favorite AMERICAN writer

[GKeeper316]

mine's robert e. howard.

who's yours?

[olevetonahill]

Favorite All time , Or favorite current?

[GKeeper316]

all time.

robert e. howard's been dead since he put a .38 slug in his head in 1938.

[royalfan5]

Larry McMurtry.

[olevetonahill]

all time.

robert e. howard's been dead since he put a .38 slug in his head in 1938.

Then thats easy, Jack London- White fang,Call of the Wild, The Sea Wolf.

[GKeeper316]

jack london was great. never got into mcmurtry. read a couple of his books in high school. i guess westerns aren't really my thing.

[2121Sooner]

I loved Stephen King in the late 80's early 90's.

"IT" made me look under my bed before I turned the light off. Pennywise was one bad Mother F'er

And "The Stand" was a great read. Sh!tty movie, but great read.

And he had a series about the Dark Towers that was pretty cool.

Not mind bending, but fun to read.

[MsProudSooner2]

The first name that came to mind was Mark Twain.

[2121Sooner]

Original Version or the sanitized one in the schools now?

Cant have that N word floating around.

[MsProudSooner2]

Original Version or the sanitized one in the schools now?

Cant have that N word floating around.

Original one. How can you learn about the times he wrote about if you censor the language? Kids that are old enough to read Mark Twain are old enough to be taught about the context of the times.

[Soonerfan88]

Louis L'Amour

Rereading his collection right now for probably the 20th time.

[MR2-Sooner86]

I have several actually. These are the ones that come to mind first.

Steve and Stephani Perry
Robert A. Heinlein
John Steakley

[A Sooner in Texas]

I can't get into all of McMurtry's books, but "Lonesome Dove" for my money is THE great novel of the West.

And I love history and biographies, so if I had to choose only one author it'd probably be William Manchester, who did such great bios of MacArthur, Churchill and "Death of a President."

His "The Glory and the Dream," a narrative of American history from 1932 through Watergate, is wonderful.

[jk the sooner fan]

Jeff Shaara

[2121Sooner]

Original one. How can you learn about the times he wrote about if you censor the language? Kids that are old enough to read Mark Twain are old enough to be taught about the context of the times.

I agree 100%

[My Opinion Matters]

Nicholas Sparks/ Stepanie Meyer (tie).

[Lott's Bandana]

Easy.

Jim Harrison

[GKeeper316]

I agree 100%

me too.

trying to apply today's political correctness to 1850s missouri is an insult to art and literature everywhere.

[yermom]

i don't remember Huck Finn that well, but if you get caught up on ****** Jim's name you are kinda missing the whole point of the story

[rekamrettuB]

Willie Nelson

[Jammin']

Hemingway, no, Poe, no, Steinbeck, no, Tenn williams.

Yeah. Or the ones already mentioned. Or anne rice or Laura Ingalls.

Or Joseph smith, jr.

[SpankyNek]

All time:Twain
Current:Tom Robbins

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien!!

[jk the sooner fan]

J.K. Rowling or J.R.R. Tolkien!!

Rowling is british - this is an AMERICAN writer thread

[texaspokieokie]

steinbeck
also, from previous posts
in no particular order
twain
McMurtry
L'amour

[Turd_Ferguson]

L. L'amour
L. McMurtry

[SoonerLVZ]

Hemmingway was the first thing that came to my mind.

[KantoSooner]

Steinbeck is a good one for all time. Right now I'd say Charles Mann, though he writes non-fictiion (try '1491').

I'd also give a shout for Hunter Thompson. He could technically write with the best of them.

Or how about Theodore Dreiser if you are immune to terminal depression?

[delhalew]

Cordwainer Smith.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Oh American...um well then Shakespeare was really good too...

[sappstuf]

Carmac McCarthy

[KantoSooner]

That opens an interesting discussion. What makes McCarthy so good? I read 'The Road' and thought it would earn somewhere around a 'B+' in a freshman comp course.
Tell me why he's so good. Honest question.

[Viking Kitten]

Current favorite is Jonathan Franzen, Steinbeck is kind of a lifelong favorite.

[Viking Kitten]

I loved Stephen King in the late 80's early 90's.

"IT" made me look under my bed before I turned the light off. Pennywise was one bad Mother F'er

And "The Stand" was a great read. Sh!tty movie, but great read.

And he had a series about the Dark Towers that was pretty cool.

Not mind bending, but fun to read.

Have you ever noticed that the best movies made from Stephen King novels are the ones that aren't based on his "supernatural" books. "Shawshank Redemption," "Stand By Me," and "Misery" are good examples; his stories about the evil that lives within everyday people are very compelling onscreen. For some reason, his vampires and demons and possessed cars just don't translate well to film.

[soonerscuba]

James Joyce.

[sappstuf]

That opens an interesting discussion. What makes McCarthy so good? I read 'The Road' and thought it would earn somewhere around a 'B+' in a freshman comp course.
Tell me why he's so good. Honest question.

The Road is the only book of his in that setting. Most are Westerns, even if they are in modern settings like No Country For Old Men. That movie is a carbon copy of the book, one of the most faithfully adapted films I have ever seen. So if you liked that movie, I would give him another chance. Start with All The Pretty Horses or Blood Meridian, which is considered one of the 100 best books of the past century.

As you probably noticed from The Road, he doesn't waste words.. At all. There are things in his books that really stick with me, because I can't figure out exactly what he is trying to say, but that is a good thing. Like the conversation with the old blind man in The Road. Simple writing, but you feel like there is about 100 things going on under the surface. Simple, descriptive, yet complex.

I often go back to read to portions of his books, not for the story, but on how he writes it. I don't do that for any other author. His books do not leave you with warm fuzzies and often I would feel depressed when finishing his books. They take a lot out of you to read them.

[KantoSooner]

I'll grant you as a matter of taste.

What I saw was a professor doing the 'biblical imagery intellectual masturbation tango'. and getting awards for it because he clothed the work in gloom and doom that matched the mood of intellectual America at the time.

But, you're right, I didn't read the earlier works, so my judgement is based on a very small sampling.

If you are still in the mood for trying something as much for the writing as for the story, try Salman Rushdie's 'Shame'. In addition to being perhaps the finest English language writing being done today, it is a fabulous backgrounder for understanding Kashmir and India/Pakistani relations.

[My Opinion Matters]

James Joyce.

My second choice, after Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

[thecynic]

Hemmingway

but my favorite author right now is Nathaniel Philbrick.

[texaspokieokie]

Steinbeck is a good one for all time. Right now I'd say Charles Mann, though he writes non-fictiion (try '1491').

I'd also give a shout for Hunter Thompson. He could technically write with the best of them.

Or how about Theodore Dreiser if you are immune to terminal depression?

only Hunter Thompson that i've read is "hell's angels", which i thoroughly enjoyed. he went thru some tuff times, hangin with the oakland chapter. got the **** beat out of him, @ least once.

i read where Sonny Barger said hunter's book about them was crap, but i don't see where he tried to make them look worse than they really are.
but then, how could i know that ??

[rekamrettuB]

Velvet Jones

[soonerchk]

James Michener. He sometimes got a little carried away with descriptions, but I absolutely love his work. The Source was an incredible and underappreciated read.

[ouleaf]

The guy that writes Marmaduke.

[Sooner Tri]

There are a few American writers that I actually try to read everything they wrote. Stephen King, Tom Clancy, Frank Herbert (Dune) and Robert Howard (Conan) were some of my favorites growing up.
I don't know if they qualify as "Great writers" but they were fun to read.

[SpankyNek]

Two greats yet to be mentioned:
Tom Wolfe
Kurt Vonnegut...I may actually have to rescind my earlier vote for Twain in favor of Vonnegut.

Honorable Mention:
Ray Bradbury

[Tulsa_Fireman]

L RON HUBBARD XENU IN YOIUR BRANE

[OU_Sooners75]

Louis L'Amour

Rereading his collection right now for probably the 20th time.


I second Louis L'Amour

Loved the McClintok (sp?) series!

[BigBoomerInBigD]

Faulkner

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Faulkner

I know you like american literature, but there's no reason to call us names.

[BigBoomerInBigD]

:D

[silverwheels]

Vonnegut.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Nugent.

[Jammin']

Dylan.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Manson.

[hawaii 5-0]

Michener is a good choice. I like Twain very much too.

I'll go with Herman Wouk. I really loved his writing in Winds of War and War & Remembrance. Beautifully written.

I read The Caine Mutiny in high school.

5-0


Trump/ Foote 2012

[Curly Bill]

Larry McMurtry.


This^^^^

[texaspokieokie]

mickey spillane

whoever wrote "catcher in the rye".

[GKeeper316]

people keep saying hemingway...

**** hemingway. i hated every word of the only hemingway book i ever read. the old man and the sea is just hemingway taking metaphor and symbolism, tossing them in a blender, shoving it up his *** and ****ting it out on paper.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

BUT HE LOVED CATS

[JohnnyMack]

Joseph Ellis for nonfiction.
Alan Furst for fiction.

[Tulsa_Fireman]

Larry Flynt

[GDC]

I would say Larry McMurtry.

[KantoSooner]

Thomas Pynchon



<and then we can all go insane figuring out what it all means>

[Sooner_Tuf]

PJ O'Rourke

Bruce Feirstein

Edward Abbey

[tcrb]

Hemingway.

Mark Twain is a close second with J. R.R. Tolkien right behind.

[AlboSooner]

of all time = Ernest Hemingway, Poe is a close second

[AlboSooner]

Hemingway.

Mark Twain is a close second with J. R.R. Tolkien right behind.

I thought Tolkien was English

[My Opinion Matters]

It's all a matter of opinion of course, but there's been better American authors than Hemingway.

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

Tolkien transcends birth and living arrangements...as does J.K. Rowling...Can we all agree that Stephanie Meyer is the worst American writer...

[John Kochtoston]

only Hunter Thompson that i've read is "hell's angels", which i thoroughly enjoyed. he went thru some tuff times, hangin with the oakland chapter. got the **** beat out of him, @ least once.

i read where Sonny Barger said hunter's book about them was crap, but i don't see where he tried to make them look worse than they really are.
but then, how could i know that ??

Barger was upset more than anything because he believed HST would share the profits of his book with the HAs. Whether Thompson gave him reason to do so or not is unclear.

[TitoMorelli]

The Road is the only book of his in that setting. Most are Westerns, even if they are in modern settings like No Country For Old Men. That movie is a carbon copy of the book, one of the most faithfully adapted films I have ever seen. So if you liked that movie, I would give him another chance. Start with All The Pretty Horses or Blood Meridian, which is considered one of the 100 best books of the past century.

As you probably noticed from The Road, he doesn't waste words.. At all. There are things in his books that really stick with me, because I can't figure out exactly what he is trying to say, but that is a good thing. Like the conversation with the old blind man in The Road. Simple writing, but you feel like there is about 100 things going on under the surface. Simple, descriptive, yet complex.

I often go back to read to portions of his books, not for the story, but on how he writes it. I don't do that for any other author. His books do not leave you with warm fuzzies and often I would feel depressed when finishing his books. They take a lot out of you to read them.

Read "Blood Meridian" and have "No Country" in my bookshelf. Also read "Suttree" which I feel tended to waste a lot of words. My feelings on McCarthy are mixed at this time.





Does Jenni Carlson qualify as an American Writer?

[ouwasp]

L'Amour

Harry Turtledove

Stephen Ambrose

[Adrian]

OUDavid1 on Twitter. That dude is Pro-lif-ic...

[Wayne Jarvis]

Dashiell Hammett.

[texaspokieokie]

Barger was upset more than anything because he believed HST would share the profits of his book with the HAs. Whether Thompson gave him reason to do so or not is unclear.

yep, that's probly true. it was a good read.

makes me believe that oakland is a :bad ***" town.

of course, with all the drugs & gang-bangers, it's much worse than it ever was with just MC clubs.

[Soonerchaz]

Larry Brown
Vonnegut
McCarthy

[sooner_born_1960]

Have you ever noticed that the best movies made from Stephen King novels are the ones that aren't based on his "supernatural" books. "Shawshank Redemption," "Stand By Me," and "Misery" are good examples; his stories about the evil that lives within everyday people are very compelling onscreen. For some reason, his vampires and demons and possessed cars just don't translate well to film.
Agree, but would add "The Green Mile" to the list of better screen adaptations. Just a little supernaturalness.