Manly!

Sarah tipped me off to this list of the Top Ten Most Manly Writers Ever. Even though it does include one queer writer and one bi typist (who slept with Gore Vidal!), these ten would prove to an unwary reader that there's an inverse correlation between manliness and talent. The only writer here that I consider a genius is Richard Wright (largely because he was soul-shaking Communist) (and I dig Jack London in theory: probably should catch up on him).

There are lots of egregious omissions, of course. Bukowski and Iceberg Slim were the first that came to mind here (surely they're manlier than Jules Verne!), and one commenter points out the absence of the manliest queer writer of all time: Christopher Marlowe. Not to mention the obvious hardboiled crowd (Cain, Spillane, Ellroy, Hammett), and one entertaining sci-fi kook, that commie-baiting polyamory pioneer Robert A. Heinlein.

Finally, why restrict the list to men? Edna St. Vincent Millay and Shirley Jackson were each manlier (and better writers) than that suicidal wuss Hemingway, am I wrong?