Authors whose other work is over shadowed by one tale?

[Lobolover]

Now,I quite readily believe Ewers belongs to this section-his only story,which is readily accesible without deep delving is "The Spider"-dont get me wrong, its a marvelous tale,BUT people ,who arent exactely ready to give out hundreds of dollars or spend hours searching,wont probably ever learn of such stories of his like "The end of John Hamilton Llewellyn" or "The dead Jew", or "Tomato Sauce",some of his best,all because "The spider" is one to pervade everything.Im not even talking about reading his NOVELS-personal hell for me to just get "The sorcerer's aprentice" of a library.

But this is a GOOD case,where the story in question is a GOOD one and a characteristic example of the writer.However,there are writers out there, whose REAL work is over shadowed by somethign diferent,which apeals to moraly-social-realistic book critics,who say that an introduction of a supernatural element is "bad" in a book (see critique on "Woodsmoke")-this aplies to Hartley-while I can get so many "GO Between"'s to build me a chateu,I cant find any story colection whatsoever,in prices at least distantly human.

Your opinion?

 

[j d worthington]

Lobo: I'm a bit confused by the latter part of your post. I'm not sure what you mean by the following:

this aplies to Hartley-while I can get so many "GO Between"'s to build me a chateu,I cant find any story colection whatsoever,in prices at least distantly human.

Could you clarify, please?

On the subject of Hartley... actually, while his other work is more widely known, some of his supernatural tales are considered among the best of his work, and for that matter, the best in the field... at least, for the 20th century. This is especially true of "A Visitor from Down Under" and "The Travelling Grave", both of which are frequently anthologized.

On the whole, though, I gather you are asking for those whose weird or supernatural (or fantasy, or what-have-you) is overshadowed by their more "mainstream" work, both critically and popularly. Or am I completely missing your gist here?

 

[Lobolover]

Eithet that,or their whole weird imput overshadowed by ONE tale,and one tale only.Case in Point:Gaskell.

 

[j d worthington]

Eithet that,or their whole weird imput overshadowed by ONE tale,and one tale only.Case in Point:Gaskell.

I'm still not certain what you meant by the bit I quoted above. Could you clarify?

 

[Lobolover]

Uh-DO YOU THINK-SOME PEOPLES WORK-IS OVERSHADOWED-BY-JUST ONE OF THEIR WORKS-NOT NECESSARILY OF THE SAME VAIN? (My caps button got stuck :/)

 

[j d worthington]

Let's try this again. Here's the quote I had trouble making sense out of:

this aplies to Hartley-while I can get so many "GO Between"'s to build me a chateu,I cant find any story colection whatsoever,in prices at least distantly human.

Are you speaking of Hartley here, or someone else? What do you mean by "Go Between's"? And a story collection by whom? I'm simply trying to understand the above statement, which seems to be referring to several different things....

 

[Lobolover]

L.P.Hartley,whose only availible book to me is "The go between",which is the only thing he was acknowledged for by the editors of the translation.While I wasnt able to find one single colection of Hartley,or as much as a STORY in this country at all.

 

[j d worthington]

Thank you. That provides information which was entirely missing before, and thus clarifies the statement.

 

[Lobolover]

and you have nothing to add to the topic ???

 

[j d worthington]

Oh, there are several that come to mind, actually. "Monk" Lewis, whose novel has overshadowed all the other tales (not to mention the verse) that he wrote, several of which are at least worthy of revival; "The Red Lodge" has largely overshadowed all the rest of Wakefield's work -- a damned fine tale, but he also wrote others in the same league, and they get considerably less notice; "The Yellow Wall Paper", by Gilman, is reprinted everywhere, but she also wrote a few other tales with weird touches worthy of note (not to mention her other work, which is also quite notable); John Buchan's weird work is almost entirely overshadowed by his novel The Thirty-nine Steps, but what makes it even more ironic is that so many of his other tales of Hannay also sleep in the shadow of that one.

The list is, in fact, extremely long....

 

[Lobolover]

Well,I need to wait for my copy of "They return at evening" to come (and knowing interstate loan from a city only maybe 200,250 km away took them well over a month-2010 cant come soon enough)-though ive heard some interesting praise on "And He shall sing...." (no spoilers,please)-also,some people,wokring on those "one story per author only,or the WORLD IMPLODES!" colection rather bank on a "secure" tale,then go to the pains of finding out if another tale wouldnt be as good.

 

[Lobolover]

Well,considering how I prefer irony,how about mentioning some whose weird works get overshadowd by NON weird books,like the Buchan?

Also-what other Gilman tales could you mention?

 

[Werewoman]

I think this happens more than we realize, but the first one that popped into my head was 'Conan of Cimmeria' by REH. I like 'Bran Mak Morn; the Last King of the Picts' and 'Kull: Exile of Atlantis'.

 

[dask]

This might not be totally accurate but I wonder if Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game' could fit in here. I mean he's a regular Edgar Rice Burroughs in the quantity of books department yet everywhere I turn I see books tied into it some how. There's even a comic book. Remarkable when you stop to think "Ender's Game" was his first published story back in the late seventies.

 

[Omphalos]

I thought the next two Ender books were good. Speaker for the Dead won a Hugo and a Nebula, as did Ender's Game.

 

[dask]

I thought the next two Ender books were good. Speaker for the Dead won a Hugo and a Nebula, as did Ender's Game.

Never got around to reading the books, just the original story when it appeared in Analog. Liked it so much I wrote Card a fan letter. I've no doubt the books are worthy of the awards they won.

 

[Connavar]

This might not be totally accurate but I wonder if Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game' could fit in here. I mean he's a regular Edgar Rice Burroughs in the quantity of books department yet everywhere I turn I see books tied into it some how. There's even a comic book. Remarkable when you stop to think "Ender's Game" was his first published story back in the late seventies.

That tends to happen to authors that dont do another work later in their career that does better criticly or popularity wise as their first famous works.

Card is not near the only to have a first book/series he is mostly famous for and never does better work in people's eyes.

 

[Fiberglass Cyborg]

Robert W. Chambers, kiiiiiind of, for "The King in Yellow". It's actually the first four stories in the collection of that name that are remembered and referenced by later Wierd Tale writers. Those four stories form a kind of story-suite. In his own day, Chambers was pretty succesful in multiple genres, but The King in Yellow seems to be his only book which is still in print today.

 

[KiraAnn]

I would place A. Conan Doyle in this category. Sherlock Holmes over shadows anything else he wrote, like his stories about Professor Challenger and the Lost World.

 

[BigBadBob141]

I would say "The Monkeys Paw" out shone everything else W.W.Jacobs wrote.