| A few of my favorite authors: |
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| Jane Austen (1775-1817), English author. Her writing is a model of clarity and wit. If you've never read her work, start out with ``Pride and Prejudice''. |
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| Robertson
Davies (1913-1995), Canadian author. He is best known as the author
of the Salterton, Deptford and Cornish trilogies. His latest novels were
the two "Toronto'' novels, which would have been part of a trilogy, but
this project was cut short by his death. Before his death, he wrote the
libretto of the new opera "The
Golden Asse,'' which had its world premiere in April, 1999. This is
a re-telling of the 2,000 year story by Apuleius.
He was short-listed for the Booker Prize a couple of times, as well as the Nobel Prize. |
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| Gabriel García Márquez (1928- ), Colombian author. He is a Nobel Laureate, best-known for his wonderful novel "One Hundred Years of Solitude.'' I also recommend "Love in the Time of Cholera'' and "Erendira'' (I'm not sure what its title is in English; in Spanish it's: "La increíble y triste historia de la cándida Eréndira y su abuela desalmada''). |
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| Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) Argentinian author. One of the great writers of the 20th century. Although he deserved it, he was never awarded the Noble Prize. Read some of his short story collections, such as "El Aleph". |
| A few of my favorite artists: |
| Giovanni Bellini (c.1426-1516) A Venetian painter of the Renaissance. He painted some of the most beautiful madonnas, as well as a moving pieta. |
| Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) A German painter of the Renaissance. I first saw "The Four Apostles'' at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, in the same room as his self-portrait, as Cranach's Crucifiction, and Altdorfer's Battle of Alexander. That one room is worth the trip alone! |
| Jan Van Eyck (c.1390-c.1440) A Flemish painter of the Renaissance. He is best known for the painting called "The Arnolfini Wedding'' and for the Ghent altarpiece. |
| Jan
Vermeer (1632-1675) A Dutch painter of the enlightenment, best known
for the astounding way in which he captures light.
He has some lovely,
intimate
portraits. |
| Lukas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) A German painter of the Renaissance. I am fascinated by his unusual (and, be warned, very bloody) Crucifiction. |
| Albrecht Altdorfer (c.1480-1538) A German painter of the Renaissance. I spent hours gazing at his "Battle of Alexander''. It is both an accomplished landscape and a very dynamic battle scene, which would serve as a great illustration of a vector field. (I am a mathematician, after all!) |
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