A Few Writers Who Changed My World

The specific names on this list touched my life in very meaningful ways. They may appear so different from each other, that it might be difficult to see what they have in common.

Here’s why they truly mattered to me:

These authors and their stories inspired me. They encouraged me with their bravery, their sense of right and wrong, their sense of duty and responsibility, and their sense of freedom and equality.

Many of these stories encompassed deep, deep anguish, yet the characters refused to bow down to pain, or to repay it with wrongdoing. They Rose Up over injustice and brutality. Within themselves, they held high standards of power no evil could touch.

These are the authors who led me to believe that honor and good character are far more important than money and fame. Hard work and truth are necessary to live a life of peace.

They led me to believe in goodness, creativity, inventiveness, and that superheroes come in every gender, color, nationality, and religion.

My favorite writers infused me with hope. Hope is what makes us survivors and victors, instead of victims. Studies in the military, studies in universities, studies in newspapers, studies in hospitals, all say it helps to have hope. Hope means there’s a goal and a plan and a belief. It is a skill we can learn. It is a foundation that supports our move onward and upward. Hope is a force multiplier for me.

With these authors, I’ve looked at my own life, my own heart, and my own character. I’ve looked at my neighborhood, my country, and my planet. I’ve wondered what can I do to make things better?

Through these authors I have looked at the sky and pondered, what other goodness is possible?

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Of course, this is not a complete list, I’ll probably come back later – and debate with myself, should I update this list or start a brand new one? But for simplicity’s sake, here’s a few names I pulled, some from memory, and some from the nearest book piles.

1. Sequoyah – Legendary Creator of the Cherokee Syllabary – may be the only person in history to invent a written language without being literate in any language.
2. Tecumseh – The Teaching of Tecumseh
3. Corrie ten Boom
4. Anne Frank
5. Marcus Aurelius
6. Anna Sewell
7. Laura Ingalls
8. Mildred Augustine Wirt Benson/Carolyn Keene
9. Harper Lee
10. John Steinbeck
11. Toni Morrison
12. Maya Angelou
13. Jane Austen
14. Ernest Hemingway
15. Dave Pelzer
16. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
17. Virginia Woolf
18. C. S. Lewis
19. Henry David Thoreau
20. Ayn Rand
21. Ralph Waldo Emerson
22. Rachel Carson
23. Jules Verne
24. Shel Silverstein
25. J. D. Salinger
26. Voltaire
27. Anna Quindlen
28. Neil deGrasse Tyson
29. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
30. Stan Lee