Top Ten authors

[kickassangel]

One of my 6th Form asked if I could come up with a list of 10 'good' writers for her to do some reading over the summer. After fainting, I began thinking about this, and we've had some interesting discussions in the staff room.
What do people on MN think are the best authors to read?
The books should be of good quality rather than popular (although you can take that into consideration), have contributed to the 'literary cannon' in some way, e.g. influenced how others write, created a whole new genre etc.

The following criteria MUST be met.
1 English
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland)
1 pre 1914
1 post 1914
1 poet
1 prose writer
1 playwright
1 European, outside UK
1 new world
1 female
1 male

1 author could fulfill several of these criteria, therby given you some freedom to choose authors from outside these categories (e.g. Shakespeare is male, engliah, pre 1914 etc)

Or you could just tell me your favourite authors.

Wow, how keen and amazing!!! You really do have to come up with the goods in response to that don't you?! How about:

Wuthering Heights - Bronte
La Bete Humaine - Emile Zola

(I loved both of these when I studied them for english and French A level)

How about Huxley's Animal Farm or 1984 as well?

JK Rowling

Rebecca
To kill a Mockingbird
Catcher on the rye

george orwell down and out in paris and london
auther miller death of a salesman
cant remember name of poet I liked...darn it wrote a lot of war poems...ermmm

Wilfred Owen..darn that was annoying..lol

Dickens Hard times of course another classic.

I'd vote for Primo Levi's If This Is A Man/The Truce to go in the mix

and Margaret Atwood (ticks woman and new world boxes)

Iris Murdoch - my favourite that I read at 16 or 17yrs is The Black Prince. Have reread so many times & everytime get more from the book.

Wow, wasn't expecting any response so soon.
Lady Tamba, are you trying to be controversial?

john steinbeck is another good author.

ohh soo many to choose from.

alice walker
maya angelou

Keri Hulme
The Bone People
Awesome shes a kiwi

tough but can't resist

1 English : Iris Murdoch
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) Ian McEwan
1 pre 1914 : Jane Austen (very teenage, very girlish, remarkably relevant imho and funny)
1 post 1914 Evelyn Waugh
1 poet Betjeman
1 prose writer :
1 playwright Robert Bolt, by which I mean A man for all seasons
1 European, outside UK : Primo Levi
1 new world : Coetzee
1 female Margaret Atwood
1 male Tom Wolfe

I deliberately did mine without looking at the others first. interesting to see so many common ones. Orwell is a massive ommission on my list. I'd maybe swap him for Tom Wolfe (Bonfire of the Vanities is an alarmingly good book - but possibly needs to be read when you've been around a bit!)

I tried to do it using your list but strguggled!
Here's a few of my favourites
Alice Hoffman
Margaret Atwood
Beryl Bainbridge
Poetry - Baudelaire of you speak French, Larkin et al if not
Paul Auster
Peter Ackroyd
I would also suggest specific books rather than authors e.g. catcher in the rye, To kill a mockingbird, Great Gatsby for your new world category
Plus other British "best sellers" like Behind the scenes at the Museum
European - Kafka definitely for influence and genre, plus Zola, Camus, Sartre
where do you stop??

Aldous Huxely - Brave new world
George Orwell - 1984
Fay Weldon - Remember Me
" " Presidents Child
" " Polaris and other stories

Not up to completing your list but here is a few I have loved over the years:
George Elliot
Frank McCourt
Yung Chang
Margaret O'Brian
Jeanette Winterson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Kate Atkinson
Mary Webb

where do we stop? looking at his list, there are none that i don't think 'cut the mustard', but i can only recommend 10!
or do i just say shakespeare?
or do i refer her back to the classics, surely they count as well?
i will post my list soon, feel free to criticise it!

ooh Coetzee is a good one

I would go for Henning Menkell for the European but it is v new fiction (and I am completely biased towards crime writing!)

I also think Jonathan Coe or Ian McEwan are worthy of being on the list.

Margaret Atwood
Alice Hoffman
Amy Tan
John Irving
Rosamunde Pilcher (for warm and fuzziness)
Joanne Harris
Jane Austen
Carol Shields

1 English = Jane Austen, Emma
1 other UK (inc Rep of Ireland) = Iain Banks, The Crow Road
1 pre 1914 = Mrs Gaskell, North and South
1 post 1914 = Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
1 poet = Robert Graves
1 prose writer = George Orwell
1 playwright = Patrick Marber, Closer, or Caryl Churchill, Top Girls
1 European, outside UK = Camus, La Peste
1 new world = Vikram Seth, The Golden Gate
1 female = Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale
1 male = Martin Amis, The Rachel Papers

These are all writers I think a keen teenage reader would find interesting and might not discover without direction from a teacher.
Some of my favourite writers that aren't on that list include David Hare, Marge Piercy, Robertson Davies and Jonathan Coe, also Donna Tartt, Jeffrey Eugenides, Helen Simpson and Michael Chabon.

Also Sarah Kane as playwright. The more time goes on, the more people are seeing past her schlocky Appalled-of-Tunbridge Wells press coverage during her lifetime and seeing her as a challenging visionary

ooh that's a good list - I wondered if you would see this thread because I thought you'd put Iain Banks on your list!