Someone challenged me to write the first 15 authors who have influenced my thinking. This was hard to do. I could probably list about 100, but these are the ones that feel fresh and foundational at the same time in my mind right now. I cheated and listed 20 – but this list feels pretty good to me.
- Mark Helprin
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- Doris Kearns Goodwin
- Charles Dickens
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Alexander McCall-Smith
- Neal Stephenson
- James Joyce
- Albert Camus
- Michel de Montaigne
- Jacques Ellul
- Marshall McLuhan
- Plato
- Aristotle
- Jean Vanier
- Erich Vogelin
- Beatrix Potter
- Frank Herbert
- Edward Bernays
- Margaret Atwood
That’s a quite excellent list, and perhaps the best part is, as you say, they’re “fresh and foundation at the same time in [your] mind.” I can only keep one or two in mind at a given time myself.