One Hit Wonders

[g.johnson]

Mirriam Webster

Only the spelling is fictitious.

[Wilfrid]

Harper Lee, Ralph Ellison, John Kennedy Toole - very good. I guess Oscar Wilde was not primarily a novelist, so I'd put him with Philip Larkin - suprised to have a novel from them at all.

 

Sylvia Plath: I guess I'd exclude people who died young for whatever reason. She was 30 when she died, as was Emily Bronte.

 

Herman Melville's an odd case, and I'd say no: his early novels, like Typee and Omoo, did quite well. Moby Dick was a disaster for him. His other work is in print and read, although I agree that's only the case because of Moby Dick.

[Slapsie Maxie]

I think Patrick Suskind might fit in this category.

 

Although he has also written a couple of other novels and a hugely successful German TV series, it is almost inevitable that he will be best remembered for Perfume.

 

Slapsie

[Wilfrid]

Yep, another good one.

 

Paul Bowles, although you could make the case he was primarily a short story writer, as Wilde was a playwright and Larkin a poet.

 

George Orwell, oddly, is a two-novel writer. Only odd because the two novels were so highly rated and massively successful. You think he might have squeezed out a third.

 

Oh, fucking Tolkien.

[AaronS]

I just read larkin's first novel and enjoyed it. just a story, and it lacks the misery that makes his poetry so wonderful, but a good read nonetheless. will get to the other novel soon if I can find my copy.

[Sneakeater]

Sylvia Plath: I guess I'd exclude people who died young for whatever reason. She was 30 when she died, as was Emily Bronte.

 

That excludes Toole as well, doesn't it?

[Sneakeater]

Oh, fucking Tolkien.

 

Isn't he either a two- or a four-novel author? (You're going to be hearing so much about The Hobbit in the upcoming years that it's going to make you puke.)

[Sneakeater]

The late Hugh Bownes of the First Circuit once told me he considered Garcia Marquez to be a one-novel author. But that was before Love in the Time of Cholera, so maybe he changed his mind.

[GordonCooks]

Nathan Myhrvold

[Anthony Bonner]

Sylvia Plath: I guess I'd exclude people who died young for whatever reason. She was 30 when she died, as was Emily Bronte.

 

That excludes Toole as well, doesn't it?

Well I think Toole is even more of an outlier - CoD was posthumously published. And like not a year, but 10 years after.

 

ETA: Also many of these authors listed as one-hit wonders really only gave it one shot, maybe 2-3. I'd be interested in people who wrote a classic/great book and then lots of mediocrity. Lee and Ellison are in the first category

[Sneakeater]

Well I think Toole is even more of an outlier - CoD was posthumously published. And like not a year, but 10 years after.

 

Yeah.

[Rich]

Alan Greenspan

[g.johnson]

Yep, another good one.

 

Paul Bowles, although you could make the case he was primarily a short story writer, as Wilde was a playwright and Larkin a poet.

 

George Orwell, oddly, is a two-novel writer. Only odd because the two novels were so highly rated and massively successful. You think he might have squeezed out a third.

 

Oh, fucking Tolkien.

Keep the Aspidistra Flying is still read. I know, I've read it.

[Sneakeater]

Do we consider Young Torless to be read?

[g.johnson]

Dr. Johnson, of course, of course.