Authors Rockin' Bowties

Hans Christian Andersen

This Danish author wrote the version of a lot of short stories that we still read today. Anderson popularized classic stories like “The Princess and the Pea,” “The Little Mermaid” “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Ugly Duckling”. In fact you might recognize his short story “The Snow Queen” as the story that inspired Disney’s movie Frozen. During his lifetime, Andersen’s fairy tales were often published in the United States before his native Denmark (1). Thankfully, if you want to read his stories all of them are in the public domain and can be found for free online. So you can see how well this gentleman wrote as well as how dapper he looks in a bowtie.

Isaac Asimov

My first introduction to Isaac Asimov was through his Foundation trilogy, which appeared on a previous classic list that I was working through at the time. To this date, it is some of my favorite science fiction and I highly recommend it. Born in Russia and died in New York, Asimov was a biochemist as well as an author (2). Over the years he sold short stories to magazines, wrote novels, and won 5 Hugo Awards during his writing career, all while simultaneously working at Boston University as a Chemistry Professor. It’s no wonder then, that this man of many talents also has a knack for wearing bowties.

Edgar Allan Poe

Poe’s life as many know was often as grim as his stories. His parents died when he was three, he was so poor in University that he had to burn his furniture to keep warm, and his would have been wife married another man all before he was seventeen (3). Times continued to be dark for Poe, with brief breaks of light when he got married and sold some short stories gaining a bit of notoriety. But his breakthrough short story was “The Raven,” which is still read in high schools all over the country to this day. His classic suit with a collared shirt and a black bowtie is also something you could probably find at fancy galas till today.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

A Harvard graduate, Emerson was always a dramatic person. In his hometown of Concord, Massachusetts, he was known as “The Sage of Concord” (4). While writing, Emerson became the most prominent spokesperson for the philosophical teachings of Transcendentalism. As a pastor and transcendentalism spokesperson, Emerson had to dress smartly. It is no wonder then he wore a black bowtie with a high collared shirt and a black and white suit.*

Lewis Carroll

Charles Dogson, penname Lewis Carroll, always felt more comfortable around children. His stammer all but disappeared, when talking to them. So it is no surprise that most of his books were written for children. Even today children love Disney’s adaptation of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. His nonsensical, but endearing style emanates not only from his writing, but also from his fashion choices as he wears a classic velvet-looking bowtie in this picture.

Jules Verne

In addition to rocking a bowtie, Verne has a thick beard and sideburns. Despite his rugged appearance, Verne was a romantic as evidenced by the fact that he fell in love in Paris, France. But his love wasn’t a woman or a man for that matter; it was literature. Eventually he did fall in love with a woman, but he always remained true to his first love writing plays, short stories, and several science fiction novels. Some of his novels were even adapted to the theatre stage during his lifetime.

Oscar Wilde

Last but not least, Oscar Wilde. In addition to being a prodigious and well-respected author, Oscar Wilde was a bit of a fashionista. While winning scholarships to attend Oxford, Wilde took part in the aesthetic and decadent movements, wearing his hair gloriously long and fabulous. In both his books and life, Wilde had a flair for the dramatic. Every picture of him has him posing moodily dressed in extravagant clothes at the perfect peak of the current fashion. He often decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, and sunflowers. In this picture, sporting his fashionably long hair and a brimmed hat, Oscar Wilde’s exuberant personality is on full display. His bowtie is flowing like his locks and his coat is dramatically draped across his body. If any author would rock a bowtie with flair, it would be Oscar Wilde.

Notes:

*The problem with black and white photos is that technically everyone could be wearing purple velvet bowties and I wouldn’t know.

Sources:

Image Credit: "#15" by Clara Jordan

Hans Christian Andersen: "Hans Christian Anderson" Photograph taken by Thora Hallager 1869.

Isaac Asimov: “Isaac Asimov, 1965” NYWTS/ Library of Congress Washington DC

Edgar Allan Poe: 1849 "Annie" daguerreotype of Poe

Ralph Waldo Emerson: George Eastman House Collection 1857 Albumen print, coated.