Screenwriter Paul Guyot has a new feature on his website that intrigued me. It's a photo gallery of his heroes, drawn from film, literature, music, sports, his personal life and everything else.
Some of the choices are a little odd -- for example, he is obsessed with a horse. And, apparently, people who drive really fast while making left turns. But some of the choices are rather inspiring.
This got me thinking about my own heroes, especially those related to writing and literature. I'm too lazy to put together pictures or anything. But I did start making a list:
Ross Thomas...Roger Ebert...Larry Block...Pauline Kael...Anthony Boucher...Ernest Hemingway...George Pelecanos...John D. MacDonald...Dashiell Hammett...Laura Lippman...Robert Ferrigno...David Morrell...Rex Stout
(This is just off the top of my head -- I know I'm leaving off some great people.)
What about you? Who are your literary heroes?
Also an incomplete list off the top of my head and in no particular order:
J.D.Wingfield, Colin Dexter, Ruth Rendell, Robert van Gulik, Rose Tremain, Sjowall and Wahloo, Janwillem van de Wetering, and John Mortimer. (I would add Ken Bruen for the Irish novels, but I have too many problems with the rest of his output).
Posted by: I.J.Parker | April 09, 2008 at 11:07 AM
Yeah, I heard old Bruen was having trouble with his output.
:)
Posted by: Scooter McWritesalot | April 09, 2008 at 11:41 AM
I'm just going to list the dead ones - I've got too many friends out there and might forget someone. :)
Graham Greene, Maugham, Hammett, Hemingway, Chandler, Cain, Clavell, Elegant, Wilde...
Uh, David? Notice OUR photos aren't on Guyot's gallery? Don't know about you, but I'm crushed.
Posted by: Elaine Flinn | April 09, 2008 at 11:58 AM
Randy Couture is also on Guyot's list. An unlikely choice but certainly a good one.
Posted by: GB | April 09, 2008 at 12:33 PM
consider me honored.
Posted by: robert ferrigno | April 09, 2008 at 12:49 PM
Why unlikely? Because Guyot is so doughy?
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | April 09, 2008 at 12:50 PM
Umm, my Ken Bruen comment was purely personal preference. I'm aware that his hardboiled novels are extremely successful and appeal to lots of readers. But I don't like hardboiled and I do like the Jack Taylor series very much indeed. The difference between the two sets of novels by the same author has been surprising to me. Perhaps it is also that some of the other novels are co-authored and I get this image of their having been written as a lark or on a dare. Our reactions to books are very subjective.
Posted by: I.J.Parker | April 09, 2008 at 02:00 PM
Oh.
I thought you were speaking sexually.
Sorry.
Posted by: Scooter McWritesalot | April 09, 2008 at 02:15 PM
I don't think you have to like everything an author writes in order for them to be a literary hero... Although it probably helps if you don't hate something they write.
Posted by: David J. Montgomery | April 09, 2008 at 02:19 PM
Phillip Finch (www.phillipfinch.com), Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, Steve Hamilton.
Posted by: Rob Lord | April 09, 2008 at 02:31 PM
Ok, here's the short list....Raymond Chandler, Elmore Leonard, Ross Thomas, Ernest Hemmingway, Michael Connelly, Richard Price, Robert Stone, Kemm Nunn, John Steinbeck, Joseph Wambaugh, and Chuck Berry the Poet Laureate of R&R
Posted by: Doug Riddle | April 09, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Literary heroes? Well Chandler of course[we went to the same school], Sjowall and Wahloo, Simenon, Andrea Camilleri, Tony Hillerman, Michael Connelly, Jo Nesbo, Ruth Rendell, Frank Richards [who first got me reading] and did I mention Raymond Chandler.
Posted by: Norm | April 10, 2008 at 06:54 AM
Hilary Mantel!!
How many times to have to tell people about her? Not usually a writer of crime fiction, but check out "Beyond Black" for a chilling, completely believable paranormal horror mystery.
Posted by: Clea Simon | April 10, 2008 at 10:56 AM
Gosh...how could I have not listed Ross Thomas?
Posted by: Elaine Flinn | April 10, 2008 at 11:45 AM
My heroes are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, David Morrell, Walter Mosley, Mary Higgins Clark, Tom Clancy, and Lee Childs.
Posted by: karen terry | April 10, 2008 at 05:13 PM
My heroes are:
IJ Parker
Scooter McWritesalot
Elaine Flinn
Gonzalo B
Robert Ferrigno
Rob Lord
Doug Riddle
Norm
Clea Simon
Karen Terry
Posted by: jesper parnevik | April 10, 2008 at 07:09 PM
Just a few of mine--David Lindsey, Ernest Hemingway, Dean Koontz, Stephen King, Mary Stewart, Herman Wouk, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Michael Moorcock, and James Lee Burke
Posted by: Amanda Stevens | April 10, 2008 at 08:47 PM
Ah, shucks. Thanks, Guyot.
Posted by: Elaine Flinn | April 10, 2008 at 09:16 PM
Kurt Vonnegut
VG
Posted by: Victor Gischler | April 11, 2008 at 07:25 AM
Patricia Carlon & Mark Coggins, both fine writers who inspired me to write.
Clement Valletta and Gloria Galante, my English professors, who opened up the world of literature to me. Before I entered their classes, I knew nothing about literary fiction.
(Some people say I still know nothing...but heck, I never listen to what my ex-wife says about me).
Posted by: Patrick Balester | April 11, 2008 at 02:30 PM
My favs, living and dead, are these (in no particular order):
George Pelecanos
Dennis Lehane
Richard Aleas
Hemingway
Hammett
Chandler
Elmore Leonard
J. D. Robb
Ken Bruen
David McCullough
Michael Chabon
J. K. Rowling
Posted by: Scott Parker | April 22, 2008 at 11:49 AM
What about T. Jefferson Parker? He's missing from your list of literary suspense novelists.
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