Sorry for the lack of post yesterday. Busy busy day.
Here’s one for tomorrow’s history books: which authors will we be reading 50 years from now?
This is a tricky question, because who is famous today is not necessarily who will be remembered by the scholars. Many of the authors we most associate with a time period, such as Melville and Faulkner, were not the most popular or famous writers of their own time. THE GREAT GATSBY wasn’t even F. Scott Fitzgerald’s most popular or best-reviewed book.
So who do you think is writing books that will stand the test of time?
Anonymous says
Gabriel Garcia Marquez gets my vote. ๐
sl says
From the Canadian on the block…
I’d have to say that Margaret Atwood and Robertson Davies would make the list, at least in Canadian fiction. Atwood is extremely prolfic and Davies has a literary quality to his work that sets him above the “pop fiction” category. “Pop fiction” is rarely ever lasting, let alone remarkable.
I definitely also think that JK Rowling will be remembered in children’s literature, just because her books (while insanely popular) definitely mark a shift in children’s lit. The Potter series will undoubtedly serve to influence many kid lit writers for years to come.
lauramanivong says
In the YA world and off the top of my head, perhaps…
John Green.
Red says
I think the writers we’ll be talking about in 50 years are not the prolific writers, not the Cusslers and Grishams of our age. The writers we’ll be talking about are instead those authors who caused us to think of ourselves and the world around us in new and different ways. Through exploration of language, dialogue and the human condition, the author can make us feel and see and smell and hear and sense, in every real way, the lives of others. We can be transported to a world totally foreign to us, though no less rich and vibrant than our own.
In the future, when scholars look back on the literature of our current time, I think copies sold and movies made will be less important, less impactful than the books which opened our minds, those which made us, as a culture, ask questions and take notice.
Anyone can write a book. Some of us can write good books. A few of us can write moving stories, can craft works which uplift, tear down, and represent faithfully the gamut of human emotion and existence.
But of those, only a select few will entertain, educate, empower and change the way we think about writing. THOSE are the authors our grandchildren will be discovering, with a sense of wonder and awe, in 50 years.
beth says
I agree with SL–Harry Potter’s here for the long run.
I also think Robin McKinley.
Shannon Yarbrough says
Hopefully everyone will be reading me!
๐
superwench83 says
Me!
Diana says
Wow. Amazing question, Nathan. Are you thinking in terms of what will still be popular, or what will be assigned to students in survey literature classes?
I anticipate that a few major romance authors have a chance. (After all, we’re still reading Jane Eyre and Mansfield Park, right?) And I have to believe that something from our fascination with horror and the paranormal will ultimately survive. Couldn’t you see Stephen King’s The Stand being required reading in a 20th century survey some day?
I think J. K. Rowling will continue on both as popular reading (it has a timeless quality) and ultimately literature, since it can be studied both for its storytelling and its impact on culture.
I’m also going to suggest Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones because, as sl said said, it made us look at victims and families of murder victims in a different way.
For my lesser-known pick, I’m going to suggest Barbara Pym, whose quirky writing captures post-WWII Britain from the perspective of everyday people.
I think there is a subset of books that will continue to be popular stories, though their popularity may grow in the form of movies or television shows. For example, at our public library, Agatha Christie’s books are slow to circulate right now, but the dramatizations of her beloved characters (Poirot, Marple, etc.), are extremely popular. Some of the stories captured in fantasy and paranormal may gain popularity as our special effects abilities increase.
calendula-witch says
Neal Stephenson.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
Who says there will even be scholars 50 years from now?
Sorry, couldn’t resist.
50 years isn’t that long – 50 years ago was only…1958. So who are we reading from 1958?
Or maybe the better question is, who from 1958 or thereabouts is being translated into film?
Maybe with the Kindle now and other devices, more of the writing of the past will carry through – because with a device, you can have really souped-up, easy-to-use footnotes, a whole selection of accompanying intros and essays to choose from (i.e., if I want more of a pop culture exposition as an intro to a 50-year-old work, I can pick that, instead of the one-size-fits-all and often boring scholarly exposition you usually get with “classics”) – photos, art, music from that era can be downloaded as well – right now when you go into Barnes and Noble, they have a separate (I think cardboard) “bookcase” containing paperback “classics” – I sometimes wonder, am I the only one to buy these old books? The artwork on the cover is usually pretty good – but with the Kindle, I mean, you could download tons of accompanying material, that would really “enhance the reading experience.” Contextualize it.
I imagine that could even become a job category someday – “literary contextualizer” – your whole job is to pull together a downloadable context for novels – maybe on the Kindle they would call it a “Kindex” – as in Kindle Index. You could even become a famous contextualizer, because of the skill and wit and savvy you bring to the Kindexes you create.
I want that job!
Oh well, back to reality circa 2008.
Wanda B. Ontheshelves says
I guess my point is, the question for me is, HOW will be reading 50 years from now – and not who.
Anonymous says
McEwan, Peter Carey, Amy Hempel, James Ellroy, Gary Lutz, Raymond Carver
My2Cents says
Alice Munro
Philip Roth
T.C. Boyle
Toni Morrison
Junot Diaz
David Foster Wallace
Ulysses says
Stephen King. I think he’ll be recognized as the Dickens of the late 20th century.
Anonymous says
I’m not sure about Cormac McCarthy’s recent works, as they seem to lack something crucial, but Blood Meridian will certainly be a classic.
So will Ellis’s American Psycho.
I personally doubt the Harry Potter books themselves would stand the test of time, since they fall short of character-inevitability. But I’d be surprised if we don’t see their influence in the years to come, in some truly remarkable YA and MG titles.
Adaora A. says
Nick Horby (SLAM, ABOUT A BOY)
John Grisham (A TIME TO KILL, PELICAN BRIEF)
Margaret Atwood (EDIBLE WOMAN, THE HANDMAIDS TALE)
Still the classics (Dickens, Hawthorne)
Sophie Kinsella (CAN YOU KEEP A SECRET)…..
J.K Rowling (Harry Potter Books)
Wole Soyinka (WE MUST SET FORTH AT DAWN) Nigerian Nobel Prize Winner who I love.
Do you think Ian McEwan might still be read Nathan? *Insert Sarcasm Here*
Anonymous says
Red said:
“Anyone can write a book.”
Gee, Red, gotta be Green here and disagree with you. Most people cannot write a book.
Dave F. says
Ondaatje maybe, for his use of language.
Umberto Eco, because he writes in symbols.
Cormac McCarthy because of his style and the starkness of his stories. He matches the age we live in.
I suspect JK Rowling will survive because we will introduce our kids to Harry and they will do the same for their kids.
There needs to be a hook to the past and future, a hook into the soul of man. Someone has to care about the book and keep it, present it and make it live again. It takes work to stay or return to public favor.
Remember that silly line of dialog in Star Trek (the Movie) where Spock says something like “Ah yes, the masters, Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins.
We already have some hints here. Who remembers and reads these two?
I think a few cyberpunk novels will be remembered. Which one, I can’t say. They are novels of the times like Gatsby and Rebecca.
When It first opened, the Andy Warhol Museum was a curiosity in Pittsburgh (Warhol’s home town). Now, it’s a major force in the world for new art. That takes work. Whose writing is that expressive? Whose style is unique to the future?
Notice Philip Dick and Isaac Asimov both spoke to the future. So did Matheson (I am Legend). But go back just before the turn of the last century for HG Wells – The Time Machine and War of the Worlds – both of which still speak to this generation. It is the thoughtful and predictive Sci Fi that will last 50 years.
Anonymous says
Lord help the people of the future of they still have to read John Grisham. ๐
Anonymous says
Whoever made/makes it to a movie screen not once but repeatedly. It gets them more exposure and makes them less easily forgotten. Did you see Jeopardy last night? The final question was which sitting vice president since Van Buren was elected to the presidency. The answer’s not exactly ancient history, but only one got it right. Itโs sad, but in this day and age, out of sight, out of mind is just the way it is.
Anonymous says
Madeline D’Engle
Yann Martel
JK Rowling
and, of course, all of the Greats will continue to be read so long as their stories are available
and many others
what is sad here, is how fleeting so many notable voices are or will be
Josephine Damian says
The only authors I can name are an echo of Canadian SL’s choices: Atwood and Davies.
I’m gonna cast my vote for Alice MCDermott as well. Saul Bellow – I’ll put him, but not Roth. Updike deserves a nod as well. Maybe Julian Barnes.
That’s it for authors. I doubt much written in the 21rst or late 20th Century will stand the test of time, frankly.
Certain books:
ATONEMENT, for sure and maybe a could of other McEwan titles, but not all. BLOOD MERIDIAN, for sure, but the rest of his titles?? Nathan, we ain’t ever gonna see eye-to-eye. I could go one naming books, but I doubt very many of today’s modern authors will stand the test of time.
Anonymous says
Perhaps, for a future blog, also the opposite question,
What books are you SURE won’t make it or be remembered in ten years?
would give some interesting conclusions too. At least about what we recognize as trendy or flash in the pan. We may indulge but would not invest. Kind of like that plastic mini skirt I threw out, but not my little black classic dress.
In my own library, books I want to preserve and want others to discover/read, I keep.
Others I throw away.
Kind of like movies, some you see again and again, others, once is enough, sometimes more than.
Scott says
Tough question.
To give it some perspective, here’s a list of the most popular books of 1958, according to historycentral.com. How many of them are still being read? It’s tempting to go out to Amazon and see how many are even in print, but I have work to do.
FICTION
1.” Doctor Zhivago”… Boris Pasternak. Pantheon Books
2. Anatomy of a Murder”… Robert Traver. St. Martin’s Press
3.”Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov”… Putnam
4.”Around the World with Auntie Marne”… Patrick Dennis.
Harcourt, Brace
5.”From the Terrace”… John O’Hara. Random House
6.”Eloise at Christmastime”… Kay Thompson. Random House
7.”Ice Palace”… Edna Ferber. Doubleday
8.”The Winthrop Woman”… Anya Seton. Houghton, Mifflin
9.”The Enemy Camp”… Jerome Weidman. Random House
10. “Victorine”… Frances Parkinson Keyes. Messner
NONFICTION
1.”Kids Say the Darndest Things! “… Art Linkletter. Prentice-Hall
2.”Twixt Twelve and Twenty”…Pat Boone. Prentice-Hall
3.”Only in America”… Harry Golden. World Publishing Co.
4.”Masters of Deceit”… Edgar Hoover. Holt
5.”Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”… Jean Kerr. Doubleday
6.”Better Homes and Gardens Salad Book”… Meredith Publishing Co.
7.”The New Testament in Modern English, translated” … J. P.
Phillips. Macmillan
8.”Aku-Aku”… Thor Heyerdahl. Rand McNally
9.”Dear Abby”… Abigail Van Buren. Prentice-Hall
10. “Inside Russia Today”… John Gunther. Harper
domynoe says
Patricia McKillip.
God her writing is beautiful.
anachred says
I HOPE McKillip gets preserved.
Likewise Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell.
About Rowling, I think it’s possible that instead of her work, someone influenced by her will be on the shelves more prominently. Already there’s a new subgenre of YA I’m very happy to have around that must be partially due to her success. Who knows?
Tammie says
Stephen King for many reasons.
Jodi Picoult for her look at social issues.
Time Traveler’s Wife just because.
Rowlings works
Alice Hoffman for her magic.
Nick Hornby for being the modern man.
Adaora A. says
What’s wrong with John Grisham? Have you read A TIME TO KILL? I remains to be one of my favorite books of all time. He’s an amazing storyteller, and he has his own style. I don’t write in his genre but I love his stuff. Again, A TIME TO KILL. Enough said with the book name dropped alone. I suppose you are – albiet grudgingly admitted – entitled to your own opinion.
*sulks*
Anonymous says
I’m sorry, but you are all wrong, or most all of you. We won’t be reading anything of now in fifty years. Works of literature aren’t really assessed in that kind of a time frame anymore, except by specialists, and specialists don’t have much to do with the rest of us.
But to fully answer the question given, I would second the post of the person who asked you mean, Nathan, by read. Do you mean in a literature review course? Or do you mean popularly like Tolkien is now?
These are two different questions. A Literature review class will read the kind of nonsense literature review classes always read, they will be books that are very depressing and socially interesting and mostly awful, like Lovely Bones. The classes will be taught by well meaning and idealistic academics with very little connection to the rest of the world. And they will continue to perpetrate the myth on generations of students that literature isnโt particularly entertaining, just thought-provoking. God willing most of those will be expunged from the cannon soon there after.
Specialist literature classes like African American Classes will read books from Morrison and Walker and Hurston as they do today, but have any of you read Alexie? Probably, how about M. Scott Momaday, likely fewer, but no one mentioned either of them as someone who will be read in fifty years. Both are taught in Native American Literature classes as timeless authors whose work will influence generations to come. More fodder for the specialist classes.
Popularly, though, there is nothing that is out there that will be read. Nothing. Most of the books mentioned in the responses are quite good, some more than others in my opinion, but none of them have the kind of appeal that makes literature literature in the short term of 50 years.
Part of this is because people donโt read in the same way they did 50 years ago. It would be hard to pick out a Hemingway or Fitzgerald simply because books arenโt as important now as they were when Hemingway and Fitzgerald were writing. The question would be better put as who will be popular 100 or 200 years in the future. That would be at least an answerable question as it will give time for dust to settle on the overwrought publishing system we have now.
Sorry for the log post, but it is a good question. To sum up, the gems will shine with use, but it will take a long time before that happens.
Cheers, K
John says
Cormac McCarthy for his literary style.
Scott says
I can’t read Stephen King now, and I enjoy horror. I imagine it will be even harder when I’m 96.
Anonymous says
Shakespeare.
Seriously? I think perhaps a few of John Irving’s novels maybe. But maybe not.
Maybe The Kite Runner for taking such a vivid snapshot of a particular moment in history through a really good story.
Otherwise, I don’t think much of what we are crazy about today will last 50 years, or 100. And I don’t think it has anything to do with what’s being made into film. In fact, I would argue that books that are made into films will survive as films but will fade away as books. (Harry Potter series excepted, as it has earned its place beside LOTR and Narnia).
Oh, and Shel Silverstein’s poetry. Timeless.
Will Entrekin says
I people seem to be answering two different questions; what will critics remember, and what will people be reading. I don’t think we yet have the writers whom we’ll be reading in 50 years (though I’ll be 80 by then, so who knows if I’ll still be doing it). 2057’s Rowling or Brown probably hasn’t been born yet, and won’t be for several more years. Literature is different from, say, music or movies; who is, right now, reading books that were popular when the Beatles were famous (Tom Wolfe is the main notable exception there).
What authors now will be remembered/still read? Gaiman, some of King, some Grisham, Chabon, Eggers, Zadie Smith, Lahiri, Boyle, Lethem, and me.
Derek says
I predict that in 50 years, I’ll be reading things with REALLY BIG TYPE.
Anonymous says
Authors who actually wrote their own novles rather than their ‘research assistants’ or other hired help, as seems to be the growing trend.
Anonymous says
novels
Where’s the edit button on this thing????
Anonymous says
Ugh….Grisham, King, Rowling? I hope not! They’ve made too much money already for a handful of good books, and in Grisham and King’s case, a whole lotta bad ones too. I hope no one has even heard of them in 50 years!!
John says
By the wording of the question, “Who IS writing books that will stand the test of time?”, I assume you mean to exclude anyone who was writing up till fairly recently, e.g. Heller, Vonnegut, Styron….
So many good answers already. Only one I haven’t seen so far is Jeffrey Eugenides.
Others I’d immediately second would be Neal Stephenson, Margaret Atwood, and maybe King.
blooker says
Most Popular Books of 1958
Fiction
1.” Doctor Zhivago”… Boris Pasternak. Pantheon Books
2. Anatomy of a Murder”… Robert Traver. St. Martin’s Press
3.”Lolita, by Vladimir Nabokov”… Putnam
4.”Around the World with Auntie Marne”… Patrick Dennis.
Harcourt, Brace
5.”From the Terrace”… John O’Hara. Random House
6.”Eloise at Christmastime”… Kay Thompson. Random House
7.”Ice Palace”… Edna Ferber. Doubleday
8.”The Winthrop Woman”… Anya Seton. Houghton, Mifflin
9.”The Enemy Camp”… Jerome Weidman. Random House
10. “Victorine”… Frances Parkinson Keyes. Messner
โขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโขโข
Nonfiction
1.”Kids Say the Darndest Things! “… Art Linkletter. Prentice-Hall
2.”Twixt Twelve and Twenty”…Pat Boone. Prentice-Hall
3.”Only in America”… Harry Golden. World Publishing Co.
4.”Masters of Deceit”… Edgar Hoover. Holt
5.”Please Don’t Eat the Daisies”… Jean Kerr. Doubleday
6.”Better Homes and Gardens Salad Book”… Meredith Publishing Co.
7.”The New Testament in Modern English, translated” … J. P.
Phillips. Macmillan
8.”Aku-Aku”… Thor Heyerdahl. Rand McNally
9.”Dear Abby”… Abigail Van Buren. Prentice-Hall
10. “Inside Russia Today”… John Gunther. Harper
Anonymous says
William Trevor.
Kylie says
I definitely think Rowlings books will still be read 50 years from now. The people affected by the Potter craze will start their kids reading them. The books are plain fun to read.
And they may not be the most complex or deep books, but then look at Shakespeare. His plays are written so that the beggar on the London street could understand; now they are only literary because of how old they are and how well an average person can relate and enjoy the stories.
Pete says
Donald Westlake was writing terrific books in 1958 and continues to do so today and people will still be reading his books fifty years from now.
Mary says
Iโm not sure J.K. Rowling will stand the test of time. But I think Philip Pullman might. He writes beautifully, and his work pre His Dark Materials โ The Firework-makerโs Daughter, Count Karlstein, Clockwork โ seems timeless already, after only 15 or 20 years.
KingM says
No question that JK Rowling will still be read, and widely, fifty years from now. She’s simply sold too many copies to be ignored.
Two hundred years from now, who knows? I could easily see her being like Dumas, still widely read but not as well respected as some others.
As for Stephen King’s bad books, so what? Writers are not remembered for their worst books. Even Shakespeare has plays that are almost never produced.
Jordyn says
I honestly have no idea, but seeing as how YA is still an emerging “genre” (right?), do you think any of them will be remembered in fifty years time? Who?
I think John Green, just because of Looking for Alaska.
Adaora A. says
@anoymous – I can’t help but chime in again. I really, beg to differ with your comment there. I respect your right to have that personal opinion, but it really is making me wince to the point that I have to say something. J.K Rowling created a universe. She created books so rich and detail that it really is no suprise that people around the world responded to them. They are rich in themes which radical ignorants (who refuse to read), and naysayers refuse to acknowldege. Anti-racism in the the form of ‘blood purity,’ loyalty, courage, the list goes on. For a society whose sense of respect and decency is becoming ver eroded (in the school systems which I blog about), and in values. These frameworks allow people to treat people in negative ways and frankly, her books came at the right time. Her books…hell her universe, introduced a generation of kids to reading. Personally, I believe comments saying ‘I hope they don’t last’ is kind of slapping that in the face. And again, it’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it, I just can’t help but want to get my opinion out there.
John Grisham really moved me with A TIME TO KILL. I remember the first time it was given to me to read. It came at precisely the right time. Let’s just say that certain things that went on in school shook me, and reading it helped me pull myself together again. For that reason alone, I’ve got to defend his talent as a writer.
I hope they’re both around for generations to come. I know my kids will be reading their books.
Also wanted to add a one more writers to the list:
Carlos Ruiz Zafon.Whenever I get the chance to shove THE SHADOW OF THE WIND in people’s faces – for their reading pleasure – I most certaintly do.
Anonymous says
Cormac McCarthy. (Blood Meridian)
DeLillo
Chabon
Salinger
Franzen
Revered writers we won’t be reading:
Roth
Updike
Anonymous says
I read Rollo May’s The Courage To Create about every five – ten years.
Writers who are thinkers who have contributed to consciousness and thoughtfulness of being human, such as May and Jung will still be important contributions long to be studied and cherished.
And those who use/used exceptional language or brought exceptional or beloved stories or characterization. If their books are lost, someone will dream them back into existence. Stories that are archetypal return again and again in many forms.
Anonymous says
Zadie Smith
Cormac Mc.
William Gibson
Anonymous says
W.E.B. Griffin