# Who Are the Least Prolific Best Selling Authors? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 19, 2016, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563 "2016-02-19T16:38:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2016, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/21 "2016-02-19T23:47:45Z")
Thomas Heggen wrote only one book, _Mister Roberts_. The struggle for a second book didn’t end well. > [@](#): > > Bewildered by the fame he had longed for, and under pressure to turn out another bestseller, he found himself with a crippling case of writer’s block. “I don’t know how I wrote Mister Roberts,” he admitted to a friend. “It was spirit writing”. He became an insomniac and tried to cure it with increasing amounts of alcohol and prescription drugs. On 19 May 1949, Heggen drowned in his bathtub at age 30 after an overdose of sleeping pills. His death was ruled a probable suicide, though he left no note and those close to him insisted it was an accident. DrCube, it’s Esme with one “e”. Ask any crossword puzzler. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim_r.mortiss/32/142_2.png) [@Tim\_R.Mortiss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_R.Mortiss)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/22 "2016-02-20T00:04:50Z")
> [@bup](#): > > John Kennedy Toole only wrote _ **A Confederacy of Dunces** _, and then killed himself. > > It wasn’t even published until his mom championed the manuscript. He also wrote a novel called _The Neon Bible_, also published posthumously. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/23 "2016-02-20T00:07:59Z")
JK Rowling. Sure, the series has several books, but it’s just the one story. I believe she did produce another book or two, but it seemed a half-hearted endeavor. ---
**Author:** ![WordMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e8c25b/32.png) [@WordMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WordMan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/24 "2016-02-20T00:09:17Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal) has written only five books since the debut of Black Sunday in 1975 I was talking to a Book Guy - wish I could offer more, but it was someone who I believed should know this stuff - who said that Harris is/was a raging alcoholic. He caught lightning in a bottle with the first two books, and writes others to fund his…lifestyle. If I have this wrong, sorry. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/25 "2016-02-20T00:56:19Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > JK Rowling. Sure, the series has several books, but it’s just the one story. > > I believe she did produce another book or two, but it seemed a half-hearted endeavor. Nah, I don’t think so: (1) Each of the Harry Potter books is an individual story, even if they all together tell a larger story. (2) Even if it’s all one story, it’s a long enough one that she’s hardly in the running for “least prolific.” (3) In addition to the seven Harry Potter books and a small handful of supplementary volumes, she’s written one “mainstream” adult novel and three (so far) mysteries under the pen name of Robert Galbraith. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/26 "2016-02-20T01:00:30Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > Nah, I don’t think so: > (1) Each of the Harry Potter books is an individual story, even if they all together tell a larger story. > (2) Even if it’s all one story, it’s a long enough one that she’s hardly in the running for “least prolific.” > (3) In addition to the seven Harry Potter books and a small handful of supplementary volumes, she’s written one “mainstream” adult novel and three (so far) mysteries under the pen name of Robert Galbraith. Well … maybe. But I still think she counts. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/27 "2016-02-20T01:01:48Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Well … maybe. But I still think she counts. If she counts, then surely J.R.R. Tolkien does. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/28 "2016-02-20T01:09:13Z")
> [@Thudlow\_Boink](#): > > If she counts, then surely J.R.R. Tolkien does. I would say he’s not prolific as far as novels are concerned, but he wrote [a helluva lot of other stuff](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._R._R._Tolkien_bibliography). ---
**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:** [February 20, 2016, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/29 "2016-02-20T01:09:23Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > …Speaking of Salinger’s prolificacy, wasn’t he writing the whole time he was a recluse, that is, most of his life? I was excited when he died because I thought there was a lot of unpublished Salinger work that would get published soon, but it’s been five or six years now. Does anybody know the status of his unreleased work? Is it going to be published? Looks like we just might have some more JDS to look forward to: [J. D. Salinger - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger#Legacy) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/30 "2016-02-20T02:24:11Z")
Walter M. Miller Jr.'s only novel was _A Canticle for Leibowitz_, although he wrote many short stories. Had one of those interesting late night bar conversations at an sf con with Terry Bisson telling us how he wrote the sequel. ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/31 "2016-02-20T02:47:10Z")
James Joyce? Only three novels in about 25 years. OK, there’s a short story collection and some poetry, too. I’d be he could be considered a best-seller, given how many times those books have been assigned in college courses over the years. Of course, how many of the copies were actually read may be a _very_ different number… ---
**Author:** ![tavalla](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tavalla/32/89_2.png) [@tavalla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavalla)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 9:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/32 "2016-02-20T09:15:11Z")
Donna Tartt: The Secret History (1992); The Little Friend (2002); The Goldfinch (2013). At that rate, her next book will be 2023 or so. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2016, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/33 "2016-02-20T11:34:41Z")
Not sure how “best selling” it was but Norman Maclean published only the acclaimed [A River Runs Through It](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_River_Runs_Through_It_(novel)) during his lifetime. Maclean was already 73 when the book was published.[Young Men and Fire](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Men_and_Fire) was published after his death. At the base of the Michael Jordan statue at Chicago’s United Center is a plaque reading: “At that moment I knew, surely and clearly, that I was witnessing perfection. He stood before us, suspended above the earth, free from all its laws like a work of art, and I knew, just as surely and clearly, that life is not a work of art, and that the moment could not last.” - Norman Maclean \*A River Runs Through It, 1976 \* However the quote isn’t in the book and presumably belongs to screenwriter Richard Friedenberg ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2016, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/34 "2016-02-20T18:20:35Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > I was talking to a Book Guy - wish I could offer more, but it was someone who I believed should know this stuff - who said that Harris is/was a raging alcoholic. He caught lightning in a bottle with the first two books, and writes others to fund his…lifestyle. > > If I have this wrong, sorry. Let me guess: he enjoys a nice Chianti 😃 ---
**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:** [February 20, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/35 "2016-02-20T18:28:57Z")
> [@tavalla](#): > > Donna Tartt: The Secret History (1992); The Little Friend (2002); The Goldfinch (2013). At that rate, her next book will be 2023 or so. Suits me. _The Goldfinch_ did nothing for me. ---
**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:** [February 20, 2016, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/36 "2016-02-20T18:34:38Z")
Ken Kesey’s only published works are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion,. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/37 "2016-02-21T05:03:54Z")
Anna Sewell wrote only one work, her novel _Black Beauty_. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 5:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/38 "2016-02-21T05:51:39Z")
> [@WordMan](#): > > Grace Metalious, **Peyton Place** Metalious wrote two other books. > **[Grace Metalious](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Metalious)** > > Grace Metalious (September 8, 1924 – February 25, 1964) was an American author known for her novel Peyton Place, one of the best-selling works in publishing history. > Marie Grace DeRepentigny was born into poverty and a broken home in the mill town of Manchester, New Hampshire. Writing from an early age, at Manchester Central High School, she acted in school plays. After graduation, she married George Metalious in a Catholic church in Manchester in 1943, and became a housewife and mother. The c... ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/39 "2016-02-21T19:25:06Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > Metalious wrote two other books. > > [Grace Metalious - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Metalious) Correction: three. However, “Return to Peyton Place” was largely written by a ghostwriter and her editor. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563/40 "2016-02-22T03:05:29Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Ken Kesey’s only published works are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Sometimes a Great Notion,. Kesey also _sort of_ wrote [Caverns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caverns_%28novel%29). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-are-the-least-prolific-best-selling-authors/746563.md?page=3)