True, and it’s too bad we’re going by publication dates, because Tolkien started the Silmarillion during World War I. That’d give anybody in that book a good 60 year span right there.
If publication dates is the criterion, then I have a technical winner: Ellery Queen. (70 years)
First novel: The Roman Hat Mystery (1929)
Last novel (detailed plot outline, published posthumously): The Tragedy of Errors (1999)
The last Ellery Queen novel written during the authors’ lifetime was A Fine and Private Place (1971), which would not qualify old Ellery if we are talking about only nonposthumous new publications.
Oh, well … Dorothy Sayers’ Lord Peter Wimsey first appears in Whose Body?, published 1923. His last appearance is in Thrones, Dominations, published 1998. But it’s a cheat - Thrones, Dominations was finished off by Jill Paton Walsh many years after Dorothy Sayers’ death.
I was under the impression that Asimov didn’t write that one, but I see I was mistaken. OK, Asimov stands at 42 years.
Well, heck, if you’re gonna do that, then Tarzan wins, hands down. The last Tarzan novel, based on Edgar Rice Burroughs’ notes, was Tarzan – The Lost Adventure, published in 1997, 85 years after the first appearance of Tarzan in 1912.
Doesn’t qualify; the issue isn’t the age of the “character” but rather the passage of time from the date a work about the character was first published to the date a work about the character by the same author* was last published. Read the OP before you post.
The OP specifically limited the issue to stories published by the same author; as noted there are numerous characters who have been written about who would have lives in excess of 100 years if multiple authors were allowed. When did Leslie Charteris last author a book about The Saint?
For much the same reason, we have to carefully examine situations where a book is published posthumously based on work an author has done prior to his/her death. A book like The Silmarillion probably qualifies, given that it was published shortly after the author’s death, and was essentially written entirely by the author. One might still question the issue, as there was a passage of just over three years before publication. Books that consist of fleshed out outlines, or were worked up from notes, aren’t really authored by the deceased; books that are “discovered” later, or published later by family members probably don’t qualify if for no other reason than that the author presumably had decided not to publish the book in the first place. After all, if someone were to “discover” a manuscript by, say, Swift, in which Mr. Gulliver were to appear, could we really say that it qualified as longest for the passage of some 300 years? 
Finally, we should for correctness’ sake note that this thread properly belongs in Cafe Society. I assume a moderator will be along shortly.
Krokodil and Reality Chuck: I had thought of including comic strip characters (my first list included Charlie Brown), but I think it’s best to keep the art forms separate. Although a similar list of comic characters would be interesting, too.
DSYoungEsq: I thought of putting this in Cafe Society, but I am looking for factual answers, not a discussion of relative merits or whatnot, which is why I put it here. But I agree with most of your other points, as you will note below.
Scarlett67: So Tragedy of Errors was actually written by someone else from the outline? If so, I don’t think that would count. But you bring up a good point. Christie might have beaten Wodehouse if they had stuck to the plan to publish The Curtain posthumously. A prolific author might be able to churn out books so fast that there would be a pile left at his/her death, not needing to be completed by someone else.
I’m not trying to rig things for Bertie and Jeeves, but I think the essense of the accomplishment I’m looking for is in the long writing career, not in holding off publication for business reasons. After all, I could win the prize by writing two books, one published today, and the second published, in accordance with my will, 100 years from now. Not quite the point.
So I’ll modify the criteria to allow for author’s death as the final date in case of posthumous works or if the date of the last wholly original work is not clear. And although we are talking mostly about formulaic genre fiction, the kind of thing a protege could learn to mimic, I really must insist on the original author requirement, no collaborators or proteges. (Which is why I’m excluding Ellery Queen, who was, I believe, a collaborative effort from early on.)
So let’s run down our list so far:
58 years: Jeeves and Wooster (Wodehouse)
55 years: Hercule Poirot (Christie)
55 years: The Saint (Charteris)
53 years: Eliots (Bradbury)
46 years: Woodrow Wilson Smith (Heinlein)
43 years: Nero Wolfe (Stout)
41 years: Hari Seldon (Asimov)
40 years: Sherlock Holmes (Conan Doyle)
40 years: Gandalf (Tolkein)
39 years: Daneel Olivaw (Asimov)
35 years: Tarzan (Burroughs)
33 years: Yossarian (Heller)
28 years: Father Callahan (King)
25 years: Roland (King)
20 years: Jack Ryan (Clancy)
Anyone else?
*Closing the italicization of earlier post that removed all the nice formatting of my post.
Hmmm. Let’s try again. Did it work?
Ahhhh! We’re permanently italicized! A fate worse than death! *! *! *! *!Moderators! Save us!
Private Detective fiction, especially pulp fiction, is a great source. Check out these additions to the list. I’m afraid I forgot to jot down the authors, and I think one of them was written by the same guy under two different pseudonyms , but I think I got rid of anyone who was written by multiple authors.
Mike Hammer 49 years (1947-1996)
Perry Mason 40 years (1933-1973)
Shell Scott 37 years (1950-1987)
Brock Callahan 37 years (1955-1992)
Spenser 31 years (1973-2004)
Bertha Cool and Donald Lam 31 years (1939-1970)
Lew Archer 30 (1946-1976)
Sharon McCone 27 (1977-2004)
Dan Fortune 26 (1967-1993)
Milo Milodragovitch 26 (1975-2001)
Toby Peters 26 years (1977-2003)
Matt Scudder 25 years (1976-2001)
(Oh and, Nero Wolfe seems to be only 41 years - Fer-de-Lance was published in 1934)
No, it is literally a detailed plot outline. Fred Dannay did most of the plotting for Ellery Queen stories, and Manfred Lee did the actual writing. This is a complete rough outline, written by Dannay, in a breezy, clipped style, not a finished novel. Lee died before he could do the writing. But it is completely original by one of the original authors. I have it in front of me.
I’ll concede your exclusion on the basis of dates, but I think the exclusion of collaborators is unwarranted. Just because two writers work together (and especially in the near-exclusive manner that Dannay and Lee did) doesn’t make their characters any less “real,” IMHO.
Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey should make the list of honorable mentions. He appeared from 1970 to 1999; 29 years.
While researching this, I was surprised to find that the 181 novels in the Doc Savage pulp series (mainly written by Lester Dent) were published within a span of only sixteen years (1933-1949).
Are kiddie-lit characters in play for this thread’s purpose?
I’d like to offer in the top tier, although they don’t beat out Jeeves:
Eddie Wilson by Carolyn Haywood. First appeared (I think) (though not as the title character) in “B” Is For Betsy, 1939. Last appeared in Eddie’s Friend Boodles, 1991. 51 years.
Ramona Quimby by Beverly Clearly. First appeared (though not as the title character) in Henry Huggins, 1950. Most recent book (author is still alive): Ramona’s World, 1999. 49 years.
Inspector Maigret. First book 1929/30 , last book 1972. Because of this long time line there is always a problem with Maigret’s age . The first book says he was in his mid forties. The last book ,set in the 1970’s with talk of computers and televisions ,would mean that the poor old soul would be still in the police force aged over eighty. In fact Simenon “retired” Maigret before 1940 but then sent him back to work in 1942.
Fritz Leiber published Two Sought Adventure, featuring Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser in 1939. He continued writing about them until Knight and Knave of Swords in 1988, I believe.
That’s 49 years…
Not quite so honourable mentions now all these forty year run characters are being found, but for what it’s worth -
Ruth Rendell has been writing Inspector Wexford novels since 1964. The most recent was 2002, so thats 38 years.
Also another “only in two books but a long way apart” - Kingsley Amis wrote two books with Patrick Standish as the main character, in 1960 and 1988 - so 28 years.
Ed McBain started his 87th Precinct series in 1956 and is still popping them out. That’s 48 years and counting. With any good health he should top Wodehouse.
I’m positive I could name 100 mystery characters whose series have spanned 20 years. Poor Jack Ryan isn’t in the top fifteen. I’ll wager he isn’t in the top 500 overall.
If we are including ‘school story ’ fiction, then Frank Richards (real name Charles Hamilton, 1876-1961) was , according to the Guiness Book of Records, the most prolific writer ever, having written the eqivalent of 1000 full length novels.
His most famous creation was the fat schoolboy Billy Bunter of Greyfriars School, which was orginally a weekly series in the ’ Magnet’ comic published from 1908-1940, and only closed due to wartime paper shortages. Frank Richards continued to writer Bunter( and other school stories) and they were published in hard back after the war, at the rate of one or two per year until he died in 1961.
Still has a great cult following in the UK ; facismile volumes of almost every issue of the Magnet were reprinted until a few years ago. There are several ‘Old Boys Book Clubs’ which read, buy, and exchange old copies of the Magnet
That’s at least 53 years continous writing.
While others have pointed out that the character’s age doesn’t meet the criteria, I’d like to point out that your “no contest” is way wrong. Marvin the Robot from the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series ended up being several times older than the universe itself.
-lv