50 top-rated authors
Authors with at least ten ratings and five raters
(I haven't included the actual ratings numbers, because they're meaningless)
1. Jeannie Fulbright 2. John Schreiber 3. Amy Guth 4. Kyoto Costume Institute 5. Takehiko Inoue 6. Josemaria Escriva 7. Ninya Mikhaila 8. Kyoko Hikawa 9. Arthur G Bennett 10. John Bonnett Wexo 11. Trish New 12. Eberhard Nestle 13. John P Meier 14. Timothy Ferriss 15. Albert Goldbarth 16. Luigi Serafini 17. Cyril Hare 18. Beverly Jenkins 19. Jonathan Larson 20. Sho Fumimura 21. Ernst Haeckel 22. Tim Hegg 23. Yasuko Kosaka Mitamura 24. Lynn 25. Percy Dearmer | 26. William T Cavanaugh 27. Maida Heatter 28. Abingdon Press 29. Ole Risom 30. Ludwig van Beethoven 31. Mazo de la Roche 32. Elizabeth Crowfoot 33. Vardis Fisher 34. Brian Selznick 35. Alex Grey 36. L J Maas 37. Clyde Pharr 38. Marshal G S Hodgson 39. Deric Longden 40. Paul Rusesabagina 41. Caroline Lawrence 42. Francis Lathom 43. Mary B Morrison 44. Julie Phillips 45. Anton Corbijn 46. G B Edwards 47. Howard Tayler 48. Walt Kelly 49. Janet Arnold 50. Toni Weschler |
Maybe it shows my lack of broad reading material, but I didn't even recognize a name until Ludwig van Beethoven (# 30), and he's not even an author! Finally, at #31, I saw a name I knew for sure was an author, but I haven't read anything by him. And then, at #33, another familiar name (whose books I also have not read). Finally I came to #48, Walt Kelly, and the only name listed whose works I have actually read. He wrote the comic strip Pogo. (I have one of his books of collected comics, by the way.)
What does this mean? I'm not sure, so I decided to look up a few of these authors. I skipped number 4 and number 28, because institutes and presses are not authors, no matter how much they think they are.
At random, I chose #6, Josemaría Escrivá. He wrote The Way and other books. He was the founder of Opus Dei (and we all know all about them because of another classic work of literature, The Da Vinci Code). He practiced corporal mortification. He helped the poor, a lot. He was made a saint by Pope John Paul II in 2002. Well, saints have been writers, and I don't mean Vardis Fisher.
Next, #8, Kyoko Hikawa. She writes manga. Just out of curiosity, I looked up all the Japanese names on the list: three of the four write manga, and the fourth writes books on how to learn to write and speak Japanese. No one on librarything.com has heard of Haruki Murakami? Or Yukio Mishima?
Next, #38, Marshall G S Hodgson. He was a historian who wrote The Venture of Islam.
Next, #10, John Bonnett Wexo. He has written a number of non-fiction books for children, including Sharks, and Elephants, and Giraffes.
Next, #29, Ole Risom. Another children's author. He wrote I Am a Kitten.
It's not that I think people who write children's books aren't legitimate authors, because they are. Some of my favorite authors ever wrote children's books. But Ole Risom, author of I Am a Kitten . . . one of the fifty top-rated authors ever?
So I looked up a handful or two of other names from the list, just to see what I would find. Writers of cookbooks, art books, how-to books, homeschooling books, photography books, fashion and clothing books, technology books, and Broadway musicals. Not that those things aren't useful, especially the Broadway musical. But where are the authors who really belong on this list, authors like Jane Austen, and E B White, and Federico García Lorca, and like that?
And who the heck is Lynn (#24)?
I looked her up, too. She writes Harlequin romances.
Okay. Enough of that.
They also had a category called "50 lowest-rated authors". Guess who was number 20? Bruce R McConkie. Go figure. Well, I guess it's something to get your name on a list. If you're a
medium-rated author, you don't even get noticed.
So, I ask again, what does this mean?
I think it means that lists like these demonstrate the weakness of gauging the popularity or value of anything where humans and computers rely on each other to make choices. As in, "garbage in, garbage out". On the other hand, popular book lists concocted by humans alone are only as reliable as the mental health of the listmakers and the frequency with which they vote on the titles listed. As Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "People do not deserve to have good writing, they are so pleased with bad."
8 comments:
What a curious list! I'd no idea.
huh. this just sort of confirms what I was thinking of the world this morning. Although I did laugh heartily at I am a Kitten. Perhaps there are many who find wholesome advice and thought-provoking philosophies in that book.
also... who is Amy Guth? Do you know her, or did she just google "author + foul + outrage"?
I never heard of her before I found this list. She's an author and a performance artist (I think), and number 3 on the list of "50 top-rated authors".
lol. i read this to justina and she thinks perhaps it is the top 50 authors below the real top 50.
but yes, humanity has very poor taste.
i am a kitten.
I think justina is right. except it's the 50 top authors below the 50 top authors on the alternateTop Authors list.
i bet amy guth was googling herself and saw someone wrote about her...
Adrien - I think you're right, but it would've been really funny if she had googled "author + foul + outrage".
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