I’m wondering if there are any authors who wrote and got published a single novel and then never wrote another novel. Or maybe never got another one published. OK, there’s lots of unknowns who fall into this category, but what about those who’ve written a well-known book?
The one example I know of is Harper Lee. She wrote To Kill a Mockingbird but that’s it. I believe she never wrote another word of fiction.
Ralph Waldo Elison, who wrote The Invisible Man comes close. But posthumously, Juneteenth was published (it took him the rest of his life after the first book to write the second).
Anyone have any others, preferably from the last couple centuries?
Very informative thread, but if I interpret the OP s/he wants to know of authors who only published one fiction book and because famous (I am adding the last part about “famous” since there is a good number of writers who published, failed miserably with their book, and gave up on that career). So, that link provides a couple. I was going to state Harriet Beecher Stowe (Uncle Tom’s Cabin), but upon further research I believe she published other fiction books. The search is still on.
Well, if we can count people who died soon after their first novel was published, Emily Bronte. (There’s been speculation that she was working on another one, but if so, the manuscript was destroyed.)
It looks like Margaret Mitchell is another one-novel author. I’ve never heard of H.P. Saint (Memoirs of an Invisible Man) nor of Lady Murasaki(The Tale of Genji), but apparently they qualify. Or perhaps they would if they were better known, since I did say well-known book. Of course, your definitions of well-known may be different than mine.
Among the two-novel authors are John Kennedy Toole and Walter Miller.
Anyway, it looks like that thread preempted mine. I guess I should have done a search.
Actually, that other thread was for “one hit” authors, which includes authors who wrote one good book, then a bunch of stuff that sucked, as well as authors that actually only wrote one book, which happened to be good. The OP seemed to be asking more about literary value than popularity, leading to a good discussion because of the inherent subjectivity (I’m still astonished that people exist who think “Sometimes a Great Notion” was not a good book).
Here’s an almost: John Kennedy Toole, who wrote the funniest book ever, “A Confederacy of Dunces”, had only one other published novel, and it was something he wrote when he when he was quite young and they dredged it up posthumously.
Also, I don’t believe Richard Farina had any novels published besides the beat classic “Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me”.
Walter Miller wrote the brilliant Canticle for Leibowitz and spent the rest of his life writing the sequel, which was published after his death, but I haven’t read it.
I don’t think Murasaki Shikibu really is what the OP was going after. The Tale of Genji was a life’s work, not just a single novel published with no further writing (though ‘publishing’ isn’t quite the write word, as it was 800-odd years ago). In fact, it’s debatable whether she ever intended to continue the story – as it is, it may or may not be unfinished.
I see it more along the lines of someone who only wanted to write a single book or who somehow couldn’t come up with another one.
It looks this might be IMHO or Cafe Society if it’s only a poll, unless the question is why this happens with some authors.
Wonder Boys deals with the topic somewhat (the main character is a writer unable to write a second novel), but it’s not really a full study or anything.
My comments about Murasaki should be applied in the other thread; instead I appear to be telling the thread starter dtilque what his OP was about. My apologies.
At any rate, she certainly doesn’t qualify (as per the Cafe Society thread) as someone who wrote one thing, then nothing but garbage, since her major work is taken in its entirety. She might barely qualify as a one-book author, but I think it might be stretching it.
After investigating Lady Murasaki, I realized that I had heard of her before, but she’s not the kind of one-novel author I am looking for. They didn’t really have publishing as we know it today in her time and country. I understand she wrote her stuff just for her own enjoyment and that of her friends and never thought anyone else would see it.
There have been some good additions made in this thread. I suppose I should add a subcategory for those authors who died young shortly after publishing their single book (Heggen and Bronte and any others).
I thought of Salinger, but investigation showed he’d published some other fiction, although most seems to be short stories.
As for whether this goes in IMHO, I wasn’t quite sure when I started the thread. But I figured that I’m not asking anyone’s opinion on the books, just that the books be well-known. I didn’t even think about Cafe Society when starting the thread. But if a moderator thinks it should be moved, I’m not going to argue.
Although not strictly a novel,A River Runs through It by Norman Maclean, from his book of short stories was his only fiction work. His only other bookYoung Men and Fire was an account of an actual event. Maclean did not write anything until he was in his 70’s. By the way they are excellent stuff.
These two, though published in one volume, originally appeared seperately as short stories in The New Yorker. (Well, short for that magazine. Call them both novellas.)
Per the publishing history in my paperback 31st edition (October, 1977):
“Franny” appeared in the The New Yorker January 1955.
Franny & Zooey was indeed published as two seperate stories. Many of Dickens novels were published one chapter at a time as they were written. When published as such, they were properly regarded as serials. When the chapters were gathered together into a single volume, they became a novel.
The Lord of the Rings was a single story broken up into three volumes for ease of publication. Each of the three volumes is considered a novel unto itself.
Franny and Zooey, though published as seperate novellas, when combined into a single volume, can fairly be regarded as a novel.
My contribution: Carl Sagan wrote a great many books, but only one novel: Contact.
You could probably include a number of celebrity authors who were able to sell one novel of the strength of their fame and novelty value. I believe Naomi Campbell, Tony Curtis, Marlene Dietrich, Richard Dreyfuss, Newt Gingrich, Gary Hart, Gypsy Rose Lee, Jim Lehrer, and Harry Reasoner are all examples of this.
Single Novel Authors
Richard Farina Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up To Me
Harper Lee To Kill a Mockingbird
Margaret Mitchell Gone With the Wind
Carl Sagen Contact
H.P. Saint Memoirs of an Invisible Man
Posthumous Second Novel
Ralph Waldo Elison The Invisible Man
Walter Miller A Canticle for Leibowitz
John Kennedy Toole A Confederacy of Dunces
Died Young
Emily Bronte Wuthering Heights
Thomas Heggen Mister Roberts
Tom Reamy Blind Voices
I didn’t include Little Nemo’s suggestions since I am more interested in well-known novels than well-known authors. Well, a couple books on my list are not generally well-known, but seem to be to a subgroup (not so sure about Reamy, though).
I could almost add Anne Bronte to the Died Young list, as she managed only two books before dying.