OMG, there’s a treasure trove of photos of writers (or other literary figures) and their cats at the “Writers and Kitties: Archive” tumblr site. Two of my favorite subjects!
I’ll post ten pictures here, but you’ll find elebenty gazillion others at the site. The first person to guess all ten writers gets my warm congratulations and a notice on this post. If you know your onions, you’ll be able to get at least eight of the ten. (UPDATE: that didn’t take long: reader “bonetired” guessed all ten in comment #2. But try to guess for yourself.)
I posted this one a while back:
A photobomb kitteh:
BONUSES: You should be able to get the next two easily. The first author once said, in a moment of depression, “The only thing that reconciles me to life now is my kitty.”
A famous cat-loving atheist; here are two things he wrote about felids:
Of all God’s creatures there is only one that cannot be made the slave of the lash. That one is the cat. If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.
By what right has the dog come to be regarded as a “noble” animal? The more brutal and cruel and unjust you are to him the more your fawning and adoring slave he becomes; whereas, if you shamefully misuse a cat once she will always maintain a dignified reserve toward you afterward–you will never get her full confidence again.
And to make it a baker’s dozen, here’s a photo reader “Miss May” sent me from Facebook. There’s no writer here, but it’s amusing:
Love the Orwell photo.
Jack Kerouac
Sartre
Cortazar
Fitzgerald
Cocteau
Blair
Matthiessen
Plimpton
Williams
Oates
Hemingway
Twain
Well, that didn’t take long. Congrats! I figured that people would miss Cortazar, at least, and perhaps not many people would recognize Zelda Fitzgerland these days (she did write a book, Save me the Waltz, which isn’t very good, but she certainly qualifies as a literary figure, and is the model for Nicole Diver in Tender is the Night.
The two obvious are indeed obvious, Hemingway and Twain.
I can see Sartre, Jean Cocteau, George Orwell, and Joyce Carol Oates. I have no idea who any of the others are.
Are you SURE that photobomb kitty IS a kitty behind Orwell? Not another dog?
I recognized only Hemingway and Twain, but here is a t-shirt for all cat lovers:
http://shirt.woot.com/offers/world-domination-for-cats
My cats have never figured out how to pass through the Meow Mix portal, though Ceiling Cat knows they’ve tried. Still, I am confident they will be unimpressed as nothing impresses them.
Here’s one I’m surprised I didn’t see in the list Dr. Coyne:
http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l49dfjL2eh1qaxihzo1_500.jpg
I’m not a fan of sci fi (or whatever it’s called these days)!
If that’s H.P. Lovecraft, I guess the genre is “Weird Fiction,” after the magazine that published much of his work.
I’ve seen this thing before. There are also photos of Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison, unusually shown with a head of hair. …Don’t know if Alan Moore is a cat person.
I don’t even recognise most of the names …
Pity about the lack of Knorozov, but I guess he doesn’t count as a writer.
I recognize E. Blair, E. Hemmingway, and S.L. Clemens – 2 or 3 others look familiar but I’m not sure if I’ve got their names right.
Considering the date, its a pity we couldn’t find a “Turing with cat” .
Here’s one more: Jorge Luis Borges and his cat Beppo (he dedicated a poem to it). http://www.revistaenie.clarin.com/literatura/Borges_y_Beppo_CLAIMA20110614_0210_22.jpg
Love that photo. “Rub my tummy, dammit!”
This is merely a test comment. Do not be alarmed.
Strange, but when I include links in my comment, it doesn’t go through. I’m not a frequent commenter, and have never tried one with html before. Is there some sort of procedure here that I’m not familiar with?
I find it fascinating how “writers” are all white and almost exclusively male….
Yes, it certainly is fascinating, and it has been remarked on previously.
But what are you gonna do? Write a book about it?