# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/81 "2014-11-28T20:31:28Z")
[**Elizabeth Goudge**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Goudge). She wrote a bunch of best sellers; JK Rowling cites her as an influence. By 1993, a novel of hers was plagiarized - published, well-reviewed, and it took the world a month to realize it was completely stolen from her 1956 book. ---
**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, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/82 "2014-11-28T20:46:23Z")
According to this story, Harper re-released all the MacLean books _in print_ in 2009: > **[Harper dares with Alistair MacLean reissue](https://www.thebookseller.com/news/harper-dares-alistair-maclean-reissue)** > > The Bookseller is the incisive and independent source of news and analysis for the book trade and publishing industry. Get breaking news, in-depth features, author interviews and book charts. The Bookseller provides you with the intelligence you need... ---
**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:** [November 28, 2014, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/83 "2014-11-28T20:52:58Z")
Who besides me has heard of, never mind read anything by, [Vardis Fisher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardis_Fisher)? ---
**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, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/84 "2014-11-28T21:18:22Z")
> [@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. You can’t give her books away. The same thing is true for Dick Francis. ---
**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, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/85 "2014-11-28T21:20:17Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > 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 Some things never change, do they? 150 years later, we’re being bombarded with dystopian teen fiction. ---
**Author:** ![davidm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidm/32/225_2.png) [@davidm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/davidm)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/86 "2014-11-28T21:27:38Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > 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. I was going to mention him, but you beat me to it. I was a huge Michener fan. I’m sure I haven’t read all 40 of his books, I should look them up. ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2014, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/87 "2014-11-28T22:01:19Z")
Upton Sinclair is remembered for _The Jungle_, but he wrote the highly popular Lanny Bud series of novels as well: > **[Upton Sinclair | Lanny Budd series](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upton_Sinclair#Lanny_Budd_series)** > > Between 1940 and 1953, Sinclair wrote a series of 11 novels featuring a central character named Lanny Budd. The son of an American arms manufacturer, Budd is portrayed as holding in the confidence of world leaders, and not simply witnessing events, but often propelling them. As a sophisticated socialite who mingles easily with people from all cultures and socioeconomic classes, Budd has been characterized as the antithesis of the stereotyped "Ugly American". > Sinclair placed Budd within the impor... One even won a Pulitzer. I had the displeasure of reading the first in high school (I think we had to read two novels by an author and compare them. I read _The Jungle_ and _World’s End_). Absolutely ridiculous, hyperbolic crap (_The Jungle_ is not a very good novel, either, although it does have historical importance). As for what will last in the future, I highly doubt that King and Rowling are going to be read. I think the key for any author to survive is for the datedness itself to be appreciated. For example, Elizabethan English happens to sound cool to our ear, and Shakespeare’s plays portray an “old world” that is interesting for that reason. Similarly, the gentility of Jane Austen’s language and characters happens to work in her favor. Although I like some of King’s short stories, he portrays a lower-class world of the 70s and 80s that I doubt is going to be all that appealing in the future. Rowling is going to be undone for a different set of reasons. The first few Harry Potter books are truly children’s books. They built a fan base that then grew up with the books, which increasingly became more sophisticated. But series after that is still uneven in quality. So I think people in the future are going to be unwilling to get into such a mixed bag. They’ll know Harry Potter from the movies, which also will probably not maintain their popularity for very long. As another poster pointed out, music tends to age well on average, and literature does not. ---
**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 29, 2014, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/88 "2014-11-29T01:13:39Z")
^I have to agree with you about Stephen King. The more pop references and brand names which are shoehorned into a book the faster it will become dated. I don’t think so with Harry Potter. 95% of the book is set in a timeless location; however, when British boarding schools fade from common acquaintance, then Potter might fade away. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 1:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/89 "2014-11-29T01:25:37Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > 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 I’ve had two seperate people bring up the book **Space** in seperate conversations in the last two weeks, so anecdotally he isn’t obscure. More concretely, several of his more popular books have recent editions, so I don’t think he counts either. > [@umlaut for U](#): > > when British boarding schools fade from common acquaintance, then Potter might fade away. I seriously doubt most of the people reading Harry Potter have any experience, even second hand, of British Boarding schools. I suspect the books will live on simply because the generation that grew up reading them will have kids of their own, and want to have them read them. ---
**Author:** ![eulalia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eulalia/32/457_2.png) [@eulalia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eulalia)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/90 "2014-11-29T12:46:18Z")
I remember reading everything of Charlotte Armstrong’s that I could get my hands on, but I haven’t heard her name mentioned in a long time. I see Amazon does have four of her books available on Kindle, but she wrote a lot more than that. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/91 "2014-11-29T15:18:57Z")
I’ve been checking out novels that were made into classic Hollywood films. Sinclair Lewis wrote\* Dodsworth\*. Lewis is not forgotten–he’s on The Official List of American Authors. But he’s not a star in his own right like Fitzgerald or Hemingway. I enjoyed meeting the Dodsworth of the book even more than the one in the film; Lewis even tells us he’s “no Babbitt.” James Hilton was very big in his day & also had novels turned into movies. His _Random Harvest_ has more politics & less schmoop than the film version. Next up: _Now Voyager_ by Olive Higgens Prouty. Who wrote a series of “Vale Novels.” Most of these books are available cheaply–in print or Kindle format. And most are called “middlebrow”–even the one by Sinclair Lewis. In fact, there’s a middlebrow genre called “Gothic/Parodic.” Which includes _Cold Comfort Farm_,\* I Capture the Castle\* & Molly Keane’s _Devoted Ladies_; all personal favorites. The first of this genre might be _Northanger Abbey_. Jane Austen did not handle Deep Issues; she wrote domestic novels about family issues & the quest for good marriages. But she did it so well that she escaped obscurity… ---
**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 29, 2014, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/92 "2014-11-29T15:32:06Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > I seriously doubt most of the people reading Harry Potter have any experience, even second hand, of British Boarding schools. I suspect the books will live on simply because the generation that grew up reading them will have kids of their own, and want to have them read them. What some people don’t realize is that we’re already on a second generation of Harry Potter readers. The first novel was released nearly 20 years ago and the kids that fell in love with it in the first place are, at the very youngest, in their mid-20s now. Some are even a little bit older and have begun to introduce Harry Potter to their own kids. Harry Potter will endure like The Wizard of Oz, Willy Wonka, and Huck Finn have endured. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2014, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/93 "2014-11-29T16:35:15Z")
Sprawling historical romances, Anti-Communist/Establishment potboilers, Traditionalist Catholic Biblical epics, New Agey reincarnationist memories of past lives & Atlantis - in the late 70s-early 80s, bookstores would have an entire display of this stuff - all by **Taylor Caldwell**. Now she has three novels which tend to float in & out of print- Dear and Glorious Physician (about St. Luke, and one of my favorite novels), Captains and the Kings (a 1970s NBC miniseries about a Kennedy-esque political family running with & then afoul of a Council on Foreign Relations-esque conspiracy), and Testimony of Two Men (a syndicated 1970s TV miniseries that I vaguely remember except that it was post-Civil War & involved a physician falsely accused of being an abortionist.) A look at Amazon shows that her Dialogues with the Devil (just what it says) and Romance of Atlantis (ditto) are also in print in pricey HBs. Btw, she also was a member of the John Birch Sociey and Liberty Lobby, but did not seem to share the anti-Semitism/Holocaust revisionism that the latter became famous for. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 7:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/94 "2014-11-30T07:02:18Z")
Lloyd C. Douglas. Wrote _The Robe_ and _Magnificent Obsession_ (made into movies), and several other popular books. Erskine Caldwell. Wrote _Tobacco Road_, _God’s Little Acre_ and _Claudelle Inglish_ (all made into movies) and 22 other novels from 1929 to 1973, as well as 150 short stories. A few years ago, _Slate_ wrote this: > [@](#): > > Erskine Caldwell’s _Tobacco Road_, published in 1932, is a greasy hairball of a novel—one of the sickest and most lurid books to have emerged from the literature of the American South. It’s about as nutritious as a plate of pork cracklings. You’re going to feel a little ill when you get up from this table. And I mean all of this, I think, in a good way. I’ve never ready any of his works or even seen the movies. My only contacts with him have been indirect. I’ve listened to Shelly Berman mentioning him seemingly admiringly in a brief tangent to his airlines routine, and I read James Thurber’s short (and funny) parody of Caldwell, “Bateman Comes Home”. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Who besides me has heard of, never mind read anything by, [Vardis Fisher](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vardis_Fisher)? My family had a pb copy of_Jesus Came Again: A Parable_. I think I read a few pages, but that’s all. > [@FriarTed](#): > > … **Taylor Caldwell**. Now she has three novels which tend to float in & out of print- Dear and Glorious Physician (about St. Luke, and one of my favorite novels) Really? I read it in high school and liked it a lot. Recently I got it from the library to reread. I disliked it so much I could barely get through it. ---
**Author:** ![toast\_pakora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3ec8ea/32.png) [@toast\_pakora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toast_pakora)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/95 "2014-11-30T12:25:36Z")
**Kenneth Roberts**? Historical novelist popular in the 30s-50s. _Northwest Passage_ is probably his most famous book. I read _Boon Island_, about a shipwreck on a barren rock in winter and I tell you, I could not put it down. Based on a true story. Excellent writer. At the other end of the spectrum, at a yard sale I came across a stack of paperbacks by Helen MacInnes whom I vaguely knew as a suspense writer of the 50s-60s, European settings mostly. As a joke I bought them all for $3, there were about 15 books, and started reading them. omg, the woman was as right wing as they come. Wiki describes her as an espionage novelist. Her world was \*very \*black and white and in the end, not even good for a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/96 "2014-11-30T12:38:02Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > James Hilton was very big in his day & also had novels turned into movies. His _Random Harvest_ has more politics & less schmoop than the film version. Eh, **Lost Horizon** and **Mr Chips** are still read. And even if they haven’t read the former, most people have probably heard of Shangra-La ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/97 "2014-11-30T17:48:25Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > Eh, **Lost Horizon** and **Mr Chips** are still read. And even if they haven’t read the former, most people have probably heard of Shangra-La Both movies recently aired on TCM, too. Frank Slaughter is another once-prolific author who appears to be largely forgotten. He wrote medical thrillers in the 50s and 60s. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/98 "2014-11-30T17:50:27Z")
> [@rowrrbazzle](#): > > Erskine Caldwell. Wrote _Tobacco Road_, _God’s Little Acre_ and _Claudelle Inglish_ (all made into movies) and 22 other novels from 1929 to 1973, as well as 150 short stories. A few years ago, _Slate_ wrote this:I’ve never ready any of his works or even seen the movies. My only contacts with him have been indirect. I’ve listened to Shelly Berman mentioning him seemingly admiringly in a brief tangent to his airlines routine, and I read James Thurber’s short (and funny) parody of Caldwell, “Bateman Comes Home”. Just sold a paperback of “Tobacco Road”, too! Might have been required reading for a class; IDK. I predict that the people who wrote the “Left Behind” series will be largely forgotten in a decade or two also. May be wrong, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/99 "2014-11-30T20:31:24Z")
Anything by ‘Ouida’ or the Baroness Orzcy. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2014, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439/100 "2014-11-30T21:20:27Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > [QUOTE=Jim’s Son] > 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. Some things never change, do they? 150 years later, we’re being bombarded with dystopian teen fiction. [/QUOTE] Sorry, what’s the connection here? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/prolific-authors-who-have-faded-into-obscurity/705439.md?page=6)