# Famous novels supposedly written in a few days **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 30, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564 "2003-01-30T06:37:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![deball](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@deball](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/deball)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/21 "2003-01-31T15:27:41Z")
Didn’t Keoruac claim to have written On the Road in like, a week? Or was that debunked? I know it was written like a scroll, on a big roll of paper. I’ve read that Mickey Spillane could write a novel in a weekend. But he had a pretty set formula. ---
**Author:** ![greenphan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c37758/32.png) [@greenphan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greenphan)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/22 "2003-01-31T16:51:50Z")
Well, in regards to On The Road: Kerouac wrote an original copy which he apparently hated. It didn’t have the flow or cadence he wanted. So he scrapped it or the publisher rejected it; I can’t remember which. He then started from scratch, with the massive roll, some benedrine, and some morphine to calm him down occasionally. According to him, he worked like that for two weeks until he had the finished story. The second manuscript was printed almost exactly as Kerouac wrote it (with some minor changes and paragraphs added [yeah; he didn’t include paragraphs]). So, the question of whether or not it can be considered he wrote the story in two weeks hinges on whether or not the first manuscript should be considered a rough draft, I guess. My god that last sentence was horribly put together. The owner of the Indianapolis Colts bought the original scroll at auction several years ago, for about $1.5 million, give or take. It’s currently being held at Indiana Univ-Bloomington as part of their rare book collection. –greenphan ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2003, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/23 "2003-01-31T17:44:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Mr. A. Nemo \* > \*\*Yes. But the anecdote, is that they [the Shelleys, Byron and Polidori] challenged each other to write a truly frightening story and present it the _next_ night. Now, how rough of a draft it was… \*\* As is mentioned in passing in this Staff Report, all she did at the time was write a short story version and this was only later expanded into the full-length novel. [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaryshelley.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaryshelley.html) ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/24 "2006-10-02T20:12:05Z")
Under the pen name Maxwell Grant, Walter Gibson wrote most of the Shadow novels which appeared in the pulp magazine of the same name back in the 30s and 40s. (The Shadow was based–somewhat–on the radio character of the same name.) At the height of its popularity, the magazine was published twice a month–and Gibson was turning out a fifty or sixty thousand word novel roughly every two weeks. IIRC, there are about 300 of these novels, almost all of them written by Gibson. And Gibson wasn’t all that unusual for a pulp magazine writer. ---
**Author:** ![Surok](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Surok](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surok)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/25 "2006-10-02T20:33:41Z")
Georges Simenon was extremely prolific, and could allegedly turn out one of his novels in a few days. I also read, I think in the introduction to one edition of **Casino Royale** , by Ian Fleming, that he wrote it on the eve of his wedding. No cites for either of these, so who knows if they’re true. But Casino Royale reads as though it was written pretty damn fast. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/26 "2006-10-02T20:34:11Z")
Atlanta Nights was written in a weekend, but there were multiple writers. Lionel Fanthorpe, a British hack writer, did attest to writing at least one of his books in a day – he was able to start at dawn and get it out in the evening post. However, he did dictate it to a group of secretaries instead of actually writing it out. He’d finish a chapter, then the next secretary would take over and the first would type it up. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/27 "2006-10-02T20:41:04Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Atlanta Nights was written in a weekend, but there were multiple writers. [/QUOTE] But Atlanta Nights was a hoax, supposedly written to prove that a certain online vanity publisher would, despite his claims to the contrary, publish any piece of crap that would-be writers would pay to have published. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/28 "2006-10-02T20:43:54Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Lionel Fanthorpe, a British hack writer, did attest to writing at least one of his books in a day – he was able to start at dawn and get it out in the evening post. However, he did dictate it to a group of secretaries instead of actually writing it out. He’d finish a chapter, then the next secretary would take over and the first would type it up. [/QUOTE] Perhaps that explains why his novels are considered some of the worst ever written. _Galaxy 666_, written under one of his various pen names, is considered by many science fiction fans to be one of the worst science fiction novels ever published by a supposed professional, the literary equivalent of _Plan 9 from Outer Space_. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/29 "2006-10-02T20:55:12Z")
Robert Heinlein, in a discussion regarding his longest and shortest times for writing, mentions that _Glory Road_ took him seventeen days to write. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/30 "2006-10-02T20:56:40Z")
The first book that teacher Torey Hayden wrote was [One Child](http://www.torey-hayden.com/one_child.htm). She wrote it as a 'personal memoir" in eight days, and it was accepted for publication 42 days after she first started writing, by the first publisher she submitted it to. ---
**Author:** ![ddgryphon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/8c91f0/32.png) [@ddgryphon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ddgryphon)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/31 "2006-10-02T21:25:17Z")
[QUOTE=Super Gnat] I remember hearing on the radio once that Handel’s _Messiah_ was written in two weeks. The same program went on to say that now they think Handel was manic-depressive. Anybody know anything about it? [/QUOTE] This is apparently true: > [@messiahcd.com](#): > > Sir Newman Flower, one of Handel’s many biographers, summed up the consensus of history: Consdering the immensity of the world, and the short time involved, it will remain, perhaps forever, the greatest feat in the whole history of music composition.” Handel’s title for the commissioned work was simply Messiah. > > Handel never left his house for those three weeks. A friend who visited him as he composed found him sobbing with intense emotions. Later, as Handel groped for words to describe what he had experienced, he quoted St. Paul, saying “whether I was in the body or out of my body when I wrote it I know not” [http://www.messiahcd.com/Information/about\_The\_Messiah/about\_the\_messiah.html](http://www.messiahcd.com/Information/about_The_Messiah/about_the_messiah.html) Though as I understood it, he did reuse some pre-existing songs in the construction of the piece. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/32 "2006-10-02T22:39:37Z")
> [@](#): > > But Atlanta Nights was a hoax, supposedly written to prove that a certain online vanity publisher would, despite his claims to the contrary, publish any piece of crap that would-be writers would pay to have published. I don’t think you need to tell **RealityChuck** that… If I recall correctly, he’s Travis Tea #20. Which also means you can drop the “supposedly”. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/33 "2006-10-02T23:02:37Z")
[QUOTE=LonesomePolecat] But Atlanta Nights was a hoax, supposedly written to prove that a certain online vanity publisher would, despite his claims to the contrary, publish any piece of crap that would-be writers would pay to have published. [/QUOTE] Well, yes. I knew about it long before you did. Travis Tea 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/34 "2006-10-02T23:13:57Z")
The Fanthorpe novel I was referring to was **Radar Alert** , written on Saturday, November 3, 1962. It was calculated that the book took him 11 hours to write. But Fanthorpe also wrote **Atomic Nemesis** in 18 hours, **Legion of the Lost** in 30, and **Frozen Tomb** in 30. Others: **Barry Malzberg** novelization of **Phase IV** (not a bad little SF film) was written in three days, and **In the Enclosure** was written in four. Unlike Fanthorpe, Malzberg is considered one of SF best writers among those interest in literary SF. **Michael Moorcock** claimed that one of his novels took two days. (He referred to it as “one of the Mars books,” which would be **Warriors of Mars, Blades of Mars** or **Barbarians of Mars** ). Moorcock’s work is also highly regarded. **E. C. Tubb** wrote **Menace from the Past** in 32 hours, spread over four days. **John Brunner** , another top SF writer, wrote **Black is the Color** in one week, one day and 1 1/2 hours. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2006, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/35 "2006-10-02T23:53:43Z")
I’m not a “reader”, but after making it through On the Road, I would be surprised if it _wasn’t_ written in only few days. ---
**Author:** ![LonesomePolecat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a88e57/32.png) [@LonesomePolecat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LonesomePolecat)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/36 "2006-10-03T12:47:48Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] Well, yes. I knew about it long before you did. Travis Tea 😉 [/QUOTE] (grin) Well, yeah, but the others might like to be let in on the joke. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/37 "2006-10-03T13:09:35Z")
Georges Simenon creator of the French detective Maigret has written over 200 novels (most do not feature Maigret). He is famous for having written one (I don’t recall which) in 3 days. I recall reading years ago that he felt that 13 days was the perfect amount of time to write a novel. He used to lock himself in his study and knock one out, only allowing interruptions for his wife to provide food and interminable cups of tea. His autobiography reads like a stats sheet - so many novels this month, so many next month. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2006, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/38 "2006-10-03T13:25:46Z")
[QUOTE=greenphan] Well, in regards to On The Road: Kerouac wrote an original copy which he apparently hated. It didn’t have the flow or cadence he wanted. So he scrapped it or the publisher rejected it; I can’t remember which. He then started from scratch, with the massive roll, some benedrine, and some morphine to calm him down occasionally. According to him, he worked like that for two weeks until he had the finished story. The second manuscript was printed almost exactly as Kerouac wrote it (with some minor changes and paragraphs added [yeah; he didn’t include paragraphs]). So, the question of whether or not it can be considered he wrote the story in two weeks hinges on whether or not the first manuscript should be considered a rough draft, I guess. My god that last sentence was horribly put together. The owner of the Indianapolis Colts bought the original scroll at auction several years ago, for about $1.5 million, give or take. It’s currently being held at Indiana Univ-Bloomington as part of their rare book collection. –greenphan [/QUOTE] I heard about this on [NPR recently](http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/patc/ontheroad/): > [@](#): > > The story couldn’t help but give birth to a legend. Jack Kerouac, fueled by inspiration, coffee and Benzedrine, sat down at his typewriter and in one burst of creative energy wrote the novel that would make him the voice of his generation. The book was On the Road, completed – from start to finish – in only three weeks. And he used just one long, scrolled piece of paper, improvising endlessly, just like a jazz musician caught up in the excitement of spontaneous creation. > > At least, that’s how the story goes. Reality was, of course, a little different. Like the highly trained jazz musicians he was emulating, Kerouac actually spent a good deal of time preparing for that creative eruption. But when On the Road came out and his popularity exploded, all the groundwork got lost as people latched onto the myth. > … Net, although the final draft seems to have been done over a short period of time, I’m not sure it’s really fair to say that the entire book was written in a few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/39 "2006-10-04T16:30:35Z")
[QUOTE=Wumpus] Veering slightly off-topic, virtuallly every hit song of the last centruy was allegedly written in 15 minutes. [/QUOTE] Jeez, that guy’s hand must be just about ready to fall off! 😃 The references to Stephen King remind me of a short SNL interview with him (played by Jon Lovitz, I think). Lovitz keeps tapping away at the keyboard throughout the interview, then stops and looks panic- stricken. “Oh, my God, I’ve got writer’s block! What am I going to write next?” Five seconds later, his face lights up. “Never mind. Got it.” And proceeds to tap away even faster. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2006, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564/40 "2006-10-04T16:48:16Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] **Michael Moorcock** claimed that one of his novels took two days. (He referred to it as “one of the Mars books,” which would be **Warriors of Mars, Blades of Mars** or **Barbarians of Mars** ). Moorcock’s work is also highly regarded. [/QUOTE] In an interview in _Heavy Metal_ years ago, Michael Moorcock said that he used to think that if you couldn’t write a novel in 10 days, it wasn’t worth writing. He apparently wrote the first three Corum books (The Swords Trilogy) in a week in Cornwall (which is why the Mabden names are so Cornish-like). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/famous-novels-supposedly-written-in-a-few-days/151564.md?page=3)