I hit upon the idea, derived from a phrase of James Merrill’s, that I should pay attention to those writers that had the greatest deposits in their word banks. Those writers with the greatest range and depth to their vocabularies.
In English, I’d pick Shakespeare as paramount, and perhaps Milton and Dickens. Chaucer? In ancient Greek, Homer, Plato and Aristotle. In German, Goethe. Italian, Dante. Ancient Rome, Virgil, or my friend, Cicero.
I’ll leave you to go on with suggestions. But how can I neglect to mention Cervantes for Spain. I’m puzzling over the best choice for Portugal. Subtle Murasaki would be a good choice for Japan.
The point is not that those are master writers of their countries, but that they possess the most diverse and deep vocabularies. Emerson, Whitman, Hawthorne, Dickenson. I also favor adding Ginsberg. Stop Now. China…Stop.
Are the master writers of each country those with the largest vocabularies? Or the deepest? Or perhaps one and not the other? How can you parse that? Just asking.
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