A friend of mine recently posted a list of the 15 authors who have influenced him. His were mostly Latin American, in keeping with his profession, but here is my list off the top of my head (and in no particular order): I can't count, so I ended up with 20. Looking at this list, I recognize that authors/books read late in high school and early in college seem to be more influential in the development of my thinking than many read later in life. Maybe others will come to mind later.
1. Dostoyevsky--When I was young, mostly Crime and Punishment, the Idiot, and Notes from the Underground, but later the Brothers Karamazov probably became my favorite.
2. Leo Tolstoy-I didn't like War and Peace that much, but Resurrection and Anna Karina were both powerful and moving. Also his short story, "How much land does a man need?"
3. Mark Twain-when I was young, it was his short stories and Tom Sawyer, as I got a bit older Huckleberry Finn.
4. John Steinbeck-certainly Of Mice and Men was one of the first books were death seemed very real. I didn't read Grapes of Wrath until I was a graduate student, but oh my, what a book!
5. Robert Pirsig-his Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance was probably my favorite book in high school and as an undergraduate. Quality stuff.
6. Ray Bradbury-Just recently re-read Fahrenheit 451, and loved it. When I was young, Dandelion Wine was probably the most influential.
7. Arthur Miller-By far my favorite playwright when I was young, with Death of a Salesmen being the primary reason, but I loved All My Sons and the Crucible nearly as well.
8. August Wilson-Another influential playwright in my late adolescence and early adulthood. Primarily for Fences and later The Piano Lesson.
9. Henrik Ibsen-Another playwright. Originally for Ghosts, one of my all time favorites plays. But then for A Doll's House, Enemy of the People, and for the bizarre Peer Gynt.
10. Ernest Hemingway-Old Man and the Sea still remains as one of the most powerful books that I have ever read. But Farewell to Arms, For Whom the Bell Tolls, and A Moveable Feast certainly still resonate.
11. Graham Greene-The Power and the Glory was pretty influential in high school, and The Quiet American in college.
12. Orson Scott Card-I read the original Ender's Game series early on during college (rather late for most Mormon boys, I know) and found Speaker for the Death quite moving. The notion of truly understanding the motivation for a person and speaking the truth about their strengths and failures still resonates with me.
13. Isaac Asimov- Primarily because of the Foundation Series and the thinking about what it takes to predict and control political forces and for the clever thoughts of behavior regulation in I, Robot.
14. Wallace Stegner-I only became aware of him in graduate school, but his writing about the West reshaped much of my thinking of the place I still think of as my home.
15. J.R.R Tolkien-Lord of the Rings is still one of my favorite books.
16. Toni Morrison-originally because of Beloved, but also Sula and the Song of Solomon.
17. Ralph Ellison-Invisible Man
18. Joseph Conrad-Heart of Darkness
19. Albert Camus-primarily because of the doctor character in the Plague
20. Charles Dickens- primarily for Tall of Two Cities, but also A Christmas Carol, both of which are powerful stories of redemption.
Others Hawthorne-the Scarlet Letter, Crane-Red Badge of Courage, Jack London-Call of the Wild, Walt Whitman-Leaves of Grass.
