# Which 3 published people influenced you most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 29, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595 "2004-09-29T01:52:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/1 "2004-09-29T01:52:23Z")
By ‘published’, I mean someone who has put their thoughts down in writing, or who have had their thoughts put down in writing by someone else (eg Socrates (as recorded by Plato), or Dr Johnson, if you’re familiar with his ideas only through Boswell’s _Life_). No figures from the Bible, no gods or Gods, no Buddha or Mohammed. But people who have interpreted religions or religous figures are fine. No family members or friends, unless they’ve been published, ie you can find their ideas in libraries. Only attested (in a generally accepted sense) historical figures. No cartoon characters. Living or dead, I’m looking for people whose thinking has changed your life, or at least greatly influenced you. I’ll kick off: CS Lewis (Academic, religious broadcaster and author of devotional and children’s books) Karl Popper (philosopher and author of _The Open Society and Its Enemies_) George Orwell (author of \*\*Homage to Catalonia \*\* and **Animal Farm** , and essayist) ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/2 "2004-09-29T02:08:51Z")
Most likely the authors who affected me did so indirectly. The authors of engineering or medical textbooks would probably be the main ones but I don’t know them. If you are referring to affecting me directly I can’t think of many. Martin Seligman because he and Ed Diener started the idea that good moods are tangible, meaningful things that have a reason behind them, but that is it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/3 "2004-09-29T03:12:12Z")
[Douglas Hofstadter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter), [Umberto Eco](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umberto_Eco), and [Robert Anton Wilson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Anton_Wilson). All three of these men have to some degree coloured my perception of practically _everything_. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/4 "2004-09-29T03:16:38Z")
**Robert A. Heinlein** - His juveniles taught me so much. **Ayn Rand** - Opened my eyes to a new way of thinking, which then evolved. **Shakespeare** - Taught me The Human Condition, and Poetry, and Drama, and… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/5 "2004-09-29T03:52:12Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > **Shakespeare** - Taught me The Human Condition, and Poetry, and Drama, and… Shakespeare is better in his natural Klingon. And I thought that Dr. Johnson only supplied ‘toys’ to the adult film industry. (I pray that somebody else understands this) In all seriousness, I don’t think that there is anybody that fits the bill. I have become too cynical in my life to think that any one (or three) published writers have had undo influence on the person that I have become. Hell, Indiana Jones probably has had as much influence as Gandhi, in my life. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/6 "2004-09-29T13:44:56Z")
**Dewitt Bodeen** (his writings on old movies inspired me to do the same) **Jan Morris** (the first transgendered person I read who was a _writer_, not a publicity-seeking nutcase) **Dorothy Parker** (bitter wiseass) ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Mapp](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miss_mapp/32/369_2.png) [@Miss\_Mapp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Mapp)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/7 "2004-09-29T13:51:29Z")
H.P Lovecraft and Baruch Spinoza - as far as changing my perceptions of reality. Jane Austen - for giving me guidelines for how one behaves (or at least tries to behave) around other people. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/8 "2004-09-29T14:40:03Z")
Most of the writers who influenced me are fiction writers: L.M. Montgomery who wrote the Anne of Green Gables series - she was the one who made me want to be a writer, ever since I was a little kid (but I write mostly non-fiction now) Latest books by Anne Rice - she basically taught me how _not_ to write, and currently now not to behave when you find out you’ve got people who don’t like your writing Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu - Persian Letters - non-fiction that appears as fiction, sort of a prologue to the Enlightenment, I absolutely loved this book. It talks of personal freedoms regardless of sex or class. This was the first philosophical book I ever read that I really enjoyed. Julio Cortazar - Blow-Up: And Other Stories - especially the story The Night Face Up. This was an all-out cool read. I’m not sure how much it influenced me, but it definitely shows a very different style of writing, and I still read this book again occasionally, especially The Night Face Up. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/9 "2004-09-29T14:40:31Z")
Most of the writers who influenced me are fiction writers: L.M. Montgomery who wrote the Anne of Green Gables series - she was the one who made me want to be a writer, ever since I was a little kid (but I write mostly non-fiction now) Charles Louis de Secondat Montesquieu - Persian Letters - non-fiction that appears as fiction, sort of a prologue to the Enlightenment, I absolutely loved this book. It talks of personal freedoms regardless of sex or class. This was the first philosophical book I ever read that I really enjoyed. Julio Cortazar - Blow-Up: And Other Stories - especially the story The Night Face Up. This was an all-out cool read. I’m not sure how much it influenced me, but it definitely shows a very different style of writing, and I still read this book again occasionally, especially The Night Face Up. (Sorry - forgot it was supposed to be only 3.) :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/10 "2004-09-29T15:04:35Z")
For me, Beverly Cleary and George Orwell. I can’t think of a third person at the moment, so I may come back to this thread later. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![ageless6](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@ageless6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ageless6)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/11 "2004-09-29T15:45:41Z")
1. ARTHUR C. CLARKE took me on many an odyssey with him,showing the perils and beauty of space flight and generously dispensing goose bumps along the way. 2. CORMAC McCARTHY,for the imagery(and savagery) he projects,and being generally wise. 3. CARL SAGAN for debunking gods,devils and demons and for making science as interesting as possible to lay-people. Thanks also,Carl,for CONTACT,which for me had it’s share of goosebumps. I’m now reading(in my bathroom) THE SALMON OF DOUBT by DOUGLAS ADAMS which has: 1. An introduction to the introduction to the New Edition 2. Introduction to the New Edition 3. Editor’s note 4. Prologue 5. Introduction Stuff culled from DA’s computer,much of which I didn’t know about Adams,and is terrifically interesting to me,and I’m not even half way through the book. I may have to add him to my next list of influential writers.Sorry to get off track there, but digression is(or at least should be)my middle name. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/12 "2004-09-29T16:01:09Z")
**Barbara Tuchman** , **Ian Flemming** , and since I can’t say God so I’ll say **John MacArthur** tying with **C. S. Lewis**. ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/13 "2004-09-29T16:55:25Z")
**Theodore Roosevelt** **Robert Heinlein** **Winston Churchill** ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/14 "2004-09-29T17:00:29Z")
Abbie Hoffman M.J. (Marilyn) Agee William Poundstone ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/15 "2004-09-29T17:04:04Z")
Bertrand Russell Ayn Rand John Graves ---
**Author:** ![Ol\_Gaffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Ol\_Gaffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ol_Gaffer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/16 "2004-09-29T17:41:49Z")
Umberto Eco Carl Sagan Franz Boas ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/17 "2004-09-29T18:23:05Z")
[Boston T. Party](http://www.javelinpress.com) [John Ross](http://www.john-ross.net/u_c_faq.htm) [Matthew Bracken](http://www.enemiesforeignanddomestic.com) ---
**Author:** ![Ghanima](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Ghanima](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ghanima)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2004, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-3-published-people-influenced-you-most/266595/18 "2004-09-29T18:24:18Z")
Edward Abbey Frank Herbert um…