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

REF:Baylor
No idea if they will be reprinted but they should available second hand.
 
The Centauri Device is good, Vince. I enjoyed it a lot. Note that Harrison doesn't actually rate it, despite its rep. His critique of it included the descriptor "crap", I believe. He's being disingenuous I think, though - its certainly not crap, but I guess he thinks a lot of his other stuff is better. I look forward to reading more Harrison myself. He isn't read as widely as he 'should' be, but his works are in press (paper) so not sure he counts as 'forgotten'.
 
Bick said:
The Centauri Device is good, Vince. I enjoyed it a lot. Note that Harrison doesn't actually rate it, despite its rep. His critique of it included the descriptor "crap", I believe. He's being disingenuous I think, though - its certainly not crap, but I guess he thinks a lot of his other stuff is better. I look forward to reading more Harrison myself. He isn't read as widely as he 'should' be, but his works are in press (paper) so not sure he counts as 'forgotten'.
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He gets annoyed because his least fave book is hailed as a SF Masterwork and the one he considers his best, the mainstream novel Climbers gets comparatively little attention and was out of print until recently.
 
Silver Owl said:
He gets annoyed because his least fave book is hailed as a SF Masterwork and the one he considers his best, the mainstream novel Climbers gets comparatively little attention and was out of print until recently.
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i haven seen any of his books on the shelf of late.
 
Extollager said:
Does anyone under 40 know of Peter S. Beagle, E. R. Eddison, T. H. White, William Morris, Lord Dunsany?
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Eddison and Dunsany have been reprinted in the "Fantasy Masterworks" series although I'd never seen Dunsany in print before and Eddison seemed to have been out of print since the 70s. White seems to do better, possibly because of the Disney film, although I get the feeling "Once and Future King" only acquired "Book of Merlyn" in the late 60s or into the 70s. I'd only really heard of Morris as a writer because of my father's political tendencies - he gave me a copy of an old edition of "News from Nowhere" and I suspect you'd have to be a lot older than 40 in that case.
 
wam said:
Eddison and Dunsany have been reprinted in the "Fantasy Masterworks" series although I'd never seen Dunsany in print before and Eddison seemed to have been out of print since the 70s. White seems to do better, possibly because of the Disney film, although I get the feeling "Once and Future King" only acquired "Book of Merlyn" in the late 60s or into the 70s. I'd only really heard of Morris as a writer because of my father's political tendencies - he gave me a copy of an old edition of "News from Nowhere" and I suspect you'd have to be a lot older than 40 in that case.
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Dell books reissued Eddison's books a few years ago.
 
John James had a unique voice that jumped off the page at you. Alfred Duggan was another author who managed to make history come alive on the page through the often jaundiced eyes of his characters.

Both were wonderful writers.
 
svalbard said:
John James had a unique voice that jumped off the page at you. Alfred Duggan was another author who managed to make history come alive on the page through the often jaundiced eyes of his characters.

Both were wonderful writers.
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Fantasy Masterworks just recently reissued some John James books . Excellent stuff. (y)
 
One who is not well known as a SFF writer is Jack London. One of the oddest movies I've ever seen, The Jacket, is based upon his Star Rover, written in 1915
 
JoanDrake said:
One who is not well known as a SFF writer is Jack London. One of the oddest movies I've ever seen, The Jacket, is based upon his Star Rover, written in 1915
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I know that Jack London quite book well and I constantly recommend it. It's a great book.(y)
 
BAYLOR said:
Fantasy Masterworks just recently reissued some John James books . Excellent stuff. (y)
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I picked up that edition this time last year as I had lost my older copies of Votan and Not For All The Gold In Ireland.
 
In the literature of imaginative romance (which includes sf and fantasy), isn't H. Rider Haggard neglected? Come on, now, Chrons people -- I'm sure many of you know his name, but have you read him? Of those who have, who's read more than She and King Solomon's Mines? (I grant you that, if those didn't mean much to you, you may as well not bother with this author, but I've found enjoyment in quite a few of his other tales.)

Outside sf and fantasy, I wonder about ignorance of intellectuals who once seem to have been known by just about everyone who concerned himself or herself with literary and social criticism, etc. -- George Santayana, José Ortega y Gasset, Benedetto Croce, Henri Bergson, et al. Since I haven't read them myself, I don't know what we may be missing, but for a while lots of thoughtful people seemed to find these and others to be worth reading. They were part of the intellectual outfit of thoughtful people. Nobody does read them any more, so far as I can tell. My guess is that fashion has moved on, and also that writers such as these were formed by a culture in which mass media were insignificant; culture was largely a matter of "thick journals," books, concerts, art galleries. Getting a deep acquaintance with that culture required much time, undistracted thought, and, ideally, command of the principal European languages. You now have people who major in English without reading very many books in their careers, especially if written before the 20th century (and then they go on to teach), and they are immersed in the mass media. People whose counterparts decades ago read Santayana et al. now devote most of their intellectual endeavor to theorists such as Derrida, the Nazi de Man, Barthes, etc. and to a host of academics obsessing about raceclassandgender. Perhaps a person of genuine intellectual ambition would find much of value in the "forgotten" writers, but he or she will have to do the exploring without much help from university faculties (though one may hope that the books haven't been purged from the libraries).
 
Hi, Extollager.

Guilty. I have copies of She and King Solomon's Mines but haven't ever gotten around to reading them.

I also recall in high school (40 years ago) that Santayana was still well-known and highly regarded by the more intellectual students. Back then it also wasn't unusual to see a student reading William Saroyan or Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology, among others. Now ... well, about a year ago I was heartened to see a college student reading a James M. Cain novel. Still, from a distance who can tell what someone is reading on their e-reader?

I do wonder how many people read Derrida, de Man, Barthes, etc. now. Never attempted de Man and what little I read by Derrida was interesting but I had the impression his form of logic had been around a long time and he was just the first to name it and try to systematize it. Julia Kristeva was the only one who interested me much, but I no longer recall what appealed.


Randy M.
 
Extollager said:
In the literature of imaginative romance (which includes sf and fantasy), isn't H. Rider Haggard neglected? Come on, now, Chrons people -- I'm sure many of you know his name, but have you read him? Of those who have, who's read more than She and King Solomon's Mines? (I grant you that, if those didn't mean much to you, you may as well not bother with this author, but I've found enjoyment in quite a few of his other tales.)

Outside sf and fantasy, I wonder about ignorance of intellectuals who once seem to have been known by just about everyone who concerned himself or herself with literary and social criticism, etc. -- George Santayana, José Ortega y Gasset, Benedetto Croce, Henri Bergson, et al. Since I haven't read them myself, I don't know what we may be missing, but for a while lots of thoughtful people seemed to find these and others to be worth reading. They were part of the intellectual outfit of thoughtful people. Nobody does read them any more, so far as I can tell. My guess is that fashion has moved on, and also that writers such as these were formed by a culture in which mass media were insignificant; culture was largely a matter of "thick journals," books, concerts, art galleries. Getting a deep acquaintance with that culture required much time, undistracted thought, and, ideally, command of the principal European languages. You now have people who major in English without reading very many books in their careers, especially if written before the 20th century (and then they go on to teach), and they are immersed in the mass media. People whose counterparts decades ago read Santayana et al. now devote most of their intellectual endeavor to theorists such as Derrida, the Nazi de Man, Barthes, etc. and to a host of academics obsessing about raceclassandgender. Perhaps a person of genuine intellectual ambition would find much of value in the "forgotten" writers, but he or she will have to do the exploring without much help from university faculties (though one may hope that the books haven't been purged from the libraries).
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I read The Allan Quartamaine Trilogy made up of Marie, Child of Storm and Finished many years ago. My memory is sketchy on the details, but I do remember Child of Storm as my favourite. I also recall prefering them to King Solomon's Mines. There is also a vague memory of one of his novels about a Viking. I am really stretching my memory here as it must be 30 years or so since I read Haggard.

At the time(my early teens) I was reading quite a lot of old adventure 'classics'. Scott's Ivanhoe, Quentin Durwood, a book by Conan Doyle about a medieval knight??, and others whose names now escape me.
 
The Haggard novel about the Viking might have been The Wanderer's Necklace -- ? The one with a Scandinavian theme that I've read is Eric Brighteyes, which Tolkien liked.

I'll probably revisit that trilogy, which I read ten years or so ago. There are other Quatermain books. A guide to Haggard's fiction that I have often referred to is here:

http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/backissues/16/mullen16bib.htm

I've read quite a few of them by now....In that list, I've read, I suppose, nos. 4-7, 11, 12, 14-23 (not sure about #21 though), 33, 43, 46, 48, 49, 51-53, 56, 59, 60, 62, 65. But Haggard thought his best work was written during the decade that included King Solomon's Mines, She, Eric Brighteyes, Montezuma's Daughter, etc. Most of the Quatermain books seem to be entertaining, but I have bogged down with the last two I haven't read (Allan and the Ice Gods and The Ancient Allan). A recent effort with Pearl Maiden wasn't sustained. I may have come about to the point of not reading any more HRH for the first time, though there are a few I expect to read again.
 
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