Tuesday, March 10, 2009

25 Most Influential Authors

Okay, so I saw Dr. Crazy's list of her 25 most influential authors, so I thought I'd give it a try. Recently, when I was listing my top 30 albums on Facebook, it turned into a top 50 or so. I've tried to limit myself here in order to really get to the basics. I've been letting the list sit for a while because I have a very difficult time with commitment to these kinds of lists, and I'm terrified that I've left off someone very important. With that fear in mind, you'll understand if I return to this list whenever I realize I've forgotten someone who was pivotal.

Again, these are influential authors. Some of them are favorites, but some of them are here because they changed the direction of my life, scholarship, or writing. Who's on your list?

  1. Louise Fitzhugh
  2. Judy Blume
  3. Francis Hodgson Burnett
  4. Shel Silverstein
  5. L. M. Montgomery
  6. Agatha Christie
  7. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
  8. Mary Morris*
  9. Charlotte Bronte
  10. Edmund Spenser
  11. Thomas Pynchon
  12. Ray Carver
  13. Flannery O'Conner
  14. John Donne
  15. Joseph Conrad
  16. Vladimir Nabokov
  17. Bram Stoker
  18. Annie Dillard
  19. Jane Austen
  20. Queen Elizabeth I
  21. John Keats
  22. Dorianne Laux
  23. Emily Dickinson
  24. Eliza Haywood
  25. Plato

*the travel writer

5 comments:

This Ro(a)mantic Life said...

L.M. Montgomery! I was such an Anne fan when I was in middle school. I still have the entire series in my bookshelf here along with other childhood faves. They help me remember why I read when there's too much of the non-pleasurable kind on my plate.

Anonymous said...

Great list! I love many of these, too.

And I agree with CT: L.M. Montgomery is wonderful...I have almost all of her series (Anne, Emily, Story Girl, etc.) and short stories. My grandmother and I used to read and talk about them all...such special memories. Oh, and once we visited Green Gables on PEI!

Anonymous said...

ps: Who is Dorianne Laux? I'm feeling ignorant right now.

Good Enough Woman said...

Dorianne Laux is a contemporary poet. I don't think she's anthologized a lot yet. But I really love her poetry, and she influenced my writing a lot when I was writing poetry a few years ago. I suppose there are other contemporary poets I admire more (Sharon Olds, maybe?), but Laux has been more influential on my understanding of poetry and my life as a mom and a occasional wanna-be poet.

Anonymous said...

Wow--sounds intriguing! Will look her up...thanks, GEW.