1936 -- Which Authors Will Survive?

[Extollager]

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/paleofuture/

 

[Connavar]

Which of those authors are forgotten in your part of the world? Is Sinclair Lewis an important writer in US today? Or is he lesser name now like the first male Swedes who won Nobel Prize are forgotten?

To me i know Eugene O'Neil and James Branch Cabell are far from forgotten and important big names today. O'Neil is worshipped by play,literary classics fans here. We are actually gonna have literary evening to discuss,analyze one of his works soon in our literary society for University students.

 

[Extollager]

Which of those authors are forgotten in your part of the world? Is Sinclair Lewis an important writer in US today? Or is he lesser name now like the first male Swedes who won Nobel Prize are forgotten?

To me i know Eugene O'Neil and James Branch Cabell are far from forgotten and important big names today. O'Neil is worshipped by play,literary classics fans here. We are actually gonna have literary evening to discuss,analyze one of his works soon in our literary society for University students.

I'd say Cabell is nearly unknown in the US except for fans of the Ballantine fantasy series of 1969-75. Sinclair Lewis is probably very little-read.

 

[Connavar]

I'd say Cabell is nearly unknown in the US except for fans of the Ballantine fantasy series of 1969-75. Sinclair Lewis is probably very little-read.

Cabell is seen as literary fantasy classic here and i think he is better known in Europe but of course he isnt as mainstream as O'Neil for example. To me he is seems like Peake, you know his name and his famous books. Bit of cult writer as the quality writers tend to become. He is known to fans like us mostly.


How about the other names? Are they even little known or totally forgotten? Its interesting literary acclaimed authors who is trendy and popular is forgotten just 70 years later. Readers,critics are very fickle.

 

[J-Sun]

That's actually a pretty good list. I can't say I haven't heard of James Truslow Adams but I can't swear I have, either. I've heard of all the rest and have even read Lewis (Arrowsmith and Babbit, I believe, though the memories are very dim), Santayana (The Sense of Beauty, Scepticism and Animal Faith), and I think I read some of a collected volume of Frost. He doesn't really do it for me but he's still one of the major American poets. I think Millay is seen as a bit old-fashioned, perhaps? But she's still a fairly big deal to some people, I think. I've read her in anthologies but she's never triggered further interest. Benet might not be considered much now, but I couldn't say for sure. Dreiser is still fairly well known, I think, though maybe not very well liked. O'Neill and Cather are still fairly known and esteemed. And Cabell is one of these people who everybody says nobody knows but if everyone's saying it, they must know him. I'm pretty sure an author I like liked Cabell so I downloaded a couple of Gutenberg files of him to take a look, though I haven't done it yet.

Those Colophon readers did a reasonable job. If you look at general booklists - particularly bestsellers - from a similar timeframe it's usually a study in obscurity.

I guess the editors did better (allowing for a gigantic miss I'd never heard of - Hervey Allen) because Hemingway, Mencken, and Wolfe are all still huge.

Still, you never know with lists like these. If you'd asked in the 1890s if RL Stevenson would be famous, most people would have said yes, but in the 1930s it probably would have seemed wrong, and now it seems right. Some things ebb and flow.

As far as the article's other question about who today will last to the 2080s, it's an interesting question, but I don't have an answer. I suspect almost nothing I like will last and almost everything that will last, I dislike.

Which raises a related, kind of contrarian question, though: does it really matter? Whether someone will read something in 2080 doesn't make a book any better or worse for me as I read it now. It's quite possible that I experience something in my ephemera that no one in all their reading of classics in the future can ever experience and that, here and now, those timely books are more valuable than the timeless ones that may only be such through a sort of non-specificity that makes them semi-relevant to all times and specifically perfectly relevant to none.* (And then you can go on debating the value of "relevance" in the first place.)

I dunno - it's all gonna end up ashes around dying suns anyway. Carpe diem!

___
* Just to clarify, I'm not speaking against classics either now or in the future - as a musty Hellenophile who reads archaic forms like poetry and philosophy that would hardly make sense - but just playing devil's advocate and arguing for the merits of the now, too.

 

[j d worthington]

Cabell is certainly less well known today than he was then, but he is far from forgotten. Not only is his work read and referred to elsewhere (especially the UK; see the references by Moorcock, Clute, etc.), but various of them continue to see reprint through different publishers. Dover generally has at least a few in print; Wildside Press had quite an extensive reprint program, beyond the Poictesme books (though they had most of the Biography in print as well).

The ones who have probably fared the worst (aside from Adams, whom I have heard of but not read) would be Dreiser and Benet, especially the latter; but even here they are still read to some degree; and Dreiser is still seen as one of the giants of that type of literature. The others still remain in print and read by a fairly wide spectrum of readers, even if their numbers are not that great.

So, overall, their predictions were quite respectably successful; more so than I think would be the case with most readers today, to be frank... though I could certainly be wrong....

 

[GOLLUM]

An interesting list.

As someone who considers themselves to be reasonably widely read I must say I've never heard of Millay or Santayana whilst Adams I only know of, certainly never read anything of his. Admittedly my focus is heavily weighted to fiction ala short stories and novels per se but I doubt other than some academics not many would be the wiser as to these writers where I live (Australia).

Robert Frost and Theodore Dreiser would probably be the two biggest 'names' here, Lewis and O'Neil to a lesser extent. Willa Cather, a particular favourite of mine, is also known outside of academic circles but not as widely (IMO) as she should be. Caball also might be on a par with Lewis in the popularity stakes. Benet I only know through a couple of short stories and would be virtually unknown here (or as least as 'well known' as Millay or Santayana).

 

[Fried Egg]

Well, the only author on that list I am familiar with is James Branch Cabell and I only read one of his books: "The Silver Stallion" which I didn't think very highly of, I have to say.

 

[Connavar]

Well, the only author on that list I am familiar with is James Branch Cabell and I only read one of his books: "The Silver Stallion" which I didn't think very highly of, I have to say.

You have to read Jurgen and when Jack Vance fantasy style is compared to and claimed to be influenced by James Branch Cabell books like Jurgen i say we should respect his reputation and read his most acclaimed book.

I will judge him with Jurgen and like Peake with his best books and Edisson with his classic fantasy book.

 

[j d worthington]

You might also try Something About Eve, Figures of Earth, or (for a rather different type of book) The Cream of the Jest. A personal favorite of mine, however, is Beyond Life....

On Jurgen... I wouldn't claim it as Cabell's best, or even most acclaimed, though it was certainly the one which got him the most attention as a controversy, when a bluenose organization attempted to have it banned for obscenity. (Which it isn't, and wasn't, even by the standards of the day, save for such mindsets.) But it is a good book, full of cleverness, humor, compassion, pathos (as well as bathos), and some of the most beautiful use of the language of any American writer of the period that one is likely to find.

 

[Connavar]

On Jurgen... I wouldn't claim it as Cabell's best, or even most acclaimed, though it was certainly the one which got him the most attention as a controversy, when a bluenose organization attempted to have it banned for obscenity. (Which it isn't, and wasn't, even by the standards of the day, save for such mindsets.) But it is a good book, full of cleverness, humor, compassion, pathos (as well as bathos), and some of the most beautiful use of the language of any American writer of the period that one is likely to find.

That is what i mean because i dont know which is his best book if i havent read any of them. I meant Jurgen is his most famous one, put forward the most by critics today, the language you mentioned i have read several times articles about it and Jurgen in mainstream american book sites,papers. Im gonna try him with one of those books than one unknown book of his that might be his weakest effort.

 

[Gordian Knot]

Thought it might be interesting to hear a response from a used book dealer's point of view. As such this POV has nothing to do with literary quality, rather popularity with today's readers who buy books. (As opposed to readers who, for example, get books from the library).

Sinclair Lewis - still asked for occasionally.
Willa Cather - still very popular.
Eugene O’Neill - mostly forgotten.
Edna St. Vincent Millay - still popular.
Robert Frost - the most popular of the bunch.
Theodore Dreiser - mostly forgotten.
James Truslow Adams - mostly forgotten.
George Santayana - mostly forgotten.
Stephen Vincent Benet - still very popular.
James Branch Cabell - mostly forgotten.

As a group the poets have fared better over time than the novelists. Interestingly, the age group that asks for these poets tend to be on the younger side of 30!

 

[Gordian Knot]

You know, upon reflection, I realize just how completely WRONG the people of 1936 were! lol. Except for Frost, there are a number of authors who remain much more popular today than any on this list.

A few examples:

Ayn Rand.
Agatha Christie.
William Faulkner.
George Orwell.
John Steinbeck.
C.S. Lewis.
P.G. Wodehouse.
Robert E. Howard.
H.P. Lovecraft.

 

[J-Sun]

Almost all of those come just after 1936, though, or are pulp. I think only Christie, Faulkner, and Wodehouse had written their signature (or in some cases, any) work by 1936 and Faulkner may not have gotten known for it until later and Wodehouse was British which apparently would exclude him from the list though it's not specified. And while Christie (also British) wasn't pulp, she probably wasn't considered lit'rature by the readers of the magazine. IOW, yes, they're misses, but I wouldn't have expected them to be hits.

If non-US writers are up, they certainly missed Hesse, Huxley, Kafka (though I don't know how quickly his posthumous fame came), and maybe Maugham and surely many others. (I know very little about literature, especially of that era, especially of fiction.) If pulpsters are up, they also missed Burroughs.

As far as poets, Eliot may have been considered foreign and Pound may already have been on the outs for politics but I found Cummings to be the most glaring omission though they may have regarded him as short-lived due to his experimental surface.

And, assuming Santayana is on as an American philosopher, I wonder where Dewey is.

 

[Connavar]

Thought it might be interesting to hear a response from a used book dealer's point of view. As such this POV has nothing to do with literary quality, rather popularity with today's readers who buy books. (As opposed to readers who, for example, get books from the library).

Sinclair Lewis - still asked for occasionally.
Willa Cather - still very popular.
Eugene O’Neill - mostly forgotten.
Edna St. Vincent Millay - still popular.
Robert Frost - the most popular of the bunch.
Theodore Dreiser - mostly forgotten.
James Truslow Adams - mostly forgotten.
George Santayana - mostly forgotten.
Stephen Vincent Benet - still very popular.
James Branch Cabell - mostly forgotten.

As a group the poets have fared better over time than the novelists. Interestingly, the age group that asks for these poets tend to be on the younger side of 30!

It depends on where you are. In Sweden the country of famous playwriters like Strindberg O'Niel is big modern classic name.

Robert Frost is some lesser known American to me but he might be popular in US i dont know. Some american writers are like Country singers they dont become as well known in Europe.

 

[Extollager]

Thought it might be interesting to hear a response from a used book dealer's point of view.

Your list was uncommonly interesting -- thank you.

 

[Gordian Knot]

The names I listed all had books that were best sellers in 1936, so I don't think one could say any were relatively unknowns.

I agree that the article is unclear whether they were referring to worldwide authors or just American authors. The Colophon, however, was one of THE magazines of the time on the book world. So we are probably dealing with a higher educated crowd rather than the average reader of the time.

 

[j d worthington]

The names I listed all had books that were best sellers in 1936, so I don't think one could say any were relatively unknowns.

Eh? Are you referring to the list which begins with Ayn Rand? If so, I'm afraid you're off a bit. Rand had published relatively little by that point; Lewis had only one fiction book (if memory serves) and that one sold modestly, while his book for 1936 was The Allegory of Love -- by no means a bestseller. Neither Howard nor Lovecraft had books out by that point... unless you wish to cound the horribly botched Shadow Over Innsmouth amateur William J. Crawford put out (about 100 copies). Howard's A Gent from Bear Creek (his first true book) didn't come out until 1937, and certainly caused no splash. I'd have to look up the others, but as I recall, none had actually hit their stride or made that much of a mark save for Christie, who was considered light reading -- certainly popular, but not taken seriously.

As for getting the information from a used bookseller... while interesting, that is far too limited a resource to provide much basis. You'd need a much broader survey to get any useful idea of how these writers are read today, and even then there is likely to be plenty of margin for error without checking out the actual statistics of sales as well as library records.

 

[Gordian Knot]

J.D. you are being pedantic. I never suggested the book dealer angle was anything more than a different slant on the subject.

 

[j d worthington]

J.D. you are being pedantic. I never suggested the book dealer angle was anything more than a different slant on the subject.

Sorry you see it that way. It does open up the question -- an interesting one, I think -- what a larger group of booksellers would indicate.

Conn: If you can, get hold of the Dover edition of Jurgen. While it uses the revised Storisende text (Cabell's preferred version), it also includes those wonderful illustrations by Frank C. Papé, which are to Cabell what Sidney H. Sime's were to the early Dunsany, or J. Allan St. John were to the early editions of ERB. They are as wonderfully wicked as much of Cabell's text, and add a delightful layer to the experience....