A kind of literacy test. Authors selected are novelists, short story writers, dramatists, and/or epic/narrative poets. Short form poets, philosophers, and other non-narrative or predominantly non-narrative writers are reserved for other lists. I'm intentionally casting a rather wide net here, and I still had to leave some authors out, as I don't have unlimited time (sadly).
Criteria for authors included:
- Known primarily as an author and not eclipsed in fame by their works (e.g. Margaret Mitchell and "Gone with the Wind")
- Relatively famous, influential, innovative, and/or uniquely placed in literary history (why this list mostly favors older writers, although efforts were made to the contrary)
- Journalism and/or semi-fiction is allowed, as long as authors trend more towards editorializing, narrative, and a responsibility more to storytelling than to a syndicated newspaper or sponsor (e.g. Hunter S. Thompson and "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas")
