# Which author has had the most books turned into movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2003, 11:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264 "2003-06-25T11:04:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264/41 "2016-02-15T13:54:30Z")
> [@choie](#): > > If we’re going for percentages of entire published output to film adaptation, Jane Austen should be considered. Admittedly her novels were small in number, but as far as adaptations go she’s at the 100% mark. Even the much-less-known _Lady Susan_ has been adapted for a film release this year, retitled _Love & Friendship_. With bonus points for Zombies? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264/42 "2016-02-15T20:15:20Z")
> [@Ethilrist](#): > > On the other hand, they were all made from _plays_, not books, so they don’t count. Several people made this point, but I don’t think it’s valid. A _book_ is a method of packaging printed material, with individual pages bound between covers. It’s not a description of the form of the contents, which might be a play, a novel, poetry, non-fiction, or photographs. Shakespeare’s plays have all been published as books. Many of them were even published as individual books while he was alive. I say they count. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264/43 "2016-02-15T22:53:32Z")
Neil Simon and Paddy Chayefsky have to be up there (I don’t make a huge distinction between plays and books in this contexts, though I draw the line at teleplays). With Simon, it’s a little unclear how many source plays were adapted, since several languages are involved, and third-hand inspirations from _The Odd Couple_ and _The Sunshine Boys_ really gum up the count. Ask again in ten years, and I bet Neil Gaiman and JK Rowling will be contenders. Edgar Rice Burroughs’ characters pop up a lot and he wrote around 80 novels, but as far as I can tell, only twelve of his books have been directly adapted to film: **Tarzan of the Apes A Princess of Mars The People That Time Forgot The Land that Time Forgot** (I can’t swear that these two aren’t the same book) **At the Earth’s Core Jungle Girl The Lad and The Lion Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar Jungle Tales of Tarzan The Return of Tarzan The Son of Tarzan The Oakdale Affair** ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264/44 "2016-02-15T23:02:22Z")
Comic books aren’t being addressed, and except for origin stories, superhero comics should probably be excluded. (Sorry, Stan!) There is one cartoonist, though, whose stories were more story-focused, and whose comics were adapted more-or-less faithfully into 50 (low budget) films: [Francisco Coching](http://alanguilan.com/museum/coching.html), the founder of modern Filipino comics! ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264/45 "2016-02-15T23:49:37Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > With bonus points for Zombies? The original interpretation of _I Am Legend_ was vampires, and the author wasn’t (un)dead in 2003, but I am in awe of seeing Richard Matheson’s name on so many disparate properties. Lots of horror, sure, but also stuff like _Real Steel_ (originally _Steel_) and TV shows. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-author-has-had-the-most-books-turned-into-movies/184264.md?page=2)