We all have heroes. The question is as to whether they shape our personalities or we are attracted to them because they reflect our personalities. I suspect they reinforce what is already there.
My heroes are not the superheroes of comics but real people who lived real lives. They are mainly creative people whose work moved me and touched my spirit. They lit up my mind, caused a surge of wonder or made me stop and think. They opened new windows onto the universe.
My Heroes include:
Writers
Henry Miller, Jack Kerouac, William Burroughs, John Steinbeck, D.H. Lawrence, Ken Kesey, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Kurt Vonnegut, Margaret Atwood, James Baldwin, Anne Frank, Maya Angelou
Artists
Magritte, Dali, Picasso, Bosch, Edward Burra, Van Gogh, Miro, Gaugin, Renoir, Turner, Monet, Klee
Songwriters
Woody Guthrie, Roy Harper, Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, Phil Ochs, Don Van Vliet, Frank Zappa, John Lennon, Jello Biafra, Mark E Smith, Neil Young, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, Buffy St Marie, Chuck Berry,
Poets
Allen Ginsberg, Wilfred Owen, John Keats, Robert Frost, E.E. Cummings, T.S Elliott
Philosophers
Noam Chomsky, Bertrand Russell
Sci-Fi writers
Arthur C Clarke, Robert Sheckley, Iain Banks, Philip K Dick, Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, James Blish, Ursula Le Guinn, Jack Vance
Comedians
The Goons, Spike Milligan, Monty Python, Marty Feldman, George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Harpo Marx
Film makers
Ken Loach, Stanley Kubrick
Native Americans
Black Elk, Crazy Horse, Sitting Bull, Red Cloud
Politicians
Mandela, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Mujica
Musicians
Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, Stones, Pink Floyd, Captain Beefheart, Stiff Little Fingers, Kinks, Love, Doors, Country Joe, Elmore James, Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Son House, Otis Redding, Joni Mitchell, Jefferson Airplane, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, Downliners Sect, Pretty Things, Cream, Free, Patti Smith
Scientists
Charles Darwin, Carl Sagan, Desmond Morris, Richard Dawkins, Galileo, Leonardo De Vinci, Rosalind Franklin
Environmentalists
Rachel Carson, Jane Goodall, Chico Mendes, Richard Attenborough, Gordon Rattray Taylor, Gerald Durrell, Dian Fossey, Robert Hunter, Dick McTaggart
Sportsmen
George Best, Muhammad Ali, Ian Botham
They all explode in my head, enrich my life and surround me with their genius.
These guys are the tip of a very big rainbow iceberg.