The top 50 over 50

[SFG75]

The San Francisco Gate published a list of the top 50 writers over 50 back in 2000. I'm curious as to what the fine members of this forum believe in regards to who is deserving of #1. I'll grant you that it's a matter of opinion and that it's rather subjective. With that being said, who is the best?

THE LIST
Russell Banks

Saul Bellow

Cecil Brown

James Lee Burke

Lydia Davis

Don DeLillo

Annie Dillard

E.L. Doctorow

Ivan Doig

Bruce Duffy

Horton Foote

Richard Ford

Leonard Gardner

Thom Gunn

Jim Harrison
Ursula Le Guin

John L'Heureux

Norman Mailer

Peter Matthiessen

Ed McBain

Cormac McCarthy

Thomas McGuane

Larry McMurtry

Arthur Miller

Toni Morrison

Cynthia Ozick

Grace Paley

Francine Prose

Annie Proulx

Thomas Pynchon

Ishmael Reed

Philip Roth

J.D. Salinger

Mary Lee Settle

Leslie Marmon Silko

Gary Snyder

Susan Sontag

Elizabeth Spencer

William Styron

Anne Tyler

John Updike

James Welch

Eudora Welty

John Edgar Wideman

Al Young

John Irving

William Kennedy

Ken Kesey

Maxine Hong Kingston

William Kotzwinkle

I couldn't list all of the options for the poll as we are only allowed ten options, so I left the tenth open.

 

[brownpaperbag]

I haven't read enough works by enough of these authors to compare them. But I do know that Eudora Welty is dead. Which I guess doesn't NOT make her an author over 50...

 

[lenny nero]

I went with Cormac McCarthy but could've gone with John Irving, as both are 2 of my faves.

 

[acton]

This is really a difficult choice, because I appreciate different authors in different ways, but there are no categories here, like at the Oscars

This list reminds me that there are some fine authors who I've never read--so, thank you for the reminder!
Joyce Carol Oates didn't make the list?

 

[SFG75]

I haven't read them all, but I'll go off the ones I have read.

1.)Cormac McCarthy
2.)Philip Roth
3.)E.L. Doctorow
4.)Norman Mailer
5.)Saul Bellow

I loved The Road and feel that is one of the best books to come out in recent time. I also enjoyed No Country for Old Men, couldn't put it down once I picked it up. Roth is a close second. Everyman was a decent read, but nothing to write home about. I did enjoy The Plot Against America and Our Gang, though Plot was clearly the best book of his that I read. If I had to choose between Plot and The Road, the former would lose out, hands down. E.L. Doctorow's historical fiction is awesome. I did enjoy Ragtime, a book about my favorite historical era. Norman Mailer's Son of God was a great read, can't say enough about his writing style. Bellow is dreary and god awful, he comes in at #5 as that is all that I've read. If there was a sixth person I've read, Bellow would rank lower.

We should add Susan Sontag to the list of the deceased. I wasn't mindful of that when posting.

 

[tartan_skirt]

The only authors on that list that I have read are J.D. Salinger and Ken Kesey. I don't quite understand the criteria of this because surely they actually have to be publishing new works after the age of 50, and Salinger stopped in his mid 40's. Also, with Kasey he would most likely be judged by his most famous novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest , but that was written in his 20's (also, since Kasey has passed away since the article was published he wouldn't count any more because of their "living" criteria ).

Too much thought? Yeh, I think I'll stop now...

 

[Fantasy Moon]

The only author that I've read on the poll choices that I liked was Arthur Miller. Still I have not read many of the authors on that list.

 

[unKeMPt]

If you guys don't know who I picked, I might as well stop posting here.

Bellow is dead as well. And I was also struck by the conspicuous absence of Joyce Carol Oates.

 

[-Carlos-]

Who is Ivan Doig and is he worth the read?

 

[Robert]

Who is Ivan Doig and is he worth the read?

He's very much worth your time, AquaBlue. I have read The Sea Runners and The Whistling Season. The Whistling Season is the best of the two and is highly recommended. This House of Sky: Landscapes of a Western Mind is also by Doig. It is suppose to be an outstanding novel and is on my reading list. I love the stories, but would I would be happy to read his books just for the writing.

 

[Stewart]

Since the last is from 2000, I don't think it matters who is dead or not.

These are the ones I own - or have read - at least one book by:

• Don DeLillo
• Saul Bellow
• Richard Ford
• Norman Mailer
• Cormac McCarthy
• Larry McMurtry
• Arthur Miller
• Annie Proulx
• Thomas Pynchon
• Philip Roth
• J.D. Salinger
• Anne Tyler
• John Updike
• John Irving
• Ken Kesey

And these ones I've at least heard of:

• James Lee Burke
• Annie Dillard
• E.L. Doctorow
• Ursula Le Guin
• Ed McBain
• Toni Morrison
• Cynthia Ozick
• Grace Paley
• Susan Sontag
• William Styron
• Eudora Welty

All the rest are a mystery to me.

The only ones I've read are:

• Don DeLillo (The Body Artist)
• Cormac McCarthy (The Road)
• Arthur Miller (Plain Girl)
• Philip Roth (Everyman)
• John Irving (A Prayer For Owen Meany)

I've also had half-hearted stabs at:

• Thomas Pynchon (The Crying Of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow)
• John Updike (Rabbit, Run)
• Saul Bellow (The Actual)

So, based on what I've read I'd have to say McCarthy, although I really liked Updike's prose when reading Rabbit, Run. I honestly can't think why I never finished it.

I'll be hoping to snatch up all the McCarthy novels shortly as they've been reissued over here. I have four (The Road, Child Of God, Blood Meridian, No Country For Old Men) in that format already. I have a single volume of the Border Trilogy but would rather buy them separately to be consistent with the others.

 

[silverseason]

Any writer who doesn't die before 50 eventually becomes a writer over 50. Is this list limited to those who continue to write after 50? As a forum member over 50, I am sensitive to the concept that the brain shuts down at that time. In some ways the brain improves - all that experience may even lead to wisdom - it's the energy that goes.

 

[saliotthomas]

The one i read a least one book from are
Cormac McCarthy
Arthur Miller
Philip Roth
John J.D. Salinger
john Irving
John Updike
E.L. Doctorow
Ursula Le Guin
Ed McBain
Thomas Pynchon
Jim Harrison
Thomas McGuane
Best American writer ? serious writer too-
Salinger to my knowledge just wrote one book,(and few essais)-good indeed! but still thats not much really
Ed mcbain is ok,but in the same style Donald Westlake is far better.
With Cormac McCarthy (which i truly appreciate)we have the same Press sudden love as Jim Harrison few years back(whom i love too).
It just come out of the blue .the poor f***ker is struggling for years and then suddenly erybody love him,world-wide.He as been doing it all his life,with the same exigence in his work,and a 70 or more,they all scream to genius?good for him,I'm just sorry it happen so late!
Irving is a other matter all together,i read nearly all his book,(been one of the only interresting writer one could find in aerport and train station )
I loved his work,then ,with Widow for a Year, i start suspecting him of been a Maker.A good techniciannwith a bag of tricks who know how to drive the reader along by the tip of the nose;spoiler(Owen practicing the slam duck to amaze us on the last page of the book;destiny-hossieni is a specialiste to;destiny!)
I went back to him with Childreen of the circus and decided it didn't matter.He is good and the pleasure i got from his books was enought for me.
Paul Auster is 50 too!the new york trilogie was somewhat mystical,but Mr Vertigo and tumbuktu are exellents books

 

[Stewart]

With Cormac McCarthy (which i truly appreciate)we have the same Press sudden love as Jim Harrison few years back(whom i love too).
It just come out of the blue .the poor f***ker is struggling for years and then suddenly erybody love him,world-wide.He as been doing it all his life,with the same exigence in his work,and a 70 or more,they all scream to genius?good for him,I'm just sorry it happen so late!

Yes, it's a sad thing, yet a good thing. I think part of his obscurity was down to his unprodigious output: ten novels in about forty years. By the time the next one came out you'd forgotten his last one. And having so few readers over that period he had come to be known as man's man writer (whatever that is) and therefore didn't have much of an audience. I doubt his Pulitzer win would have thrust him forward as far as Oprah has done by selecting The Road for her book club. And, from an audience of man's men, his readership consists of hundreds of thousands of women who are willing to take steps into his man's man world. For this "new" American writer, his back catalogue has to interest people and as many flock to his work and assess it then the louder the chorus that recognises him for what he is. I've only read The Road, but I didn't think it was genius. Artful, maybe, but with a contrived ending.

 

[Oklahoma]

John Updike, I would say of that list, though I certainly enjoyed Kesey as well.

 

[GERBAM]

Best Lists

Oh sometimes I get so tired of these 'BEST' lists when it's impossible to choose just 1 writer/person to award that honor to. Such a diversity of subjects, narrative, characters, settings, prose style, universality and a whole host of other attributes a BEST must have.

As for the original list ... I've read 23 of the authors and I can tell you each one is a BEST at her/his work. I also own at least 12 books by some of these writers I have not gotten to yet.

I find myself looking writers up on Wikipedia because in their definitions they offer a list from the writer of who her/his favorites are and who influenced them the most. That is more important to me than making up an arbitrary list and trying to find a best in it.

What do you all think?
GERBAM