Childhood Reading of Authors

William Shakespeare (1564 -1616)

William Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale. In Act II scene i of the play, the child character Mamillius begins to tell his mother Queen Hermione a story of "sprites and goblins". He says, "There was a man dwelt by a churchyard” but is interrupted before he can tell any more of the story. M. R. James believed he was going to tell a variation of The Golden Arm.

In William Shakespeare's play King Lear (c. 1605), in Act III, Scene IV, the character Edgar referring to the legend of Childe Rowland exclaims:

Fie, foh, and fum,
I smell the blood of a British man.

 

Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784)

Henry Fielding, John Newbery, Samuel Johnson, Boswell, and William Cowper were familiar with [Jack the Giant Killer]. Johnson claimed that when talk turned to society at parties and he became bored he would “abstract himself and instead thought of Jack the Giant Killer.”

 

Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870)

Charles Dickens was deeply influenced by The Arabian Nights. His appreciation for the collection is widely recognized, and it's believed that The Arabian Nights significantly shaped his imaginative style and narrative structure. Dickens's own writings, particularly his novels, exhibit a similar complexity and richness of imagination as found in The Arabian Nights. He gives both David Copperfield and Ebenezer Scrooge a love of these stories.

 

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850 – 1894)

Robert Louis Stevenson's early reading experiences included the Bible, Victorian penny-serial novels, and stories read aloud by his mother. He also enjoyed William Shakespeare, Sir Walter Scott, John Bunyan, and The Arabian Nights. 

 

L. Frank Baum (1856 – 1919)

L. Frank Baum, as a child, was a voracious reader. He was influenced by fairy tales from the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, as well as Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". 

 

G. K. Chesterton (1874 – 1936)

Fairy tales do not give the child his first idea of bogey. What fairy tales give the child is his first clear idea of the possible defeat of bogey. The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. ~ G.K. Chesterton, in Tremendous Trifles

 

J. R. R. Tolkien (1892 – 1973)

J.R.R. Tolkien often cited Andrew Lang's work on folklore, especially his collection of fairy tales. Tolkien's view of fairy stories, as outlined in his essay "On Fairy-Stories," is heavily influenced by Lang's work. Supposedly “The Story of Sigurd” in Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book is the first dragon tale that Tolkien ever read as a child.

 

C. S. Lewis (1898 – 1963)

“The second glimpse came through Squirrel Nutkin; through it only, though I loved all the Beatrix Potter books. But the rest of them were merely entertaining; it administered the shock, it was a trouble. It troubled me with what I can only describe as the Idea of Autumn.” – C. S. Lewis

 

Walt Disney (1901 -1966)

As a young boy, Walt Disney's reading list included the works of Mark Twain, and he also enjoyed stories by Sir Walter Scott (such as Ivanhoe), Charles Dickens (A Tale of Two Cities), and Robert Louis Stevenson (Treasure Island). He also liked Shakespeare, particularly the parts with battles and duels.

 

T. H. White (1906 -1964)

T.H. White's writing, particularly his children's book "Mistress Masham's Repose," was influenced by John Masefield's "The Midnight Folk". White's book, in which a young girl discovers Lilliputians, draws inspiration from the fantastical world and characters of Masefield's novel. He even cites Masefield's book as a source of inspiration in his writing.

 

William S. Burroughs (1914 – 1997)

He dreamed of becoming a writer as a young boy. His first literary endeavor was called The Autobiography of a Wolf, which he wrote after reading The Biography of a Grizzly Bear. – about William S. Burroughs

 

Gore Vidal (1925 – 2012)

“Baum (Writer of THE WONDERFUL WIZARD OF OZ) was a true educator, and those who read his Oz books are often made what they were not - imaginative, tolerant, alert to wonders, life.” -Gore Vidal The last book Gore Vidal read was The Wizard of Oz.

 

Susan Cooper (1935)

“[She was] reading The Phoenix and the Carpet to a speechless group of village children. Like everyone else in the room, she looked uncommonly bright and cheerful.” ― Susan Cooper, The Dark Is Rising

 

J. K. Rowling (1965)

J.K. Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, has stated that The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge was one of her favorite childhood books. The Little White Horse is a children's fantasy novel set in 1842 England, following the story of orphan Maria Merryweather who arrives at Moonacre Manor. The book features elements of magic and a mysterious atmosphere, resonating with Rowling's own writing style.

Shakespeare of course would not have read fairy tales, he would have heard them. On the more literary side would be his knowledge of Greek myths, part of his Renaissance education, everything from Aesop to Ovid.  It's interesting to note how many authors are willing to enthusiastically reveal their own favorite childhood reads and expound upon them. And what a strange continuum there is, branching out as new works are added. Not all 'childhood reading' is simple; some kids in earlier times enjoying work that is more often relegated to college courses these days. As the beat goes on, 'kid readers' tend more and more to become writers for kids.