I feel the same way about the U.S. 
What do you mean “we,” White Man?
Going in a slightly different direction… would Nicholas Sparks qualify? His books are fairly successful and gets heightened exposure through the film adaptations. I guess he’d still lose overall to the juggernaut that is J.K. but as deserving as Danielle Steel?
For the record, my 3rd reaction was R. L. Stein
Nicholas Sparks isn’t in the same league as Danielle Steel as far as selling books:
Eric Carle, perhaps?
If your "good for India"was sincerely meant, then I apologise for including your post, and note that the phrase is quite ambiguous.
If that’s the image the words “single Mum” and “very ordinary” evoke for you, I think the problem is with you and not SciFiSam’s description.
No, that’s not what I said at all. SciFiSam seemed in that quotation to be claiming that Rowling came from a background that’s different from most writers. My point was that she came from a background that’s similar to most writers. Her parents were middle-class and college-educated. She graduated from college. She held white-collar office jobs and taught English to adults. She had a child while married, got divorced, and had to go on welfare for a short period. This is very typical of writers.
I’ve heard people say things like “Rowling was a single mother on welfare” where they were clearly implying that she was from a poor family and had illegitimate children. Yes, it was quite clear that they were implying that and believed that from their sloppy reading of articles about her. It certainly sounded to me like SciFiSam was implying that too. My point was that that was not Rowling’s background at all.
SciFiSam didn’t say anything about welfare, poverty, or illegitimacy. She said “a single Mum starting from very ordinary origins”. It looked to me like SciFiSam was saying that people like JK Rowling because she’s an Average Jane made good rather than someone with a colorful past full of either unusual hardship (Harry in the cupboard below the stairs!) or unusual privilege (Harry at an exclusive boarding school!) to draw upon in her work. Unless you think the typical single mother is an unmarried teen welfare queen then I don’t see why you’d assume that “a single Mum starting from very ordinary origins” was meant to suggest this rather than a boring middle class background.
I see Wagner’s point too though. I mean, if her background is perfectly ordinary and pretty much the same as every other author(which it is), why should anyone like her more for it, as Scifi Sam implied people do?
If all that SciFiSam was saying was that “she’s an Average Jane made good,” what was the point of saying it at all? Nearly all famous writers are average people made good. Few writers come from highly privileged backgrounds. Few of them come from extreme poverty. There’s nothing interesting at all in saying that Rowling was “an Average Jane made good.” I was assuming that SciFiSam was actually making some interesting point in his post, not merely stating a rather trivial one. And I have in the past heard people claim that Rowling came from poverty and had illegitimate children. If SciFiSam had claimed that, at least it would be an interesting point, although it’s wildly wrong. If all he was claiming is that she was “she’s an Average Jane made good,” what was the point of saying it at all, since that’s true of most writers?
If it’s so common for successful writers to be single mothers starting from very ordinary origins, maybe one of you could tell me which of the authors already named in this thread fit that description. Because as far as I know, JK Rowling is the only one who’s been mentioned here.
I just looked up Danielle Steel on Wikipedia, as she’s one of the only other women named in this thread at all. I see that she was a single mother for a period of a few months, between her third divorce and her fourth marriage, but she was already a successful author by that time. Her background wasn’t exactly ordinary either:
I’ll ask this here, saves me from starting a new thread: Does anyone here think Chuck Palahniuk is a good writer?
Some quick searching yields these fairly famous writers who were single mothers:
Nikki Giovanni
Toni Morrison
Rebecca West
Judy Blume
Margaret Fuller
Louisa May Alcott (single foster mother)
Grace Paley
Dorothy Sayers
There are several others that I could have included who were single, long-divorced mothers when they began writing when their children were grown.
If your question is another single mother who is as famous as Rowling, the answer is that no one else is as famous a writer as Rowling.
Some evidence that Rowling herself has exaggerated the direness of her problems while she was writing the first book:
I didn’t ask for another author as famous as Rowling, I asked for an author already named in this thread – not one that you had to go looking for. I have no doubt that plenty of single mothers have written books, but I don’t believe it’s so common for famous authors to be single mothers as to be completely unremarkable.
I don’t think that you believe that either, I think you’re just trying to avoid responsibility for spouting off a bunch of offensive stereotypes about single mothers. SciFiSam didn’t say that JK Rowling grew up in ignorance and poverty, she said she came from “very ordinary origins”. You are the one who suggested that the typical single mother is a slum-raised teen welfare queen with 10 kids and claimed that it’s deceptive to call JK Rowling a single mother because she’s a college educated woman from a middle class background.
Lamia writes:
> You are the one who suggested that the typical single mother is a slum-raised
> teen welfare queen with 10 kids and claimed that it’s deceptive to call JK
> Rowling a single mother because she’s a college educated woman from a
> middle class background.
I said no such thing. Now you’re the one insulting me. I said that I had heard other people claim such a thing based on the fact that she was said to be a “single mother” and assumed that SciFiSam was claiming the same thing. If SciFiSam wasn’t claiming the same thing, why did he even bring up the fact that Rowling was a single mother? I don’t find that even to be an interesting fact about her. He does. Why does he find that to be an interesting fact about her? There are lots of single mothers who have become fairly famous writers. I was assuming that he had some point in bringing up the fact that she was a single mother. I was questioning why he did so. Why would he even bring up that fact?
You did say just such a thing:
You are welcome to report me for “insulting you” by holding you accountable for your own words.
**SciFiSam **already explained why she brought it up:
That seems pretty straightforward to me, and a lot more plausible than your interpretation of her post.
This may come as a surprise to you, but some people are interested in different things than you are.
What was your point in that characterization of single mothers as impoverished, irresponsible teenagers squeezing out one baby after another at the taxpayers’ expense? If you did misunderstand SciFiSam’s post about Rowling’s “very ordinary origins” as a claim that she grew up in poverty, you could have just pointed out that Rowling actually came from a middle class family without first indulging in a bunch of offensive and inaccurate stereotypes about what single mothers are like. You keep trying to pin this on SciFiSam and all those “other people” not in this thread who’ve exaggerated Rowling’s hardships, but you are the one who said that describing a woman who was in fact a single mother as a single mother makes her sound like a teen welfare queen with 10 illegitimate children.
I guess so.
Who?
Lamia, again, you’re completely misunderstanding what I said. What’s the point of discussing this further? You’ve decided that you will deliberately misunderstand me and that you will ignore anything I say about it. There’s no point in me even trying to explain what I said, since you just don’t care about what I was trying to say.
Lamia, please drop it – or take it to the Pit if you feel there’s a problem with Wendell that hasn’t been resolved.
This whole discussion is pretty much off-topic.
Thanks,
twickster, Cafe Society moderator