h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

For an entry I'm working on, I need to know how many of htese people are actually famous. If you recognize any names at all, even a drop, can you let me know?



* Joan Acocella - cultural critic
* Charles Addams - cartoonist
* Woody Allen - humorist
* Roger Angell - fiction editor and baseball writer
* Hannah Arendt - political scientist, philosopher, journalist
* Peter Arno - cartoonist
* Whitney Balliett - jazz critic
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Robert Benchley - humorist and theatre critic
* Elizabeth Bishop - poet, essayist
* Sidney Blumenthal - editorialist
* George Booth - cartoonist
* Andy Borowitz - humorist
* Marianne Boruch - poet
* Maeve Brennan - essayist/short story writer
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Robert Caro - biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
* Rachel Carson - writer and environmentalist
* Raymond Carver - short story writer
* Roz Chast - cartoonist
* John Cheever - short story writer
* Tom Cheney - cartoonist
* Sam Cobean - cartoonist
* John Henry Collier - short story writer
* Robert Crumb - cartoonist
* Will Cuppy - humorist
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* Mark Danner - foreign affairs correspondent
* Paul Degen - illustrator
* David Denby - film critic
* Joan Didion - essayist
* E. L. Doctorow - fiction writer
* Elizabeth Drew - journalist
* Irwin Edman - philosopher, poet
* Dave Eggers - writer
* Clifton Fadiman - book reviewer
* James Fallows - journalist
* Jules Feiffer - cartoonist
* Jonathan Franzen - author
* Ian Frazier - nonfiction writer and humorist
* Leo Garel - Artist
* Atul Gawande - Surgeon, Essayist
* Veronica Geng - humorist
* Wolcott Gibbs - parodist, humorist, reviewer, and short story writer
* Brendan Gill - writer
* Malcolm Gladwell - essayist
* Jonah Goldberg - political and social commentator
* Paul Goldberger - architecture critic
* Adam Gopnik - journalist
* Philip Gourevitch - journalist
* Alma Guillermoprieto - journalist
* Emily Hahn - journalist
* Lis Harris - journalist
* Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter
* Hendrik Hertzberg - editorialist
* Sue Hubbell - writer
* Stanley Edgar Hyman - literary critic
* Shirley Jackson - short story writer
* Pauline Kael - film critic
* Garrison Keillor - radio comedian
* Jamaica Kincaid - author
* Alex Kozinski - essayist
* Nicole Krauss - novelist
* Jhumpa Lahiri - fiction writer
* Anthony Lane - film critic
* A.J. Liebling - journalism critic and boxing writer
* Janet Malcolm - essayist
* Robert Mankoff - cartoonist and editor
* Joseph Moncure March - editor
* Don Marquis - cartoonist
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Jane Mayer - journalist
* David Mazzuchelli- illustrator
* Bruce McCall - humorist, illustrator
* John McPhee - nonfiction writer
* Louis Menand - literary critic
* James Merrill - poet
* Joseph Mitchell - nonfiction writer
* Alice Munro - fiction writer
* Haruki Murakami - novelist
* Vladimir Nabokov - fiction writer
* Ogden Nash - poet
* John O'Hara - short story writer
* Susan Orlean - journalist
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* S. J. Perelman - humorist
* Andrew Porter - music critic
* George Price - cartoonist
* Donald Reilly - cartoonist
* David Remnick - editor and writer
* Alex Ross - music critic
* Philip Roth - fiction writer
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Gerald Scarfe - illustrator
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* John Seabrook - journalist
* David Sedaris - humorist
* Anne Sexton - poet
* Robert Sikoryak - cartoonist
* Gretchen Dow Simpson - cover artist
* Otto Soglow - cartoonist: The Little King cartoons & others
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist
* Art Spiegelman - illustrator
* William Steig - cartoonist
* Saul Steinberg - illustrator
* James Surowiecki - essayist and economic/financial columnist
* James Thurber - cartoonist, short story writer, and essayist
* Toure - cultural critic
* Calvin Trillin - nonfiction
* Kenneth Tynan - Theatre Critic
* John Updike - fiction, essayist
* Chris Ware - cartoonist
* Rogers E. M. Whitaker - essayist, railroad writer, a.k.a. E.M. Frimbo
* E. B. White - essayist and editor
* Edmund Wilson - literary critic
* James Wolcott - television critic
* James Wood - literary critic
* Alexander Woollcott - theatre critic
* Richard Yates - fiction writer

Interesting stuff. I'll play. So, strictly off the top of my head, then:

* Charles Addams - Invented the Addams family
* Woody Allen - Surely everyone has heard of Woody Allen
* Peter Arno - heard of him, but couldn't pin down why
* Julian Barnes - Yes
* Robert Benchley - Chap (or father of the chap) who wrote Jaws.
* Sidney Blumenthal - name rings a bell
* Truman Capote - wrote Breakfast At Tiffany's, no?
* Rachel Carson - Rings a faint bell
* Roald Dahl - Oompa Loompa, doopity doo.
* Elizabeth Drew - Political analyst, isn't she?
* Wolcott Gibbs - Of the James Thurber ilk, I think
* Seymour Hersh -Big player in the Gulf war media reports
* Pauline Kael - famous for loathing everything. Died recently, I think.
* Robert Mankoff - Cartoonist for the New Yorker, so I believe
* Steve Martin - star of many, many films as does a stand-up routine about his singing testicles. Born in Waco, TX.
* Vladimir Nabokov - Dirty old man
* Ogden Nash - Candy is Dandy, but Liquor is Quicker. That's him, no?
* Dorothy Parker - I have a sort of femme fatale mental image, but I can't pin down much else about here.
* Philip Roth - Writes 'intellectual' novels. Utterly incomprehensible to the average person
* J. D. Salinger - The Catcher In the Rye. Ask any GCSE pupil
* Gerald Scarfe - Responsible for lots of people with big noses and the opening credits to Yes, Minister.
* Simon Schama - Posh voice, get's the mickey taken on Dead Ringers a lot.
* Susan Sontag - Writes erotic fiction for the masses
* James Thurber - Wrote about Walter Mitty: the intellectuals' Paddington Bear
* Toure - Now plays full-back for Arsenal.
* Kenneth Tynan - Famous for saying the f-word on TV
* John Updike - Definitely heard of him; can't for the life of me think what he wrote.

You can take it as read that I haven't heard of the rest of them

B

You don't know if these are famous?

Woody Allen,Robert Benchley,Truman Capote,Roald Dahl,Steve Martin,Ogden Nash,Dorothy Parker,Philip Roth,J. D. Salinger ,Gerald Scarfe,James Thurber,Kenneth Tynan,John Updike are famous or not.

How can you not know Roald Dahl... Not know of the pleasure of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or Matilda or The Big Friendly Giant?

Not Know of the great Woody Allen?Someone whose private life is soooo controversial but whose take on life is sooo hysterically observed.

Trumen Capote whose life has been immortalised this past year as a film.

Not know Dorothy Parker, one of one of the wittiest women of her generation with many a famous one liner(admitted she was of the 30's/40's generation.

Not know Steve Martin..

Agreed I may not know all that list and some names seem familiar to me but I'm not going to definitely say I know them all...but still not to know of any of the above..Where have you been for the last 30 years at least.

Yes Wioody Allen, James Thurber, John Updike are famous in their own way but the name that stands out for me is
Rachael Carson- her book "Silent Spring" changed the way a whole nation handled pesticides back in the sixties.

Well, for a large part of the past 30 years - around one-third of it, actually - I haven't been alive. I recognize a lot of the names, but there's many more I *don't* recognize, and before I ignore those people, I want to make sure I'm not just - well, missing the last 30 years.

Was John Hersey on the list? Add him. I'll add a few more tommorow, too. There's a lot of name dropping involved in this topic, and I don't know which names are still significant.

I recognize a good percentage of the names, but here are a couple that some may not be familiar with:

* Robert Crumb - cartoonist

Very eccentric stuff, maybe the best known example is the cover art for Janis Joplin's album "Cheap Thrills" ("Piece of My Heart", "Summertime", ...). More recently, he has a series of books titled "Waiting for Food: Restaurant Placemat Drawings by R. Crumb". Great stuff, lots of character sketches. There is also a '94 documentary movie "Crumb" with the tagline "Weird sex · Obsession · Comic books"


* John McPhee - nonfiction writer

A favorite of mine, with books like "Coming Into the Country" about what an interesting culture Alaska has, and "Looking For a Ship" about the state of the American merchant marine fleet (don't give up that other job ...).

To try and be helpful, here's some of the more famous things some of them did

Robert Benchley - a wit and reporter. On being assigned to Venice he telagraphed his editor with the immortal words 'Streets full of water stop please advise stop'

Julian Barnes - Beter known as a writer I would have thought. Isn't he the author of 'The History of the World in 101/2 Chapters' and 'Flaubert's Parrot'?

*Truman Capote - wrote one of the worlds more famous novels about what a grand life prostitution is, and amazingly got women to like it. Wrote 'In Cold Blood', which despite being turgid nonsense was the first of the 'true crime reconstruction' books which we now take for granted.
.
Roald Dahl - Wrote Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Joan Didion - Left wing feminist. Very popular in the early/mis 70's. Very influential.

E. L. Doctorow - Wrote Ragtime, a history of jazz and the mob. Made into a fairly bad film which was James Cagneys last appearance. May have won Nobel Prize for literature (but I could be wrong on that). Not very prolific, and I'd guess somewhat out of fashion by now.

Jonathan Franzen - author and Broadcaster. The thinking man's Michael Moore, author of 'Lies and the lying liars that tell them' and 'Why Not Me' in which he attempts to mount a presidential campaign.

Pauline Kael - the only film critic worth taking seriously. Had very high standards and wasn't afraid to point out that the emperor had no clothes.

Garrison Keillor - radio comedian/broadcaster/writer. Most of his material is set round the fictional setting of Lake Woebegohjne, a soret of metaphor for mid west America and a life that never was.

Steve Martin - the man who once famously remarked that talkjing about comedy was like dancing about architecture.

David Mazzuchelli - got his big breaks doing Daredevil and batman comics with Frank 'Sin City'
iller. I assumje in the intervening 15 years he's been busy in other fields.

Haruki Murakami - Japanese novelist who specialises in angst and romantic entanglement. Wrote a brilliant non-fiction account of the Tokyo Tube nerve gassings called 'Underground'.

Vladimir Nabokov - Wrote Lolita and thus gave an entirely new phrase to the English language, despite being of Russian birth.

Dorothy Parker - One of the founders and leaders of the legendary Algonquin Set, so named because of the hotel in New York where they met. Famously remarked upon hearing the news that US President Coolidge was dead 'However can they tell?'

J. D. Salinger - Author of Catcher in the Rye. His one collection of short stories 'Fanny oand Zooie' is crap. Famously reclusive and notoriously likely to sue if you try and write anything about him other than that he wrote Catcher in the Rye.

Gerald Scarfe - Did the opening captions for Yes Minister, ans well as designing the animation sequences for the movie Pink Floyd: The Wall. Last thing I was aware of him doing was the design work for Disney's Hercules.

Simon Schama - The man who put the Story back into history. Produced groundbreaking series about England for the BBC

Art Spiegelman - His most famous work is Maus, a story abbout the holocaust in a worldf inhabited by...Mice. Based largely on his parents experiences of the event, it remains a high-point of graphic storytelling in most critics eyes.

John Updike - Wrote Ciderhouse Rules. Made into a weird film with Robin Williams and Michael Caine.

Alexander Woollcott - Reknowned for his ascerbic wit and bad temper. Was the featured character (thinly disguised) of the movie 'The Man Who Came to Dinner'.

I'm sure there's more, but other people have covered them - difficult to sum up James Thurber in one sentence in any event, although thinking about it I seem to recall it was Thurber who made the comment that being blind meant he was no longer distarcted by the site of a pretty girl walking past his window. Though of course he could still hear them, which was more distracting.

(Who keeps thinking it's Tuesday)<- an in-joke for Thurber fans.

Oh hang on, didn't Philip Roth write Portnoy's Complaint, an entire novel about one mans struggle with an SDI? Or was that Updike as well?

And doing a little researcjh throws up this interesting picture of the Algonquin Round Table, which appears to have included at least half a dozen people on that list, as well as Groucho Marx.

You live and learn.

http://www.nea.gov/about/40th/algon.html

Harpo Marx. I believe Groucho refused to join any club that would admit him as a member.

B

True. Must learn to connect information going in eyeballs to crap coming out of fingers.

Bit late to the game but I'll play a means I've heard of them and know a fair bit about them, so can be asked more, if there's nothing then I ain't heard of 'em -

* Joan Acocella - cultural critic
* Charles Addams - cartoonist
* Woody Allen - humorist
* Roger Angell - fiction editor and baseball writer
* Hannah Arendt - political scientist, philosopher, journalist
* Peter Arno - cartoonist
* Whitney Balliett - jazz critic
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Robert Benchley - humorist and theatre critic
* Elizabeth Bishop - poet, essayist
* Sidney Blumenthal - editorialist
* George Booth - cartoonist
* Andy Borowitz - humorist
* Marianne Boruch - poet
* Maeve Brennan - essayist/short story writer
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Robert Caro - biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
* Rachel Carson - writer and environmentalist
* Raymond Carver - short story writer
* Roz Chast - cartoonist
* John Cheever - short story writer
* Tom Cheney - cartoonist
* Sam Cobean - cartoonist
* John Henry Collier - short story writer
* Robert Crumb - cartoonist
* Will Cuppy - humorist
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* Mark Danner - foreign affairs correspondent
* Paul Degen - illustrator
* David Denby - film critic
* Joan Didion - essayist
* E. L. Doctorow - fiction writer
* Elizabeth Drew - journalist
* Irwin Edman - philosopher, poet
* Dave Eggers - writer
* Clifton Fadiman - book reviewer
* James Fallows - journalist
* Jules Feiffer - cartoonist
* Jonathan Franzen - author
* Ian Frazier - nonfiction writer and humorist
* Leo Garel - Artist
* Atul Gawande - Surgeon, Essayist
* Veronica Geng - humorist
* Wolcott Gibbs - parodist, humorist, reviewer, and short story writer
* Brendan Gill - writer
* Malcolm Gladwell - essayist
* Jonah Goldberg - political and social commentator
* Paul Goldberger - architecture critic
* Adam Gopnik - journalist
* Philip Gourevitch - journalist
* Alma Guillermoprieto - journalist
* Emily Hahn - journalist
* Lis Harris - journalist
* Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter
* Hendrik Hertzberg - editorialist
* Sue Hubbell - writer
* Stanley Edgar Hyman - literary critic
* Shirley Jackson - short story writer
* Pauline Kael - film critic
* Garrison Keillor - radio comedian
* Jamaica Kincaid - author
* Alex Kozinski - essayist
* Nicole Krauss - novelist
* Jhumpa Lahiri - fiction writer
* Anthony Lane - film critic
* A.J. Liebling - journalism critic and boxing writer
* Janet Malcolm - essayist
* Robert Mankoff - cartoonist and editor
* Joseph Moncure March - editor
* Don Marquis - cartoonist
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Jane Mayer - journalist
* David Mazzuchelli- illustrator
* Bruce McCall - humorist, illustrator
* John McPhee - nonfiction writer
* Louis Menand - literary critic
* James Merrill - poet
* Joseph Mitchell - nonfiction writer
* Alice Munro - fiction writer
* Haruki Murakami - novelist
* Vladimir Nabokov - fiction writer
* Ogden Nash - poet
* John O'Hara - short story writer
* Susan Orlean - journalist
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* S. J. Perelman - humorist
* Andrew Porter - music critic
* George Price - cartoonist
* Donald Reilly - cartoonist
* David Remnick - editor and writer
* Alex Ross - music critic
* Philip Roth - fiction writer
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Gerald Scarfe - illustrator
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* John Seabrook - journalist
* David Sedaris - humorist
* Anne Sexton - poet
* Robert Sikoryak - cartoonist
* Gretchen Dow Simpson - cover artist
* Otto Soglow - cartoonist: The Little King cartoons & others
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist
* Art Spiegelman - illustrator
* William Steig - cartoonist
* Saul Steinberg - illustrator
* James Surowiecki - essayist and economic/financial columnist
* James Thurber - cartoonist, short story writer, and essayist
* Toure - cultural critic
* Calvin Trillin - nonfiction
* Kenneth Tynan - Theatre Critic
* John Updike - fiction, essayist
* Chris Ware - cartoonist
* Rogers E. M. Whitaker - essayist, railroad writer, a.k.a. E.M. Frimbo
* E. B. White - essayist and editor
* Edmund Wilson - literary critic
* James Wolcott - television critic
* James Wood - literary critic
* Alexander Woollcott - theatre critic
* Richard Yates - fiction writer

Crikey, I really should go to t alibrary and read some more

Leo - depending on who you asked, I think you'd get a big yes for any name on that list. I'm just going to 'yes' a few that haven't been mentioned yet:

* Hannah Arendt - Philosopher first and foremost but best-remembered now for 'Eichmann in Jerusalem' (a very big deal at the time and probably still should be) and the concept of "the banality of evil." Big name.

* Robert Benchley - the guy who sent the telegram back from Venice saying "Streets flooded, please advise"? Wife asked him to bring back a bidet from Europe as highly chic - "suggest handstand in shower." And those are just the telegrams!

* Elizabeth Bishop - Yep, pretty famous.

* Raymond Carver - short story writer. *The* American short story writer as far as the late 20th Cetury goes (I knew a guy who taught creative writing courses in the US in the early 1990s who used to say that out of every 50 students who arrived each year, 49 would be making a doomed attempt to write like Carver).

* E. L. Doctorow - fiction writer, 'Ragtime' most famously.

* Dave Eggers - writer, v. fashionable (haven't read any, but a name I know).

* Philip Gourevitch - journalist

* Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter

* Pauline Kael - film critic

* Jhumpa Lahiri - fiction writer, a very good one too.

* Don Marquis - cartoonist

Ah now, poet also - Archy and Mehitabel, something of a cult at the time, poems and drawings concerning a cockroach called Archy (who operates the typewriter by headbutting the keys) and a cat called Mehitabel (who used to be Cleopatra in a former life).

* S. J. Perelman - humorist, right up there with Benchley, Parker et al.

* Philip Roth - fiction writer

Did indeed write Portnoy's Complaint, the funniest novel ever written (seriously). Also gazillions of others (almost certainly will get Nobel Prize in near future).

* Anne Sexton - another biggish name

* James Wood - literary critic. Arguably the best book reviewer alive: a heavyweight name (and one of the few Brits on your list).

Most of the names ring bells - then again, I do read the 'New Yorker' when I can get my hands on it

Here's my list. A means I've heard of them, can probably say at least one thing about them, but for the most part have not had contact with their work directly. This is what makes them famous I think - where someone is known beyond the people who have actually read them.

There are other names that seem familiar but I can't remember anything about them so I've left them off.



* Joan Acocella - cultural critic
* Charles Addams - cartoonist
* Woody Allen - humorist
* Roger Angell - fiction editor and baseball writer
* Hannah Arendt - political scientist, philosopher, journalist
* Peter Arno - cartoonist
* Whitney Balliett - jazz critic
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Robert Benchley - humorist and theatre critic
* Elizabeth Bishop - poet, essayist
* Sidney Blumenthal - editorialist
* George Booth - cartoonist
* Andy Borowitz - humorist
* Marianne Boruch - poet
* Maeve Brennan - essayist/short story writer
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Robert Caro - biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
* Rachel Carson - writer and environmentalist
* Raymond Carver - short story writer
* Roz Chast - cartoonist
* John Cheever - short story writer
* Tom Cheney - cartoonist
* Sam Cobean - cartoonist
* John Henry Collier - short story writer
* Robert Crumb - cartoonist
* Will Cuppy - humorist
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* Mark Danner - foreign affairs correspondent
* Paul Degen - illustrator
* David Denby - film critic
* Joan Didion - essayist
* E. L. Doctorow - fiction writer
* Elizabeth Drew - journalist
* Irwin Edman - philosopher, poet
* Dave Eggers - writer
* Clifton Fadiman - book reviewer
* James Fallows - journalist
* Jules Feiffer - cartoonist
* Jonathan Franzen - author
* Ian Frazier - nonfiction writer and humorist
* Leo Garel - Artist
* Atul Gawande - Surgeon, Essayist
* Veronica Geng - humorist
* Wolcott Gibbs - parodist, humorist, reviewer, and short story writer
* Brendan Gill - writer
* Malcolm Gladwell - essayist
* Jonah Goldberg - political and social commentator
* Paul Goldberger - architecture critic
* Adam Gopnik - journalist
* Philip Gourevitch - journalist
* Alma Guillermoprieto - journalist
* Emily Hahn - journalist
* Lis Harris - journalist
* Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter
* Hendrik Hertzberg - editorialist
* Sue Hubbell - writer
* Stanley Edgar Hyman - literary critic
* Shirley Jackson - short story writer
* Pauline Kael - film critic
* Garrison Keillor - radio comedian
* Jamaica Kincaid - author
* Alex Kozinski - essayist
* Nicole Krauss - novelist
* Jhumpa Lahiri - fiction writer
* Anthony Lane - film critic
* A.J. Liebling - journalism critic and boxing writer
* Janet Malcolm - essayist
* Robert Mankoff - cartoonist and editor
* Joseph Moncure March - editor
* Don Marquis - cartoonist
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Jane Mayer - journalist
* David Mazzuchelli- illustrator
* Bruce McCall - humorist, illustrator
* John McPhee - nonfiction writer
* Louis Menand - literary critic
* James Merrill - poet
* Joseph Mitchell - nonfiction writer
* Alice Munro - fiction writer
* Haruki Murakami - novelist
* Vladimir Nabokov - fiction writer
* Ogden Nash - poet
* John O'Hara - short story writer
* Susan Orlean - journalist
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* S. J. Perelman - humorist
* Andrew Porter - music critic
* George Price - cartoonist
* Donald Reilly - cartoonist
* David Remnick - editor and writer
* Alex Ross - music critic
* Philip Roth - fiction writer
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Gerald Scarfe - illustrator
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* John Seabrook - journalist
* David Sedaris - humorist
* Anne Sexton - poet
* Robert Sikoryak - cartoonist
* Gretchen Dow Simpson - cover artist
* Otto Soglow - cartoonist: The Little King cartoons & others
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist
* Art Spiegelman - illustrator
* William Steig - cartoonist
* Saul Steinberg - illustrator
* James Surowiecki - essayist and economic/financial columnist
* James Thurber - cartoonist, short story writer, and essayist
* Toure - cultural critic
* Calvin Trillin - nonfiction
* Kenneth Tynan - Theatre Critic
* John Updike - fiction, essayist
* Chris Ware - cartoonist
* Rogers E. M. Whitaker - essayist, railroad writer, a.k.a. E.M. Frimbo
* E. B. White - essayist and editor
* Edmund Wilson - literary critic
* James Wolcott - television critic
* James Wood - literary critic
* Alexander Woollcott - theatre critic
* Richard Yates - fiction writer

There are the ones I know about:


* Woody Allen - humorist
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Robert Benchley - humorist and theatre critic
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Vladimir Nabokov - fiction writer
* Ogden Nash - poet
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* Philip Roth - fiction writer
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist
* John Updike - fiction, essayist

Woody Allen
Sidney Blumenthal
Roald Dahl
Malcolm Gladwell
Seymour Hersch
Vladimir Nabokov
Ogden Nash
Dorothy Parker
Gerald Scarfe
James Thurber

Here are the ones I recognise

* Charles Addams - cartoonist
* Woody Allen - humorist
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Ogden Nash - poet
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Gerald Scarfe - illustrator
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* James Thurber - cartoonist, short story writer, and essayist
* Kenneth Tynan - Theatre Critic
* John Updike - fiction, essayist

Hope that helps

Lx

Ok , my shot then..

* Charles Addams - cartoonist
* Woody Allen - humorist
* Julian Barnes - correspondent/commentator, Britain/Europe
* Sidney Blumenthal - editorialist
* Truman Capote - novelist
* Robert Caro - biographer of Robert Moses and Lyndon B. Johnson.
* Rachel Carson - writer and environmentalist
* Raymond Carver - short story writer
* Roald Dahl - short story writer
* David Denby - film critic
* E. L. Doctorow - fiction writer
* Dave Eggers - writer
* Jonathan Franzen - author
* Seymour Hersh - Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter
* Garrison Keillor - radio comedian
* Steve Martin - humorist
* Vladimir Nabokov - fiction writer
* Ogden Nash - poet
* Dorothy Parker - short story writer, drama critic, poet, humorist
* Philip Roth - fiction writer
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer
* Gerald Scarfe - illustrator
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist
* Art Spiegelman - illustrator
* William Steig - cartoonist
* James Thurber - cartoonist, short story writer, and essayist
* Kenneth Tynan - Theatre Critic
* John Updike - fiction, essayist
* Edmund Wilson - literary critic

Of them, I've actually read/seen something by

* Woody Allen - humorist
* Sidney Blumenthal - editorialist - writes in the Guardian
* Raymond Carver - short story writer - some (excellent) short stories
* Roald Dahl - short story writer - some children's books
* Garrison Keillor - radio comedian - read about 6 pages, which was enough
* Steve Martin - humorist - various films
* Philip Roth - fiction writer - Portnoy's Complaint, was *very* funny
* J. D. Salinger - short story writer - Catcher in the Rye
* Simon Schama - historian, art history, professor - History of Britain (not England, thanks)
* Susan Sontag - short story writer and essayist - Another Guardianista
* John Updike - fiction, essayist - The World According to Garp, and some other book I couldn't be bothered finishing.

John Updike didn't write "... Garp"; that was John Irving.