"Greatest" American story teller

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Largo

Sport climber
The Big Wide Open Face
Topic Author's Original Post - Sep 24, 2018 - 05:20pm PT
There is no "greatest," but there are a handful of great writers and I often get asked about them. Who is my favorite? When it comes to literary non-fiction, New Journalism, or whatever you wanna call it, Gary Smith is first on my and many other lists (many time National Book Award winner).

Here are a couple gems for when you don't know what to do with the night. Of course with these pieces, photographer Marvin Newman has to be heard: "When photography works well, you can go inside the psyche of the people in the picture. You can see beyond the moment.” Can I get a witness?


https://www.si.com/longform/cotton-bowl/index.html#map8

https://www.si.com/boxing/2014/10/10/muhammad-ali-entourage
NutAgain!

Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
Sep 24, 2018 - 05:22pm PT
Mark Twain is the first that pops into my mind.
High Fructose Corn Spirit

Gym climber
Sep 24, 2018 - 05:24pm PT
American? Too nationalist.

Carl Sagan. Richard Dawkins. James Burke. In the nonfiction genre, those are a few of my favorites. Not only informative but entertaining af.

Gene Roddenberry left his mark on me, too. Creative af.

Any of the above should have won a Nobel in literature. In retrospect, this is pretty evident.

Hey, I left you a couple questions (actually left over from 2011 - 2017) on the Mind thread. Fwiw.
Urmas

Social climber
Sierra Eastside
Sep 24, 2018 - 06:51pm PT
Jody, you know Jack London was a socialist.
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Sep 24, 2018 - 08:55pm PT
Besides Jody Langstuff my vote would be for Chuck Palahniuk.
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Sep 24, 2018 - 09:02pm PT
It has to do with your overtly anti-socialist flava, yo.
mostly.

steve s

Trad climber
eldo
Sep 24, 2018 - 09:12pm PT
Mark Twain jumps to mind first. But then I get nostalgic for Hunter S. Thompson.
rottingjohnny

Sport climber
Sands Motel , Las Vegas
Sep 24, 2018 - 09:13pm PT
Contractor

Boulder climber
CA
Sep 24, 2018 - 10:08pm PT
For me, something recent and familiar.

"The Log From the Sea of Cortez" by John Steinbeck was wonderfully subtle. He's the master of constructing complex characters in your mind by way of layering the smallest nuances people exhibit. The scenery is similarly built, mostly by tapping into the reader's own memories. I think I smelled corn tortillas burning in a skillet a few times while reading it.
thebravecowboy

climber
The Good Places
Sep 24, 2018 - 10:17pm PT
wrt steinbeck...


...kinda not cool what johnnie steinbeck did here....kinda
10b4me

Social climber
Lida Junction
Sep 24, 2018 - 10:24pm PT
Twain
Steinbeck
Vine Deloria
Pete_N

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, CA
Sep 24, 2018 - 11:31pm PT
Geez. Asking for the "greatest" kinda puts a damper on something like this, but here are a few names that come to my mind (deliberately excluding some of the obvious ones):

David Foster Wallace
Louise Erdrich
George Saunders
Wallace Stegner
Flannery O'Connor
Zora Neale Hurston
Sherman Alexi
James Welch
Studs Terkel
Bailey White
Andrei Codrescu (Romanian, I know, but one of the best observers of America I've ever read/heard)
Cormac McCarthy [edited to add!]

Why? Looking for inspiration?
clinker

Trad climber
Santa Cruz, California
Sep 25, 2018 - 01:40am PT

Joseph Alexander Altsheler

Joseph Alexander Altsheler (April 29, 1862 – June 5, 1919) was an American newspaper reporter, editor and author of popular juvenile historical fiction. He was a prolific writer, and produced fifty-one novels and at least fifty-three short stories. Thirty-two of his novels were part of his seven series:

The Civil War Series (8 volumes)
The French and Indian War Series (6 volumes)
The Gold Series (2 volumes)
The Great West Series (2 volumes)
The Texan Series (3 volumes)
The World War Series (3 volumes)
The Young Trailers Series (8 volumes)
Although each of the thirty-two novels constitutes an independent story, Altsheler suggested a reading order for each series (i.e., he numbered the volumes). The remaining nineteen novels can be read in any order. [Note, however, that A Knight of Philadelphia was later expanded through the addition of nineteen chapters and some minor tweaks to become Mr. Altsheler's novel In Hostile Red.]

The short stories, of course, can be read in any order. However, some readers might prefer to read them in the order in which they were published. The short story list below is displayed in chronological order with the publication dates shown alongside the titles.
Gary

Social climber
Desolation Basin, Calif.
Sep 25, 2018 - 06:13am PT
Story teller? William Faulkner. Each of his short stories is a gem.

Thomas Berger is also up there, he had a real flair for capturing the midwest.

Hard to beat Theodore Sturgeon for originality!
MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Sep 25, 2018 - 08:07am PT
What a question. There are so many writers worth noting (at least for me), and so many captivating stories that they’ve written. We’d need a set of criteria to help us decide. Some metrics would probably be needed . . . and herein again we fall headlong into reductions. How could we measure an experience of reading? How can we measure any experience?

Forgetting for the moment scholarly literary criticism, the experience of reading and our views of the works we read are possibly more reflective indications of what we are and how we see than indications of what the writings are themselves.
Larry Nelson

Social climber
Sep 25, 2018 - 08:42am PT
When I first read "The Right Stuff", I started to read other Tom Wolfe stories, and his perceptions on contemporary society, both fiction and non-fiction.
jbaker

Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
Sep 25, 2018 - 03:02pm PT
Taking this in the direction of great tellers of the American story, some recent good reads are:

Colson Whitehead - The Underground Railroad is brilliant
Michelle Alexander - The New Jim Crow
John Carreyrou - Bad Blood, Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup
Man of Constant Sorrow by Dr. Ralph Stanley
George Saunders - Lincoln in the Bardo
Michael Lewis is always an interesting writer. I saw him speak last year, and was kind of surprised that he came off as a bit of an ass who was full of himself.

Not American, but Trevor Noah's Born a Crime is a good read.
Adventurer

Mountain climber
Virginia
Sep 25, 2018 - 05:20pm PT
Paul Theroux
Reilly

Mountain climber
The Other Monrovia- CA
Sep 25, 2018 - 06:09pm PT
Nobody thinks Papa told a good story or three? Really?

Other than him Faulkner and Steinbeck.
B,Mark

Social climber
NorthernNY
Sep 25, 2018 - 06:14pm PT
Alistair Macleod
And yea, Hemingway
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