Devo seem to be mostly known for Whip It, and a lot of people just presume they were a flash in the pan/novelty act. But they made a bunch of great albums and some kickarse rock songs. They started way back in 1973 and they’re still going!
As for Roald Dahl, he was the most popular children’s author in Australia in the 80’s and almost all his books were hugely popular. I presume it was the same in England.
Mentioned by me back at the beginning of the thread (#21).
Dover Books actually published one of his mysteries , The Yellow Room, and it’s bizarre to think that a reader’s poll back in the 20’s or 30’s listed him as one of the top writers.
By the 1970s, I was trying desperately to find a copy of Phantom of the Pera, and couldn’t find it anywhere. It wasn’t until the mid-1980s that I finally found a paperback copy, issued as a tie-in to the Herbert Lom/ Hammer film release in 1962. And then a year or two later I suddenly saw copies in airport book shops, and I realized that another version must be coming out soon. It was the Andrew Lloyd Webber stage version. As a result of his show, the book has been in print ever since, often as a “classic”. But it’s interesting realize that it’s only had that status since the mid-1980s, and before that was a comparatively rare book.
Given that 90 percent of Dopers regularly quote him (and the number who are absurdly polylingual) that shouldn’t make a difference.
I also wanted to mention that guy whose name, ironically enough, I can’t remember. Huuuggggeeeee body of work across several media. His compositions were masterful and broke new ground. Later in life he turned to visual arts, and had great success there as well. His sculpture is ubiquitous in an oh-that-guy sort of way. But does anyone remember him for any of that? Remember him as whatshisface the composer? Whatshisface the sculptor? Whatshisface the painter? Noooo.
But he fucked one goat…
On the music forefront, the Pet Shop Boys are the world’s (THE WORLD’S) most succesful music duo ever (just knocking off Simon and Garfunkel) according to the Guinness Book of World Records. (2009)
America mostly knows them for “West End Girls” and "Opportunities (Let’s Make Lots of Money) but they’ve been consistently cranking out #1’s in the rest of the world for the last 20 years.
Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote over 70 novels, and most of them were not about Tarzan or John Carter. I would be hard-pressed to defend the literary merits of any of them; Burroughs, like Ian Fleming, A. Conan Doyle and Robert E. Howard, epitomizes “When wonderful characters happen to terrible writers.”
I think almost everyone recognizes Gustave Caillebotte’s Rainy Day in Paris, but he did a lot of other paintings, most very nice indeed; my fav is Roses in the Garden at Petit Gennevilliers
Edvard Munch filled up a museum with paintings, but all most people know is The Scream.