What writer would you be?

[Miles Borocky]

I've seen, in browsing various threads here, many people compare themselves to vintage celebrities in other arts (mostly film) but as a literature professor, I feel compelled to draw the bookish folk out. So, if you were going to compare yourself to a legendary writer, not necessarily for his/her writing style, but for general sartorial inspiration or fashionly grandeur, who would you choose?

Me: Hemingway for the beard; John Cheever for the classic preppy attire; Ralph Ellison for just general all-round sophistication.

 

[Craig Robertson]

Dashiell Hammett for his sartorial threads and Henry Miller because of Anais Nin...

(I know, I'm so shallow.)

 

[Chas]

Dashiell Hammett for the above, ditto Henry Miller for the prodigous sex life.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Journalist Dorothy Kilgallen for me -- except she didn't wear coke-bottle glasses or sensible shoes. At least not where anyone could see her.

 

[Fletch]

Very probably George Frazier, "Boston's Common Scold" for the Globe and Herald (and later Esquire), crafter of many a well-turned phrase, and surely the first and last opinionmeister to make a specialty of both my grand passions: jazz and sartorialism.

George and wife Mimsy, 1941

"The whole trouble with this era is that there is very little eccentricity. An age is great in art and every other way in proportion to the eccentrics who thrive in that time."

Just one thing. I don't know of a collection of Frazier's writing, or a book about him. He's just a vague legend with a few zingy quotes.

 

[Maj.Nick Danger]

John Steinbeck. My favorite and quintessential depression era writer.

 

[warbird]

Though he he may not be my all time favorite writer, however certainly one of, I would probably be more like Hemingway than most any other I can think of.

We share a love of literature of many types
We both have made a living writing, though mine has been writing for others and was non-fiction primarily
I make my living today doing in many ways the same things he did; shooting hunting and traveling. Both of us are/were drawn by mountains and vast plains and the ocean.
We both share a wanderlust, a constant need for adventure, stimulus and restlessness to live life to write about it or compare it to others experiences, not read what others have said while spending life on a couch, never experiencing any of it.
Africa has had an important impact on who both of us became.
I shant go into them, but we also share some personality quirks in which some are good and some not so good.
We both share a great love of airplanes, guns ( I still shoot some of the very types he did then), clothes styles and other things. Some of these things are just born of common interests. I feel no desire to be like any particular person of the past.

Now if I could pick someone to emulate I would say Faulkner or Twain.

 

[Warbaby]

While he was a pretty sharp dresser, H.L Mencken's attitude, iconoclasm and cynical wit put him at the top of my list.

"We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart."

"We are here and it is now. Further than that all human knowledge is moonshine."

"Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit upon his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin slitting throats."

 

[Ace Fedora]

In terms of style, Dashiell Hammett all the way.

In terms of skill, not even close.

 

[olive bleu]

i would say Emily Dickenson..she was introverted and lived quite a reclusive life.Much of her communication even with her friends was through her letters.I myself have a very tiny circle of friends that i rarely see. I followed the path of having a marriage and kids, But if iI had not followed that road, i most certainly would be living the life of a hermit.And gadding about wearing gauzy white gowns I also dabble in poetry writing from time to time and have the honour of sharing her birthday( but just 136 years later)

 

[Tux Toledo]

Raymond Chandler.

 

[Miles Borocky]

a few more--

Ah, Chandler. Why didn't I think of him? One of the great literary pipe smokers, a briar-wielding man of letters to emulate. I'd add George Plimpton too for the incredible life experience--and the great classic style.

In terms of witty prose, I'd add A.J. Liebling. Love his essays on boxing.

 

[MadelienneBlack]

Edna St. Vincent Millay, hands down.

 

[Spitfire]

My first thought was Hemingway - but then again.
It's too easy. And I might not be the only one!

So my second thought was Len Deighton.
He can cook, he loves aeroplanes and wrote several wellreserahced books about Battle of Britain and the airwar in Europe.
He also wrote books that became classic spy movies: Harry Palmer, Funeral in Berlin etc.
(With one of my vavourit actors in the leadpart: Michael Caine)

Then there is also Joseph Heller.
He hates the armylife and regulations, his mind worked as crazy as mine.
And he even worked in advertising.

So - a mix between the cool Len Deighton and the fabulating Joseph Heller.
That's me.

(Edit: Oh my god - maybe they are not Golden Age enough???? So it's my fault if the thread is closed down...)

 

[Jay]

Charles Bukowski...?

 

[Atticus Finch]

Robert Ruark....

.....although he was a generation older, we grew up in the same place, in our youths we shared the same experiences, we were educated in the same university, we are products of the same culture....and we share a few of the same demons.

Even now, forty-eight years after his death, there is seldom a day that I don't meet a character from one of his stories.

AF

 

[Cricket]

This one is a toughie. There are so many names that pop in your head when you first read this thread. I am digging Salinger though. For some reason even as an adult, I can understand the angst of a teenager trying to find his way. Maybe I am still too big of a kid.

 

[warbird]

Ah, Chandler. Why didn't I think of him? One of the great literary pipe smokers, a briar-wielding man of letters to emulate. I'd add George Plimpton too for the incredible life experience--and the great classic style.

In terms of witty prose, I'd add A.J. Liebling. Love his essays on boxing.

Faulkner and Shelby Foote were both well known pipe smokers. I have had the same blend both of them enjoyed. They bought their tobacco from the Tobacco Bowl in Memphis and today you can still pick up some of their personal favorites. Naturally, like many of their time and me as well, they preferred non- or little aromatic blends.

I love fall and always look forward to pickng up the pipe again.

 

[Miles Borocky]

what was Faulkner's blend?

Well, now, you have to tell me what Faulkner smoked so I can consider trying it for myself.

 

[la vie en rose]

Personally, I would aspire to the sheer wit, prodigious wisdom, and prolific (though quality) output of one of my all-time favourite authors, P.G. Wodehouse. One of his delightful stories never fails to cheer me!