Actually, Tolkien said that Morris was a strong inspiration, both from his novels and his translation of Beowolf into English, not to mention the drawing, maps, etc. that were in his style. Even some of the names and people were copied over.

But, that being said, it is hard to beat are more recent and more popular author.

I'll consider it victory if someone here starts reading some of his stuff.

So, Woolf wins in OT 5-4 (hooray, one of my people finally won, lol.)

And so now, the 64 authors...again...

1. Vergil
2. Shakespeare
3. T.S. Eliot
4. James Joyce
5. Woolf
6. D.H. Lawrence
7. Goethe
8. Balzac
9. Ibsen
10. Kafka
11. J.M. Barrie
12. Maugham
13. Cather
14. Dostoyevsky
15. Austen
16. Tolkien
17. Iain Banks
18. Asimov
19. Terry Pratchett
20. Douglas Adams
21. Ken Follett
22. Carl Barks
23. Alastair Reynolds
24. Paolo Bacigalupi
25. China Mieville
26. Edward Rutherford
27. Samuel Beckett
28. Eugène Ionescu
29. Bret Easton Ellis
30. Kurt Vonnegut
31. George RR Martin
32. W.E.B. Griffin
33. Arthur Conan Doyle
34. Jim Butcher
35. Brandon Sanderson
36. L. E. Modessitt Jr.
37. Karen Traviss
38. Victor Hugo
39. Edgar Alan Poe
40. Alexandre Dumas
41. Daniel Defoe
42. Chesterton
43. CS. Lewis
44. Pushkin
45. Homer
46. Neil Gaiman
47. Stephen King
48. Bill Bryson
49. Cormac McCarthy
50. Trudi Canavan
51. Peter F Hamilton
52. Dan Simmons
53. Alexander Solzhenitzyn
54. Henry David Thoreau
55. Emily Dickinson
56. Percy Shelley
57. Laozi
58. Roger Zelazny
59. Tanith Lee
60. William Morris
61. Charles Dickens
62. George Orwell
63. J.K. Rowling
64. Lord Byron

And today's match-up...

In this corner, my last nominee (at least until we get back to Shakespeare eventually), one of the more controversy-happy writers as far as his writing was concerned, Mr. "Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically...we've got to live, no matter how many skies have fallen" and "We fucked a flame into being" (I love those lines, lol)--

David Herbert "D.H." Lawrence.

And in the other corner...

A writer of (apparently) 90 (!) novels for sci-fi, fantasy and horror...Tanith Lee.

Well, "Sons and Lovers" being awesome, "Lady Chatterley's Lover" being, along with "Ulysses," "Lolita" and a handful of others, one of the most important books as far as winning the battle against censorship is concerned (and I'd argue that's a real point in Lawrence's favor, the Lady Chatterley Trial, real proof one of his books REALLY DID matter) and and "Women in Love" would be in my Top 10 favorite novels read of all-time, so...

Lawrence: 1
Lee: 0

Is Ray Bradbury really not on that list of 64?

Lawrence gets my vote.

Lawrence

Nope...and that is a crime...

Lawrence: 3
Lee: 0

bump

I get the impression that no-one really cares about these two authors enough to vote.

Yeah...on the one hand, sad about that, I mean, I love D.H. Lawrence, again, one of my 6 favorite writers...and I have a whole new appreciation for him today.

On the other hand, it does mean he gets to move on with a 3-0 shutout win, I guess.

Leaning towards Lawrence on this one.

lawrence

By the way just checked the list and noticed Cervantes is not in it. Given that he wrote the second most read and translated book in history after the Bible, he should probably be in it. Dante is not in it either. Not really surprised since probably the tournament is a bit English-biased. I see at least ten names on the list I had never heard of before, while there are lots of great writers like Neruda, Borges, Garcia Marquez, Diaz de Vivar, Hesse nowhere to be seen. Yet, I am surprised not to see Hemingway, Faulkner or Nabokov on that list.

guak: please note that this isn't a comprehensive list of the 64 best authors. this is a list of favourite authors.

Well since they bumped stephanie meyer (don't get me wrong, I am all for it), I figured it was attempting to be closer to a list of top authors. Also, I doubt that the 4th favorite author of most people is familiar enough to make for interesting matchups

well, you could do a list of favourite authors, but that's not what we're doing. at least that's how i understand it. i agree that cervantes is missing, and i like to read him as well. he simply doesn't seem to be on anyone's top 4 list.

that should read: you could do a list of best authors.

Huxley should be there instead of Orwell, but as he isn't one of my top 4 favourite authors I didn't vote for him. None-the-less Huxley is vastly superior Orwell.

are we onto the next day of votes or not yet? if so, Goethe.

We are and Goethe for me too, so:

Goethe: 2
Zelzany: 0

Goethe, of course. In addition to writing good poetry, he has the most awesome full name in history.

Oh come on, Zelzany has an ostracod named after him, how can you not give him a boost for that?

A what?

Sclerocypris zelzanyi...

Woops, it's Sclerocypris zelaznyi.

goethe of course, even if i like schiller better.

Goethe

Bump...

Goethe: 5
Zelzany: 0 (unless bo sox's comment was an endorsement?)

Goethe.

I don't know either of them, so no vote from me.

No votes for Zelzany yet?

I guess this is what happens when you pit Goethe, one of the greatest German authors of all time, the quintessential "dichter und denker", and a pioneer of what eventually sort of became Romanticism, against some not particularly well known sci-fi/fantasy writer.