I too have a lot of favourite authors - John Crowley (another somewhat obscure American writer), William Gibson, Mervyn Peake, David Mitchell etc etc.

Cheers, Anne


--Previous Message--
: Anybody else got this? How did you stumble
: upon the Jerusalem Quartet (or how did it
: find you?) For me, it started in 2005, when
: me, the mrs. and the dog went shopping in
: Alkmaar. Because of the dog I wasn't allowed
: in many stores (actually, we weren't allowed
: in any store except the pub) and while the
: mrs. was in a clothing store I found myself
: outside a bookstore. Outside, in a metal
: crate, a ton of books were thrown together
: all priced 1 or 2 Euro's. It was drizzeling,
: books got wet and I saw a lot of copies of
: one book lying there - something called
: 'Sinaï Tapestry'. I picked it up, ran
: through it (I love reading & history)
: and thought well, for one Euro.. My wife got
: the jacket, but what I got was a lot more
: than I bargained for. Lying in bed that
: night, I remembered leaving the book in the
: car. She told me to forget about it, get it
: tomorrow but I got out and took it to bed as
: a night read. Couldn't put it away, as if
: the writer was whispering this unbelievable
: story straight into my ear, unlike anything
: I've ever read before. Nights after that I
: was looking forward of returning to
: Whittemore's Jerusalem, and it wasn't until
: I was finished - that unforgettable scene
: with Stern - that I found out there were
: three more volumes. I went back to the book
: store where I got the first one, everything
: was gone, it didn't fly they told me, try
: the internet & good luck. I completed
: the quartet, holding them as one of my
: fondest reading memories and spreading out
: each copy that I find for birthday's,
: Sinterklaas and Kerstmis, telling the
: receiver to have a taste of this. There are
: more books I hold dear - a lot of them
: actually!- like Moby Dick, Flanagan's Goulds
: Book of Fish and Cees Nooteboom for
: instance, but Edward Whittemore, maybe
: because of his obscurity (a.i. availability
: & fame, to name a few good reasons) to
: me is a torch.
: