Simple You Tell Me today.
Which writer would you most like to meet?
Let’s go with one dead and one living.
For me:
Dead – F. Scott Fitzgerald. He’d know the trendy spot to hang out and we’d have a great time until he stuck me with the bill at the end of the night. (Kidding! I would have insisted on paying. My imagination is quite thorough.)
Living – J.K. Rowling. SO MANY QUESTIONS.
How about you?
Shakespeare.
One of my greatest wishes is to have tea with JK Rowling. I'd also like to have a long, serious chat with Charlotte Bronte.
Dickens. Coetze. The first, how does he do it in so many words. The second, how in so few?
Dead: Philip K. Dick
Alive: JK Rowling, so I could ask to borrow money.
Dead – Maybe Leo Tolstoy
Alive – Definitely James Patterson
I know it's lame, but I really don't like meeting authors in person. For me it changes how I see their books.
I prefer to maintain as much illusion as possible.
This answer could change on a montly basis, but for today, I'd like to meet Gabrielle Burton and Jane Austen.
Oscar Wilde. Sure, he'd insult and abuse me because I'm a bit of a dimwit, but I'm a broad-minded dimwit, so I'd accept the pain to get the laughs.
Brad Thor. As you say, so many questions.
Enid Blyton!! It would be lovely to see her process!
For me, living would definitely be JK Rowling.
Dead – Michael Crichton. I loved his books, and I still get a bit misty eyed thinking there won't be any more.
Graham Greene and Michael Chabon
—
Blake Cooper
ThinkingTen—A Writer's Playground
http://www.thinkingten.com
Dead: I want to say Vonnegut, but how can you pass up Salinger? The mystery.
Alive: I'd take Palahniuk or Ellis.
Dead: Vladimir Nabokov. Because, really.
Living: Lev Grossman. And I met him this past weekend. Fangirled all over the poor guy, but he was crazy gracious and amazing. I am DYING for THE MAGICIAN KING. Dying.
Hemingway. He's the subject of my current work in progress, and my obsession with him would be stalker-ish if he were alive.
A S Byatt. I'd like discuss her ability to write perfectly in two different poetic and prose styles for POSSESSION, which is my favorite book of all time.
Dead: Ross Thomas. Loved his books.
Living: Rick Riordan. We've talked once over the phone, but we have an awful lot in common.
Living: It's a tie between J.K. Rowling and Stephen King.
Past tense: Kurt Vonnegut
Virginia Woolf and Marilynne Robinson!
I should have said Kurt Vonnegut or E. Nesbit
Deceased: Mark Twain, mostly to ask him why Tom Sawyer, in his late-book appearance towards the end of Huckleberry Finn, is such an unmitigated a$$****.
But if that's too cliche, H.G. Wells would be fun to talk to also.
Living: Probably Christopher Moore, in the quite likely futile attempt to ask him what the secret is to creating his particular brand of zany humor. I wish I could do that. If not him, then China Mieville, just to ask him how/where he came up with the astonishingly awesome premise for "The City and the City."
Alive – Mark Danielewski (would love to get some beers & talk for hours).
Not Alive – Oscar Wilde (because he'd be the most fun).
I completed a personal goal in 1994 when I met Stephen King after having met Anne Rice two years prior. Those are the two living authors I most wanted to meet. I'm sure I wouldn't mind meeting J.K. Rowling, either.
That said, I would also love to meet Edgar Allan Poe, William Shakespeare, and Robert Louis Stevenson.
Dead: Jane Austen
Living: J.K. Rowling
I'd solve two mysteries.
Dead (presumably): Amelia Earhart, who did write a book. Because, c'mon. What the heck happened? And because I named my youngest after her.
Living: Harper Lee, to find out what else she has stashed away that she hasn't published.
If I could meet and talk with, and possibly ask to be adopted by, Jo Rowling, I could die a happy woman.
As for my dead person, I'll say Alexadre Dumas, simply because of The Count of Monte Cristo.
So hard to choose! (can't. do. it.)
Past: Shakespeare
and Victor Hugo and Hans Christian Anderson
Present: Annie Dillard (if I was brave enough)
and JK Rowling and Stephanie Meyer
Living: Harper Lee, Dead: Jane Austen.
Mark Twain, Cormac McCarthy. For sure.
Dead: Budd Schulberg (he characterizes deftly and keeps pacing taught. Though it was a tough choice between him and John Fowles)
Alive: Ethan Canin (his mastery articulating the emotion of the small moments in life always impresses)
If I could go back in time I'd want to meet Jane Austen. And for someone who's still alive, I'd have to say Toni Morrison. I bet just being in the same room with her would make me more intuitive and creative.
Dead- toss up between Shakespeare and Henry David Thoreau
Living- Ray Bradbury
Dead — Not sure…Ayn Rand??
Living — J.K. Rowling to get a peak at the spirit who conjured those amazing books!
Mark Twain
Dennis McKiernan
dead: carver
alive: franzen (I actually did meet him once, when I asked him to sign a page of my The Corrections which had been page set upside down. He drew a frowny face on it, so I want to meet him for real so I can ascertain whether he's really that grumpy)
Raymond Chandler and JKR
Mark Twain
Dead – Richard Matheson
Living – Neil Gaiman. Already met him in 2003, but I really want to hang out with Gaimanda at an AFP gig!
Dead: Jules Verne
Living: Jim Butcher
I would love to hang out with Jane Austen!! Like ALL DAY! And my alive author has to be Suzanne Collins. She has some explaining to do.
Dead: Michael Crichton – I loved his books and would have loved to meet the man behind the print.
Living: R.A. Salvatore – I enjoy reading his stories.
Living – Anchee Min
Dead – Edward Abbey
Dead: Stieg Larsson, so I could ask him why he didn´t take better care of himself so he would have been able to give us more Millenuimbooks. Instead of dying young.
Living:
Michael Connelly. he seems to be such a nice guy
Dead: Sylvia Plath
I'd ask her about that work she set to fire.
Alive: Joan Didion
Because she is the Grande Dame of essayists.
Let's see–
Dead: Mark Twain. I love his wit and ascerbic character. I'd love to learn how to see that way and then use that knowing.
Living: Stephen King. He's everything I've ever heard praised in my lit, comp, and writing courses. I want to pick his brain and hear his secrets and then put them in action for myself.
Dead: Raymond Queneau (and in this fantasy I also speak French!)
Alive: Barbara Kingsolver
Dead: J.R.R.Tolkien–He pretty much invented popular paranormal genre'.
Living: Colleen McCullough. Come on, she's an ex-brain surgeon! AND she puts glossaries in the back of her books!
Ken Follett and Stephen King. Simply because reading their books makes me forget I'm reading at all.
Dead: Dorothy (not-forgetting-the-L) Sayers. Assuming that I got enough time to get through the awkward parts, although I don't know, sometimes my least-awkward conversations are with other awkward people.
Living: I met Emma Bull once… and embarrassed myself completely. Rick Riordan might be interesting to chat with about children and politics, so I'll agree with whoever said him.
Dead: Angela Carter because she blazed.
Living: Sushi with Neil Gaiman.
Dead: Jane Austen. I think she'd be great to talk to and discuss her society with.
Alive: This is more difficult, I'd probably have to say Philip Pullman because he was the author I would site as encouraging me to read during my teens.
Dead: Oscar Wilde, 'nuff said.
Alive: David Eagleman, 'nuff said.
Dead: Gene Stratton Porter–I really want to know if a man like David Langston (The Harvester) actually existed–I'm guessing not, but it would be fun to compare notes with a early twentieth-century romance writer!
Living: Jennie Crusie or Richard Russo because they both make me laugh out loud when I read their books–laughing is so important!
Alive – JK Rowling or Dan Brown
Dead – Hemingway
I know they've both been said, but I would have to go with Jane Austen for dead and Stephenie Meyer for living.
Dead: It's a toss up between Kerouac and Salinger.
Living: Richard Wilbur, what a poet!
C.S. Lewis: Epic. Transcendent. Wise. THAT'S who I'd like to share a cup of joe with.
Dead: Dorothy L. Sayers or PG Wodehouse
Alive: Jim Butcher (because he is someone I'd like to actually talk about writing with)
Dead: G.K. Chesterton for a rollicking good time. (Graham Greene is a close second–for a number of reasons.)
Alive: Probably Ursula K. Le Guin, though Dean Koontz and Anne McCaffrey are close.
Dead: Jane Austin
Living: JK Rowling
Dead: Paula Danziger
(I've always been sad to have missed knowing her. Not only is she someone whose work I've enjoyed, she never got a rejection letter, and she was a ball of fire as a person.)
Alive: Neil Gaiman
(I admire his work and he's so nice I could probably talk with him without sounding like a total idiot.)
Oh, what fun. Dead: Wodehouse, definitely.
Living: I already had the great pleasure to meet Sean Ferrell, author of NUMB and Jeff Somers, author of the Avery Cates series, at a Manhattan book reading recently, but I wouldn't mind meeting Nora Roberts.
Dead: Robert Jordan
Living: Karen Marie Moning
Really flaunting my love for fantasy here! 🙂
As far as dead authors go, I think it would be great to meet JRR Tolkien. But if I could meet an author today, I would love to meet Kristin Britain. She's one of my favorite authors.
Living: David Sedaris.
Dead: Robert Jordan.
Dead: Mark Twain. He would be fun.
Alive: I'm going to be different and say Sergei Lukyanenko
Meeting someone ruins it because they are never the person we built up in our minds.
Dead: So many to choose from. I guess I'd go with Twain.
Alive: Diana Gabaldon
Dead: Hermann Hesse. Toward the end of his life, mind you. When he'd chilled out.
Living: Hmmm. Margaret Atwood?
Alive: either Lois Duncan or Eric Kripke
Dead: don't know.
Dead: David Foster Wallace. He seemed like such an interesting, talented character. My heart breaks when I think about his end.
Alive: Suzanne Collins. Because The Hunger Games is on my mind a lot lately.
Dead – JRR Tolkien
Living – My future, published self
If anybody invents time travel, come back to this post in two minutes and post a comment telling me if I make it or not… I'm waiting.
Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood.
dead:
JRR Tolkein…I'd like to know how he chose the names for his characters!
living (there're two):
JK Rowling…So many loose ends I'd like to tie up, and
Dean Koontz…I need to learn to write better scary moments
No one.
That's disappointing…
Dead writer: Isaac Asimov – to pick his brain about robots
Live writer: Orson Scott Card – just to talk sci-fi and discuss the Ender series.
Most of those I'd like to meet are dead, unfortunately: J.Kerouac, A. Ginsberg, E. Hemingway, Frank Herbert, Shakespeare, Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Now the question is — would they want to talk to us?
As many others have said, Jane Austen and JK Rowling.
Dead: Herman Melville, so I could read him the riot act for marooning a brilliant, riveting 200-page novel about whaling inside a horrid, bloated beast of a book.
Living: Ray Bradbury. I just want to say, "Thank you."
Dead: Leon Uris, Kurt Vonnegut or Hunter S. Thompson
Alive: Neil Gaiman
Dead: Mary Shelley Why? Dude, Frankenstein.
Alive: Harper Lee Why? Dude, To Kill a Mockingbird
Hm, living would probably be Cassandra Clare or Maggie Steifvater.
Dead? Shakespeare. I wouldn't be able to stop talking to him. He'd need a restraining order.
Dead: Dr. Seuss
Alive: I'll trade my alive wish to see Dr. Seuss again.
Dead author would be John Steinbeck. I’d love to talk with him about his compassion for the poor during the Great Dust Bowl, what he saw, how he felt. I’d like to go with him to New Orleans and other places where the poor are forgotten people right now, and ask him for his insights.
Living author would be Barbara Kingsolver. I’d love to talk with her about the social issues she wrote about, and ask how she balances writing with running her farm. (Another living author I'd love to meet is Cormac McCarthy.)
Can I only pick one alive? =(
I saw a Tyra Banks show once, where two fans of Twilight who were supposed to meet and get autographs from the actors had been trampled and sent to hospital. So now they were going to have a chance to come on the show, have a little competetion, and the winner received a prop from the film. The twist was that the judges were Robert Pattinson and Taylor Lautner, and the girls of course burst in to happy tears when the came out.
While I was watching that I felt so happy for the girls, I love Twilight, but the only thing missing was Stephenie Meyer. I don't give a crap about the actors, they wouldn't have been anything without her. Also I admire her for being a mum of three and writing a best seller in only three months. I'm a mother of two and I've barely written half a book in 8 months!
So yeah, Stephenie Meyer. And I would like to sneek in the Norwegian author Karin Fossum, as I have read all of her books and they are great!
A dead author would be Henrik Ibsen, who in 1879 wrote the play "A Dollshouse". In 1879 it was a sin to get a divorce, but yet he wrote a play where the wife leaves the husband! In several countries and in several theatres this was too much, and even today they have alternate endings where the wife forgives the husband, or she just puts up with it. Or even him leaving her! Anyway, I'd like to shake the hand of the man who dared to speak for the women of that time!
salima said:
"Dead: Hermann Hesse. Toward the end of his life, mind you. When he'd chilled out."
HaHaHaHa! That's funny. He's one of my favorite writers. (Yeah, certain writers wouldn't be so great to meet in person during their "not-so-chilled-out" periods.)
Dead: Goethe – I'd love to travel with him and not only discuss some of his work but his general lust for life
Living: Patricia Wood! We've skyped with my ex-book club, and she was just an amazingly interesting and generous person (with her time and insights). I hope to meet her one day over a cool drink, but not in a stalker kind of way (!), just a kindred spirit I think.
Dead: Raymond Chandler
Alive: This is tough. Either Elmore Leonard or Cormac McCarthy. Although, I'd probably be too embarrassed by my lack of writing talent to engage them in questions about writing.
Deceased: Hunter S. Thompson- no question, no hesitation. I'd even bring the grapefruit.
Alive: Michael Lewis, just to see how his brain works. No one has such an amazing ability to turn complex matters into readable, enjoyable and understandable work like Lewis.
Of course I adore Tim Gunn too, and would not pass up the opportunity to meet him!
Dead: Michael Crichton – Loved this man's style. Brilliant. Just a few questions, of course.
Alive: Stephen King – My inspiration. Without him, I don't what I'd be reading.
Nathan, if you ever make it to Asheville, NC be sure to check out the Grove Park Inn. You could maybe even stay in Fitzgerald's room where he tried to shoot himself! The bullet hole is there. Oh, and there's a ghost. Very cool spot.
My author… I'd love to hang out with the Bronte Sisters and maybe have a few drinks. I think that they might have a lot to say once they got going!
Dead – Arthur Conan Doyle
Living – JK Rowling
Dead- Samuel Clemens. If he's not available, then Mark Twain.
Living- Dave Barry.
@Luna
When you say "Richard Matheson" as your dead author, do you mean the man who wrote such memorable Twilight Zone stories as "Button, Button" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet"?
Because, if so, I don't believe he's dead.
Dead: Eric Arthur Blair, aka George Orwell. Or, Dr. Theodore Giesel.
Alive: Do I have to choose just one? JK Rowling, or Margaret Atwood. There are more, but it would take a while to type them all in. 🙂
Tennessee Williams…and we'd both still be at some bar right now making googly eyes at a twenty year-old.
Dead? Dorothy Parker.
Alive? William Gibson.
Alive? Laurence Gonzales, the man who wrote Deep Survival, Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why. His book just saved my life and my husband's life. Can I have another pick? Jon Krakauer, the author of Into Thin Air: A Personal Account of the Mt. Everest Disaster.
Dead? OMG…there are so many…sigh…If I must pick then I pick Charlotte Bronte. She was always my favorite sister. Oh no, I'd rather meet Moses Ben Maimon – The Guide of the Perplexed! Yes, definitely.
Living — Margaret Atwood. She could talk on any topic she wanted.
Dead — Douglas Adams, because I bet it would be great fun.
JK Rowling, definitely. 🙂
Dead: L Frank Baum.
Living: Shannon Hale
Dead: Robert B. Parker
Alive: Lee Child
Wish I could write like them. Bet they'd be fun in a conversation.
This is an easy one–Richard Bach and Rod Serling 🙂
Dead – Jane Austen or Alex Haley
Alive – Helen Fielding, Terry McMillan and/or J.K. Rowling
Too many to name really.
Wilde would insult me.
Hemingway scares me.
Steinbeck, I'd slap.
Hardy, I'd maim.
Bronte (any of them), I'd throw something at.
Austen, I'd run screaming from the room if I saw her at the table.
Alexandre Dumas speaks French better than I do, so I couldn't understand him.
Faulkner would be good.
Tolkien, I believe, would be fascinating.
Carroll because he managed to create a rich and detail, enduring, world.
C.S.Lewis because he managed to blend so many elements into semi-allegorical fantasy, and I want to know his process.
And if it absolutely must be someone living: Stephen King, because he's intelligent and can actually carry on a conversation in an interesting way or Anne Rice because I want to ask her how she gear shifted so completely from Vampires to religious works.
I wouldn't pass up a table with JK Rowling and Stephenie Meyer together because I'd like to see the difference in how each approaches writing and how they handle the after effects of Mega-hit status.
Off the top of my head:
Living: John Irving
Dead: Tennessee Williams
Jack Kerouac – dead – He'd probably be unpredictable.
Anne Tyler – Living – She's so reclusive I'm all the more curious about her.
Dead – C. S. Lewis – because he was brilliant
Living – Ted Dekker – because he is brilliant
Living#2 – Megan Whalen Turner – and ask how she did it…
Living: Stephen Lawhead.
Dead: Tolkien
Dead, Anton Chekhov.
Living, Megan Whalen Turner.
Okay, if Nathan can pick J.K. Rowling then I'm going to, too. "So many questions" is exactly right!!!
The other that comes to mind would be Louisa May Alcott. I love her stories and I would be so interested to talk to her about her upbringing, parents, philosophies on life, etc.
(Unless it was Tolkien… 'cause I'd have loads of questions for him, too! Then again, there IS Jane Austen, as well…)
Dead – Dante
Alive – Stephenie Meyer cause she's another LDS mom writer, or maybe Andrew Davidson (who I did actually get to talk to on facebook once!)
Ooo, good question!
Dead: C. S. Lewis, for sure.
Alive: Robin McKinley, Eoin Colfer, or Rick Riordan.
The one, the only and amazing Terry Pratchett.
Dead: Jane Austen, no doubt about it! (Though Shakespeare is a good answer too–solve the mystery, right?)
Living: Lois McMaster Bujold. Because I think her mind works a lot like the way mine does, and there are very few people for whom that is true.
The German Jew in me yells, "Anne Frank," for the dead and David Sedaris for the living.
Alive: Stephen King
Dead: Stephen King when that unfortunate time comes… because his version of what death is like would be really cool to hear.
Jack Kerouac. So many themes to discuss with him: it's all a dream, the cause of death is birth, and why once he was published he became so much more unhappy.
Alive: Philip Roth so I can tell me to keep writing novellas.
Dead: Saul Bellow so I can ask him why he hated "Seize The Day," his best book, for me at least.
Alive, I'd say Neil Gaiman – DYING to pick his brain about myths.
Dead, I'd say Charles Dickens.
Dead: Mary Shelley
Living: It's a tie between Stephen King and Virginia Henley. I want to hug them both and thank them for the happy hours they've given me.
None. I would just dribble or faint.
Dead: John Kennedy Toole . . . because he'd despise me for wanting to talk to him. (His insults would be hilarious.)
Alive: Anita Shreve, specifically re "The Weight of Water," which haunts me to no end.
Dickens, Poe, Shakespeare…too many to choose from!
I would love to meet Sophie Kinsella because I think she would be a blast to hang out with.
Dead: Jane Austen
Living: Kelley Armstrong
Mary Shelley, Orson Scott Card. Two great minds.
Dead-Salinger
Alive-Michael Chabon
Robert Frost or E.B. White!
&
Stephen King!!
J.R.R. Tolkien and Megan Whalen Turner.
Hemingway – Fishing, drinking, writing talk. My idea of heaven.
Harper Lee — Talk about questions.
Dead: Jane Austen, the original chick lit author
Living: Emily Giffin, one of her worthy successors
Dead: E.A. Poe & Rudyard Kipling
Alive: I have a couple of questions for Scott Adams about God's Debris and a few for Lee Strobel as well.
Rude, unnecessary snark on Scott Fitzgerald.
Dead – Chaucer – Cause the dude invented this game.
Living – Franzen, We'd head out to B&N and wreck the coffee stand, Burn all the O Magazines, and read Piccoult and Weiner and laugh and laugh…
Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams
Dead: Edgar Allen Poe.
Alive: hmmm…would have to decide between Stephen King, JK Rowling, & Richard Russo (have you READ 'Straight Man'? Priceless!)
anon-
I think it's plain that I love the guy. Just a joke. I'm sure he would have paid!
living: Ray Bradbury
dead: C.S. Lewis
I love both author's writing. It would be cool to see the men behind the words. =)
Of course there are lots of writer pals I'd love to meet, too!! My friends at Ray Gun Revival, for one. 🙂
~Alice M. Roelke~ The Space Station Murders, May 2011
My writing blog: http://thewritinglifeforme.blogspot.com/
My publisher: http://museituppublishing.com/musepub/
Book review blog: http://theluminousrabbit.blogspot.com/
Writing credits: http://sites.google.com/site/aliceroelke/
Dead: C.S. Lewis, without a doubt. (And Tolkien if I could manage it on the same visit.)
Alive: How can I choose? Neil Gaiman? J.K. Rowling? Eoin Colfer?
Can I just have a gigantic author party? Please? I'll even make cupcakes.
I thought your joke about Fitzgeral was funny.
Dead? Wilde and Twain would be fun. I forgot about Dorothy Parker, what a hoot! But I'd go with Tolkein if only to thank him.
Alive? Rowling! Best plotter I've ever read. Also, I'd like to hear about her next book!
But it would be tempting to meet with Stephen King just to give him a piece of my mind about "About Writing." Grrrrr.
CS Lewis
Rowling
Dead: Jane Austen
Living: I actually already met J.K. Rowling. She is amazing. I got to go to her book signing back in 2007 and hear her read and answer questions from the audience. One of the best days of my life.
Recently passed away: Norma Fox Mazer. Her YA impacted me more than I realized at the time.
Living: toss up between Anne Lamott and Julia Cameron both inspirational in ways similar and different.
Dead: Vita Sackville-West
Living: Antonia Fraser
Dead- Ralph Waldo Emerson. The man was truly a nonconformist.
Alive- Cassandra Clare. She creates tension between her characters like I've never seen before.
Stephen King because the way he can make even a thing like going to the bathroom seem so compelling just flabbergasts me.
Dead author? I'd say Mark Twain, probably because high school made me read his books, and they actually turned out enjoyable.
Got my wires crossed. Try again.
Ah, there's a diff over admiring someone's writing and wanting to meet them (cuz some writers are just more personable and meetable), but having said that:
LIVING: Ray Bradbury!
(Or perhaps Timothy Zahn; I know what city he lives in, in Oregon, too–my uncle says they call him "the man in black" in town…whenever he makes an appearance, which isn't often)
I like someone's suggestion of Dave Barry, though. What a riot that guy is. Talk about a wacky dinner conversationalist, I bet.
Stephen King would be good too; love On Writing. Inspirational.
DEAD: Mark Twain. Quite the character, full of zest.
Dead: Carl Sagan – his brilliance made my throat hurt, he was so awesome.
Alive: Jennifer Fallon – I'm awestruck by her characters and world-building. Or maybe Diana Gabaldon, since she lives a little closer than Australia. I'd happily meet either or both.
Alive, Ian Mcewan, I love Atonement
Dead, Hemmingway
Madeleine L'Engle, J.K. Rowling, or Harriet Beacher Stowe. I know that's three not one haha…but I would just GRILL them with questions, I'd like to know so much!
~TRA
http://xtheredangelx.blogspot.com
@ Rick Daley Hee-hee.
Dead: I would also have to go with Mark Twain, because I don't think I'd be the same afterwards.
Also Ellen Raskin, because THE WESTING GAME was the first book that made me aware (at 10) that writers could be manipulative in a really good way. I'll still be reading that book when I'm 80.
Living: Suzanne Collins, in the hopes that I could learn a little about how she makes her writing so tight-knit.
Alive – it's a toss-up between Anne Rice and JK Rowling. I admire both women and their struggles.
Dead – Can't choose between Ernest Hemingway or Jane Austen. Hemingway would be great to go bar-hopping with, but Austen would probably crack me up with her take on the idiotic things people do.
Oh!!! Natan, you've hit on one of my favorite things to do. I love to fantasize about spending time with my favorite authors! I write them love letters and the other night I had a great (nodd nodd wink wink) dream about one of them.
Henry Miller is a shoe in. I'd make him a delicious meal, fresh bread, buy some really good wine and then put on some good jazz with a sprinkling of Edith Piaf. I'd have to invite my neighbor over (W.S Merwin) and my living author pick would be the very sensuous Michael Ondaatje. I would have all three together over the same meal. (Merwin doesn't count as one of my picks because he's my neighbor). I wouldn't ask a lot of questions, just sit and listen to the three of them banter back and forth and keep their glasses filled. I'm pretty sure it would prove to be an evening to remember (particularly if I got to live out my fantasy with Mr. Ondaatje)!
Hmmm. Difficult choices.
Dead: Updike (sigh), or Faulkner.
Alive: Stephen King.
Dead: I couldn't even begin to choose.
Alive: At the moment, Suzanne Collins- simply because I have a bone to pick with her. (NOT because of how Mockingjay went, I haven't even read it yet.)
Setting that aside however, I really don't know. It would be nice to just sit and -talk- to any of my favorite authors, and not necessarily about the trade.
Shakespeare (we'd talk about Macbeth) & Stephen King (we'd talk about It)
Dead: Jane Austen (because I have a feeling she had a great sense of humor and geez…the guts it took to write what she did back then).
Living: Stephen King. There is no other answer and no explanation needed. He is the King.
Iliadfan said:
"Carl Sagan – his brilliance made my throat hurt, he was so awesome."
I loved Carl Sagan’s COSMOS TV series, and bought his book related to the show. I was so sorry when he died recently. There’s another astrophysicist who reminds me of him: brilliant, into popularizing astrophysics, and comfortable with using modern technology to communicate his ideas. He’s Michio Kaku. Have you heard of him? Here’s his website, if you’re interested: Dr. Michio Kaku’s website.
Not living: Charlotte Bronte or Jane Austen.
Living: J.K. Rowling. Definitely.
Dead: Agatha Christie – for obvious reasons; she was a GENIUS.
Alive: Khaled Husseini – I want to know more about HIS life.
David Stravrapenski.
As far as I know, he doesn't exist, and even if he does, he probably doesn't write.
I can't afford cryogenesis, so most liking to meet David Stravrapenski is my next best bet for making it to 100+.
That said, I wouldn't say no to ten minutes with Will Cuppy.
Dead: Roberto Bolano
Alive: Thomas Pynchon
Peter the Apostle
Janet Evanovich
Loads. I'd love to pick J. K. Rowling's brain and go through her notes with her. I'm not sure I'd make very good casual company though. There would be that element of being starstruck.
I'd love to party with Brett Easton Ellis, or go to a movie with Michael Chabon. I'd love to read comic books with Neil Gaiman. As far as dead authors go, I'll always regret that I never got to shake Kurt Vonnegut's hand.
Dead – Dorothy Parker
Live – Woody Allen
I actually saw him once and was too gobsmacked to breathe.
Deadsville – Hemingway. We'd go out for a few drinks, and we'd talk each other off of our respective cliffs…
Pulling lungfuls – already met Cleave and Danielewski, so those are crossed off. Met Palahniuk, Cullen, Clevenger. Check. So I'd have to say, and I can guarantee that no one will pick this one: Mark Richard. Anyone who can write "The Ice at the Bottom of the World" can without question fill a lunch hour with much more than the smell of fried potatoes.
Absolutely floored at having to choose a single dead author.
E. A. Poe, Georgette Heyer, Robert Heinlein, and maybe a dozen more.
Living: Nora Roberts. She has a fantastic skill with characterization that awes me and dozens of books with the same lot that each come across fresh. I would so love to pick her marvelous brain.
And, yeah, I've a dozen contenders for the living category, but I have to give the edge to the woman who created Roarke.
Still breathing: Palahniuk. Recently dead: Salinger.
Patrick O'Brien and Harlon Coben
So many choices! I would like to have a tea party with Jane Austen, L.M. Montgomery, Beatrix Potter, and Louisa May Alcott all in attendence. And if living people could be invited, I would invite JK Rowling to it. Meeting Shakespeare would be awe-inspiring as well.
Living –it used to be Lloyd Alexander but then he died so Ursula LeGuin (though Terry Pratchet comes in a close second)
Dead –C.S. Lewis.
Dead – Robert E. Howard
Alive – Ray Bradbury
Dead: Jane Austen
Living: JK Rowling
I'm such a cliché.
Truthfully…I wouldn't want to meet any writer alive or dead , but instead be able to observe the 'process' from a safe distance ! I'd love to see Norman Mailer & Roald Dahl throwing typewriter's and snapping pencils .
And yes….I do realise both have sadly passed .
Living: John Green
He is so funny and incredibly awesome
Dead: J.D. Salinger – just because everyone wanted to meet him but no one ever got to.
Stephen King and the apostle Paul who penned a majority of the New Testament. I've got lots of questions.
Dead: Madeleine L'engle. I have questions on where she came up with her scifi ideas.
Living: Melissa Marr. I'd love to talk fae and tattoos with that woman.
Dead – Robert Jordan 🙂 He is my all-time favorite author
Alive – Richelle Mead. She is working on three different series simultaneously. I would like to know how she does it!
I'm late on this comment run – but I want to meet Nick Sparks – because I want to know how he – handsome, young, etc. – can write chick lit so prolifically – is it a big family of sisters or what.
Otherwise – Alice Hoffman – the woman who started me writing my novel.
Dead: Edmund Spenser. Ask him where he was planning on going with "The Faerie Queen".
Alive: Stephanie Meyer. I have one question for her … "HOW COULD YOU?! English literature didn't deserve that! Take it back"
Dead – Kurt Vonnegut
Alive – Philip Roth
Suddenly, I feel very sexist.
The one burning question I would have for Rowling is 'how did she develop the seven books?'
I can't believe she planned the complete 7 from the beginning, yet there are so many things that seem to integrate from books 1 to 7.
Crazy, I picked before I read the end of your post and those were the exact two authors that came to mind.
Living . . . Vernor Vinge . . . his books consist of ideas that are wholly unknown to me. I'm betting an hour or two with him would open up even more unknowns.
Dead. . . and I just missed him . . . Dick Francis. Just to talk to him about racing, maybe have a pint.
Dick Hannah (www.puborperish.blogspot.com)
Dead – David Foster Wallace
Alive – Ann Patchett (though McEwan or Javier Marias would be great, too. Cormac would just ignore me.
Dead – Agatha Christie
Alive – Jacqueline Winspear
Dead – Oh, can I only pick one? C.S. Lewis, G.K. Chesterton, Charlotte Bronte, Charles Dickens…
Living – Peter S. Beagle
Dead — Isak Dinesen, because of her amazing life and her ability to spin a tale
Alive — Toni Morrison. I'd just sit and listen.
I also like the suggestions of Dante and Terry Pratchett — and Jane Austen.
Great question!
Dead: J.D. Salinger
Living: Harper Lee (but I better hurry up…she's elderly now) or Jandy Nelson
I have three dead authors I'd like to meet: Joseph Conrad, Ayn Rand, and David Foster Wallace. Alive? I'm not sure… Probably Stephen King.
Make that four. Kerouac!
Living: Oh, if I met Ken Follett, I would thank him in person for Pillars of the Earth.
Deceased: I'd love to visit with Beatrix Potter at her quaint cottage-estate, and I think Erma Bombeck would just be fun to hang out with.
Dead, C. S. Lewis. Live, Ray Bradbury. Looks like I'd have to wait in line for both!
Dead: Douglas Adams
Alive: Joss Whedon (cheating, but you didn't specify what kind of writer)
Dead: J.R.R. Tolkien or C.S. Lewis
Alive: J.K. Rowling
Living: Stephen King. I think he'd be a riot. Dead: Rudyard Kipling.
Dead: Kahlil Gibran
Living: Steven Pressfield
Dead: Dorothy Parker or Oscar Wilde
Alive: TC Boyle
Charles Dickens. I would want to know what his life was really like, and if he knew what a lasting legacy he was leaving for the world. I suspect he wouldn't.
Dan Brown. I imagine he would be quite fascinating, and maybe a little distracted. But not boring.
Dead: William Faulkner
Alive: Cormac McCarthy
Living: You for sure!
Dead: Beatrice Potter
Dead: Oscar Wilde
Alive: Toni Morrison
Dead: Mario Puzo. Come on, The Godfather! Living: Harlan Coben. Such a great sense of humor.
Dead… Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert Heinlein
Alive… Charlaine Harris
Dead: Jane Austen
Alive: Colin Falconer
Dead: J. R. R. Tolkien. I hope he's still writing.
Alive: J. K. Rowling. I hope she's still writing too.
And I did meet Lloyd Alexander, who was one of the kindest, most generous people ever, so he's on the list of authors I wanted to meet and got to.
I would have loved to have met Hunter S. Thompson
and to meet
Stephen King
Dead: Ernest Hemmingway, his writings were so though provoking.
Alive: Tim Lahaye, he stirs my soul and makes me want to read more.
Would like to meet in person – no one. But I meet them everytime I read what they write. It is all about their thoughts and words.
Dead: Homer
Living: Brandon Sanderson
Hmn, Good question.
And it has its history.
I've already met Kathryn Kurtz, who I love for the Deryni Chronicles. I had a chance to sit down nearly one on one with the lady. And it was talking with her that led me to start actually writing.
Sadly it was the death of Marion Zimmer Bradley that led me to "want" to start writing. Because I didn't want to just sit around wishing for such meetings with my favorite writers. I wanted to be one of them someday.
As for one living that I haven't met. That would be Jim Butcher. Happily he lives in the same state I do, and it's his Dresden Files that has inspired me to do my own type of series of modern day sci-fantasy style of books.
Dead — Raymond Chandler. Drink at his favorite L.A. bar.
Living — Joseph Wambaugh hands down.
dead: margaret mitchell
alive: bill bryson. i have a feeling he'd have me rolling with laughter.
E.B. White and Sue Monk Kidd
So many choices. Must choose wisely.
Dead: Jules Verne
Living: Stephen King
Dead: Hemingway … although I'd probably end up flirting with him.
Alive: James Patterson. He seems like such a nice guy!
Living — Mary Oliver. How she gets so much mileage out of nature is beyond me. Dead — Zora Neale Hurston. Serious groundbreaker.
Dead: George Orwell. If he wasn't dead already, he probably would be by the time I'd finished asking him all the questions I've got for him.
Alive: Alan Garner. I'd like to ask him how he manages to say so much in so very, very few words, and to discuss his views on psychogeography.
Stephen King, because whether you like him or not (I do) you have to admit he's doing something right and Marion Zimmer Bradley, because the Mists of Avalon was brilliant and I loved the Darkover series.
Dead: Douglas Adams
Living: Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Dead – Chaucer. All that commentary; I wonder how he really feels.
Living – Christopher Moore. I laugh 'til it hurts.
Stephen King and Dave Barry. Both have been very influential in my work.
Ian McEwan. But I met him last night, which was amazing. So now I resort to dead writers: Wilkie Collins and Charles Dickens. Preferably together, over a pint.
Dead – Tolkien – the master of all
Alive – Stephen King
I'd give, well, some spare finger or toe perhaps, to have met Antonia Forest.
Living authors… well, I did get to meet Ellen Klages (she read my first three chapters! She loved them!). I suppose I'd like to meet Hilary Mantel. Christa Wolf must be a very interesting person but I think I'd find her quite frightening, and not just because she's German!
In real life, I've just been invited to have dinner with Peter Greenaway. Now how cool is that??
Dead: I would go tear it up with Oscar Wilde, not so much for his writing, but we could sip some absinthe and hang out at a brothel.
Living: Caleb Carr. I love his vocabulary.
Henriette, You met Ian McEwan last night? Where? How did it happen? He wouldn't be my number one choice but definitely up there.
Dead: Ernest M. Hemingway, because I'm still curious how someone who could write so well, so purely, was by most accounts largely an abusive, insensitve jerk.
Living: Khaled Hosseini, because he writes so well and appears to not be an abusive, insensitive jerk.
Dead: C.S. Lewis (partly because I love his work and partly because his wife had the same name I do, and I like weird synchronicities like that.
Living: Stephen King (natch) or Harlan Ellison, mostly because I love his writing and because he'd be sure to do or say something inappropriate that I could trade for free drinks at future SF conventions.
Dead – C.S. Lewis, gotta find out how The Dark Tower was going to end! His writings blow me away, especially his essays. His intellect was beyond this world.
Living – Rowling is awesome in many ways but I appreciate the craziness of Doug Adams as well. What a combination that would be! Hard to pick one.
Alive: Harper Lee
Deceased: Matthew, Mark, Luke or John…one of the authors of any of the scriptures in the Bible. Then I 'd write my own best seller after that interview called What really happened in Galilee!
I'm enjoying reading these answers; so interesting and identifiable, some so humble. I'm not sure who I'd like to meet. Perhaps alive Anne Rice and departed Emily Bronte and also, perhaps Enid Blyton. The first two are great proponents of gothic lit and Enid's books were my favourite reads as a child, and her method of writing was fascinating. She would see everything unfold as clearly as if watching a TV show, which is how she could create so many works so quickly.
I'd only bore them .
Alive: Terry Pratchett, although it would break my heart to see the ravages of Alzheimer on such a creative writer.
Dead: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Jane Austen all the way. Living author? I've been fortunate enough to meet many favorites like Jane Green, Claire Cook, even Anne Rice, but I'd have to go with Lois Duncan. Her YA books were my favorites growing up.
Dead CS Lewis
Living JI Packer
dead – Elmer Kelton
alive – Stephen King
Dead…going way back – Ovid (I'm a sucker for mythology, and Metamorphoses was pretty brilliant)
Alive…Suzanne Collins.
Dead: Ambrose Bierce and from the opposite end of the spectrum – Jane Austen
Living: Harper Lee and John Irving
-and too many other favorites I didn't mention.
First, I have to admit to being a terrible lurker around your blog! But I do read it…honest. Wonderful advice here!
Now, to answer your question:
living: Anne Rice
dead: Charles Dickens
Dead: Charlotte Bronte
Living: Kiersten White (I love her!)
Notwithstanding Florida's being the boil on the armpit of the nation, I would have loved hanging out with Zora Neale Hurston on her houseboat.
Living? Richard Price, the king of dialogue.
Dead: William Faulkner – his book "As I Lay Dying" is one of my all time favourites.
Alive: Barbara Erskine – her historicals are beyond amazing.
Dead-Robert Jordan. Is he really as smart as I think he is?
Living-JK Rowling. Harry Potter. Enough said.
Alive: Carole Maso because everything she says is gospel to me. She's a contemporary Virginia Woolf with newer tools and a fearlessness about her writing that no one else can match and, dammit, she deserves more recognition.
Dead: Nabokov. (Although I'm pleased to see the Kerouac representation here and wouldn't refuse him a seat at the table. Nabokov might.)
Dead – Mark Twain. I bet he was a hoot.
Alive – Larry McMurtry, or Janet Fitch, or maybe even the elusive Mr. McCarthy.
Brad Meltzer! I'd love to meet and hang out with Brad Meltzer. Maybe have lunch. He's adorable, writes the best emails, and I love his books. He just seems like a great guy, and would be fun to talk to. I'd like to talk to him about how he develops his characters.
Michael Crighton – AMAZING writer
and Diana Gabaldon 🙂 Same reason!
http://damselinadirtydress.blogspot.com
I'd mix it up with Amy Tan and Alex(and change) Dumas.
Wow. This is tough. I just met SO many writers a couple weeks ago…who's left?
Dead: Phillip K Dick – I bet he has as many stories about Tim Powers as Tim has about him.
Alive: Orson Scott Card or Piers Anthony, two of my inspirations. If I had to choose one…Piers.
Alive: S.E. Hinton–just to say thank you for creating a brand new genre
Dead: Shakespeare–just to ask how he got those ideas.
Alive: S.E. Hinton–just to say thank you for creating a brand new genre
Dead: Shakespeare–just to ask how he got those ideas.
Dead: Margurite Duras (want a night in her study – we can order pizza – I just want to talk writing)
Alive: Helene Cixous (tie with Elfride Jelinek)
Alive: U. K. Le Guin
Dead: that might change on a daily basis, at the moment probably Charlotte Bronte or Henry James
Agatha Christie and Alexander McCall Smith!
Dead: We'll start with Andre Norton. She was prolific, wrote some really awesome stories (some crappy ones too), and spawned a world that drew guest writers to play in it.
Alive: Pretty much any author I read. I'd love to get to meet them, maybe get to know more about the person behind the writing than blogs and Twitter posts show.
George Orwell for sheer his sheer imagination – would it rub off if I gave him a hug before and after the tea? Phillip DePoy for his voice, sense of place and character – where's the next Fever Develin Blue Mountain mystery??
Dead: Can't decide between Edith Nesbith and Astrid Lindgren
Alive: Diana Wynne Jones
Hands down, Jane Austen. Today, Melissa Marr.
Living: Margaret Atwood
Dead: Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
I would love to talk to Danish author Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke who wrote Out of Africa. I love that she was an independent woman when it wasn't fashionable to be so and her words just sing.
I met Wally Lamb a couple years ago in Boston. He's one of my favorite current authors.
Flannery O'Connor
Harper Lee
Dead: Beatrix Potter
Alive: Nathan Bransford
Dead: Frank McCourt
Living: Charles de Lint
Dead: Frank McCourt
Living: Charles de Lint
Lisa: Great choices! Duras and Cixous would be fantastic, especially at the same dinner.
I could spend all day reading through the comments…and maybe I will!
Dead: Sarah Teasdale, my favorite poet and highly underrated.
Alive: Catherynne Valente. I did meet her briefly at BEA this year. She's brilliant and opinionated. Not only would I learn a lot but I think we'd have a great time.
Dead: Dorothy Parker
Living: Elizabeth Berg
Living: Jennifer Donnelly. Especially after reading the ARC of Revolution. What a book! What a writer! Yes, questions, many questions, about voice, about character…
Dead: Yukio Mishima or Konstatin Paustovski. Can't choose. Both are my shining examples when it comes to painting the scenery, the landscape and the way people move in it.
Dead: ShakespearCSLewisDickensAustin
Living: Yeesh. All of them. But mostly, JK Rowling.
And I do know "Shakespeare" has an "e" on the end.
Living-Haruki Murakami
What an honor that would be. So many questions and I think he might be the first person to make me blush.
Dead- C.S. Lewis
Living – Stephen King – would love to discuss writing with that dude.
Dead – Ayn Rand – would love to talk current politics with her – though I think it would take longer than one discussion!
Hmm…Living is easier than dead. The Classics never really got to me.
Living…Either Juliet Marillier or Laurel K Hamilton. Both are such brilliant women.
Dead…T.H. White. King Arthur is awesome and his writing is genuinely hilarious.
Dead: Ernest Hemingway. I want to know if his "suicide" is an unstoppable choice.And why he did it. Living: Wilbur Smith just to find out where he based his novels from? Because it seemed to me based on one specific family.
Dead: Mark Twain
Living: Thomas Pynchon
Victor Hugo, Leo Tolstoy, Jack Kerouac, Henry Miller (in Paris), James Ellroy, Stephen King, Bram Stoker, Hunter S. Thompson, Roger Ebert, Jimmy McDonough, Jim Thompson, Ovid, Chaucer…
dead – em forster. I love his imagery.
alive – margaret atwood
Alive and well: Charles de Lint. I have no trouble walking down the street in the worlds he builds, and that is rare. Also, I'm pretty sure we'd go to an Irish pub and he'd play music for me, too.
Dead and Gone: Mark Twain would be a hoot.
Someone asked if Robert Jordan was as smart as they believed. He was, and gracious and mischievous as well. I got that out of one chance meeting and count myself blessed to have had it.
Anyone who wants to know why Hemingway was the way he was should read the works of Dr. Hilary K. Justice. It's all in there. And no, I would not like to meet him because I'm fairly sure he would despise me for wanting to.
Dead: Charles Dickens and Margaret Mitchell
Live: J.K. Rowlings and Stephanie Meyers, Stephen King and Dean Koontz
Dead: Tolkien
Alive: Mercedes Lackey
Dead: Agatha Christie
Living: Ravi Zacharias
Mark Twain and Mary DeMuth–Easy one.
Dead – John R.R. Tolkien – LOTR
Alive – David Morell – Rambo
(note: to the other annon up there ^^^ that thinks you would bore them. Think of all you can learn by listening to them. Hope your day gets better.)
W Somerset Maugham. the absolute God of the short story.
Kiran Desai.No, Orhan Pamuk. Maybe both.
To Jen P. –
There are so many comments that you probably won't see this, but I read that you wanted to meet Patricia Wood after book club skyping with her. I met her a couple weeks ago and she was a very cool person. Full of energy and drive and passion but also normal and down to earth. And the reading she did of Lottery was amazing. Good choice!
It would have to be Anais Nin. Her words are so palpable!
I want to have lunch with Margaret Atwood. I used to never want to meet my heroes, but then I had a class with a girl who used to be her neighbor. She said Atwood brought her cookies to welcome her to the neighborhood, and my classmate bought a chair at Atwood's garage sale. I just don't think of Margaret Atwood as a bake cookies, have garage sales kind of lady.
Yes, Richard Matheson is very much alive (as the author of RICHARD MATHESON ON SCREEN, I should know!). He even has a new novel, OTHER KINGDOMS, coming out in March, by which time he will be 85.
Dead: Elizabeth Bishop.
Living: Colm Toibin.
Jane Austen and JK Rowling. Both started me thinking I could do the same, writing to entertain others. Silly of me, huh?
Oh…what a question! So many temptations and desires stirred by the thought! If I must settle, then my top four would be:
Past Tense: Henri J.M. Nouwen or J.R.R. Tolkien
Present Tense: J.K. Rowling or Ray Bradbury
Dead: Kurt Vonnegut
Alive: Dean Koontz or Stephen King (I have actually met Stephen King at a book signing but all I could manage to say was a squeaky "thanks"
Dead: Louisa May Alcott. Maybe MFK Fisher.
Alive: Gail Collins. Or maybe Sarah Vowell. Or both. A party with Gail Collins and Sarah Vowell in attendance would be fantastic.
Actually, mine are all dead. Dickens, so I could ask him how he meant to end The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Dorothy L. Sayers, so I could ask her how she meant to end Thrones, Dominations. Lord Byron, to find out whether women really fainted in his presence!