I was lucky, as it turns out - we had a Carnegie library in my town, so even though there was no science fiction or fantasy in my parents' extensive library, I was never more than 3 blocks away from everything I could want.

I was late to the Andre Norton though (midschool), because she was on the top shelf and I couldn't reach them for a long time.

Aww, Andre Norton. I think the first one of hers I read was CatsEye.

Got an email a few years ago from Misty Lackey (God knows how I happened to be on her email list?) saying that Norton was really ill & feeling very bleak about her writing & having not achieved anything, and asking if people would email her if they HAD loved her books. I sent a long email about how I'd adored her SF books as a teen, and how they'd shaped my mental landscape and all that jazz - and being a teacher & passing on a love of literature now etc etc. But seeing Norton's name now always makes me feel sad for her.

One of my most treasured possessions is a letter on mint green stationery printed with a statue of Bastet, typed on an old manual that threw a couple of letters above the line. The envelope has a smear of lipstick on the flap. I'd mentioned a couple of experiences with the cat in my life at the time, and asked a question about the ordering of her High Halleck and The Dales novels.

It's a lovely, chatty letter, signed by Norton herself.

I also have a postcard with a photo of Bill Cosby in a bush taken by Dennis Hopper, with a hand printed reference to a comment I'd made--"No, not Crosby, COsby"--and signed by him, but that's neither here nor there.

aw ... I loved Andre Norton's books. And I think some of them set examples of man/woman relationships that were a lot more equal than the real-life ones I saw during the '50s.

Does Gerald Durrell count as historical?

Lawrence Durrell? I think Gerald wrote about animals ....

My first crush on a book character was on Ross Murdoch in Norton's Time Trader books.

I've been thinking I need to get some books out of the library. Time to re-read Andre.

I think Gerald wrote about animals ....

Yes, but almost all of it is autobiographical -- Corfu in the '30s, England in the '40s, west Africa in the '50s -- and is as much about people and places as it is about animals.

I remember hating Lawrence's stuff, but it was long enough ago that I don't remember why.

My first crush on a book character was on Ross Murdoch in Norton's Time Trader books.

Eomer from Lord of the Rings for me.

I never read Lawrence, but I was intrigued and frequently delighted reading about Gerald's far-flung childhood habitats and the creatures he encountered/adopted/studied.

If I have a literary hero, it's probably Robin Hood. I have a collection including children's and YA novels (Wyeth and Hildebrandt illos!), romances, fantasies, and scholarly examinations of the myth and legend including an 1850's book with leather spine and quarterboards entitled Robin Hood: Being a collection of Ballads and tales from the Borderlands...and I forget the rest. It goes on quite a ways. It's a very odd little thing, but I'm pleased to have it. Second (heh. of course) would be F'nor of the Dragonweyrs, second in command to his more flamboyant brother F'lar, figurehead and leader of the weyrs. F'nor was rider of brown Canth, in McCaffrey's first two Pern novels, loyal, perceptive, observant, and reflective, more levelheaded than his brother, and a half-step out of the limelight. My kind of guy.

Girl heroes: Nancy Drew, Podkayne of Mars, Menolly of the Harperhall, Marion in McKinley's Outlaws of Sherwood, Gillan in Norton's Year of the Unicorn, lots of Norton's women and girls, who seemed to function just fine with or without male support, Harriet Vane.

I'm sure there are more of either gender, these are all that come immediately to mind.

Flickr set of Gothic Romance covers from the 60s.