Literary Pronounciation

Choy had a student who pronounced "Nietzche" as "Nee-yets-skee." Karla asked me about Goethe and I gave the r-less alternative. She doesn't believe me. The millionsblog gave us the other literary pronounciation:


J.M. Coetzee - kut-'sE, -'si& (audio via M-W)
Paul Theroux - both PD and EoL have it as thuh-ROO
Henry David Thoreau - th&-'rO, tho-; 'thor-(")O, 'th&r-(")O (audio via M-W, via AH). The "Pronouncing Thoreau" sidebar on this NPR story goes into some further detail.
John Le Carre - l&-kä-'rA (audio via M-W, via AH)
Dan Chaon - I'm going to stick with my friend Edan's pronunciation - "Shawn" - since she had him as a teacher.


Pulitzer - 'PULL it sir' (see #19 in the Pulitzer FAQ, audio via M-W and via AH, which also offers the "PEW" pronunciation as an alternative.)
Donald Barthelme - There seems to be some disagreement on this one. AH has it with a "th" sound - see pronunciation and audio - while the EoL has it with a hard "t" sound. Not sure which is right.
Michael Chabon - "Pronounced, as he says, 'Shea as in Stadium, Bon as in Jovi,'" according to this profile, though other news sources pronounce the last syllable ranging from "bun" to "bawn" to "bin"
Thomas Pynchon - 'pin-ch&n (audio via M-W, via AH)
Rainer Maria Rilke - 'rI-n&r Maria 'ril-k&, -kE (audio via M-W, via AH. AH does not offer the "long e" at the end as an alternative pronunciation, nor does EoL.)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Unfortunately not much of a definitive answer here. M-W prefers saying it with more of an "r" sound 'g&(r)-t& (audio), but offers 'g[oe]-t& as an alternative. AH prefers the latter, note the the subtly different audio. EoL has both of those but it calls the "r" sound "Anglicized." It also has a "long a" sound in the first syllable listed as Anglicized.
Ngugi wa Thiong'o - His first name is pronounced "Googy," according to UC Irvine, where he teaches, while his last name is presumably pronounced phonetically.
Eoin Colfer - The Seattle PI and Guardian both say the first name is pronounced "Owen." The last name is phonetic.Seamus Heaney - 'shA-m&s 'hE-nE (audio via M-W, via AH)
Jorge Luis Borges - 'bor-"hAs (audio via M-W, via AH)
Vladimir Nabokov - n&-'bo-k&f (audio via M-W, via AH. Both AH and EoL offer alternative pronunciations with a stress on the first syllable.)
P.G. Wodehouse - 'wud-"haus (audio via M-W, via AH)
Chuck Palahniuk - Lots of sources, including USA Today, say "Paula-nik."
Michel Houellebecq - LA Weekly and many other sources say "Wellbeck."
Jeffrey Eugenides - "yu-GIN-e-dees" according to the Houston Chronicle.
Jack Kerouac - 'ker-&-"wak (audio via M-W, via AH)
Colm Toibin - most sources, like the SF Chron have it as "toe-bean," but the Boston Globe says "Column to-BEAN."