From famous literary legends to child comforters, spicy romance writers who feed your guilty pleasures, or poets whose words linger in your memory long after your high school English lessons, authors have had a lasting impact on you in one way or another.
Since the time of the first author – supposedly Enheduanna, a princess, priestess and poetess from Mesopotamia of the year 2300 BC. – an unimaginable number of authors have shaped the course of literature and history. Many novels have persuaded entire populations to demand change in the world, from criticizing capitalist evils in Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle to exposing the dangers of totalitarianism in George Orwell’s 1984. Writers often have the unenviable task of exposing societal ills that are too disturbing and complex for most people to put into words.
A novel doesn’t have to change the world to have a lasting impact on people. There is nothing quite like reading a novel that speaks to you personally. There is something exciting about feeling seen by an author, or having a feeling explained in a way you could never articulate, and something infinitely powerful when your entire world is shifted by a simple sequence of words on a page. “Whatever our souls are made, his and mine are the same” from Emily Brontë’s “Wuthering Heights” and “If I held you less I could be in may be able to talk about it more” from Jane Austen’s “Emma”. Spirit.
For myself, I can attest to the fact that several novels have not only changed the way I read and write, but also how I see myself and the world. These include Thomas Hardy’s Return of the Native, Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. I’d also like to throw in Franz Kafka’s novella The Metamorphosis, in which I felt closer to a giant beetle than I ever thought possible. Going way back, I can cite childhood favorites like Rick Riordon’s entire Percy Jackson & the Olympians series, Stephen Chbosky’s Perks of Being a Wallflower, and Stephenie Meyers’ first Twilight book (I have the rest never finished reading ) to color my formative years.
In this sense, November is also National Novel Writing Month. This is a challenge in which writers strive to complete a novel in just 30 days. The goal is to get the authors to stop putting off writing this novel and just get started, not knowing what beautiful things could emerge under a certain deadline. I believe that every person has a story to tell. Writing is truly an intimate and lonely process that forces us to confront the deepest truths within ourselves and there is nothing more liberating than being able to tell your own story the way you want to and letting others reciprocate that vulnerability.
To celebrate the authors who have given us so much with their words, we have compiled a list of famous author tattoos to add to our sleeves to carry their wisdom and legacy with us wherever we go.
ERNEST HEMINGWAY
“Even the Sun Rises” (1926)
“The Old Man and the Sea” (1952)
GEORGE ORWELL
“Animal Farm” (1945)
“Nineteen Eighty-Four” (1949)
CHARLES DICKENS
Oliver Twist (1838)
“A Christmas Carol” (1843)
JANE AUSTEN
“Pride and Prejudice” (1813)
“Persuasion” (1817)
F.SCOTT FITZGERALD
“The Great Gatsby” (2013)
JRR TOLKIEN
“The Hobbit” (1937)
“The Lord of the Rings” (1954)
RICK RIORDAN
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series (2005)
STEPHEN CHBOSKY
“The Perks of Being a Wallflower” (1999)
VIRGINIA WOOLF
FRANZ KAFKA
“The Metamorphosis” (1915)
MARK TWAIN
“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876)
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1884)
“The Mysterious Stranger” (1916)
EDGAR ALLENPOE
“The Treacherous Heart” (1843)
“The Raven” (1845)
JAMES BALDWIN
JOAN DIDION
MARY SHELLEY
“Frankenstein” (1818)
GEORGE RR MARTIN
A Game of Thrones Series (1996)
STEPHANIE MEYERS
“Twilight” (2005)
ROALD DAHL
“James and the Giant Peach” (1961)
Matilda (1988)
“Fantastic Mr Fox” (1989)
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
“Romeo and Juliet” (1597)
“Hamlet” (1599-1601)
TONI MORRISON
DR SEUSS
“The Cat in the Hat” (1957)
“The Lorax” (1971)
“Oh the places you’ll go!” (1990)
“One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish” (1960)
“Green Eggs and Ham” (1960)