Essential authors.

[Jedoro]

J.R.R. Tolkien

Frank Herbert

Robert Heinlien

Chuck Palahniuk

Ninja'd, but there's my answer

 

[Duskwaith]

George Orwell id say.

 

[SamuelT]

J.R.R Tolkien shaped modern-Day fantasy...

and...

Can't think of anyone else at the moment.

 

[Gebi10000]

terry prachett
Tolkin
douglas adams
lovecraft
and eoin colfer

 

[Spaceman_Spiff]

Oscar Wilde if only for being the wittiest person of all time
Orwell
Somerset Maugham
Chekhov for his short stories

 

[similar.squirrel]

Edit - Am I the ONLY one who fell asleep while reading Slaughterhouse Five out of pure boredom?

'Fraid so.
Ray Bradbury, Kurt Vonnegut [hah!], Lovecraft, George Orwell, Arthur C Clarke..That's all I can think of at the moment. Dante?
I should start reading again.

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Orwell is the only one I'd rate as being utterly essential. I shouldn't really have to explain way. Phenomenal writing, insight and a finely tuned moral compass. I don't really ask for much more from authors.

 

[Ultress]

Thomas Harris, for writing serial killers
Ayn Rand and William Golding for Allegories

 

[Joreal]

William Gibson. Early cyberpunk that defined some of the earliest terms for the modern age.
Henry Cockton. If anyone can name one of his books without going to a search engine, I will be so freaking happy.
Brian Jacques. How has HE not been mentioned yet? Even if it is aimed more towards children, it's very high intelligence children's writing that deserves to be looked at once in awhile.
Uh... Can't think of many more that haven't been mentioned already. Ooh! Beowulf! No cited author, but still. Grendel is still one of my favorite characters. I remember this being the one thing in Eng. Lit. from high school that really stuck with me. The dragon was a bit meh at the end, but the fights with Grendel and his mother were impressive.

 

[saxist01]

I'll echo Tolkien, he needs to be on any list.

I'll also add Michael Crichton (just don't watch MOST of the movies made out of them)

 

[whiskey rock n' roller]

I definetly agree with Milton, how about Alan Moore of Watchmen fame.

 

[BuckminsterF]

Douglas Adams- brilliant wordplay
Tom Robbins- best local color writer EVAR!!!, genius metaphors
Hunter S. Thompson- extremely unique style
Aldous Huxley- clever satire
William Shakespeare- Almost all fiction owes something to the bard
H.G. Wells- The father of science fiction
Jack Kerouac- one of the most influential writers of the 20th century
Ernest Hemmingway- extreme irony
Homer- see Shakespeare

 

[high_castle]

Shakespeare - as others have said, his influences are many and he helped define the English language as we know it
Hemingway - I divide the world into Steinbeck people and Hemingway people. I'm the latter. His sparse style and poetic themes provide a great lesson in "less is more."
Philip K. Dick - proves that SF can be literature, and wrestles with the themes of humanity and reality
Alexandre Dumas - has given us several absolute classic tales that always captivate, proving a gripping adventure can also be literature
Jane Austen - very witty, very cognizant of her time period
Karin Lowachee - character driven SF can be written, just read her books
Dostoevsky - again, universal themes and well-drawn characters make his books must-reads
Elizabeth A. Lynn - want to write something truly lyrical and poetic, study her novels

 

[Queen Michael]

HOW TO NOT do it:
George Orwell (Fair enough, Animal Farm was good and whatnot, but you have to admit that his pacing was best equated to a chronic stroke victim in a marathon.)

Nah, the pacing in Animal Farm is OK. It could have been a bit better in 1984, I guess. But what I don't like about Orwell is how, in 1984, he introduces a character called Julia who is completely unaffected by the propaganda of Big Brother, after he's spent all the practically plotless pages up until that point explaining why the indoctrination of that totalitarian state makes such a thing impossible. If it's perfect, why isn't she affected? And if it is in fact not a perfect indoctrination system, why does it get so perfect results?

1984 isn't a book you read for the story, though. So complaining about it is like complaining that Crime and Punishment isn't a very good bedroom farce; that is, that was never the point. And a clear plot isn't always necessary or even good, books like David Copperfield or Hopscotch are fantastic, and any plot isn't needed nor would it be an improvement.

But I personally believe that the reason Orwell is so heavily represented here isn't because of his (admittedly very high) quality as a writer; it's because he's modern, of our age (or thereabouts) and he writes in English. I've noticed that most of the writers here are fairly modern writers who write in English. So we have at least 51% modern English writers, and less than 49% every writer of every language from every country apart from modern English writers.

 

[Beartrucci]

Stephanie Meyer: Prime example of what not to do.

I read that as, "Prime example of what to do." first. My face was stuck in the "Awww Hell to the naw!" position, as if I had been *****-slapped. I then read it properly and all was well.