PROSE WRITERS WORTH EMULATING

For Writing Students in Courses Taught by T. E. Roberts at the

University of South Florida, Sarasota-Manatee

Instructor’s note: Like all lists of “favorites,” this one reflects the biases, preferences, and idiosyncrasies of the list maker. I admire writers who usually show the following qualities in their prose, whether fiction, nonfiction, or a hybrid: 

· Witty and sophisticated use of English to convey not only a simple message but also multiple layers of meaning

· Respect for conventions of grammar, usage, idiom, and punctuation

· Lucidity, conciseness (linguistic efficiency), and intellectual agility

· Original ideas, or existing ideas interpreted in original ways

· Honesty, directness, and a consistent effort to avoid cant, sentimentality, or fake piety

· Courage to stand behind what one writes, no matter how unfashionable or reviled by others 

Here’s the list in alphabetical order. These writers represent a wide variety of genres, styles, historical periods, and cultures. A simple Google search will reveal helpful links to biographical information in Wikipedia and other sources and (where possible) links to downloadable work.

Addison, Joseph Agee, James Allen, Woody Arnold, Matthew Barth, John Boswell, James Brooks, Cleanth Carlyle, Thomas Chesterton, C. K. Coleridge, Samuel Conrad, Joseph

Eliot, T. S. Fitzgerald, F. Scott Frye, Northrup Goldsmith, Oliver Hemingway, Ernest Hitchens, Christopher James, Henry Jefferson, Thomas Jerome, Jerome K. Johnson, Samuel Kafka, Franz

Krauthammer, Charles Lewis, C. S. McPhee, John Mencken, H. L. Mill, John Stuart Nabokov, Vladimir O’Rourke, P. J. Orwell, George Paglia, Camille Parker, Dorothy Pater, Walter

Perelman, S. J. Salinger, J. D. Shaw, G. B. Swift, Jonathan Thurber, James Vidal, Gore von Goethe, Johann Wolfgang Waugh, Evelyn Welty, Eudora Wilde, Oscar Will, George

I welcome comments and suggestions from readers of this web page.
Please send them to robertst (at) sar.usf.edu [replace (at) with @, no spaces].

Updated 10 November 2010