Prosopogostichs or Notables Not Unpleasant to Know: Letter A

In his nonsense verse “How pleasant to know Mr. Lear” the popularizer of the limerick makes amusing observations about himself. In the octaves below readers are urged to discover equally intriguing characters who, it’s hoped, will prove just as amusing and, in the end, just as “not unpleasant to know.”

Lives dead Edward* alone in the class
of read letter'd heads pleasant to know...?
Exist eggheads who muster just pass...?
Occur others who "for the gold" go...?
Let's find out! Grab my doggerel glass!
Through it, quirks are eyed amp'd up -- although
it is not my intent to harass:
just to folks' pleasantosity show.

     * Edward Lear (1812-1888) composed
the poem "How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear."

Not unpleasant to know...? Mr. Abbott.*

Abbott dabbles in** habitats flat.
Beg, steal, borrow Ed's book -- i.e., grab it!
It enjoys elephantine eclat.***
Two dimensions...? Too hard to inhabit:
often, Flatland proves not "where it's at."
(Even pleasant-to-know Abbott Abbott
wonders how Flat’s inhabitants shat.)

     * Edwin Abbott Abbott (1838-1926)

authored the novella Flatland 

     ** Mss showing "babbles of" here elect
to ignore Abbott's quite clear explications
of difficult mathematical concepts.
     *** An eye rhyme.

Also pleasant to know: Mr. Ammons,*

read by Kansans and arch Alabamans.
Ammons’ stanzas, like mantras from shamans,
rescue readers from cultural famines.
Long cold shouldered by lit'rature's Brahmins,
Ammons free-styles upstream. Like spawn'd salmons
is the pleasant-to-know A. R. Ammons.
Lays he wrote play up both: gods and mammons.   

     * A. R. Ammons (1926-2001)

Not unpleasant to know...? Mr. Adams.*

Which is his niche?** 'Tis hitchhiker's guides.
(Though compiled by personums non gratums,
galaxeers,*** when good reads, give good rides.)
Messrs. peripatetic (and madams)
in one five-volume "thrillogy" meet
a most pleasant-to-know Douglas Adams,
coy doyen of the drolly offbeat.

      * Douglas Adams (1952-2001)

      ** By many pronounced 'nitch,'

      ***This portmanteau word refers to

gazetteers of galaxies

Also pleasant to know: Attic Aesop.

Like our Bard, to his fellow Greeks he's scop.
Ev'ry anthropomorph’d beast he sees hop
rates a tale. (Of the fable tree, he's top.)
Still, enough's enough: we to our knees drop
and, with all due respect, these, our pleas, cop
to the pleasant-to-know Poppa Aesop:
"If it’s all same to you, Poppa...ple-e-e-ease stop!"

Not unpleasant to know? Messrs. Amis.*

Junior jots of what's "new," what's "unpleasant,"**
while his dad, christened Kingsley, was famous,
(though in Golders Green Crema** at present).
If we get 'em confus'd, who can blame us?
D’you suppose rhyming’s simple? Well...'tisn't!
Just ask pleasant-to-know Junior Amis
whether 'prescient's a slant rhyme for 'pissant.'

     * Kinglsey Amis (1922-1995) Martin Amis (1949-  )    

     **Martin's subject matter has been characterized

as being of "the new unpleasantness." 

     *** The Golders Green Crematorium, where

elder Amis's ashes currently reside.

Also pleasant to know: Mr. Auster.*

Sits Paul's name atop lots of lit rosters?
Yep, pronounced less like 'Gloucester' than 'Forster,'**
and it’s 'Forster' Paul favors and fosters. 
As to style, he'll, like I'll (but of course), stir
up the pots.*** (He who jots "He's like Frost!" errs,
as does pleasant-to-know Mr. Auster,
when he frowns, "My lit counterfeits Foster's."****)

     * Paul Auster (1947-    ), pronounced by Paul

to rhyme with 'Forster.' (Source: Book Browse /
How to pronounce Paul Auster / "Or ster") 

     ** Among possibilities left unmentioned are

'toaster' and 'oyster.' 

     *** Referenced are various pervasive

postmodern pots (and/or plots).
       **** That's Stephen Foster. Of course, Auster
resembles neither Frost nor Foster, nor is there
a record of Mr. Auster making any such claim. 

Not unpleasant to know? Mr. Allen,*

who shoots one film per year and's called Woody.
Woody must every film cast a pal in,
nor is Hollywood pondering, "Should he?"
when his flicks earn more grinning per gallon
than do E. and J. Coen's**: why would he –
i.e., pleasant-to-know Woody Allen –
cast some hoodlum disguised in a hoodie?

     * Woody Allen (1935-  )  

     ** Fellow filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen.
Some mss show "even Frank Oz's" here. Others
show "Martin Scorcese's" but they're clearly 
nonsense.

Also pleasant to know: A. Artaud.*

Although some suggest Tony was cruel,**
to that charge I retaliate: "No!
Just a Dadaist's Lord of Misrule."
To his Vitres de son should you go,
you'll discover a lyrical jewel --
and the pleasant to know A. Artaud.
(Then you'll know: Tony's nobody's fool.) 

      * Antonin Artaud (1896-1948)

      ** Artaud famously advocated for

a so-called 'Theatre of Cruelty.'

Not unpleasant...? Louisa May Alcott.

Lou (like Anne, Charl and Emily Bronte)
penn'd no tomes treating Jersey Joe Walcott,
Joe's obsessions (Joe loved three-card Monte)
or Joe's sleep habits -- Joe used a small cot,
not a Hollywood King as did Ponti, 
who's been heard to cry, "Let's to bed, Alcott!
Abudanza, Louisa! Avanti!"

     * Italian film producer Carlo Ponti