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.
