That's a toughie....

I'd have to go with, in no particular order:
Mark Twain
Robert Heinlein
Benjamin Franklin
Nikola Tesla
My paternal grandfather (because he died before I was old enough to know him)

Mozart
Mickey Mantle
Marilyn Monroe
Ronald Reagan
Pope John Paul II
Condi Rice

Condoleezza Rice
Richard Dawkins
Bono
PJ O'Rourke
Nicola Benedetti
Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Evelyn Waugh
Winston Churchill
Either Dylan Thomas, Richard Burton, Oliver Reed or Brendan Behan, depending upon which one was sober enough to attend (should think neither would be)
Frank Whittle
Tennessee Williams,
Lord Byron

And a well-stocked wine cellar I should think.

Off the top of my head:

James Clerk Maxwell
Alan Turing
Bob Carolgees (and, of course, Spit the dog)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Spike Milligan
Graham Greene
Richard Feynmann

Yes, I know there are 7, but if you're allowed to cheat by having Stephen Fry as butler, then so am I.

My first thought is:

Winston Churchill
Clementine Churchill, is wife
John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough
Sarah Churchill, his wife
Benjamin Franklin
Dorothy Parker

I certainly would like to be at the dinner party where Winston and John meet.

I've always had an on-going list of people I'd like to have coffee with, so I'll list some of those, dinner would work too, but most of these I would like to meet one-on-one (this is also a great way to break free of the 6 person limit :)

Spritual leaders:
Jesus (not that I'm religious, I'd just like to meet the most (IMO) influential person (real or not) in history)
Buddha
Lao Tzu

Philosophers:
Bertrand Russel
Thomas Jefferson
John Adams

Authors:
Robert M. Pirsig
Robert Heinlein

That should be enough, though there are many more, of course...

My list would be:

Douglas R. Hofstadter
James Watt
Margaret Thatcher
Alan Blumlein
Edward Teller
Oliver Cromwell

Karl Marx
Vladimir Ilic Ulianov (Lenin)
Muhammad
Bono
Noam Chomsky
Antonio Gramsci

Now, any suggestion on which wine to serve with the raw False Morels (Gyromitra Esculenta) risotto I'm going to serve them? :D

Augustus
Otto Von Bismarck
Frederick II Hohenstauffen
Johnny Cash
Michelangelo
George Washington

H.L. Mencken
Mark Twain
Dorothy Parker
William F. Buckley
Oscar Wilde
Tony Blair

There would be a storyteller, a religious leader, a renaissance person, a pioneer of medicine, an entertainer and a lateral (or innovative) thinker.

The favourite in each category would of course change from time to time, depending on how I was feeling when I made out the invitations.

Mark Twain
Benjamin Franklin
Snorri Sturleson
Richard Feynmann
Terry Pratchett
Robert Heinlein
Niccolo Machiavelli

It'd be interesting seeing how the conversations sorted out. I'm assuming, of course, that a universal translator is available alongside the resurrection machine - otherwise poor Snorri would be sitting alone in a corner, and Machiavelli likewise.

There used to be an interesting TV show called "Meeting of the Minds" (I think it was), produced by Steve Allen, of all people, that did this very thing. Actors were given dialogue gleaned from famous people's writings and set in a discussion format of 4 or 6. I have no idea if it is available on DVD.

Anyway. Jesus would be a terrific guest for any dinner party, of course, because you would never have to worry about running out of wine, or bread and fish for that matter, but his presence would probably put a damper on most of the others' inclination to discuss many subjects freely.

I guess I would start with Aristotle, Leonardo, Shakespeare, Jefferson, Edison, and Jeanne Kirkpatrick.

On another night I would invite Alexander, Julius Ceasar, Napoleon, Washington, US Grant, and George Marshall. The theme for discussion would be the relationship between military might and political power.

That's enough for now, although it would be easy to fill up several more evenings with both male and female guests selected to explore specific topics or fit into general areas of achievement.

Good subject for posting. Thanks.

Jessica Alba
Zhang Ziyi
Katherine Heigl
Evelyn Lin
Anna Kournikova

and Barry White to get them all in the mood.

Veryretired's comment about US Grant made me realize that I left Bill Sherman off of my list, damn it. I've always been fascinated by the man.

Well the first thing that occured to me is that Johnathan doesn't know much about organising dinner parties.
First rule is not to invite anyone wittier than you. Or if you do they have to be the only one.
So PJ or Groucho has to go. Keep Niven. He has that other element that dinner parties need. Effortless flirtacious charm.
Your choice of ladies only lacks for Joannah Lumley (a particular fetish of mine).
No I will think on as to my personal ones for now.
The choices being made above are quite revealing though.
Jeanne Kirkpatrick??!!!!

RAB---she's the US counterpart to M. Thatcher. If you had ever heard her speak or debate, you would better understand. Her writings are also very good.

Intellectually tough as nails.

The theme for that first group would be the meaning of being a human being in a society composed of both human and inhuman elements. A theme which could, naturally, be repeated with any number of other combinations, but this was the first group I thought of off the top of my head.

Um wasn't she having drinks in the Argentinian Embassy the night they invaded the Falklands
and a teensy weensie bit partial to the IRA?

Yeah see what you mean
Hard as nails!!

Feynman (who had better have brought his bongos)
Wilde (why no earlier mention?)
Thurman (Uma not Strom)
Eastwood (we would have a piano)
Joan Rivers (we need a bitch)
Dita Von Teese (do I need to explain?)

And Vlad III of Wallachia would provide the extremely rare Swordfish Kebabs. Or at least that's what we'd hope they were...

The list is very long. But based on current whim:

Coffee or Dinner

Themistocles
Marcus Aurelius
Charles Martel
Jefferson Davis
F. A. Hayek

And for Dessert

Kelly Hu

Abu Bakr
The Duke of Edinburgh
Chico Marx
Ayn Rand
Jimmy Stewart
Tiberius

H. Munro
Albert Finney
Leon Battista Alberti
Bach--I just really want to know if its true that he was hopping on maids during the sermons at St. Thomas. And he may play if he wishes.
Boccaccio.

No prudes or teetotalers. Men of experience, wit and taste; and me.

Next Friday it should be: dinner for 5 of the most boring literary or political geniuses of the 19th century?

I had a list that didn't mix real well so I decided to name two separate lists.

Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
Ben Franklin
George Mason IV
Alexis de Tocqueville
John Stossel (with a camera crew)

As an alternative

Isaac Newton
Albert Einstein
Karl Popper
Richard Feynman
Dave, a friend of mine. He's an old guy, he may be retired by now, I haven't seen him for a couple years. I have no idea what he does/did for a living but there was a radiation triangle on the door where he worked which was below ground level at the end of a long ramp. And it had a 'tron' at the end of the name. He has a mind that knows everything from the wiring of antique British motor cycles, to the physical properties of just about anything you can name. And he explains stuff so it makes sense to me.

and finally ... for my sixth choice ... most definitely ...
Danica McKellar (two links) ... sigh ...
What Dave doesn't explain at the table, she can explain ... later.

Oh, and for the butler? Groucho Marx. With help from Harpo.

If you invite Robert Heinlein you should also include his wife Virginia. It would seem from his travel memoir Tramp Royale that she shaped the philosophy of his characters.

I like the suggestion of Chico Marx; from all I've heard Groucho was a very unpleasant dinner guest.

I'd take Robert E. Lee over the above-mentioned Jefferson Davis, partly because the conversation would turn to engineering.

Actually, since I don't host anything but potlucks, I have no business playing this game.

Can I invite Jonathan's wife?

I am thinking of substituting Walter Pater for Saki. Anyone who wants to burn with a hard, gem-like flame (possibly the gayest thing I have ever heard) sounds like a welcome addition around the drinks table. With my luck, he'd spend the evening boring everyone about progressive pedagogy, ephebic agape and rugger...

I blogged my choices:

Rush H. Limbaugh III
Thomas Sowell
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Thomas Jefferson
John Locke
Samuel Rutherford

Actually, I could come up with all sorts of party themes. One idea for fun woudl be to invite Jefferson and five archlefty lawprofs (like Lawrence Tribe) and chat about the Constitution. First thing I'd ask J is if "speech" per the First Amendment means anything besides literal speech. I already know the answer, but the other guests need to hear it...

Ok,

Oscar Wilde,
Sam Clemens,
Sir Richard Francis Burton (The man was sheer effing genius and no one else has mentioned him. Why?)
Robert Heinlein
Thomas Jefferson
Milton Freidman

Military? No one has mentioned Belisarius. He is up there with Lee and Caesar.

You want a cat fight instead?
Empress Theodora,
Henry VIII
Two Caesars, Julius and Octavian
Czar Pyotr Alexeyevich Romanov

That'll do. With those egos there wouldn't be room for a sixth person.

Um, my more juvenile fantasies?
Rita Hayworth
Nell Gwynne
Delilah
Empress Theodora (again)
Anne Boleyn

And ---

Dita von Teese (hat tip Nick M)

Yobbo's list takes some beating, but...

Thomas Aquinas (just so I can watch him eat)
Isambard Kingdom Brunel (who could turn his mind to anything)
Kate Beckinsale (intelligence, wit, perfect arse)
George Washington (curious to listen in to him and Masood chatting)
Richard Francis Burton (the ultimate man's man)
Margaret Thatcher (sheer force of personality)

Apologies for claiming I was first on the thread to mention Oscar. I'd be OK if he dropped out and sent along his friend James Whistler instead. And while we're playing swapsies I'll have to let the divine Uma go and replace her with Debbie Harry. Sorry, Uma, I will make it up to you. To be honest, mind I'd like them both and for us all to bunk-up a bit more and make room for Jorge Luis Borges as well.

From Hell...

Al Gore - An inconvenient guest who looks like he's had a few too many good feeds recently. Who makes the Goreacle's pants and how can they possibly offset that much carbon?

Lenin - Not only a bastard of the first water but a crushing bore. If Vladimir can't make it then we'll sub for Schopenhauer.

Alan Hansen - "That dessert was woeful - where was the chef? As you can see from this replay there was no caramalization at the back).

Robbie Williams - "No Robbie, the invite was just for you and not your 'personal demons' - they'll have to wait in the car". If William's 'personal demons' won't allow it then Patrick "Give it up.." Kielty - Northern Ireland's least welcome export to these shores since semtex.

Abu Hamza - imagine his table manners?

Richard Madeley or Robert Kilroy-Silk or Jeremy Kyle or Piers Morgan - whichever of these unctious gob-shites has a gap in their social diary (i.e. all of them).

Oh, and George Best serving the drinks. "Can we have the port now, Gerorge?" / "What, the whole bottle?"

Jesus. We'd not run out of wine, and besides I've wanted to meet him anyway.
Robert and Virginia Heinlein.
Douglas Adams
Mark Knopfler
P.J. O'Rourke

Nobody's got Jane Austen! She'd be a wonderfully witty conversationalist.
Thomas Jefferson
Bill Clinton
Michelangelo
Hedda Hopper
Mary Chapin Carpenter

Is anybody else getting comments an indeed threads turning up in seemingly randomly sometimes late. Is it just me? Or is time an illusion?

Dammit Nick you beat me to it with the guest list from hell !!!
I'll add
Lou Reed
Captain Beefhart
Van Morrison.
I love their music but they absolute bastards in person.

Is anybody else getting comments and indeed threads turning up in seemingly randomly order, sometimes late. Is it just me? Or is time an illusion?

fixed!

Is anybody else getting comments and indeed threads turning up in seemingly randomly order, sometimes late. Is it just me? Or is time an illusion?

Fixed (again?)

Sunfish,
Mark Knopfler!?

Mid,
List 1: Reckon you've got enough founders of the US there? Well, if you want constitutional shop-talk over the table then... fine. Personally, I prefer risque annecdotes.

List 2: Your four intellectual titans will form a huddle and will have written out a working Unified Field Theory on your napkins by the time the cheese comes round. Your dinner party will go down in the annals of science but it will hardly be sparkling with banter and you'll be torn between catching-up with your old mate and chatting-up Ms McKellar. BTW, I don't think that photo-shoot does her justice. Have you got a better one so I can form a fuller opinion? Preferably showing a bit of ass because you wouldn't want a bird who wasn't callipygian now would you?

Can I add Betty Page to my list?

Please.

Winston Churchill (I wonder what he would make of NuLabour)
Margaret Thatcher
Hitler
Ayn Rand
Teagan Presley (Porn Star)
Admiral Nelson

And for a Butler I would have a ball gagged Polly Toynbee.

Oh Nick, you know me far too well. At least in the second case.

In the first case, I intended a genuine libertarian and very knowledgeable reporter (John Stossel) to thoroughly document for broadcast a Q&A with the founders and a close-later observer (Toqueville) of what was created. It seems it could go a long way towards resolving certain questions about the extent of government intended in the Constitution. It might also serve to remove some opinions that were attached to them postmortem.

In the second case, yes, that is almost what would happen. Just not the huddle. We would be witnessing something amazing. And with D&Ds' help, I would at least have some small clue what transpired. I debated whether Newton was too early to be useful and decided it's the person not the product. Given what the more recent guests knew, he would catch up in a one breath and contribute on the next. As for Dave v. Danica? No contest. Dave can drop by the next day with a case of good beer and we'll relive the adventure. (Assuming the yet living members of the party can do so.) As for pics, I am not aware of any. My impression is that Ms. McKellar is actually a rather modest sort and did that shoot to scrub off some of her squeaky clean image and help expand the kinds of roles she is offered. But if you find any, you have my email! :-)

Osbert Sitwell
Diana Mosely
Dorothy Parker
Nancy Mitford
Adolf Hitler
Winston Churchill

T E Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)
Winston Churchill
Adolph Hitler; said to have been a most witty and erudite dinner guest.
Confucius
Temujin (Ghenghis Khan)
Bartolomeo Diaz (El Cid)

Ayn Rand
Captain Stirling(founder of SAS)
Ian Fleming
General Patton
Geoffrey De Havilland
Either of the Wright Brothers.

Francois Rabelais, Julius Caesar, Nelson, my great uncle Peter.

The Holly Hunter character from Broadcast News.

Mrs II Paleologos, obviously.

Benedict XVI on piano.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Rosario Dawson
Nick Cave
Stephen Colbert
Anthony Bourdain(who would also both cater and provide a film crew)

I'm surprised that Abraham Lincoln hasn't featured on anyone's guest list (apologies if missed it), so:

Abraham Lincoln and William Pitt the younger
(two who between them gave us the three greatest speeches in the English language)
Henry St John, Viscount Bolingbroke
Mark Steyn (slightly drier wit than PJ O'Rourke)
Robert Conquest
Jack Vance (a much better writer than Robert Heinlein, who was many people's choice) - and I'd love to know if he speaks in the same exotic register as his prose.

Cheers

two who between them gave us the three greatest speeches in the English language

Well, Gettysburg Address I know, what were the other two?

I guess I don't know as much about Pitt as I should.

What about Churchill's blood, toil, tears and sweat? That count? It tends to send shivers down my spine, or it could just be the context I guess.

How about -
Lincoln
Churchill
Kennedy
Heinlein
Thatcher
Freidman

Substitues -
Jefferson
Hayek
Popper
Franklin

In these we have the proper mix of erudition, philosophy, experience, realism and political sophistication.
Not Reagan, his skill was choosing the right people, although maybe he could MC the discussion.

And can I have Shakespeare or Milton to transcribe the final communique?

Not Reagan, his skill was choosing the right people

Although he did choose Jean Kirkpatrick. Shudder.

If he had listened to her, Reagans bestest friend in all the would would have been Galtieri, not Thatcher. Where that foreign policy disaster have left the US in subsequent decades is anyones guess.

She may have been an as hard as nails bitch, but she wasn't our hard as nails bitch.

How about making it a celebrity bloggers bash?

Tim Blair
Tammy Bruce
Mark Cuban
Hugh Hewitt
Michelle Malkin
Virginia Postrel

Counting Cats:
"two who between them gave us the three greatest speeches in the English language

Well, Gettysburg Address I know, what were the other two?"

Lincoln indeed gave us The Gettysburg Address, and also his 2nd inaugural speech, 1865 ("With malice toward none, with charity for all..."); and Pitt gave us his reply to the Lord Mayor's toast, 1805 ("England has saved herself by her exertions...").

Cheers

Al Gore
Karl Popper
Four assorted boxing referees.

Could be fun! :-)

Abu Hamza - imagine his table manners?

Ah, but he does have his own knife and fork though.

Beethoven
Einstein
Churchill
Nero
Mohammed
Borat

Midwesterner,

If you're going to invite Newton and Einstein, you really ought to invite Maxwell for a really interesting conversation between the 'big three'. Feynmann would be fun to have along at the same time, of course.

Pietr - Geoffrey de Havilland. Hadn't thought of him, but yes, an excellent and interesting choice. As a student I worked in one of the sheds where they buit Mosquitos. I would have loved to have met him.

A while back I read the transcript of a conversation between P J O'Rourke and Clive James over coffee, and wished I had been waiting at that table, so I'll start there before adding:

W S Churchill
Oscar Wilde
Dorothy Parker
Joan Rivers

And may I ask the young Audrey Hepburn to be our waitress for the evening?

I'm not sure some of the more specialised suggestions above, whether from the worlds of politics or of the sciences, might not be a little "dry" for dinner.

Alternatively:

Marco Polo
Peter Fleming
Robert Byron
Ted Simon
Gertrude Bell
Freya Stark

Although the menu may be a challenge if I'm to offer something they will find interesting.

Murray Rothbard,
Ayn Rand,
Ludwig von Mises,
Milton Friedman,
Thatcher,
Richard Cobden

I'd predict some fireworks...

Christopher Hitchens
Richard Feynmann
Thomas Jefferson
Winston S. Churchill
Ronald Reagan
Robert Frost

If it had to be a group of people who were alive and in the prime at the same time (although I am not saying anything against any of the above groups) it would have to be "the club".

Dr Johnson, Boswell, Reynolds, Garrick and Edmund Burke.

And if Adam Smith came down on a visit (as he sometimes did) I promise not to lecture him on his decay from his early work to the errors of "The Wealth of Nations" (well perhaps I should not make promises I can not keep).

Of course if the talk over the port and food was on culture - I would just sit and listen (as many people did).

If it has to be a 20th century group - The Inklings.

Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams and whatever other two guests (from the Inkling group) they wanted to bring along.

Both groups would sit and talk (and eat and drink) with total strangers who just walked up to them - you just had to be in the right place at the right time.

Jesus

J.R.R. Tolkein

C.S. Lewis

Henry David Thoreau

Ted Williams (gotta have a dead Red Soxer in the mix)

Billy Beck (just so damnably interesting!)

Vladimir Nabokov (and Vera, of course)
Kingsley Amis
Orrin Porter Rockwell
Richard Meinertzhagen
Leopold Trepper

Billy Beck
Barbara Amiel
Keith Richards
Moe Berg
Ray Medway

Billy Beck
Barbara Amiel
Keith Richards
Moe Berg
Ray Medway