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FlickrLouisville: Word to the People
Vote for Louisville’s Best Writer
It’s on.
This week marks Hunter S. Thompson’s birthday (July 18, 1937), so we thought we’d stick a thumb in culture’s eye in memory of Louisville’s most celebrated iconoclast.
We want you to vote on who you think is Possibility City’s best writer.
Yes, it’s a vulgar display of populist anti-intellectualism, but it’s nothing less than the world’s preeminent Gonzo journalist would expect.
To further obliterate the line between fact, fiction, and entertainment, we’ll also attempt to bias the results by bribing a few lucky voters with a selection of books generously inscribed with a note from Louisville Mayor Jerry Abramson.
So go ahead and vote. When you’re done, you’ll see the results and you’ll be able to sign up for the fabulously literate giveaways.
- Hunter Stockton Thompson (47%, 267 Votes)
- Thomas Merton (25%, 145 Votes)
- Sue Grafton (10%, 58 Votes)
- Sena Jeter Naslund (9%, 49 Votes)
- Marsha Norman (5%, 29 Votes)
- Sallie Bingham (5%, 28 Votes)
Total Voters: 574
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I voted for Sena Jeter Naslund — you really should spell her name correctly.
It says something about the pace of things in Louisville that though I haven’t been there since 1987, three of the nominees are women I knew personally, one very well indeed and I had to juggle personal feelings and literary merit. Actually, the lady in question a few months back gave me permission not to read her works as long as I bought them, so this excuses me from voting for her, too, sort of.
T. Shults, Ph.D. U of L English 1979. Res. of LSVL 1970-1983.
Louisville has the best of everything!
Thomas Merton! I have reached the point in my life where I am only drawn to read books that inspire my higher Self.
Sue Grafton, of course!
I love spending my time reading Sue Grafton!
Hunter Thompson, we need more far-out voices. People are too serious!
Marsha Norman is the best!
Very tough choice to choose the “best” out of the authors listed. Merton it is.
I enjoy the showing of the documentary and discussion on Hunter S.Thompson that the Idea Festival did a year or two ago at the Kentucky Center of the Arts.
Anyone wanting REALLY cheap Sue Grafton books? You can get them from the Brickhouse Community Center(www.brickhouse.cc)located at 1101 S.2nd st 40203. Just come by on a Tuesday(4pm to 7pm), Wednesday(6:30pm-until) or Sunday(5:30-until) and I(Christina)can help you to some of her books in our on going book sale,along with many other titles and authors. Thanks
I admire Thomas Merton and his works, but Sue Grafton reaches the multitudes with well-written, light-hearted reading. My whole family enjoys her novels and just wish she’d publish more frequently!
I tried to vote but there was no place to click submit. So it didn’t take it. Sue Grafton was my choice. He characters are believable and I am a mystery fan.
Sue Grafton – I love a mystery!
Where is Wendell Berry??
One may predict that people will still be reading Thomas Merton’s writings long after some of these othersare no longer household names.
When it comes to fiction, nobody can beat a theologian. Merton wins.
While I love a good Grafton alaphabetically-inspired crime novel, and Merton is a philosophical genius, to me Sena Jeter Naslund is the best writer of this group. I was fortunate to have her as a professor of literature some years ago at UofL, which was quite a treat.
Man this was tough! Sorry to say that I have never read Marsha Norman or Hunter S. Thompson. But I have the others and this one is tough. They all represent different things! Well, I too tried to vote and I am not sure it went through either. I have to agree with Thomas C. Ware and so I am saying Merton.
What about Laura Young? Her “Otherwise Engaged” and “Killer Looks” are two of my favorite reads in years….
While I have enjoyed Hunter Thompson a lot, I’m a real fan of Thomas Merton, and I think the mayor’s idea is a good one. Bookstores and libraries in my adoptive city of Bangkok don’t have a Louisville shelf or section, but I will try to read the others–if I can find there here. My wife is a librarian. Maybe we can establish a field office of the Louisville chamber of commerce.
Marsha Norman was a teacher at my elementary school (Prestonia) the year before I got there. Everyone in my class LOVED her. When I later saw ‘Night Mother at Actors and then Barter Theatre, the only response was to stop at Shoney’s for hot fudge cake and to call my mom to tell her I loved her! HEAVY STUFF! Wonderful writing though.
I believe that Thomas Merton was one of the best writers that ever visited Louisville. He is hand down outclasses all of them. The real problem is that he did it so effortlessly.
Now if you had went by category there would be several winners here in this list. To be completely fair that is the only way to do it. Seven Storey Mountain out classes all the other books that any of the others have wrote.
That is the real reason here to put other categories by subject content.
Merton’s experience of connectivity and love for others at 4th & (then) Walnut may be the greatest single documented moment in Louisville’s history. Whenever I feel alienated, dried up, etc., recalling that event helps to center me. If we all could get that sense evey so often, a better world it’d be. It may even seem like southern hospitality 24/7!
Wow, these are some really great writers. And, yes, I have read them all. I won’t reveal my vote, but since I own most of the books already, I suppose, as an actor (and a huge Susan Kingsley fan) I would like the mayor for life of Louisville to sign a copy of GETTING OUT for me. Two authors that don’t appear on the list, both worthy of note. Anne Braden for THE WALL BETWEEN and Catherine Fosl for her excellent Anne Braden bio, SUBVERSIVE SOUTHERNER.
I remember seeing ‘Night, Mother at Actors Theatre in one of its early productions, and it remains one of the most haunting plays I’ve ever seen. Wonderfully written, of course, and enhanced by an inspired production. I’d love to have a copy of that on my shelf, and Jerry’s signature would be almost as good as Marsha Norman’s.
Merton was the better writer, a global thinker, poet, scholar, possessed of an expansive spirit, and at times possessed by genius. He could also be hilarious and wickedly irreverent, known to down a half-dozen martinis before dinner when managed a furlough from the monastery. He was no theologian, catfish. And he never lived in Louisville. So my vote goes to the great and irrepressible Hunter Thompson. Long may he wave!
Hell’s Angels, definitely. Love the Hunter. Brilliant mind combined with superb humor renders joyful reading. Have read much of Hunter’s oeuvre, but this one has escaped me thus far. Mayor Jerry, please send me a copy!
OKAY!
An important way to handle government or city hall is to pop the ‘imperial mystique’ and no one did it more irreverently than Hunter S. Thompson.
Well, I am number 19 on this list and I am writing again! Thanks for fixing it so that I could vote! LOL After seeing the results so far, I would say that I better read Hunter S. Thompson!
What about Liz Curtiss Higgs? She currently has 28 books available on Amazon.com – surely she merits recognition as a local author with international success!
Sorry I didn’t catch this in time to vote. Hunter Thompson and Sue Grafton are both good popular writers (I’m a Sue Grafton fan myself) but when people in the future look to find out what the 20th century was about, it’s Thomas Merton they will look to. He died in 1968 and you can still find his books on any library or bookstore shelf. He inspired those who lived through WW II in 1948, my generation in the 1960’s and now is influencing a whole new generation of young people. Thomas Merton it is!
Check out Dear Editor by Louisville author Bill Womack…available on amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and at numerous local bookstores. Visit his site at http://www.deareditorbook.com or find him on Facebook (search “Bill C Womack”). You may remember seeing Bill’s name often in the Courier-Journal…over 40 of his letters to the editor have been published so far. I highly recommend his book…a great read on today’s hot issues!