Best Intentions
After an insanely busy week that crash landed in illness, the post I’d been weaving in my head never actually made it to the page. As my mother is always faithful to remind me, “life is what happens when you had other plans”.
Nevertheless, I thought I’d just pop in and say Hello! and a few other randomly unconnected things…
I’m sure many of you have seen the note that’s been traveling around Facebook, wherein friends are invited to share fifteen authors that have inspired, challenged and shaped their thinking. The only rule is that you are supposed to rattle them off: no thoughtful pondering and agonizing. (One might consider the limitation to fifteen a rule. I haven’t decided yet whether or not I’m going to honor that distinction. Probably not.) I’ve been tagged so many times, I thought I may as well share them here. (Another rule broken, you might say. I’m a rebel.) So here goes:
Sheldon Vanauken
Charles Williams
George Eliot
T.S. Eliot
Madeleine L’Engle
Charlotte Bronte
Gerard Manley Hopkins
William Wordsworth
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Elizabeth Goudge
Thomas Howard
C.S. Lewis
J.R.R. Tolkien
Christina Rossetti
Gene Stratton-Porter
George MacDonald
Louisa May Alcott
Rumer Godden
Elizabeth Gaskell
Jane Austen
Charles Dickens
Elisabeth Elliot
Edith Schaeffer
Brenda Ueland
Dorothy Sayers
In other news, here are two dearests that I have been meaning to tell you about for some time:
The first is my lovely and talented sister, Liz. She is a representational artist living in New York, creating beauty with and without her paintbrush every day of her life, and she has inspired me as an artist more than anyone else on the face of this earth. She’s been updating her site (“Beetle’s Day”) with works from a recent stint in Europe: Sarajevo, Paris and Madrid. Don’t miss the beautiful Notre Dame at Night, one of my favorites. Val-de-Grace and Window in Madrid are especially breathtaking, as well. But they all are! And here’s the amazing part: all of the pieces listed on her site are available for sale!
Next, my darling friend and writing partner, Laura. Friends, I cannot tell you how much I love and admire this girl. She is all indomitable pluck and unfailing womanly charm and social wit, and she’s an incredibly gifted writer, to boot. And besides all these, Laura has a mind and heart awake to the operations of Grace that transfigure daily life into a spiritual pilgrimage. I invite you to enjoy her candid journey as a writer at Mere Enthusiasm.
And just to round off this haphazard post, I had a piece published on The Rabbit Room this week, an honor in every sense of the word. You can find it here if you’re interested. 🙂
(Oh! And good heavens–how could I forget Kenneth Grahame and Tennyson!!)
So who are your “15”? I’d love to hear, if you care to share below! 🙂
edited to add: Evelyn Waugh. Ahem. 😉
Hello dear,
Hope you are feeling much better.
Here is the 15- rather rough and ready but here we go.
CS Lewis
JI Packer
Louisa May Alcott
Jane Austen
Elinor M. Brent-Dyer
LM Montgomery
Anne Bronte
M.M. Kaye
Margaret Forster
Helen Forrester
A.J. Cronin
Ahdar Soueif
Miriam Adeney
JRR Tolkien
John Piper
Really hope you feel better soon- love Rebekah PS must speak soon on the phone.
15? Without thinking about it? Eep. Ok, just for you, and in no particular order, here goes 🙂
Louisa May Alcott
Jane Austen
William Wordsworth
JC Ryle
Oswald Chambers
Jhumpa Lahiri
Christina Rossetti
A A Milne
Elisabeth Elliot
Lucy Maud Montgomery
John Muir
Anne Fadiman
CS Lewis
Joyce Lankester Brisley
John Clare
I’m sure I’ll think of others later, I am so terrible at lists like this!
Glad to hear you are well, Lanier. And beautiful centrepiece.
My 15:
H.L. Mencken
Evelyn Waugh
William Faulkner
Marcel Proust
Lord Macaulay (Thomas Babington Macaulay)
Arthur Conan Doyle
William Shakespeare
T.S. Eliot
John Wesley
Peter DeVries
Charles Dickens
Roger Scruton
Peter Hitchens
C.S. Lewis
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
I just realized that there are no women on this list. Hmmm…
Joanna–how on earth did I neglect Waugh?!? 😉
This was not as easy an assignment as it appeared.
Favorites in no special order:
Elizabeth Goudge
Dorothy Evelyn Smith
Gladys Hasty Carroll
Rosamunde Pilcher
Madeleine L’Engle
Ellis Peters
Rumer Godden
Daphne du Maurier
Frances Parkinson Keyes
Henry Beston
Janice Holt Giles
Beth Powning
Agnes Sligh Turnbull
Edwin Way Teale
A.A. Milne
Goodness! My list is almost identical to yours except for the two authors I am not familiar with (Howard and Ueland). In there place I had Trollope and Bunyan.
dorothy whipple
jane austen
charlotte bronte
anne bronte
edith schaeffer
sarah ban breathnagh
d e stevenson
luisa alcott
lucy maud montgomery
p.g wodehouse
eva ibbotson
konstantinos kavafis
george seferis
odysseas elytis
elizabeth gaskell
Dear Lanier,
Wonderful idea! Here is my top 15: (I don’t know who are the french authors you read in the USA, although I saw Proust was mentioned, so I add some comments on them!)
Jane Austen
Alexandre Dumas (historical novels as long as a good book should be: The Three musketeers…)
Elizabeth Gaskell (thanks to you)
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jeanne Bourin (historical novels again, often about the Middle-Ages)
C. S. Lewis
Gilbert Cesbron (a Catholic author in the middle of the twentieth century, a free mind, the hero of my youth)
Louisa May Alcott
Henry James
Philippe Delerm (the writer of the quest of happiness in the little things in our lives)
Rainer Maria Rilke
Théophile Gautier (poet and novelist, a wizard of words)
Jean Anouilh (a fantastic playwright)
Marcel Pagnol (so funny that my sister once had to stop reading him in the train because she was laughing to loud)
Daphné du Maurier
Glad you’re back but take good care of you.
Marie
Hello
Here are my 15:
Louisa May Alcott
P G Wodehouse
Elizabeth Goudge
Edward Gorey
Mary Webb
Kenneth Grahame
George and Weedon Grossmith
Jerome K Jerome
Jane Austen
E F Benson
Anthony Trollope
Rosamunde Pilcher
Rumer Godden
Mary Renault
Daphne Du Maurier
Any Richmal Crompton went on and off as I kept thinking of more and more favourites so she didn’t quite make it in the end. And Yeats . . . and Wordsworth . . . and A A Milne . . . oh dear . . . .
I would say something about someone not following the rule of 15 but I am too busy writing down names of authors. 🙂
Reading through Girl of the Limberlost right now…
Fifteen favorites:
J.R.R. Tolkien
C. S. Lewis
Madeleine L’Engle
George MacDonald
Katharine Paterson
Lois Lowry
Kenneth Grahame
E. B. White
Louisa May Alcott
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Susan Cooper
Eugenia Price
Jan Karon
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Catherine Marshall
r alcorn
jausten
lm alcott
fh burnett
lm montgomery
t dekker
c dickens
w cather
j bunyan
li wilder
j karon
eb white
f rivers
cs lewis
t tudor
Okay, here goes: Eleanor Spence, Georgette Heyer, Mary Renault, CS Lewis, Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, Hilaire Belloc, GK Chesterton, Joanna Spry, Elinor M Brent-Dyer, LM Montgomery, Ruth Park, R F Delderfield, Enid Blyton, Elizabeth Goudge.
Hope you are feeling better, and having lots of perfect autumn days!
I love all the photos, especially the last one. So much peace and beauty!
Have many wonderful reading hours! Martina
Jane Austen
Cynthia Harnett
Elsie J. Oxenham
Louisa May Alcott
L.M. Montgomery
C.H. Spurgeon
Francis H. Burnett
Robert Elmer
Eric Ludy
Leslie Ludy
P.G. Wodehouse
Lois Walfrid Johnson
Joanna Spyri
Janette Oke and …
… Davis Bunn (Together)
And that’s 15 – if I was allowed 20 I’d add Arthur Ransom, Mary Kassian, Elizabeth George, John Pollock and Laura Ingalls Wilder. All in random order. How fun this is … thank you for sharing!
Lanier–
It was necessary to remove the poets from my list–I had 24 all together!
Here’s mine:
C.S. Lewis
Jane Austen
Madeleine L’Engle
Louisa May Alcott
Lucy Maud Montgomery
Jan Karon
Elizabeth Goudge
J.R.R. Tolkien
Frances Hodgson Burnett
Elizabeth Gaskell
Dorothy Sayers
Laura Ingalls Wilder
Agatha Christie
G.K. Chesterton
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Rosamunde Pilcher
I love reading the other lists and seeing the commonalities–but also some ideas for new-to-me writers! What a wonderful community you’ve created!
l
So who are your poets, Lara? I’m too curious! 😉
Poet list:
William Carlos Williams
Y.B Yeats
Emily Dickinson
Mary Oliver
Elizabeth Bishop
Robert Frost
Jane Kenyon
William Stafford
William Wordsworth
John Keats
Gerard Manley Hopkins
T.S. Eliot
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
John Greenleaf Whittier
Billy Collins
David Whyte
I love the fact so many have mentioned Rosamunde Pilcher- I was afraid to be too honest- such sweet relaxation!
Rebekah–
She’s a bit of comfort to me, when I’m feeling out of sorts. Have you seen this website? I love “You Know You’ve Read Too Much Pilcher When….” as you scroll down. Enjoy! http://kiswebdesigns.com/rosamundepilcher/