Monday 15 in 15...

This is a challenge from Erinn's blog, originally taken from another blog that she follows (Kate Hart)
The Rules: Don’t take too long to think about it. Fifteen authors (poets included) who have always influenced you and will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes, and they don’t have to be listed in order of relevance to you.


Here's my 15 in 15, in no particular order.  These are authors to which I regularly return, to read new things or re-read old stories.  Even though it was hard to get the last few, I know there are many I'm forgetting.

1. JRR Tolkein
2. Laura Ingalls Wilder - the first book series that kept me up into all hours of the night
3. Stephen King 
4. John Steinbeck
5. Lucille Clifton 
6. Katherine Paterson - this is the first book I remember reading that made me cry
7. Anne Lamott
8. Edith Wharton - the first author that made me realize that the 'classics' are classics because they still apply years later.
9. Terry Pratchett 
10. Edgar Allan Poe
11. Richard Bach
12. Christopher Moore
13. Mark Twain
14. Shel Silverstein
15. Jack London