First of all, authors who only have one book are disqualified. So long, Margaret Mitchell and Harper Lee.
Authors that definitely do qualify include:
Ken Kesey–One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Betty Smith–A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.
I’d also include Ira Levin’s “A Kiss Before Dying.” Without Satan’s baby, Hitler clones or robot wives, Levin’s first book is a mystery masterpiece.
Joseph Heller – Catch-22
From what I hear, Mary Shelley definitely qualifies.
Thomas Pynchon-Gravitys Rainbow
I’d probably say Tom Clancy counts - Hunt for Red October (and Red Storm Rising) is far better off for having seen an editor.
I was going to say Salman Rushdie with Midnight’s Children, but it turns out he had one called Grimus that came out six years earlier. So I’ll just second Joseph Heller.
**Harper Lee **- To Kill a Mockingbird; first and only
**Margaret Mitchell **- Gone with the Wind
Wasn’t Peyton Place **Grace Metalious’ **first and only book?
Both V (1963) and The Crying of Lot 49 (1966) came out before Gravity’s Rainbow.
From the OP:
Please read the OP. I want authors who:
Published more than one book.
First book was their best book.
ETA: Thanks, Munch for clarifying my obviously very obscurely written and extremely hard to understand and interpret OP.
Donna Tartt, The Secret History.
Norman Maclean **A River Runs Through It ** published when he was 74. Young Men and Fire published after his death is about 1% inferior.
Stephen R Boyett. Yes, he only wrote two, but he still qualifies…
Also John Steakley.
many would say that Catcher in the Rye is J.D. Salinger’s best, although I think it pales in comparison to his other books…
Walt Whitman - Leaves of Grass
Flann O’Brien - At Swim-Two-Birds
Charles Dickens - The Pickwick Papers
I think John Grisham’s best book is A Time To Kill.
They were published after her death, but there are a couple of Margaret Mitchell books besides GWTW.
Lost Layson (sp?) is the only one I can remember offhand.
Darn it :smack: obviously I am guilty of drive-by posting. Sorry 'bout that.
Night, I disagree. O’Brien’s The Poor Mouth is a comic masterpiece and a powerful glimpse of racial discrimination to boot.
I always thought Jacqueline Susann’s “Every Night Josephine” was her best book.
Of course, her others made lots more money.