Friday, May 27, 2016

Authors for Dinner



Just authors. No one famous for anything other than their books. [No playwrights. Shakespeare would always have a seat. If he shows up we'll let him in.] Who should be around the table? My choices would be:
  1. Charles Dickens
  2. Leo Tolstoy
  3. Anthony Trollope
  4. Ernest Hemingway
  5. Jane Austen
  6. Patrick O'Brian
  7. George Orwell
  8. Marcel Proust
  9. Flannery O'Connor
  10. William Faulkner
  11. Mark Twain
  12. Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I know Cultural Offering would pick Jim Harrison but he can make his own list. I also left off John Steinbeck, Joseph Conrad, Herman Melville, John Updike, and a bunch of other great ones so I'm skating on thin ice.

4 comments:

Dan in Philly said...

Alexandre Dumas could sit next to Charles Dickens and they can see who can stuff the most words into the conversation - amazingly they would be so good at it no one would mind.

I think Umberto Eco and Dante could share interesting reflections about each others' works, so they can sit together.

I would be interested to hear Twain's opinion of Melville's works and vice versa during dinner.

I'd love to have Isaac Asimov sitting next to HG Wells on one side and Edward Gibbon on the other.

I think I'd have Tolstoy preside over the table. I'd be content just to be a busboy at such a gathering.

Anonymous said...

My first thought was Orwell. You have him as 7. Acceptable.

Ok, more niche, but Robert J. Sawyer. That guy can write. I'd love to hear him speak.

-Bobbo

Steve Layman said...

With Dickens and O'Brian you are on very firm ground. It's a good list, don't let them tell you differently.

Michael Wade said...

Steve,

I think I'm in good company.

Thanks!

Michael