I’ve just gotten back into P.G. Wodehouse’s Jeeves and Wooster stories, and I noticed with some surprise that the first Jeeves story appeared in 1916 and the last was written (or at least begun) in 1974, for a “lifespan” of 58 years.
I think this is a record.
Does anyone know of another fictional character who was written about by the original author over a longer period? I think we can rule out most, if not all, of the juvenile series like Tom Swift, Nancy Drew, etc., since I believe they were written by many different people.
I’ve done a little checking and ruled out the following contenders (these dates are the first and last appearances in print, not fictional birth/death dates):
Hercule Poirot: 1920-1975, 55 years
(Ms. Christie’s first and last books–almost–were Poirot tales, so no other Christie creation tops him.)
Bertie and Jeeves are probably #1. One of the few other contenders is Rex Stout, who wrote his first Nero Wolfe mystery, “Fer-de-Lance” in 1932 or so, and kept churning them out until… 1975, I think, when he published “A Family Affair.”
Like Wodehouse (but unlike some of the other authors being cosidered), Rex Stout lived a long life and kept working on new material right up to the day he died. “A Family Affair” was actually fairly topical, as it involved the Watergate scandal. I may be wrong, but I THINK Agatha Christie wrote “Curtain,” the final Poirot novel, some years before it was actually published.
Incidentally, I’m pretty sure Wodehouse was a Nero Wolfe fan, because Bertie Wooster occasionally sings the praises of “Rex West,” a mystery author he likes.
I assume you mean a character developed and continued by a single author? Otherwise there are a whole bunch of characters that have been continuously written about for a lot longer than the ones you cite above, eg Count Dracula (1897- ), Frankenstein’s Monster (1816- ), Mickey Mouse (1928- ). I’m sure there are plenty of others.
Some people are going to disqualify this one as a nonfiction character, but IIRC wasn’t the Old Testament assembled over a period of almost five hundred years?
The God of the Israelites would definitely win, then, right? Well, no, because various Hindu and pre-Hindu but recognisably Vedic animist figures appear in texts written over a period of nearly a thousand years, I think.
Good memory. They actually planned to publish it after her death, but changed their minds. The dates I’ve given are publication, which are the easiest to determine.
Well, a couple of my favorites stand out, but can’t beat Jeeves and Wooster.
Robert Heinlein introduced Woodrow Wilson Smith (aka Lazarus Long) in Methuselah’s Children in 1941, and he was a character in To Sail Beyond the Sunset in 1987 – 46 ain’t too bad.
Isaac Asimov published Caves of Steel in 1953, featuring R. Daneel Olivaw, who was also a primary character in Foundation and Earth in 1986. I suppose Hari seldon was also a character in Foundation and Earth, and Foundation was published in 1951.
Another “close but no cigar” is Ray Bradbury’s Elliot family, first written about in 1946 and more recently in 1999 for a span of 53 years. Unless Bradbury has died without me noticing they have the potential to beat Jeeves & Wooster should BRadbury write about them again.
Other long lived fictional characters. Technically Flashman doesn’t fit into the OP’s question because he was originally in Tom Brown’s Schooldays, but considering only George MacDonald Fraser’s version of Flashman he has run from 1969 till 1999 (30 years).
While he’s only been in two books, the HUGE gap between original and sequel means that Joseph Heller’s Yossarian’s two appearances were 33 years apart (1961 & 1994). Similarly there are two widely spaced appearances of Father Callahan in Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot (1975) and Wolves of Calla (2003) a span of 28 years. Roland in his Dark Tower books has a span of 25 years (1978-2003)
Tarzan had a 35-year run (Possibly 38; The first Tarzan book was published in 1912, the last one during Burroughs’ life was 1947, and he died in 1950 with a couple other stories surfacing posthumously).
Dick Tracy and Little Orphan Annie both ran roughly from 1930-1970 with their original creators. Charles Schulz wrote and drew Peanuts for 45 years. R. Crumb has drawn strips with Mr. Natural on and off for about 40 years: I imagine the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. have been around for about that long. Will Eisner’s Spirit still pops up from time to time, I think, and has for over 60 years.
How long has LeRoy Nieman been drawing Femlin for Playboy?
Gandalf, first published in 1937 in The Hobbit: or There and Back Again, and last published in The Silmarillion in 1977 (not counting the numerous subsequent publications of Tolkein material put together by Christopher Tolkein). This makes 40 years.
Had Tom Bombadil shown up in The Silmarillion, he’d have an even longer reign, for he first showed up published in 1934, when “The Adventures of Tom Bombadil” was published in The Oxford Magazine.
Of course, if you include the publication of Unfinished Tales, or The Book of Lost Tales, you get even longer time spans, but I don’t think it fair to include works that the author didn’t have essentially ready and was in the process of publishing when he died.
Leslie Charteris’ first {i]The Saint*, publication Meet the Tiger! was published in 1928. Capture The Saint by Burl Barer was published in 1997. Charteris had actively collaborated with other writers until 1983 to allow them to continue after he died. So either 69 or 55 years take your pick.