Dining With Authors: Part One

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I have written before about dining with characters, and I was thinking recently of what it would be like to do the same with authors. For this series, I will restrict the invitations to a maximum of three writers.  Any more than that, and the  conversation could be, well, difficult.

For this first gathering, I would invite the authors to join me in an old-fashioned pub, because they are from the 19th Century, and I would want them to be comfortable. They would be able to have beer, wine, tea, or coffee and order food with which they are familiar.

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My invitees are Samuel Clemens, otherwise known as Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, and Charles Dickens. All of the writers are very well known in their time and have been firmly established in the canon of literature.

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These authors  created some of the most important works that have been written; among them: Leaves Of Grass, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and A Tale of Two Cities. These works are only a few of what would be a massive collection of writings from these authors, but they are a good representation of their creations.

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I would hope that I could guide these creative and brilliant minds into a productive and exciting interchange of ideas and of a wide and innovative discussion of writing. I would like to ask them what they believed their major contributions to literature were and what pieces  they viewed as their best work. I would also ask what they would recommend for reading. This would be an extraordinary evening of conversation!

With which authors would you like to have dinner and a conversation?

71 thoughts on “Dining With Authors: Part One”

  2. I love your choices! Classic English prof! 😉 I’d gladly join your company of merry (and not so merry) men…I wonder what Mr. Clemens was like under the influence…probably just as honest as ever! For my dining with the stars of literary profundity, I’d have to invite my crush, George Gordon Byron, to meet for drinks after work — you know, something casual… 🙂 I’d love to sit across another favorite of mine: Charlotte Bronte and sip tea and talk about teaching, writing, men, politics, religion, social equality, and anything the good woman cared to share.

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  5. sportsattitudes

    I would have to say Charles Dickens, Stephen King and Stephen Hawking. Hawking’s theoretical physicist viewpoints would appeal to my “creation” fascination, King to my fascination of how fear can manifest itself and build…and Dickens because I have a fascination of the era and environment he drew inspiration from.

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  10. I am probably too intimidated by Literary authors, although a Critic for dinner might be fun. So perhaps Thomas Harris for company…a little Silence of the Lambs…curious about what HIS dining selection would be…fava beans, maybe. And Stephen King: just because I want to see if he ever ISN’T writing his next novel!

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  17. How about an evening for the ladies? I can think of quite a few I should love to hear from. I shall start the list with Voltaire de Cleyre, Emma Goldman (amazing autobiography) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. And to round out the evening I would invite Margaret Sanger.

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  19. Alex Hurst

    My friend wrote a wonderful story of many of these authors and Mary Shelley all sitting at a pub with their most famous main characters; I loved that story so much… I think it is many authors’ dream!

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  20. What a brilliant idea! To bring these great and creative minds together. My invitees would be Emily Brontë, Emily Dickson and Henry James to discuss if they share the same view, “An unmarried woman – a girl of your age – isn’t independent. There are all sorts of things she can’t do. She’s hampered at every step.” as depicted in James’ The Portrait of a Lady.

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  23. Samuel Clemens is top of my list, as well. By coincidence, the date of his death fell in the week in history in which I had to adjust my recent book to occurring in order to avoid my main character being caught in a devastating avalanche on her train trip to Seattle. Once I discovered it, his death had to be mentioned in my book since my MC Miss Livingstone was a well-educated bibliophile and would not have missed that news. Mark Twain doubtless would have been one her favorite authors too. I’ve often wondered what it would be like to talk with him. What survives of him in literature and historical documentation is so intriguing. I’ve even dressed like him a couple times when asked to wear costume of my favorite dead author for local writerly events…lol. I think I’ll post one of those photos on my Miss Liv Adventures blog soon, just for fun.
    Glad you came by there. Thanks for the ‘follow’ and I’m happy to have found your blog as a result.

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  26. Pingback: Yes, I Love Costumes & Mark Twain’s Wit and Wisdom – Miss LiV Adventures ~A Journey Through Time…and Time Again

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