Whom Does Wolfe Read?

James Wynn · 15 Apr 2005, 17:27 · from 2005-April.txt.gz

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From: thewynns at earthlink.net (James Wynn)
Date: Fri Apr 15 17:27:15 2005
Subject: (urth) Whom Does Wolfe Read?
References: <054401c54211$7e1611e0$cfe9b8a1@yourg4lzvxou0c>
Message-ID: <001b01c5421b$0940a970$60a3f63f@wynnhouse>

>What other authors has Wolfe praised or
>indicated that he enjoys?  What other
>books has Wolfe written blurbs for?

I going to presume we're talking fiction here. He wrote a gushing blurb for 
a book of Avram Davidson's short stories. He's referred to Kate Wilhelm in 
several interviews and chats and Number 5 finds one of her books in "The 
Fifth Head", so that's gotta be one. He *seems* to have been great friends 
with Le Guin at one time but his affection for her work *seems* like it may 
have declined with that friendship.

He's certainly not just a SF fan. He is a big fan of the Sherlock Holmes 
mysteries...probably the whole Mystery genre including Poe. He likes Dickens 
and Thackery (but you would know that from "Castle of Days"). He read a 
whole lot of Kipling as a kid. He seems to have read most of C.S. Lewis and 
G.K. Chesterton. I'm told there are a lot Proust references in "The New Sun" 
but I don't know enough about Proust to verify that.

He clearly likes Robert Graves and openly praises "I, Claudius".  His 
references to Greek Mythology are very often tapped directly from Graves' 
"The Greek Myths". And he likes World Mythology (not just the Greek 
stuff) -- look for a lot of Persian and Hittite mythology in his next Latro 
book if it is ever finished.

~ Crush

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