Of these 20th century masters, who is the best writer?

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

[Zomby Woof]

1. It is damn hard to choose

I just finished reading James Joyce's "A Portrait Of The Artist As A Young Man", so I nearly voted for him...

Then I remembered how much I love these 20th Century Masters (in addition to most of your list):

James Baldwin
Jack London
Ken Kesey
Larry McMurtry
Joyce Carol Oates
John Steinbeck
Sinclair Lewis
Willa Cather

And so it goes...

[blue neen]

2. I think that I will have to go with Larry McMurtry from your list.,

or perhaps Willa Cather.

[A-Schwarzenegger]

3. From your list the ones I relate most to ...

Hemingway for deceptive simplicity of style,
Greene for struggles with faith & a gentler view
of humanity (than Hemingway),
but Flannery O'Connor & Raymond Carver
are most lit-kin to me.

[kodi]

4. Kerouac is the most fun to read, Faulkner/Fitzgerald most satisfying

Joyce? you have to know a lot and get his metaphors or he is impossible to read. reading his work is like a long workout at the brain spa.

my favorites are Vonnegut, Twain, Fitzgerald, Dostoevsky, and Ted Sturgeon, the last who i (and Robert Heinlein) felt was the best writer in sci-fi

[bertha katzenengel]

5. of those I've only read Hemingway, and because he made me vomit

I won't vote.

Now: Post a poll of 20th C Masters and include Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Sinclair Lewis, Betty Smith, and Upton Sinclair, and we'll talk. :hi:

edited to say that Hemingway literally made me vomit. The Sun Also Rises gave me a migraine, which led to my having to call Ralph on the big white telephone.

[Guaranteed]

6. All I know is that when I read Fitzgerald I was amazed by his

ability to string together massive sentences without hardly the use of a comma.

His sentences just flowed. His grasp of the structure of our language was amazing.

[cestpaspossible]

7. There's no such thing as a 'best' writer

but to me the most glaring omission from your list is Somerset Maughm

[Book Lover]

8. Of this group, Orwell was the best technically

He had the best grasp of how to use his flavor of English.

[enigmatic]

9. Faulkner is meant to be read....

And my boy Kerouac is meant to be read aloud..

[TroubleMan]

10. Orwell

nt.

[EFerrari]

11. Ahem, and the elided "masters":

Wharton
Lessing
Cather
Hurston
Morrison
Kingsolver
O'Connor
Silko
Angelou
Walker

:eyes: