# Dead writers - wish they weren't **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 22, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681 "2003-11-22T14:48:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![eli\_the\_fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@eli\_the\_fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eli_the_fanatic)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/41 "2003-11-25T01:57:29Z")
Ye Gods, **DtC**. Wodehouse wrote about 100 books. Have you really read them **all** where you need more? I love his books, but he didn’t exactly get cut down in his prime or leave us wondering what he _might_ have done. ---
**Author:** ![eli\_the\_fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@eli\_the\_fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eli_the_fanatic)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/42 "2003-11-25T01:59:37Z")
Ditto to **Mr. B** on Asimov. Fer chrissakes, he wrote 200 books! Again, I love his work, but I think he left behind a pretty sizable pile of pages. ---
**Author:** ![eli\_the\_fanatic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ccd318/32.png) [@eli\_the\_fanatic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eli_the_fanatic)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/43 "2003-11-25T02:01:09Z")
I’m going to say Nikolai Gogol and Franz Kafka. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/44 "2003-11-25T03:05:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Baldwin \* > **Has anybody mentioned John Kennedy Toole? His great _A Confderacy of Dunces_ was published posthumously, after his mother carted the manuscript around to different publishers. What else might have emerged from that fevered brain?** I can’t believe I forgot about Toole. :smack: _Confederacy of Dunces_ is one of my all time favorite books. The guy was a genius. I also add my voice to the chorus of those who miss Douglas Adams. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/45 "2003-11-25T03:09:26Z")
I think I’m the 10th person to say Douglas Adams. I too thought of him immediately upon reading the title of this thread. I actually did my Senior Research Project (Read: big pain in the ass load of busy work) on THHGTTG series. ---
**Author:** ![beckwall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b487fb/32.png) [@beckwall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beckwall)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2003, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/46 "2003-11-25T04:37:59Z")
Second the vote on **Richard Brautigan**. His books are timelss treasures to me. I was so saddened by his death. ---
**Author:** ![bubba\_jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e95f7d/32.png) [@bubba\_jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bubba_jr)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/47 "2003-11-26T03:47:19Z")
Wow, no John MacDonald yet. I can’t be the only one that liked the Travis McGee novels. ---
**Author:** ![jackelope](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a6a055/32.png) [@jackelope](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackelope)\ **Post date:** [November 26, 2003, 5:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/48 "2003-11-26T05:44:30Z")
Another vote for John Kennedy Toole. Man, I wish he’d stuck it out long enough to write a few more. Not to mention to have his Pulitzer not be posthumous. And even though he wasn’t exactly a spring chicken, I miss George Plimpton already. This is somewhat off-topic, but I recall an interview with Hunter S. Thompson I read last year. The interviewer asked Thompson what it feels like to be Hunter Thompson and 65 years old. “It feels,” Thompson said, “like playing in a baseball game that’s going into the 27th inning.” ---
**Author:** ![elfje](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19b73/32.png) [@elfje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfje)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/49 "2003-11-27T21:47:27Z")
I’m surprised nobody bit me mentioned Roald Dahl. Me, I grew up with the stuff, couldn’t be without a Roald Dalh story to but me to bed. What about The Witches? The BFG? Mathilde? all gems, evry last one of em. Oh, and for the Dutch among us: Annie M.G. Schmidt. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2003, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/50 "2003-11-27T23:00:25Z")
cletus writes: \> Dick, as the legend goes, had a stroke at his typewriter while \> working on his latest story. According to _Divine Invasions: A Life of Philip K. Dick_ by Lawrence Sutin, Dick was found unconscious on the floor of his apartment by his neighbors. He had had a stroke. He was taken to a hospital where he died a few weeks later after several more strokes. He wasn’t typing when he had the first stroke, but he may have been typing a few minutes before. _The Transmigration of Timothy Archer_ was Dick’s last novel. He had begun to think about a novel to be called _The Owl in Daylight_ just before he died. It appears that he didn’t do any writing on it. ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/51 "2003-11-28T00:33:23Z")
**Zelazny** : I loved Lord of Light, thought the Chronicals of Amber were good, but wasn’t as struck on any others I’ve seen. I have heard that he wrapped up Amber a bit quickly - I’d love to see how the Merlin sequels would have gone if they’d been as fleshed out as the rest of it. OTOH, I unfortunately get the impression that nothing he wrote would have been as good for me as what he had already. **Adams** : I know everyone agrees but I thought I’d put a word in - the thing is, he was still doing good new stuff. I’d love to see more Dirk Gently - only having two and a half books is a great loss to this world. And what makes Adams stand out is his adaptions - he’s worked on radio, book, TV, computer games versions of THHGTTG, all good in different ways. Imagine what he could have done if he’d lived another twenty years and got to play with interactive online fiction, or holodecks, or whatever comes next. **C. S. Forester** : He’s not been mentioned yet, so I thought I’d add his name. Not necessarily one for the list, but I just remember how I felt when I was reading the last story in the last Hornblower book, and it suddenly stopped with a note saying that he died at that point, and how he intended to finish that story. ---
**Author:** ![green\_dragon\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@green\_dragon\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_dragon_1)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/52 "2003-11-28T02:56:09Z")
J.R.R. Tolkien Arthur Ransome Never read anything by Douglas Adams, but this thread has inspired me to try him out just as soon as I’m done with “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence” ---
**Author:** ![green\_dragon\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@green\_dragon\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_dragon_1)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/53 "2003-11-28T03:10:36Z")
J.R.R. Tolkien Arthur Ransome Never read anything by Douglas Adams, but this thread has inspired me to try him out just as soon as I’m done with “Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintainence” ---
**Author:** ![green\_dragon\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/13edae/32.png) [@green\_dragon\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/green_dragon_1)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/54 "2003-11-28T03:12:08Z")
Wow! My first double post. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/55 "2003-11-28T08:43:23Z")
Over 52 posts and no one has mentioned **Avram Davidson**? ::: sigh ::: ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/56 "2003-11-28T10:51:52Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by tomndebb \* > \*\*Over 52 posts and no one has mentioned **Avram Davidson**? > > ::: sigh ::: \*\* Perhaps you could say why you picked him? You might persuade some people to try one of his books? ---
**Author:** ![Shade](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2bfe46/32.png) [@Shade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shade)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 10:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/57 "2003-11-28T10:53:01Z")
(Delete that last ‘?’. Oops, if I sounded sarcastic I didn’t mean to, I just was curious, and) ---
**Author:** ![Balle\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/13edae/32.png) [@Balle\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balle_M)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/58 "2003-11-28T16:04:08Z")
Agree 100% on Adams and Heinlein and would like to add Alistair MacLean. His **Ice Station Zebra** is an excellent spy novel and thankfully bears little resemblence to the movie of the same name. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/59 "2003-11-28T21:56:24Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by adam yax \* > \*\*Brian Herbert and his writing partner will be doing a 7th book based on the notes, but we won’t see it for a few years yet because they have 2 more prequels to finish first. > \*\* Again, I wish Frank Herbert was the one doing those. I have very little faith in Brian Herbert and/or Kevin Anderson being able to write anything better then bad dune fan fiction. And I am extremely wary about the claim they have access to Frank’s Notes, or that they would plan to pay attention to said notes. Hell, they had access to 6 of Frank’s books and apparently they never bothered to actually read them. ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2003, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681/60 "2003-11-28T22:18:55Z")
Personally… I would have liked to see HP Lovecraft live about 10 or so more years, without the cancer that killed him. The stories he wrote near the end of his life were about the best he ever did, and it could easily be argued that he died in his prime. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-writers-wish-they-werent/214681.md?page=4)