43 replies to this topic

[Wilfrid]

I think seeing a reference to Donna Tartt right now put this in my head. Novelists who really are known for just one "big" novel, although they might have written something else. Although writing a novel at all seems an astonishing thing to be able to do, there's something strange about being able to write only one (or only one which anyone wants to read).

Donna Tartt
Robert M. Pirsig
Malcolm Lowry
Luke Rhinehart
Margaret Mitchell
J.D. Salinger

Proust is a special case.

Who else? Or am I being totally unfair to these diligent scribes?

[Wilfrid]

Tartt did write a second novel, published ten years after her first (anyone read it?), and is allegedly going to publish a third (but the claim on Wikipedia to that effect leads to a dead link).

[Lex]

Harper Lee

Thomas Heggen (Mr. Roberts)

[Lex]

Truman Capote. Sure, after Breakfast at Tiffany's he wrote In Cold Blood but that was (mostly) non fiction. Answered Prayers was not greeted warmly.

Here's a fun fact. Capote's middle name was "Streckfus."

[Daniel]

John Kennedy Toole Confederacy of Dunces

[Daniel]

Oscar Wilde another special exception?

[Daniel]

Ralph Ellis and what about Sylvia Plath

[Lex]

John Kennedy Toole Confederacy of Dunces

Good one. I loved that book.

[fentona]

Emily Bronte!

Charlotte is basically a one-hit wonder as well; a couple more novels, but surely Jane Eyre overshadows them.

[Sneakeater]

Oscar Wilde another special exception?

He was more a playwright than a novelist.

[g.johnson]

Herman Melville.

[Daniel]

Oscar Wilde another special exception?

He was more a playwright than a novelist.

But he did write that one freaking awesome novel.

[Sneakeater]

Yeah. I was just saying that it's misleading to imply that he didn't write anything else.

[g.johnson]

Georges Simenon.


(That was a joke.)

[Rich]

Mirriam Webster