Each clue refers to a person who often is referred to by three names, though the puzzle only gives the lengths for the first and third names.
The first letters of the second names spell out WOLFGANGMOZART. Again, find the second name: AMADEUS, which is the answer.
Self-reliant essayist that advised attaching wagons to celestial bodies | ralph | Waldo | emerson |
Person who was the first to transport silk commercially – at least by air | philip | Orin | parmelee |
Actress who knows what you five did last summer | jennifer | Love | hewitt |
Despite his name, this author does not make barrels; likewise, his most famous character isn't a particularly sharp dresser | james | Fenimore | cooper |
The creator of Macondo (a district of Colombia) | gabriel | García | márquez |
Singer who is fond of telling people she hopes they dance, including George W Bush and Nobel Peace laureates | lee | Ann | womack |
She encourages you to get physical - at least, if you're the one that she wants | olivia | Newton | john |
He plays The Doctor opposite Christopher Eccelston; his version is decidedly more serpentine | joshua | Gordon | levitt |
Though she wrote about good wives and old-fashioned girls, this author was a feminist who took her pen name from a prominent women's college | louisa | May | alcott |
He was the first American to have an element named after him, and also lent his name to two national labs | ernest | Orlando | lawrence |
She got her start as Annie, but her breakout role was opposite Zorro | catherine | Zeta | jones |
This wizardly inventor had the bright idea to nickname his first child "Dot" and his second child "Dash" | thomas | Alva | edison |
Despite being an American, he wrote mainly of nobility: red princesses and a jungle lord | edgar | Rice | burroughs |
If you were a teen in the 90s, you may have found it an improvement to deck your home's walls with this heart-throb's poster | jonathan | Taylor | thomas |