Elizabeth Taylor.
And not the actress but the English writer. You may have seen or heard about a recentish movie made from one of her novels, Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont. But all of her books are wonderful studies of middle-class women in England mid twentieth century. You will not go wrong with any of them. But Taylor like Barbara Pym, Christina Stead and so many others has faded away. Despite a reissue of many of her books by Virago, she is largely forgotten.
An assessment of her work can be found here. Many contend that the problem of her "name" led to her second-tier, at best, status.
Novels
- At Mrs. Lippincote's (1945)
- Palladian (1946) shows most clearly the influence of Jane Austen.
- A View of the Harbour (1947)
- A Wreath of Roses (1949)
- A Game of Hide and Seek (1951)
- The Sleeping Beauty (1953)
- The Real Life of Angel Deverell (published as Angel,1957)
- In a Summer Season (1961) is her most sex-infused work, telling the story of a rich woman who marries a man ten years her junior.
- The Soul of Kindness (1964)
- The Wedding Group (1968)
- Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1971). The author's actress namesake is probably alluded to when it is announced that "the blousy Mrs Burton" is coming to stay at the hotel.[8]
- Blaming (1976), posthumous.
Short story collections
- Hester Lilly (1954)
- The Blush and Other Stories (1958)
- A Dedicated Man and Other Stories (1965)
- The Devastating Boys (1972). Includes "Sisters".
- Dangerous Calm (1995). A selection of her stories.
39 comments:
I think a pseudonym might have been a good thing in this case.
I have six or seven Elizabeth Taylor books, but I haven't read any yet. Carson McCullers seems to be unfairly forgotten.
Patti -I'm glad you brought up Elizabeth Taylor (the writer). She is a good example of writers we don't keep in mind, 'though we should. I'll add K.C. Constantine to the list. Perhaps he's better known than Taylor but I think his work doesn't get the notice it deserves.
Stewart O'Nan hasn't been ignored, but I'm often surprised that people who are readers don't know his work. "Last Night At the Lobster" is a gem.
Bertus Aafjes was during his lifetime a famous literati, poet and world traveler, but after he passed away he seems to have slowly descended into biblioblivion and none of his books have appeared back in print for close to two decades now – which I think is qualification enough to be mentioned on here.
I have to admit, though, that I am partly guilty of this neglect, since I have only read his (surprise, surprise!) Judge Ooka stories. But I want to read more of his other work and some of his poetry I have read and heard is really beautiful... hauntingly even.
Just listen to this reading of one of his poems. You might not understand the words, but you can probably feel it.
I have read everything O'Nan has written and have loved all of them. Esp. LAST NIGHT and A PRAYER FOR THE DYING.
Constantine is a terrific writer.
Don't know Aafjes. I will go listen.
We read a Carson McCullers book in our book group a few years back.
How about Elizabeth Bowen? Is she forgotten?
She has a beautiful voice.
I wouldn't say forgotten unjustly but I wish books by Frank G. Slaughter (THE THORN OF ARIMATHEA), Lloyd C. Douglas (THE ROBE), Nevil Shute, Henry Denker, Richard Bach (JONATHAN LIVINGSTON SEAGULL), Paul Gallico (FLOWERS FOR MRS HARRIS & SCRUFFY), and A.J. Cronin (THE CITADEL & BEYOND THIS PLACE) were still available freely.
William Krasner, who wrote THE GAMBLER (1950), is totally forgotten, and undeservedly so. He only wrote around eight novels, spending most of his career writing essays for scientific journals (???). But if you read THE GAMBLER, you'll know why he deserves to be resurrected.
I'm still in love with Richard Brautigan. He wrote a few great books (Trout Fishing in America, Sombrero Fallout, The Tokyo Montana Express, In Watermelon Sugar) but there were many moments of beauty and grace in his lesser books too.
I guess most midlist writers like these do get forgotten. I have read some all of these except Krasner. It is very possible that writers that are not genre writers (excuse the word but it does clarify what I mean) or the highly literary writers have the best chance to survive. Who would have thought Steinbeck and O'Hara would be lost? And the oddity of what is read in college English classes now is probably consigning even more to the dustbin.
Well, Prashant's list is heavy with bestselling writers whose vogue has mostly passed...and I was surprised by how many O'Hara as well as Steinbeck books are still in print (even if O'Hara is mostly OP, he's better off than many of the FFB folks thus). Brautigan, too, wasn't really a midlister, being sort of the guy one thought of after Vonnegut when looking for some fantasticated satire in the '60s and '70s...I believe at least TROUT FISHING and WATERMELON SUGAR were NYT list-riders, and some nice omnibi are in print (I did THE ABORTION: AN HISTORICAL ROMANCE 1966 for a jr high school book report, much to my father's discomfort, and overweening editorial hand as a result). I remember Bowen! But as an occasional horror-fiction writer as she was, this can't surprise you. (She has a a handful in print, too, happily.) Krasner's name rang a faint bell...Anthony Boucher (or, should I say H. H. Holmes, since it was a review from the NY HERALD-TRIBUNE) liked him...
I'd say that there is more advocacy for crime-fiction, sf & fantasy, and western folks, and increasingly for romance and other historical-fiction folks...but the most easily overlooked are indeed those not championed by the pretentious nor the fannish, who tend to write contemporary-mimetic fiction which is not marketed as anything but "fiction"...
Well, let's see...I didn't take too many lit classes in college, as I was emphasizing the writing and crossdepartmental classes in English (and linguistics and a philososphy/criticism and folklore/material culture courses), but among the fiction writers (and a poet) I studied in those (and my Spanish lit class) in the '80s were Borges, Garcia-Marquez, Neruda, Barth, Fitzgerald, Agnes Smedley (DAUGHTER OF EARTH), ETA Hoffmann, Poe, and now I'm blanking on who else we read in the horror-fiction class I took, and, hmmm...there were certainly others, though it's difficult to tease out of memory who was in the undergrad and who in the HS courses (where I read folks ranging from Chaucer to Kesey to Anaya).
Among the most-forgotten folks (as far as I can gauge), I'll suggest, who wrote at least one really striking thing I've read:
Allen Kim Lang
ya writer Frieda Friedman
Henry Cecil (legally Henry Cecil Leon)
And one I had a bit of a crush on, Doris Marie Claire "Doë" Baumgardt, most often published as Leslie Perri
Gerald Kersh. A English writer of novels and short stories. Mainly remembered now for Night and the City(twice filmed). In mystery fiction Stanley Ellin.
I'm glad Brautigan was mentioned. I haven't read The Hawkline Monster in decades. No idea whatever happened to my copy.
I don't think anyone reads Kipling anymore, and I'm fairly certain he is not taught at any level. Same with Jack London. George Elliot. It's a real shame Steinbeck has faded away, I think his books, particularly MICE AND MEN and CANNERY ROW are excellent. James Blish.
Three mid-20th century American novelists who seem shamefully neglected are John O'Hara, John P. Marquand, and James Gould Cozzens. O'Hara and Marquand were enormously popular in their heyday. Cozzens won a Pulitzer in the late 40s for "Guard of Honor", and had a huge bestseller in the late 50s called "By Love Possessed". Nearly all their work is out of print. An equally fine British novelist, John Fowles, seems in danger of falling off the radar screen. His most famous novel is probably "The French Lieutenant's Woman", but my own favorite is "The Magus", an absolutely indescribable mixture of fantasy, mystery, horror, or almost any genre you could name. Perhaps reading Cozzens requires more effort than most people are willing to exert, but the other three are wonderfully readable.
Newton Thornburg.
That he died in obscurity AND that his death went unnoticed by the crime community for weeks if not longer was a damn shame.
Wow, I remember reading John Marquand and a few years ago, a friend discovered him and was incredulous that no one knew his work. Thornburg, also a shame. Cozzens, such a big name.
Remember also: James Michener, Irving Shaw, Irving Wallace, Taylor Caldwell, Edwin O'Connor, Allen Drury, Louis Auchincloss, Mary Stewart, Herman Wouk-all on the best seller list a half century ago.
Actually, Patti, I think anyone could skim through any of the Friday's Forgotten Books and find many, many unjustly forgotten writers. A couple of years ago, I did an FFB on John O'Hara's short stories and I mentioned that John O'Hara and John Marquand were the most observant social writers of the mid-20th century and neither of them are read to any degree anymore, so I'm glad they're mentioned above. Anyone who wants to see the entire WASP versus second-generation immigrant (usually Catholic) saga of the 20th century need only read Marquand and O'Hara. Will there be a time, some decades hence, when someone notes with sadness that no one reads much Stephen King or James Ellroy or Dean Koontz anymore?
Frankly, Taylor Caldwell and Allen Drury can be safely forgotten, I'd suggest. I'm not the biggest fan of Michener or Wouk, either. Stewart was still widely in print in the '90s, but to the extent that most of these folks are overlooked now, that is a pity. Hell, Robert Benchley and James Thurber aren't read as widely as they were, I suspect, and Stephen Leacock (hello, Canada) even moreso.
I do think O'Hara, Steinbeck and Marquand--along with earlier writers like Lewis, Sinclair, etc. did have something to say about life in their times.
O'Hara would definitely be on my list for the short stories, of which I've read hundreds. Ross Thomas fades away more each year, which is unfortunate.
Elizabeth Taylor is one of those women writers (like Stead and Bowen) I've always assumed appeal more to women than men.
Not so?
Jeff M.
Not so in Bowen's case, I'd suggest.
But, then, men actually (shh now) read Jane Austen, too. And women Mickey Spillane and Louis L'Amour.
I agree with Todd. Bowen's A DEATH OF THE HEART is an amazing novel. And STEAD's THE MAN WHO LOVED CHILDREN is pretty fine too. Now Taylor writes very well but on a smaller canvas.
I just looked up Newton Thornburg on wikipedia and there is no bibliography.
I read and loved CUTTER AND BONE when I read it in the mid 90s and that copy was pretty beat up, third hand.
So yeah, I guess he's really forgotten already -- no little cult gathered around his books.
I'd bring back into focus Louis-Ferdinand Céline, Sinclair Lewis, John Dos Passos, Jean Rhys' Good Morning, Midnight, Nelson Algren . . . Proust . . .
Shirley Anne Grau. She won the Pulitzer for her first book and it was all downhill from there. Not in the quality of the books, but in popularity. I think she was good. I should say is good. Every once in awhile she publishes but no one seems to care.
I'd add Taylor Caldwell because I loved a couple of her books when I was a teen. I still have a copy of DEAR AND GLORIOUS PHYSICIAN and mean to reread it.
I agree about John O'Hara too. I would have added his name to the list.
Sinclair Lewis is another.
Jamie Harrison. (Primarily I believe, because she appears to have stopped writing.)
Certainly Maureen Sarsfield who only wrote two great mysteries and then disappeared. Literally.
Helen MacInnes.
Rafael Sabatini (I read him, but I can't think who else does.)
Walter Satterthwaite
John Shannon
M.M. Kaye
THE EMBEZZLER by Louis Auchincloss is a good book. Irving Wallace scored high with THE SECOND LADY. Irwin Shaw's RICH MAN, POOR MAN and THE TOP OF THE HILL were on my bookshelf for many years. To Richard R's MICE AND MEN and CANNERY ROW, I'll add THE MOON IS DOWN by Steinbeck. LUCKY JIM by Kingsley Amis and the dozen-odd books written by his son, Martin, who wrote as well, and not better, as his father (a matter of opinion).
A few more writers who deserve not to be forgotten are: Jack Higgins, Alistair MacClean, James Clavell, Leon Uris, Malcolm Bradbury (I recommend his THE HISTORY MAN and RATES OF EXCHANGE), Pearl S. Buck, and the real-life epics by Irving stone.
Shirley Ann Grau won the National Book Award about a decade ago. I went to hear her speak at the NYPL because we happened to be there. I had read one or two of her books.
Adored Malcolm Bradbury's two academic novels. As good as Lodge although less well known.
I am surprised Dos Passos is not better known. He was so original.
Well we have compiled the list of the forgotten.
Grau won the Pulitzer in 1964 for The Keepers of the House. I can't find anything about her winning the NBA. Sorry I wrote Anne instead of Ann.
I was wrong. I was thinking of Shirley Hazzard!
Thought of a few more last night:
BUDD SHULBERG who wrote ON THE WATERFRONT and WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? among other gritty books.
BOOTH TARKINGTON who at once time was a nationally known and beloved humorist.
THORNTON WILDER
THOMAS WOLFE who wrote the one book that knocked me for a loop while I was in high school: LOOK HOMEWARD, ANGEL.
HERMAN WOUK who wrote a fabulous novel based on Wolfe's life:
YOUNGBLOOD HAWKE. He also wrote the book every young woman was reading in the sixties: MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR.
ROBERT ARDREY - who wrote the highly influential THE TERRITORIAL IMPERATIVE and AFRICAN GENESIS.
So the theme for this post should be, sic transit gloria mundi or how fleeting is fame.
Me.
Oh, you meant people who were famous once. Rex Stout, Randy Russell, Clifton Adams, Stephen Greenleaf, and Richard Prather.
Rex Stout is still famous. At least around my house. And his books are not completely out of print far as I know.
I reread the Nero Wolfe books two or three times a year, maybe more.
In my book, that keeps Stout not only famous but alive.
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