Who Do You Think Are The Most Neglected and Forgotten Writers?

[clovis-man]

... for what it's worth, you have my sympathy.....

Isn't this what Ian Holm (as the disembodied android, Ash, in Alien) said to the doomed crew of the Nostromo?

 

[j d worthington]

Isn't this what Ian Holm (as the disembodied android, Ash, in Alien) said to the doomed crew of the Nostromo?

Ah, the secret is out.....

As for the Deryni books... while I've certainly enjoyed those I've read, I'm not sure they'd transfer well to the screen. Some things simply wouldn't. (Tolkien's Silmarillion, for example; a personal favorite, but it'd be a damned difficult thing to pull off dramatically. You could tell the stories, but you'd completely miss the feel of the book and the implications, which are a very important part of that experience.)

 

[BAYLOR]

Ah, the secret is out.....

As for the Deryni books... while I've certainly enjoyed those I've read, I'm not sure they'd transfer well to the screen. Some things simply wouldn't. (Tolkien's Silmarillion, for example; a personal favorite, but it'd be a damned difficult thing to pull off dramatically. You could tell the stories, but you'd completely miss the feel of the book and the implications, which are a very important part of that experience.)

The Deryni books would be challenge to adapt no question . Id love to see the people that have done Game of Thrones give it a try though.

I read the Silmarillion some years ago and liked it alot . But I wish Tolkien had made it into multi book saga like Lord of the Rings. There was so much wonderful story potential there.It could have been as great as Rings, maybe greater.

 

[j d worthington]

I read the Silmarillion some years ago and liked it alot . But I wish Tolkien had made it into multi book saga like Lord of the Rings. There was so much wonderful story potential there.It could have been as great as Rings, maybe greater.

Hmmm.... Have you given either Unfinished Tales or the 12-volume History of Middle-earth a try? Granted, there is a lot of repetition as far as plot and general story, not to mention a lot of incident... but it certainly gives the material room to breathe, and in a variety of forms. Heck, you even get passages which Tolkien wrote in Anglo-Saxon (both verse and prose) for a number of reasons....

 

[BAYLOR]

Hmmm.... Have you given either Unfinished Tales or the 12-volume History of Middle-earth a try? Granted, there is a lot of repetition as far as plot and general story, not to mention a lot of incident... but it certainly gives the material room to breathe, and in a variety of forms. Heck, you even get passages which Tolkien wrote in Anglo-Saxon (both verse and prose) for a number of reasons....

I never got to those.

 

[BAYLOR]

Ernest Bramah

 

[JunkMonkey]

Ernest Bramah

Agreed. The Max Carrados stories I have read are a hoot.

 

[BAYLOR]

Jacques Futrelle

 

[The Bluestocking]

Georgette Heyer. Not SFF but an excellent historical novelist. She's of Agatha Christie's generation, I believe.

 

[BAYLOR]

Arthur Morrison author of the Martin Hewitt detective stories. He was a contemporary of Conan Doyle and a very good writer in his own right.

 

[Randy M.]

Arthur Morrison author of the Martin Hewitt detective stories. He was a contemporary of Conan Doyle and a very good writer in his own right.

Morrison? Futrelle? Bramah?

Okay, you mystery reader, you, how about E. W. Hornung (Raffles)? Or Maurice LeBlanc (Arsene Lupin)? Or writers with non-thief characters, like T. S. Stribling (Dr. Poggioli; years since I read these, but I remember laughing out loud at several of them) and Melville Davison Post (Uncle Abner; a couple of years ago I reread the Dover Publications collection of these and still enjoyed them)?

Actually, one I thought about mentioning, is Thomas Burke. I've only read a few stories by him but enjoyed them all, and one of the creepiest mystery stories I've ever read was his "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole."


Randy M.

 

[wam]

There was a brief time when one could get most or all of David Lindsay's imaginative fiction quite easily. (I didn't!) Now I don't suppose younger people know even A Voyage to Arcturus.

Does anyone under 40 know of Peter S. Beagle, E. R. Eddison, T. H. White, William Morris, Lord Dunsany?
.

Eddison wrote one novel and a trilogy that have stayed in print for most of my lifetime. T H White will generally be known for The Sword in the Stone and that through the Disney movie. It's possibly for that reason that The Once and Future King stays in print. William Morris is better known for the sort of artwork that belongs on wallpaper and his literary efforts will probably fade even more now that so much socialist ideology is out of favour generally. Lord Dunsany seems to come and go in popularity. He's come back a bit with Fantasy Masterworks reprinting so much but I think that his lack of recognition is down to trends in Fantasy publishing. I've read to little of Peter Beagle to comment although there does seem to be a lot of it.

Another case in point for the socialist thing is the lost and, surprisingly, returning popularity of J B Priestley who is currently going through a minor revival at BBC radio. Admittedly his work only occasionally drifts into SF/Fantasy and a lot of that is in the nature of time. His novels don't seem to be coming back.

 

[j d worthington]

Morrison? Futrelle? Bramah?

Okay, you mystery reader, you, how about E. W. Hornung (Raffles)? Or Maurice LeBlanc (Arsene Lupin)? Or writers with non-thief characters, like T. S. Stribling (Dr. Poggioli; years since I read these, but I remember laughing out loud at several of them) and Melville Davison Post (Uncle Abner; a couple of years ago I reread the Dover Publications collection of these and still enjoyed them)?

Actually, one I thought about mentioning, is Thomas Burke. I've only read a few stories by him but enjoyed them all, and one of the creepiest mystery stories I've ever read was his "The Hands of Mr. Ottermole."


Randy M.

How about the Baroness Orczy? Save for The Scarlet Pimpernel I almost never run into reference to her or her work, even though The Old Man in the Corner was at one time a very important entry in the mystery field. (Dame Agatha, for instance, paid homage to it in her Partners in Crime.)

For those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Orczy#Works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partners_in_Crime_(short_story_collection)

 

[Randy M.]

How about the Baroness Orczy? Save for The Scarlet Pimpernel I almost never run into reference to her or her work, even though The Old Man in the Corner was at one time a very important entry in the mystery field. (Dame Agatha, for instance, paid homage to it in her Partners in Crime.)

For those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Orczy#Works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partners_in_Crime_(short_story_collection)

I really had forgotten Baroness Orczy. I've only come across a couple of the Old Man in the Corner stories; I enjoyed them.


Randy M.

 

[BAYLOR]

How about the Baroness Orczy? Save for The Scarlet Pimpernel I almost never run into reference to her or her work, even though The Old Man in the Corner was at one time a very important entry in the mystery field. (Dame Agatha, for instance, paid homage to it in her Partners in Crime.)

For those interested:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Orczy#Works

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partners_in_Crime_(short_story_collection)

Interesting, Ive never seen anything else written by her.

 

[Maximillian]

Alfred Bester, whose books were amazing even though published in the mid-50s. Much like Heinlein in that regard. But frankly a much better writer.

 

[BAYLOR]

Alfred Bester, whose books were amazing even though published in the mid-50s. Much like Heinlein in that regard. But frankly a much better writer.

The Demolished Man and The Stars My Destination are both classics. Im surprised neither has yet been adapted to the big screen.

 

[Extollager]

Not a writer of sf -- but George Borrow should be mentioned. In the Victorian era and in the pre-World War I years he was famous for his "gypsy" books about open-air life in England and elsewhere. I think he is truly forgotten now. I found his two best-known (once upon a time) books, Lavengro and The Romany Rye, to be fun reads. They were in the old Everyman's Library series of almost a century ago. If you ever get hold of one of those with a list of the titles at the back, take a look. Some of the authors are still very well-known, such as Dickens, while others are virtually unknown today, although they may be quite readable (e.g. Lord Dufferin's Letters from High Latitudes travel book). But give Borrow a try. In those days (yes, I know they didn't have antibiotics and novocaine) you could just get up and leave, walk the open road to a new town, and start over. Not that I particularly want to do so now. But the kind of freedom that men, at least, had then is unimaginable now. And he walked more in a year than many people walk in their entire lives. He was a different kind of man from us.

 

[BAYLOR]

George Turner

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Marion Campbell, author of The Dark Twin, an excellent fantasy novel set in Scotland during the Bronze Age.