Literary heroes

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?

Comments

[I.J.Parker]

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).

[Scooter McWritesalot]

Yeah, I heard old Bruen was having trouble with his output.

:)

[Elaine Flinn]

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.

[GB]

Randy Couture is also on Guyot's list. An unlikely choice but certainly a good one.

[robert ferrigno]

consider me honored.

[David J. Montgomery]

Why unlikely? Because Guyot is so doughy?

[I.J.Parker]

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.

[Scooter McWritesalot]

Oh.

I thought you were speaking sexually.

Sorry.

[David J. Montgomery]

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.

[Rob Lord]

Phillip Finch (www.phillipfinch.com), Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, Steve Hamilton.

[Doug Riddle]

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

[Norm]

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.

[Clea Simon]

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.

[Elaine Flinn]

Gosh...how could I have not listed Ross Thomas?

[karen terry]

My heroes are Stephen King, Dean Koontz, David Morrell, Walter Mosley, Mary Higgins Clark, Tom Clancy, and Lee Childs.

[jesper parnevik]

My heroes are:

IJ Parker
Scooter McWritesalot
Elaine Flinn
Gonzalo B
Robert Ferrigno
Rob Lord
Doug Riddle
Norm
Clea Simon
Karen Terry

[Amanda Stevens]

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

[Elaine Flinn]

Ah, shucks. Thanks, Guyot.

[Victor Gischler]

Kurt Vonnegut

VG

[Patrick Balester]

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).

[Scott Parker]

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

[Barbara]

What about T. Jefferson Parker? He's missing from your list of literary suspense novelists.

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