Pushkin, and Plutarch
Q is for Queneau and de Quincey
R is for Rushdie, Rimbaud, and Rilke
S is for Shakespeare, Stendahl, and Saint-Exupéry
T is for Michel Tournier, Tanizaki, and Twain
U is for Updike and de Unamuno
V is for Voltaire and Valéry
W is for Wilde, Waugh, and Woolf
X is for ….had to cheat a little, but I have a book of Greek historians that includes Xenophon’s Anabasis
Y is for Yeats
Z is for Zola and Zweig

― Michael White (Hereward), Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:46 (twenty-two years ago)

"C" is for Calvino, whose Cosmicomics no one's caught up to yet.

― otto, Thursday, 5 February 2004 19:53 (twenty-two years ago)

"C" is for Cervantes, for obvious reasons.

"D" is for Dos Passos, who portrayed the smug sham the US is.
"D" is for Dunsany, for exploring and mapping elfland.
"D" is for Dickenson, for writing poetry on napkins while darning stockings.

― otto, Thursday, 5 February 2004 20:12 (twenty-two years ago)

H is for Hamsun, he's the man, wandering around, getting quite mean from time to time.

― jel -- (jel), Thursday, 5 February 2004 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

'E' is for Erickson, Steve... whose new novel 'Our Ecstatic Days' I can't wait to read. and who also has a new litmag, 'Black Clock' forthcoming from CalArts, featuring Chris Roberts, which looks like all my Christmases come at once.

― Jerry the Nipper (Jerrynipper), Thursday, 5 February 2004 20:59 (twenty-two years ago)

'E' is for Ellison, Harlan, dean of 20th century speculative fiction authors.

'E' is for Ellison, Ralph, chronicler of the 20th century black American experience.

― Joseph J. Finn, Thursday, 5 February 2004 21:27 (twenty-two years ago)

'G' is for Graves, Robert. I actually think the list should end there but you're all welcome to continue.

― writingstatic (writingstatic), Thursday, 5 February 2004 21:59 (twenty-two years ago)

"E" is for Eliot (George), who can break your heart five ways per page.
"E" is for Eliot (Thomas Stearns), who changed the course of English literature by the time he'd turned 27.
"E" is for Eco, who pre-empted (and disposed of) The Da Vinci Code 20 years ahead of time.
"E" is for Erdrich, who in Tracks wrote one of the best novels of the past 25 years.
"E" is for Ezekiel, Biblical prophet.
"E" is for Eisner, one of the best comic book writers we've been lucky to have.
"E" is for Euripides, one of the greatest playwrights ever.
"E" is for Elkin, as brought to you by S. Seward on these very pages.
"E" is for Eddings, who's seduced tons of kids through his fantasies into loving reading.
"E" is for Eugenides, who gave us Calliope, the latest and greatest transexual protagonist.
"E" is for Emerson, the first great American philosopher.
"E" is for Eddison, for the fucking bomb, The Worm Ouroboros.
"E" is for Epicharmus, for Dorian poetry.
"E" is for Erasmus, for loosening everyone up.

― otto, Friday, 6 February 2004 00:27 (twenty-two years ago)

Will Eisner!! No shit, he was one of my heroes as a lad.

― scott seward (scott seward), Friday, 6 February 2004 00:47 (twenty-two years ago)

F is for Flaubert (and his Parrot). Of course.
F is also for Forster, EM. A beautiful marriage of comedy and Italy.
F is for France, Miranda. Two terrific travel books on Buenos Aires and Castile.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 09:45 (twenty-two years ago)

F is for Faulkner, with his inbred Southerners.
F is for Franzen, annoying and adored.
F is for Fforde, who brings us dodos and Thursday Next.
F is for Foer, with his non-native English-speaking and writing hero.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

G is for Gelman, a woman who travels the world.
G is for Gold, who writes about magic.
G is for Gutierrez, and his Dirty Havana.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:12 (twenty-two years ago)

H is for Haddon, and his autistic narrator.
H is for Hansen, writing of orchids and motoring.
H is for Horwitz, my favorite travel writer.
H is for Hosseini, with his Kite Runner.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:14 (twenty-two years ago)

I is for Ibsen - second greatest of playwrights.
I is for Ionesco, who wrote: "The true temper of drama lies in frenzy."

― R the bunged up with jollop of V (Jake Proudlock), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:24 (twenty-two years ago)

J is for Jansson, Tove. A Moomin childhood is a happy childhood.
J is for Jerome K Jerome. Three Men on a Boat (plus Montmorency). And a middle name of Klapka to boot.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 6 February 2004 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

G is for Gray (Alasdair) whose pretty, pretty writing hides an enormous amount of nastiness lying just underneath.

― Jessa (Jessa), Friday, 6 February 2004 14:36 (twenty-two years ago)

K is for Kerouac, but only if you're 15.

― Huckadelphia (Horace Mann), Friday, 6 February 2004 15:27 (twenty-two years ago)

K is for Kafka, for how he saw the world and for barely ever publishing that vision.
K is for Katzantakis, for zorbatically shaking shit up with The Last Temptation of Christ.
K is for Cavafy, because there's no C in Greek.
K is for Kay, for The Fionavar Tapestry and Tigana.
K is for Keats, slain by an unpastured dragon in his den.
K is for King, yeah, that King, and all you haters can go read The Flight to Lucifer.
K is for Kundera, because who hasn't wanted to be so casual a master as he is in The Unbearable Lightness of Being?
K is for Kawabata, for Thousand Cranes, the most delightful novel about suicide there is.

― otto, Friday, 6 February 2004 17:26 (twenty-two years ago)

L is for L'amour, Louis. As predictable and satisfying as Mickey Spillane's noir Mike Hammer. Heroes and villains, a quest, a beautiful woman (or two), and a resolution that leaves the west slightly more conquered, but still wild and alluring. "Under the Sweetwater Rim", most of the Sackett series, etc.

― Chris Hill (Chris Hill), Friday, 6 February 2004 19:40 (twenty-two years ago)

Yay is for Jonathan Safran Foer!

― Leee Majors (Leee), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:31 (twenty-two years ago)

Also, otto, check out http://ilx.wh3rd.net/newanswers.php?board=62 if you please!

― Leee Majors (Leee), Friday, 6 February 2004 22:48 (twenty-two years ago)

G is for Gorey, who wrote his own alphabetical list about dying children and made us all laugh.

― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Saturday, 7 February 2004 04:12 (twenty-two years ago)

I do love comics. Can I just say that ILX gets better all the time?

What are we on? "L"?

Well, L is for Lee, Stan. Excelsior!

― otto, Saturday, 7 February 2004 23:57 (twenty-two years ago)

L is for L'Engle, for A Wrinkle in Time.
L is for Leonard, though everyone keeps telling the filmed version of Big Bounce sucks.
L is for London, proto-Hemingway.
L is for Longinus, for the sublime.
L is for Le Guin, for Earthsea.
L is for Lindsay, for A Voyage to Arcturus.
L is for all the Lowells.
L is for Lovelace, cavalier extraordinaire.
L is for Lewis: CS for Narnia and Wyndham for vorticism.
L is for Lem, top sci-fi guy.
L is for Leiber, for Lankhmar.

― otto, Monday, 9 February 2004 18:44 (twenty-two years ago)

L is for Lem, Stanislaw for proclaiming "Science fiction is a whore!"

― Jessa (Jessa), Monday, 9 February 2004 18:57 (twenty-two years ago)

We're halfway there!

M is for Maupin, Armistead. A double trilogy of San Franciscan life in the 80's. And for the author outing Rock Hudson.

M is also for the sweet southern gothic of Carson McCullers, everyone's Japtastic novelist, Murakami, and a couple of travel writers: HV Morton and the gender mutating mind of Jan Morris

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 16:00 (twenty-two years ago)

M is for Moore (Lorrie), though I really do wish she'd try a longer novel.
M is for Moorcock, not only for Elric, but for Hawkwind and Blue Oyster Cult.
M is for Meltzer, for The Aesthetics of Rock.
M is for Marx.
M is for Maugham.

― otto, Tuesday, 10 February 2004 17:33 (twenty-two years ago)

M is also (via Half Man Half Biscuit) for "Moorcock, Moorcock, Michael Moorcock, she fervently moaned"

Which makes me laugh, innit.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Tuesday, 10 February 2004 17:46 (twenty-two years ago)

M is for McCarthy, not for All the Pretty Horses, but for Suttree.

― otto, Tuesday, 10 February 2004 21:06 (twenty-two years ago)

M is for Maugham, who slithered along the razor's edge.
M is for Miller, Arthur, who put focus on war and the family
M is for Miller, Henry, who beat Color Me Badd to the punch
M is for Mykle, Agnar, whose song of the red ruby excited many a Norwegian heart

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 00:34 (twenty-two years ago)

oh crikey, I somehow didn't notice that otto already mentioned Maugham.
Wellywellthen!
M is for Martin, George R. R., whose Game Of Thrones I will someday read, in the interest of finding out why on earth people like fantasy novels.
M is for Milne, whose Pooh supposedly doesn't stink

― Øystein H-O (Øystein H-O), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 00:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Sod Nabokov, N is for Novalis, who wrote: "Whatever is insignificant, common, rough, ugly, unmannerly, can become socially acceptable only through wit. It exists as it were only for the sake of wit. What determines its purpose is wit."

― All Bunged Up. (Jake Proudlock), Wednesday, 11 February 2004 16:36 (twenty-two years ago)

N is for Naipul, who's been called the best writer with the worst politics.

― otto, Wednesday, 11 February 2004 18:10 (twenty-two years ago)

O is for Ondaatje, whose poetic prose is a sensualist dream.

― Leee Majors (Leee), Thursday, 12 February 2004 19:24 (twenty-two years ago)

P is for Payne, C.D. whose Youth in Revolt made me laugh my ass off.

― Vermont Girl (Vermont Girl), Thursday, 12 February 2004 19:42 (twenty-two years ago)

P is for Proust. How much is there to say about a nave of a church? Why, at least six pages of unpunctuated text. I'm halfway through A La Recherche... (that's over 2,000 pages) and whenever someone asks what's happened so far, I say, well nothing really. So why do you read it then? Because it isn't about things happening. It's about what goes on in the background while they happen.

And Double P is for Phillip Pullman and His Dark Materials. If that book is for kids then I must still be one. And I'm 34.

― MikeyG (MikeyG), Friday, 13 February 2004 10:17 (twenty-two years ago)

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