“John Steinbeck” by Sonya Noskowiak is licensed under CC BY 2.5

One of the realities of books is that (at least for the present), they must be written by a living person. Yesterday, as I wrote about the authors whose next books I would buy, I kept thinking of favorite authors who will never write another book. Here are some who came to mind:

Wallace Stegner. Whether writing about the American West, or about the passages of life, Stegner helps us to love what he loved, to think with him about life, with an economy of prose.

John Steinbeck. From Cannery Row to East of Eden, he left us with memorable characters capturing the struggle for existence, the joys of life, and the bonds and discords within families.

Elizabeth Peters. My wife and I delighted for years in her Amelia Peabody series, equal part Egyptology and rollicking adventure with Emerson, Ramses, Nefret, Sennia, and their friends.

Dorothy L. Sayers. How I wish there were more Lord Peter Wimsey stories, especially with Harriet Vane! My favorite? Probably The Nine Tailors with Gaudy Night as a runner up.

Barbara Tuchman. Whether writing about 14th century France, or the onset of World War 1, or Joseph Stilwell, she brought history alive for the layperson with elegant prose and flowing narrative. Underneath it all, she portrayed the follies of war, brought together in her book The March of Folly.

William Manchester. He seemed uniquely able to write grandly about grand figures, whether John F. Kennedy or Winston Churchill. I personally wish he, rather than Paul Reid, had finished the final volume on Churchill. He captured the vainglory of Douglas MacArthur, and rise and fall of the Krupp dynasty.

Rachel Carson. She is most known for Silent Spring, her warning of the dangers of pesticides. Less known is her beautiful The Sea Around Us, on the wonders of the oceans. How I wish we had more science writing like this!

Ray Bradbury. He wrote great short stories, science fiction, the coming of age novel Dandelion Wine, and a dystopian classic, Fahrenheit 451. Haven’t seen any modern science fiction writer quite like him.

Henri Nouwen. Whether it was his early The Wounded Healer, his book on leadership, In the Name of Jesus, or his reflections on Rembrandt’s painting in The Return of the Prodigal, Nouwen both opened your eyes to the pitfalls that lurk in our hearts and the healing intimacy of relationship with God.

John R. W. Stott. From his early Basic Christianity, which I gave to many friends who were exploring Christianity to classic The Cross of Christ, to his valedictory The Radical Disciple, Stott’s writing and preaching combined clarity of writing, theological orthodoxy, and a commitment to connecting Christian truth to the issues and concerns of any thoughtful person.

There are many others I could add but at the expense of brevity. Though I cannot read any new booksby these authors (unless they are previously unpublished works), they each are so good that their books are worth reading again. In the case of some on this list, I haven’t read all they’ve written, and so there are books by these people that will be new to me. Some I even have in one of my “to read” piles. There are others worth revisiting. How about you?