for me, it is William Hope Hodgson
>his work is the foundation of a lot of english canon, and a lot of what english canon is based on
>got beat up once when he was a cabin boy (13 years old), autistically trained himself into one of the best boxers in england, somehow became skills in wrestling and jujutsu as well
>was able to convince all the other prentices to follow his autistic training regimen until they could all shit all over the mates on the boat
>owned a gym and a personal training business at the age of 20 (in the year 1900)
>was willing to dive into shark infested water and stay there for half an hour to save somebody who had fallen overboard
I will never be 5% as kino as he was.
I'm not brave enough, autistic enough, smart enough, or downtrodden enough to do it.