Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
I would argue that Mowat is the quintessential Canadian author by those criteria, gmw. Though I suspect that there are those who would argue for pretty much any of those mentioned so far.
For the US, I'd argue for two -- Steinbeck and Twain.
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Thanks for that. He must be good! The very few books Kobo AU have are all > AUD$20. It really could be time for me to go digging through our local second-hand book shop (I strongly suspect it has more books than our local library).
Thinking about Steinbeck and Twain - and of my own thoughts of Australian authors - I guess picking quintessential is partly a matter of timing, specific location, and population. Our countries are all large and diverse enough to have more than one distinctive voice.
My idea of quintessentially Australian is strongly influenced by my father, both in himself and in the books he collected and the poetry he would recite. Although, on that latter criteria we might have to consider the English voice of Felicia Dorothea Hemans and my father's unofficial variations of "The boy stood on the burning deck..."
