# Prolific authors who have faded into obscurity **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 23, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439 "2014-11-23T21:48:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Flyer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/flyer/32/7298_2.png) [@Flyer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flyer)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/61 "2014-11-25T03:52:58Z")
I started this thread partly in the hopes of getting suggestions for books to read–I’m a voracious reader. I shall be checking inter-library loan to see if I can get some of the ones that have been mentioned here. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/62 "2014-11-25T05:19:33Z")
“Who is John Galsworthy?” ---
**Author:** ![FeAudrey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FeAudrey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FeAudrey)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2014, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/63 "2014-11-25T21:48:12Z")
> [@Don\_Draper](#): > > “Valley of the Dolls” … seemed like the single-most aimless, pointless, go-nowhere story I ever read … One of the reasons that it was such a biggie in its day was that the characters were based on real-life celebrities. ---
**Author:** ![TheZenPaperboy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a9a28c/32.png) [@TheZenPaperboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheZenPaperboy)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/64 "2014-11-27T17:53:28Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Several years ago, I found a book at my local library that included lists of annual New York Times best-sellers from the time the list was initiated in the early 1920s to the then-present. It was fascinating reading, and unfortunately, due to the book’s subject, I have been unable to find that book’s title, and my local reference librarian couldn’t either. The # 1 New York Times Bestseller by John Bear. I own that and it is good. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/65 "2014-11-27T21:18:18Z")
[QUOTE=Don Draper] “Valley of the Dolls” … seemed like the single-most aimless, pointless, go-nowhere story I ever read … [/QUOTE] > [@FeAudrey](#): > > One of the reasons that it was such a biggie in its day was that the characters were based on real-life celebrities. That and the fact that its depictions of sex were shocking to a culture that was just emerging from hundreds of years of repression. In fact, both Jacqueline Susann and the previously mentioned Harold Robbins represented two sides of the same coin–a genre that can be called “Rich and Beautiful People Fucking”. Of course, as sex in mainstream pop culture became more common and the thinly-veiled celebrities became forgotten, most people came to see these books as badly-written cliché-storms featuring shallow undeveloped characters who were little more than cartoons.\* \*Incidentally, I’m using the term “cartoons” only in the sense that Susann’s and Robbins’ characters were two-dimensional. There are actually many cartoon characters who are a lot more interersting and better-developed than anyone depicted in a novel by those two. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2014, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/66 "2014-11-27T23:54:54Z")
According to Wikipedia, Edward Bellamy’s book [“Looking Backward”](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looking_Backward) was the third-largest best-seller at the time after “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and “Ben-Hur”. It even sprouted a political movement, but it’s pretty much forgotten now. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/67 "2014-11-28T00:06:08Z")
John Gunther is almost unknown now, except for his classic “Death Be Not Proud”. ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/68 "2014-11-28T01:09:57Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > I started this thread partly in the hopes of getting suggestions for books to read–I’m a voracious reader. I shall be checking inter-library loan to see if I can get some of the ones that have been mentioned here. John Creasey’s J.J. Marric’s Gideon series are good British police procedurals. Not high art, but a pleasant read. Another author continued this series for a few years after Creasey’s 1976 death. There is a humorous British mystery author of the '60s named Joyce Porter: I don’t know if she’s written more than the Dover series. There’s an edgy British author that was very popular in the '90s named Liza Cody. She has two series. The Anna Lee mysteries were turned into a British TV series, but the other series is better. The first title of that series is _Bucket Nut_. If you are more high-brow, I’d recommend _Japanese Inn_, by Oliver Statler. He wasn’t prolific, but is unjustly forgotten. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/69 "2014-11-28T03:19:25Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > TYVM! 🆒 Maybe it was Publisher’s Weekly after all, and not the NY Times. > > [http://unsworth.unet.brandeis.edu/courses/bestsellers/](http://unsworth.unet.brandeis.edu/courses/bestsellers/) Maybe there was another one, but I remember the one that used the NYTimes lists. I also don’t remember the name of the book. I’m sure it was something really simple and descriptive. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/70 "2014-11-28T03:28:23Z")
Would you count James Michener? Another Pulitzer Prize-winner, author of 40-some books, mostly historical sagas (Centennial, Hawaii), gave more than $100 million to charities during his lifetime, due to lots of best-sellers. Anybody read them today? Kind of like Edna Ferber only more recent. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/71 "2014-11-28T05:09:02Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > _Foucault’s Pendulum_ is quite popular with the geeks. “It’s like _The DaVinci Code_, except that it’s good!” Feh. The best things about the _Illuminatus_ books were the appendices. The books were well-researched and I was able to find most of the original sources in print or, in one case, on microfiche. These led me elsewhere assembling a Grand Unified Conspiracy Theory and I found that _Foucault’s Pendulum_ was not very “accurate.” Pabulum for CT newbies. ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/72 "2014-11-28T05:12:14Z")
Whatever happened to Franklin W. Dixon? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/73 "2014-11-28T05:17:22Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > **Edna Ferber** wrote Giant, Showboat, and won the Pulitzer Prize for So Big. > > I don’t think many folks read her stuff anymore though. I know one of her minor heirs. She is always happy to see Showboat or some such get a revival on Broadway - she gets a modest little royalty check ;). ---
**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 28, 2014, 9:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/74 "2014-11-28T09:49:27Z")
Ike Witt knows this, but just in case other people don’t: Franklin W. Dixon was one of the many pseudonyms used by the Stratemeyer Syndicate: > **[Stratemeyer Syndicate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stratemeyer_Syndicate)** > > The Stratemeyer Syndicate was a publishing company that produced a number of mystery book series for children, including Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, the various Tom Swift series, the Bobbsey Twins, the Rover Boys, and others. They published and contracted the many pseudonymous authors doing the writing of the series from 1899 through 1987, when the syndicate partners sold the company to Simon & Schuster. > Created by Edward Stratemeyer, the Stratemeyer Syndicate was the first book packager to h... > **[List of Stratemeyer Syndicate series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Stratemeyer_Syndicate_series)** > > This list of Stratemeyer Syndicate series gives the titles of all series produced by the book-packaging firm the Stratemeyer Syndicate. The Syndicate was founded by Edward Stratemeyer and is best known for producing the Bobbsey Twins, Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Rover Boys, and Tom Swift series. The Syndicate produced these and many other series in assembly-line fashion: one person wrote the outline for a story or series of stories, another wrote the story itself, and often still another edited the w... ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/75 "2014-11-28T12:20:49Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > In a few decades, people will be brain-teleporting threads like this about Danielle Steel, Stephenie Meyer, John Grisham, and Dan Brown. Danielle Steel is already slowly dropping off the radar. She’s still popular, there’s no denying that, but she’s nowhere near as big as she was in the 80s and 90s. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/76 "2014-11-28T15:10:21Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#): > > 99% of all authors are forgotten within 50 years of their death. True, unless you make it to “classic” or “cult” status. A lot of the examples being given are just the normal to-be-expected phenomenon of changing public taste and a particular author’s “time” passing. Popular fiction contrasts with, for example, popular music in that in the latter case if you were big once, 25 years later you may be regularly playlisted on the Oldies station and doing smaller gigs playing the Big Hits and a few new tracks nobody cares about, for the old fans. Not as easy for a novelist. Also, even with prolific big-name authors, it is not uncommon to only be remembered for one major piece or series, as opposed to for the entire body of work (e.g. the Perry Mason example). (Besides, if we’re talking prolific, ISTM many the \*most \*prolific authors are the genre fiction types cranking up a new mystery-romance or action-fantasy twice a year, that get their bills paid but whose names are not and will never be public celebrities.) ---
**Author:** ![No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ea5d25/32.png) [@No\_umlaut\_for\_U](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/No_umlaut_for_U)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/77 "2014-11-28T16:58:26Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Danielle Steel is already slowly dropping off the radar. She’s still popular, there’s no denying that, but she’s nowhere near as big as she was in the 80s and 90s. Yes! She and Amanda Quick; also Mary Higgins Clark. ---
**Author:** ![erysichthon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d07c76/32.png) [@erysichthon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/erysichthon)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/78 "2014-11-28T19:59:34Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Nope, sorry, the thread is “prolific authors who have faded into obscurity,” not “prolific authors who have faded into obscurity _except for their most popular series of books_.” Checking Amazon, I see that there are dozens of Perry Mason novels available in Kindle format, and most of them have double-digit numbers of customer reviews. Many of the “forgotten” authors named in this thread have at least some of their works available in ebook editions. Amazon has six Arthur Hailey books in their Kindle store, including _Airport_ and _Hotel_. I found thirteen Irving Wallace books available for Kindle, five Jacqueline Susann books (including _Valley of the Dolls_), and **lots** of Harold Robbins. _Peyton Place_ and _Return to Peyton Place_ are available in Kindle format too. Not too shabby for a bunch of authors who have faded into obscurity. When I saw this thread, the first name that popped into my head was Alistair MacLean. That guy was a blockbuster machine in the 60s and 70s, but I can’t remember the last time I heard his name or saw one of his books in a bookstore. Checked Amazon, and yep, it looks like you can read everything he ever wrote on your Kindle–including plenty of titles I had never heard of. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/79 "2014-11-28T20:12:01Z")
I don’t know if it’s the same thing, but after the publication of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” by Harriet Beecher Stowe, there were quite a few “Anti-Tom novels”. They generally depicted slaves as happy, naive people, far better off than northern workers starving or freezing with their factory jobs, or lack of. At least half of these were written by women ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/80 "2014-11-28T20:25:40Z")
> [@erysichthon](#): > > Many of the “forgotten” authors named in this thread have at least some of their works available in ebook editions. Amazon has six Arthur Hailey books in their Kindle store, including _Airport_ and _Hotel_. I found thirteen Irving Wallace books available for Kindle, five Jacqueline Susann books (including _Valley of the Dolls_), and **lots** of Harold Robbins. _Peyton Place_ and _Return to Peyton Place_ are available in Kindle format too. Not too shabby for a bunch of authors who have faded into obscurity. > > When I saw this thread, the first name that popped into my head was Alistair MacLean. That guy was a blockbuster machine in the 60s and 70s, but I can’t remember the last time I heard his name or saw one of his books in a bookstore. Checked Amazon, and yep, it looks like you can read everything he ever wrote on your Kindle–including plenty of titles I had never heard of. MacLean also had a LOT of his books turned into films in the 1860s and 1970s, and many of those films are well-remembered. I suspect that is keeping MacLean from obscurity. After all, he wrote the books that became: **The Guns of Navarone Ice Station Zebra** (Howard Hughes’ favorite!) **Force 10 from Navarone Where Eagles Dare Breakheart Pass** (Charles Bronson Western) and the less-well-known **The Satan Bug Puppet on a Chain When Eight Bells Toll** and ten others. All told, Maclean has had an impressive number of his thrillers turned into films. He’s way past Clive Cussler (who I predict will Fade Into Obscurity after he dies) and up into Ian Fleming territory. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439.md?page=5)