F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Hunter S Thompson used to type out The Great Gatsby to experience what it was like to write “possibly the Great American Novel, if you look at it as a technical achievement. It’s about 55,000 words, which was astounding to me,” he said in an interview with Rolling Stone. “Not a wasted word. Shoot, I couldn’t match 55,000 no matter how I chopped. There are few things that I read and say, ‘Boy, I wish I could write that.’ Damn few. The Book of Revelation is one. Gatsby is one” - Grauniad