Authors

I found this list on a blog called 500 Miles to Nowhere. It's evidently someone's list of essential authors, although the creator of the blog I found it on had taken it from another blog. I traced it back a few blogs, then lost interest in the search. However, being a list fan, I thought I'd reprint it, then suggest some substitutions. Please feel free to comment back with your own substitutions, should you stumble across my posting here.
First, the list I found:

1. Jane Austen
2. Isaac Asimov
3. Arthur C. Clarke
4. John Steinbeck
5. Ian Flemming
6. Annie Proulx
7. Charles Dickens
8. Albert Camus
9. George Eliot
10. William Shakespeare

Now, my recommendations, expanded to a baker's dozen:

1. Jane Austen
2. Jorge Luis Borges
3. Isaac Bashevis Singer
4. Thomas Hardy
5. Alice Hoffmann
6. Annie Proulx
7. Charles Dickens
8. Victor Hugo
9. George Eliot
10. William Shakespeare
11. Ruth Rendell (aka Barbara Vine)
12. Michel Foucault
13. James Joyce

By the way, here's a web site that I have followed for years and heartily recommend to anyone interested in literature:

http://www.themodernword.com/authors.html

It's called The Modern Word or The Libyrinth. it has some of the most interesting stuff I've seen on serious 20th century authors: Joyce, Borges, Pynchon, Marques, etc. Take a look.