Many others, though, were drawn by interest in Mr. Mitchell, one of the most revered and recondite American writers of the last century.

"It is an antidote to his sacred status" as Latin America's most revered writer.

He is a revered writer in Spain.

Blessed is the man who finds no disillusion when he is brought face to face with a revered writer.

He is the most revered writer in modern Occitan literature.

Jacqueline Rose tells me I am out of step with Israel's "most revered writers".

And then there's her grandfather, the revered Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem.

Roden, at seventy, is one of the most revered writers in what the British call "cookery."

It is crucial that artists break away from tradition, and not let revered writers of the past hinder change, for they are crumbling idols.

The two volumes, covering Lincoln's prairie and Presidential years, add luster to the authoritative Library of America series of works by the most revered American writers.