Great Regulars: While authors in the 18th and 19th centuries

are still influenced by previous centuries, authors writing in the late 20th century are instead "strongly influenced" by writers from their own decade. "The so-called 'anxiety of influence', whereby authors are understood in terms of their response to canonical precursors, is becoming an 'anxiety of impotence', in which the past exerts a diminishing stylistic influence on the present," they write.

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Influence of classic literature on writers declining, study claims

~~~~~~~~~~~

[Neil] Gaiman also read [Maurice] Sendak's Outside Over There, in which a baby is kidnapped by goblins, to his daughter every night. "I must have read it to her hundreds of times, perhaps thousands of times, marvelling at Sendak's economy of words, his cruelty, his art," wrote Gaiman on his blog. "What I loved, what I always responded to, was the feeling that Sendak owed nothing to anyone in the books that he made. His only obligation was to the book, to make it true. His lines could be cute, but there was an honesty that transcended the cuteness."

from Alison Flood: The Guardian: Maurice Sendak: roaring tributes pour in for 'grumpy, magical' writer

~~~~~~~~~~~