One Hit Wonders (SFF Authors that are noted for just one story)

One example that leaps to mind is Hope Mirrlees' wonderful Lud-in-the-Mist; the only fictional work this enigmatic and fascinating woman ever wrote, and yet it stands as a true classic of fantasy.
 
There's always Phyllis Marie Wadsworth whose second novel Overmind appears to have been well-received and sold, but whose third novel, Descent To Earth, never materialised.

I've long been looking for a copy of her very first - Young Miss Isotope.
 
Ian Whates said:
One example that leaps to mind is Hope Mirrlees' wonderful Lud-in-the-Mist; the only fictional work this enigmatic and fascinating woman ever wrote, and yet it stands as a true classic of fantasy.
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The only one ? no wonder every time you see her name its connected with that then :rolleyes:

I was wondering if she was one of those who had many works that get eclipsed by a really famous one.
 
Connavar said:
The only one ? no wonder every time you see her name its connected with that then :rolleyes:

I was wondering if she was one of those who had many works that get eclipsed by a really famous one.
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No, Con, if I remember correctly, she only wrote one other book and that was a biography. Real shame, because Lud is a wonderful read.

Michael Swanwick has recently released a biographical book called Hope-in-the-Mist about the author, who was considered something of a maverick and a great beauty of her age. She's mentioned in the works of various others including Virginia Woolf, who described her as, "A very self conscious, wilful, prickly & perverse young woman, rather conspicuously well dressed & pretty, with a view of her own about books & style, an aristocratic & conservative tendency in opinion, & a corresponding taste for the beautiful & elaborate in literature." He went on to say that she was "rather an exquisite apparition."

I just wish she'd written more.
 
blacknorth said:
Huh!

Dexy's had at least six or seven top ten hits, including two number ones - Come On Eileen and Geno. Young Soul Rebels was a top ten album in 1980. Too-Rye-Aye was a multi-million selling abum in 1982. Their third, Don't Stand Me Down, didn't do much business, but it's widely recognised as one of the finest albums of the 1980's.

And Kevin Rowland is a genius.

Difficult, isn't it? ;)
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sorry, I wasn't into pop back then, but you have to give me "99 Luftballons"
 
Pamela Zoline comes to mind. Something like five short stories, all absolutely brilliant, and no other SF. She had a collection called Heat Death of the Universe.

Ward Moore too, with Bring the Jubilee. Although I love that author and have read three other books by him I know that Bring the Jubilee was the only one that really hit.

Alexi Panshin, though he has written a bunch of fiction and some excellent non-fiction in the SF field only hit big once with his Heinleinian coming-of-age story Rite of Passage.

Mark Clifton might fit the bill too. I think all of his novels were fix-ups and were all collaborations, but he had a Hugo winner and then....nothing.

Guy Endore, with The Werewolf of Paris

Ill have to look at my book cases when I get home. There are a few others I cant recall right now.
 
Oh, that sounds very like Virginia Woolf.... great quote!

Yes, Lud-in-the-Mist is one I'd place high on that list.

I think I'd also note Pamela A. Zoline's "The Heat Death of the Universe". She never wrote a great deal, though all of her pieces I've read are equally well done; but this one is the one for which she is remembered -- one could well argue it is the quintessential New Wave short story, in many ways: richly literary, varying from the lyrical to the pungently "pruned and clawed" prose (to use Aldiss' phrase); carrying layers of significance from the tragic to the comic and satirical; and simply a superb example of the modern short story. No wonder she used it as the title for her only (iirc) collection of tales....

EDIT: Harrumph! Omphalos beat me to the punch as I was posting......
 
An example of an author being remembered for one work would be Bram Stoker "Dracula" while he wrote a good deal others.

I have not read his other works but I did buy this book anf it looks very interesting. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Bram-Stoker/Bram-Stoker/e/9780760779606/?itm=1&usri=bram+stoker+Library+of+Essential+Writers

Bram Stoker Entertained readers of the Victorian Era with tales of suspense and the supernatural that have helped to make his name synonymous with the literary thriller. This omnibus collects in a single volume for the first time his five best novels of mystery and terror - Dracula, The Mystery of the Sea, The Jewel of the Seven Stars, The Lady of the Shroud, and The Lair of the White Worm.
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On Stoker... there's a reason Dracula is the only one to be remembered by most people. Not that there aren't good things about several of the others, but they are much more uneven and often quite dreadful. Lair of the White Worm, for example, has such truly awful writing that it practically ruins a wonderful idea; while Jewel of the Seven Stars has some major stumbles along the way. Some of his short stories, though, are well worth looking into.
 
This thread is a fine idea, authors i have never heard with books that are well rated or highly rated. Its like reading short reviews.


Omphalos:

Panshin i thought was were rated for more than one hit. I mean i read about him when i read articles about important Russian writers modern,classic,SFF etc
 
The Panshin I am thinking of was born, I believe, in the US, although he may be of Russian extraction. Are you maybe confusing him with Zamaytin or Tolstoy? I think that Tolstoy's first name was Alexei too.

Anyway, I wasn't really sure that he belonged on this list, Connavar, because I know he has written more fiction then just Rite of Passage. That is the only novel by him that I have ever read - Ive read a lot of his non-fiction including The World Beyond the Hill (in the middle of that one right now, actually), Heinlein in Dimension, and SF in Dimension, and some short stuff. But yes, He has written other fiction. Couldn't tell you a thing about it though.
 
How about George R. Stewart? I've never seen any other book by him apart from Earth Abides.

Carl Sagan? I think Contact was his only SF novel.



(In music, Edison Lighthouse, with Love Grows (Where My Rosemary Goes) and Thunderclap Newman - Something in the Air come to mind...:p)
 
GOLLUM said:
The other benefit of this thread is having folk post other books by authors that may be less well known but still good AND potential stinkers.

I've never heard of Minds of Billy Milligan nor Cold Equations so already my horizons become broadened again.
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NEVER HEARD OF THE COLD EQUATIONS?:eek:

Oh, crude, Pyan got to EARTH ABIDES before me. How about THE RIM-WORLD LEGACY by F.A. Javor?

Or SOLO KILL by S. Kye Boult (Willaim E. Cochrane)?

Or VENUS ON THE HALF SHELL by KilgoreTrout?
 
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j. d. worthington said:
Well, Stewart wrote quite a bit...

...I have heard of one or two, but knew nothing about them until looking them up for this....
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Agreed - but I would argue that he's noted (as per the thread title) only for EA...
 
dask said:
VENUS ON THE HALF SHELL by KilgoreTrout?
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Ah, good old Kilgore Trout -- an SF author invented by Kurt Vonnegut, appearing in several of his novels, most notably Slaughterhouse-Five, while Galapagos is narrated by Trout's son. Reputedly, Trout started out as a fictionalised version of Theodore Sturgeon but grew into something else entirely.

Venus on the Half-Shell was actually written by Philip Jose Farmer, adopting the Trout pseudonym (much to Vonnegut's displeasure), so not a one hit wonder.
 
Tevis is hardly relevant - he wrote two sf novels, the second of which, Mockingbird, is in the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. He also wrote The Hustler and The Color of Money, which are better known.
 
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