I occasionally go out shooting with a guy whose mentor's was a student of Ansel Adams, and that's possibly as close as I've ever come to one of the "masters".
I did read Ansel Adams biography last year. Not real exciting, but very interesting if you are into his work or landscape photography. And of course The Camera, The Negative, and The Print are never far from my reach (someday I will have a full set at my bedside, in my bathroom, in the darkroom, and here at the computer).