Beepy's Reading List

Sorry Imani. Here is my reading list.

Somerset Maugham:

Of Human Bondage
The Razor's Edge
Cakes and Ale
The Painted Veil

D.H. Lawrence

Lady Chatterley's Lover
Sons and Lovers
Possibly some of his short novels or stories


Christina Stead

The Man Who Loved Children



My problem with reading is that I always bite off more than I can chew, so we'll see how far I get. I also saw tons more on the list of possiblities that sparked my interest. Books, eh?

Outstanding invites

September 1st and the start of our challenge is not far away. Do not despair if your reading lists aren't quite put together yet -- I haven't settled on my final selection of authors yet, much less books. There are some outstanding blogger invites, some from more than a week ago. I'll list the first part of the e-mail addresses here and you may let me know in comments whether a) the invite should be resent because the first did not show up in your inbox or b) you are a challenge participant but do not wish to contribute any blog posts (which is happily allowed).


Not even sure who this is - ikratynski

Ex Libris' Reading List

I have participated in, and failed, several reading challenges. In fact, I nearly swore off them for the remainder of the year. But when I saw this challenge, I just knew I had to participate. I love the idea of reading outmoded authors. It was interesting to see a list of authors who fall into this category. It includes many I've never heard of, but there are also several whose books reside on my shelves - often with more than one title. And I was rather surprised to see D. H. Lawrence on this list.

I have selected five books for this challenge:

• Journal of a Solitude by May Sarton
• A World of Love by Elizabeth Bowen
• Nightwood by Djuna Barnes
• The Merry-Go-Round by W. Somerset Maugham
• Adam's Breed by Radclyffe Hall

Realistically I'm not sure how many I will complete. If I find I have the time, I may also include some short stories by Djuna Barnes and D. H. Lawrence.

Thank you, Imani, for bringing these authors back to the forefront for all of us to discover and enjoy.

Emily's List

All right, I have to admit that I did the old high-school thing of choosing books by page count. However, based on my failings when it comes to other challenges (thank you, all those of you who have made me feel I am not alone in this "failing challenges arena"), I’m not thinking of this as a lazy way to approach a challenge, but rather as a realistic way to approach a challenge. Then again, since I’m being completely candid here, I also have to admit that I didn’t approach this challenge realistically at all. You should see the long, marked-up list of titles I plan to take to the library with me next time I go, because, you see, I’m going to whiz through these five titles in no time (you know, while reading Faust, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and The Grapes of Wrath, and A Tale of Two Cities) and tackle at least 20 more before the challenge ends (yeah, right). Anyway, here are my choices:

Titles already in my hands:
Friends and Relations by Elizabeth Bowen -- the title that was discovered on my company’s library shelves, thus being a sign that I was meant to take on this challenge.
The Moon and Sixpence by W.S. Maugham -- haven’t read Maugham since I was a teenager, remember next to nothing except that I ate up everything I could get my hands on, and have wanted to re-read him for years. I don’t even actually know if I’ve read this one or not (I think I have), so it may be a re-read or it may be completely fresh.
The Man Who Was Thursday by G.K. Chesterton -- my sister recommended this about a hundred years ago, even read quotes to me from a copy on Bob’s and my shelves. High time I got around to reading it, no?

Titles to be retrieved from the library:
The Father Brown Omnibus by G.K. Chesterton -- recommended by a friend who takes great pride in the fact he never agrees with me on anything, but who, for some reason, has never led me astray when it comes to books (needless to say, he also recommended The Man Who Was Thursday).
The Lady in the Lake by Walter Scott – thought I should have a little poetry, and I’d like to be able to say I’ve read something by Scott, especially since Dorr's gotten me interested in the idea of reading him. I’ll probably read some May Sarton, too, to add a little more poetry (can’t see myself resisting Letters from Maine: New Poems for too long), but I’m only committing myself to Scott for now.

The second cut:
If I do manage to read all of the above fairly quickly, these five will be explored next:
Dawn Powell – read about her years ago, more recently read excerpts from her diaries in a collection of New York writings we have, and have wanted to read more.
Janet Frame – absolutely loved (and was devastated by) the movie An Angel at My Table, which I saw when it came out, but I’ve never gotten around to actually reading any of the books
More Ivy Compton-Burnett – she’s the kind of writer I can’t sit down and read too much in one go (too depressing), but I’d like to read more
Sybille Bedford – Never heard of her till now, but Jigsaw: An Unsentimental Education sounds like it’s right up my alley
Italo Svevo – in my never-ending quest to quit being so Anglo-author-centered

Geranium Cat's reading list

My first reading challenge too! I’m very excited about it. I’m envious of people who have found authors in their local libraries – ours is officially useless, though they’ve managed to come up with a Fr Brown collection. So I shall read some books off my shelves and I’ve spent next month’s book allowance on additions. There’s a rather English bias, as a result, but I’ll try to find some others.

Christina Stead, The Man Who Loved Children: this was on my shelves, I started it before and got stuck. I’ll finish it this time.

Freya Stark: my mother should be useful here, she’s a great admirer. I shall raid her collection.

G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Napoleon of Notting Hill and Father Brown stories. I read and liked TMWWT and Fr Brown before, in my distant youth and I look forward to re-acquainting myself with them (incidentally, I found The Napoleon of Notting Hill as a text file and am making a reader-friendly PDF file, if anyone wants a copy).

G.B. Shaw: knew these well in my drama student days, might have another go at Saint Joan.

Ivy Compton-Burnett: another old favourite, I’ll find as many as I can and do some re-reading. A Heritage and Its History is on my shelves and will make a good place to start.

Malcolm Lowry: Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid. One of my “must get round to” authors and I found this one cheap, so will start with it.

Marian Engel, The Bear and Lunatic Villas. Both off my shelves (if I can find them!) I was just a smidge shocked by The Bear first time round. Also The Glassy Sea and The Honeyman Festival, which are completely new to me, and I’ve had to order from Canada.

W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage. I read this more than once when I was young, so it will be very interesting to go back see how it fares. I’d like to re-read Cakes and Ale, too, which I remember liking very much.

Anything else depends on what I can get hold of: I’d like to finally read all of The Forsyte Saga. If I have time I might try to a bit of Scott, but it won’t be Ivanhoe, which we had to read at school (I managed up to Chapter 3, which meant that the subsequent exam was a bit of a disaster!)

I foresee lots of late nights and a serious dent in the whisky supply - must remember I have to more than just read everything!

Malcolm Lowry

Although it was a recent TLS Commentary article on one of George Bernard Shaw's drafts, The Household of Joseph, that sparked the idea of this challenge, Malcolm Lowry (1909-57) was one of the first authors that came to mind when I thought of a list. I'd never heard of him before I read a 1966 Paris Review issue in which Conrad Knickerbocker, a reputable critic deceased by the time of publication, did a piece in which he interviewed Lowry's friends and family in England to put together a disjointed image of his life. It was a boozy, intriguing and occasionally confusing read, not least because I had no idea who anyone in the piece was except Dylan Thomas. Diverting enough to keep my interest to the end but not at all intended to get newcomers interested in Lowry's fiction -- it was written for readers who already knew what was what.

Ellis Sharp at The Sharp Side was the blogger who got me actively interested in Lowry's fiction. It's clear that he's something of a favourite of his. Read his take on Lunar Caustic, a novella, and the novel popularly considered Lowry's best, Under the Volcano, which includes commentary on one of his lesser known works, as well as related books.

Other interesting links:

Through a glass darkly - A Guardian article by John Hartley Williams in which focuses primarily on Under the Volcano as well as Lowry's other works, including his poetry, with a biographical approach.

More than most writers, the circumstances of Malcolm Lowry's death are peculiarly relevant to a consideration of his work, since excess of every kind was both his method and his subject.

Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano - A site on his works that I somehow missed the first time around. It includes chapter summaries and a historical overview of the major work, along with a selected bibliography of his fiction and of criticism on his works, and information on a documentary.

Excerpt from Dark as the Grave - Two paragraphs from the novel, Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend is Laid. (via Wikipedia)

ArtandCulture artist - Read a bit on the similarities between Under the Volcano and Don Quixote.

Malcolm Lowry and the Northern Tradition - An essay by Hallvard Dahlie. He argues how novelists like Lowry's in their fiction depict

the various ways in which Canada is being transformed from fact into imagination. These novelists have taken the "facts" about Canada - its geography, history, and culture - and created out of them a distinctive mythology which is unmistakably connected to the northern, the frontier, the paradisaical aspects of Canada, and have forged in a relatively short period of time both a tradition and a fictional mode which are significantly different from any earlier movements in our literature.

The Political Strand in Malcolm Lowry's Under the Volcano - An essay by Tom Middlebro'. In the second paragraph alone we have mentions of Thomas Mann, Faust, St. Augustine, Nietzsche, Schoenberg and Joseph Goebbels.

There are probably more Lowry articles on the Studies in Canadian Literature site but its search feature is broken. Curious as to why Lowry's on a Can Lit site? You silly, I thought everyone knew that Lowry spent the best years of his life in and set "much of his later fiction" in British Columbia.

Further thoughts on the Malcolm Lowry connection - Graham Collier, "Britain's most original jazz talent", writes an intriguing piece on how Lowry's fictions have influenced his compositions.

And if you need any ideas as to where to go next after reading his entire oeuvre here's a handy Literature-Map guide.

Eloise's reading list

This is my first reading challenge too, usually I just mooch around the bookshelves seeing what takes my fancy, so I'm really looking forward to this. At the moment this list is just from books I own so I know I can get my hands on them - if I can track down which shelf or pile they are in! I am intrigued by the many authors on the list that I've never heard of, though, and may well increase this list as I look out for books by them.

G K Chesterton: The Napoleon of Notting Hill
I tried to read this when I was about twelve (as I was a fan of the Father Brown stories) and remember being completely baffled by it. I'm hoping that the many years since will make it more comprehensible but I'm still a bit nervous of it.

W Somerset Maugham: Cakes and Ale
I'd forgotten I even owned this book, just found it hiding in a corner.

J K Huysmans: A Rebours (or Against Nature as I'll be reading it in translation)

D H Lawrence: Lady Chatterley's Lover
Oh dear, this really will be a challenge - I have never wanted to read this book, as I'm very prudish, but it's about time to brave it. I hope to be pleasantly surprised.

George Bernard Shaw: Pygmalion

Radclyffe Hall: I can't remember what it's called or find it at the moment, but I know it's here somewhere and it's not The Well of Loneliness.

And something by Scott, he's one of my favourite authors so it could be anything.

BooksPlease Reading List

This is the first challenge I've joined and I've really enjoyed looking up these authors. This is my preliminary list:

G K Chesterton, The Complete Father Brown
I've read some of Chesterton's books before, but none of the Father Brown books. There's a copy in my local library - in the Reserve Stock.

Walter Scott, Ivanhoe
I've never read any Scott and as I have a copy of Ivanhoe, I'll start with this. My copy is an old hardback book, one of a set of classic books published by Odhams Press that belonged to my father-in-law. I also fancy reading Scott's Waverley.

Somerset Maugham, Books and You & The Moon and Sixpence
I used to love watching Maugham's plays, when they used to show them on TV, but have never read anything by him. The library has copies of both of these. Books and You sounds intriguing from its title.

John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga
I'm surprised to find that I've never read any Galsworthy either, but as The Forsyte Saga was recently serialised on TV I know the story. I'll be interested to see how faithful the series was to the book. Sometimes, I don't like a film or TV dramatisation if I've read the book first, but it's usually ok the other way round.

Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy
I know nothing about Manning's books. The on-line catalogue of my local library lists this one volume book comprising The Great Fortune ; The Spoilt City ; Friends and Heroes.

Italo Svevo, As a Man Grows Older
I know absolutely nothing about this author and have never heard of him before, so this may or may not be a good choice. The library has a copy of this.

D H Lawrence, Sons and Lovers
I have read Women in Love and The Virgin and the Gypsy, but not Sons and Lovers. I've had a battered secondhand copy of Sons and Lovers sitting in a bookcase for years, so now is the time to read it.

I don't know whether I'll manage all these but I'm looking forward to alternating them with other books I'd like to read.

Jeanette Winterson on Nightwood

A moment of synchronicity:

I was reading Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods this morning and I decided to revisit her tribute to Djuna Barnes' Nightwood.

It is a rousing laudation of an outmoded author, and so highly quotable it must be read in its entirety. Winterson is at her best when she is most impassioned. Rereading this tribute I am reminded why I love Winterson's writing.

But this is not about Jeanette Winterson. It is about Djuna Barnes. So, Jeanette Winterson, on Nightwood:

Nightwood has neither stereotypes nor caricatures; there is a truth to these damaged hearts that moves us beyond the negative. Humans suffer and, gay or straight, they break themselves into pieces, blur themselves with drink and drugs, choose the wrong lover, crucify themselves on their own longings and, let's not forget, are crucified by a world that fears the stranger - whether in life or in love.

In Nightwood, they are all strangers, and they speak to those of us who are always, or just sometimes, the stranger; or to the ones who open the door to find the stranger standing outside. And yet, there is great dignity in Nora's love for Robin, written without cliche or compromise in the full-blown, archetypal language of romance. We are left in no doubt that this love is worthy of greatness - that it is great. As the doctor, Matthew O'Connor remarks: "Nora will leave that girl some day; but though those two are buried at the opposite ends of the earth, one dog will find them both."

This line alone clinched the book for me: "Nora will leave that girl some day; but though those two are buried at the opposite ends of the earth, one dog will find them both."

Oh yes. Oh yes.

Peculiar, eccentric, particular, shaded against the insistence of too much daylight, Nightwood is a book for introverts, in that we are all introverts in our after-hours secrets and deepest loves.

Who else is joining me for Nightwood?

Becky's reading list

I'm very excited at this challenge, since I've found myself exploring a few forgotten authors already this year - Dunsany, Mirrlees, A E W Mason, Thesiger, Galsworthy. Also, I was at a stage where I needed some direction for my reading, so this couldn't be more timely. Below is my preliminary list, a mixture of authors who are new to me (Manning, Eddison) and those I've been meaning to pursue further. I'll add more if I have more time. The Eddison has recently been recommended to me by the same person who put me on the track of Dunsany and all I could remember was that the title had a worm in it.

Olivia Manning, The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy
Freya Stark, A Winter in Arabia
Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris
E R Eddison, The Worm Ouroboros
W. Somerset Maugham, Cakes and Ale

Publishers hip to the démodé

The nature of our reading challenge assumes that many of us will be searching library catalogues and putting our library cards to more frequent use. Still, there are some publishers who keep the worthy but currently dépassé authors on your list. Here are the ones that I know about. If you find anymore let me know so that I can add them to the list. I did not list many for authors like D.H. Lawrence as their works more or less firmly entrenched in popular classics backlists.

This post will be a work in progress. For a few authors their works are scattered so widely it did not make much sense to include them here. (Not until I'm in a more perfectionist mood, anyway.) Amazon was the main source for this list; from it I selected only publishers who had books readily available, rather than those with books being sold by third parties. Publishers only listed with a single author are included if they have a significant portion of her writings.

Anchor Books: website

Authors: Elizabeth Bowen (lovely covers on their editions.)

Dalkey Archive Press: website

Authors: Violette Leduc, Djuna Barnes

David R. Godine: website, blog

Authors: Alfred Chester, Marian Engel, Sarah Orne-Jewett

Dover Publications: website

Authors: W. Somerset Maugham, G.K. Chesterton

George Braziller: website

Authors: Janet Frame

Peter Owen Publishers: website, blog

Authors: Anna Kavan (one of her books is smack on the homepage and blog. love it.), Blaise Cendrars, Cesare Pavese, Violette Leduc

New York Review of Books Classics: website, blog

Authors: Ivy Compton-Burnett, Blaise Cendrars, Richard Hughes, Cesare Pavese, Malcolm Lowry

Penguin Publishing (Classics, Popular Classics, 20th century classics, Modern classics): website, blog

Authors: G.K. Chesterton, W. Somerset Maugham, George Bernard Shaw, D.H. Lawrence

University of California Press: website, blog

Authors: Blaise Cendrars

Vintage: website

Authors: W. Somerset Maugham, Italo Svevo, Elizabeth Bowen

W.W. Norton & Company: website

Authors: May Sarton

Zoland Books: website

Authors: Dawn Powell (I feel obliged to note that it was reprinting Powell years before Library of America came on to the scene. It offers her individual works separately too, in case you don't want a hefty volume of collected works.)

Sarah's (loose baggy monster) List of Authors

I have decided to select authors that I would like to read more of, but I’m not going to select specific works just yet (or ever, I might just read whatever seems appealing at any given moment). Here are the authors I think look particularly intriguing:

1. Dawn Powell
   
2. G.K. Chesterton (Father Brown mysteries, The Man Who Was Thursday)
3. John Galsworthy (The Forsyte Saga–I have long been tempted by this)
4. W. Somerset Maugham (I have a collection of 5 of his novels, so I’ll start there)
5. Olivia Manning (my library has both The Balkan Trilogy and The Levant Trilogy so I requested them both)

My goal is to read as many as possible, but I'm not going to put a limit (min or max) either way. I figure if I keep my expectations rather low for myself, I can't help but be pleasantly surprised when I manage to complete something!

Dark Orpheus's Reading List

I have drawn up the reading list for the challenge. My goal will be to read as many titles on the list as possible. If I do find anything interesting along the way, I might just throw it into the mix:

1. Janet Frame, Owls Do Cry
2. Italo Svevo, Zeno's Conscience; As a Man Grows Older
3. Freya Stark, The Southern Gates of Arabia
4. G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday; Any of the Father Brown mysteries
5. May Sarton, Journal of a Solitude
6. Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
7. Djuna Barnes, Nightwood
8. Radclyffe Hall, Well of Loneliness
9. W. Somerset Maugham, The Razor's Edge; Of Human Bondage; The Magician; The Moon and Sixpence

Reach for the skies, I say.

Eva's Preliminary List

So, after looking at all the authors and realising that way too many sounded interesting, I decided on a new criteria: there must be a copy available in the US on bookmooch. This quickly narrowed the field (after all, these books are unpopular ;)) and I ended up with...

The Country of the Pointed Firs by Sarah Orne Jewett
The Last September by Elizabeth Bowen
The Wisdom of Father Brown by G.K. Chesterton
The Small Room by May Sarton
A Book or Two by Walter Scott

I feel quite proud of the list, since it manages to achieve several of my general reading goals: read more women, read more short stories, read more classics. Yay! Plus, they all sound great. I am facing a huge dilemma re: which Walter Scott to choose. So many sound so good to me; I can't believe I've never read any Scott before! Of course, someone (can't remember who just now) is planning a one-author challenge for early next year, so Scott could play nicely into this.

Can't wait to see everyone else's lists up! Imani has requested that we use tags to keep everything organised, so I went ahead and made a 'reading lists' tag.

Cross posted (with some changes) at A Striped Armchair.

Challenge possibilities

I have tried to stay away from reading challenges because, although I like the idea in principle, in practice I find myself not doing all the reading, pushing myself to do the reading, and then getting annoyed with myself when I don’t. And reading should be fun, right?

But … you know how it goes. Someone comes along with a new challenge and it seems intriguing, and next thing I know I’m signed up. I should not get so caught up in trying to finish these things and should just think about what they are good for: getting me to read things I might not otherwise.

So thank you, Imani, for putting together this list and the blog! The challenge should be fun.

The list is quite long, and there are tons of authors I’d happily read from it. I think, though, to increase my chances of actually completing this thing, I won’t decide for sure which ones until the last moment, with one exception: I’d really like to read Walter Scott. I’ll probably read Waverley, as it’s the one I have on my shelves. Other than that, I’d like to read maybe two or three other authors from the list. Here are some possibilities:

• Christina Stead. I own a copy of her novel The Man Who Loved Children, and I don’t know anything about it whatsoever, except that it’s on Jane Smiley’s list from her book 13 Ways of Looking at the Novel. Perhaps it’s time to find out.
• Djuna Barnes. I’ve wanted to read Nightwood for quite a while, although I’m a bit nervous about not getting it; as I understand it, it’s an experimental novel and sometimes those work for me and other times they don’t.
• Elizabeth Bowen. I think she’s someone I’ll like when I finally read her. I own a copy of The Last September, which would do nicely.
• John Dryden. He’s someone I suggested, not so much because I’m excited about reading him, but because he someone I don’t think non-academic readers read very often. If people are going to read something from his time period, it’s more likely to be Aphra Behn or maybe one of the comic plays, or more likely it’ll be something from a bit later like Daniel Defoe. But maybe I should read more of his work (beyond what I’ve read for various classes).
• Radclyffe Hall. I own a copy of her book Adam’s Breed, and Imani has written so intriguingly about The Well of Loneliness, I may just give it a try.
• Sybille Bedford. Litlove mentioned A Favourite of the Gods as one of her favorite books from 2006, so surely that would be a good choice.
• Other possibilities: Merce Rodoreda, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Malcom Lowry.

Welcome to the Outmoded Authors challenge

Greetings. The final list of outmoded authors is completed and we're ready to go on September 1st 2007. The idea behind this challenge is to give some needed attention to authors who have fallen by the way side. While one may assume that all on the list produced works of the highest quality, a few may turn out to be historical curiosities, and that's alright too. "Timeless" works aren't the only ones that can prove to be pleasurable reads.

The challenge will last for six months and end on February 29th 2008. During that time you may choose to read however many books by however many authors you like. Membership will be open to all, including those who don't have a blog, until January 31st 2008. As you can see I'm not one for too many rules, not liking them myself when it comes to any sort of group reading activity.

For reviews or any author-related information or musings you think would be interesting, please submit it to this blog as well as to your own, if you like. *To gain access to the blog so you can post, please submit your e-mail in comments or use the contact info in my blogger profile. This also goes for readers without blogs if they wish to contribute to the site. It is a blog so do not feel as if you need to post a 1500 essay on liberty and isolation in Svevo's novels -- I made that up btw, never read the man's work before -- just post what you're comfortable with. I only ask that with each post you add the relevant tags/labels such as the author's name ("Dawn Powell"), whether it's fiction or poetry, a review or a news item ("news"), perhaps a quote from a good essay you found on one of the writers you'd like to share ("essay") and so on.

If you have any questions or concerns don't hesitate to comment. The buttons, created by the lovely Eva, are here. A list of the authors is posted in the sidebar. I'm no longer accepting other author suggestions. See you all September 1st!

*If you've commented on my blog before and wish to join simply make it official in comments but you don't need to give me your e-mail, chances are I already have it.

Possible Buttons

Here're the two that I came up with...



The first one is set against a calendar, the next is against the last page of an old book. I figure everyone knows how to resize buttons, so I made them large (since it's easier to shrink). If necessary, I can make them in various sizes.

We need a button

If you have any ideas as to what sort of image we should use as our mascot and/or if you wish to volunteer as Official Button Maker please leave a comment. I'd be ever so grateful.

More Outmoded Authors suggestions

Update: List is now closed, no further suggestions are being taken.

Hello everyone! I decided to take advantage of my motivation while it still hung around to get things started on this challenge. I'm going to be a bit dictatorial in deciding which authors actually make it to the Outmoded list. Despite the biases displayed in the lists so far, do not feel that you have to suggest Western authors. I'm quite open to cheating and adding authors who were never in fashion in this part of the world (but may be outmoded in yours). I also intend to go through some old Paris Review issues as they have quite a few really good contributions from writers I never heard of before then.

These are the ones I've decided on so far with the help of my readers at The Books of My Numberless Dreams:

• Malcolm Lowry
• Andrew Salkey
• Sybille Bedford
• D.H. Lawrence
• Walter Scott
• George Bernard Shaw
• C.L.R. James
• Elizabeth Bowen
• G.K. Chesterton
• Dawn Powell
• Radclyffe Hall
• W. Somerset Maugham
• John Glasworth
• Freya Stark
• Orlando Patterson
• E.R. Eddings
• Olivia Manning
• Marian Engel
• Sarah Orne Jewett
• The Fireside Poets
• J.K. Huysmans
• May Sarton
  
• Mercé Rodoreda*
• John Dryden
• Cesare Pavese
• Anna Kavan
• Violette Leduc
• Jesse Hill Ford
• Rosalyn Drexler
• Janet Frame
• Djuna Barnes
• Italo Svevo
  

We have 24 authors now. I'll cap the list at 30 to keep things manageable. I have in mind 3 authors about whose fashionable status I am still unsure: Andre Dubus, Arthur A. Cohen and William Morris. What say you?