I generally agree with your sense of who will last. I was a huge Bellow fan in my 20s, but like you--and while I think he deserved his accolades--I don’t see him being a top read. Same with Updike. For me past of the reason is race and class. As a Black man, I eventually tired of the strata of people they focused on.
Several writers you don’t mention l think will continue to be read: Octavia Butler comes strongly to mind, and so does Vonnegut. In very different ways, they both get not only to a broader swath of humanity but also to human conundrums that run more deeply: our tendency toward self destruction but also our tenacious capacity for love, hope, care for one another. A third writer I would add is Ursula Le Guin, who deals in stunningly original ways with similar themes. These three are also have incredibly original writing styles. Their novels ask the big questions and none of them offer easy answers.
Chances of David Foster Wallace being remembered by segment A of the future reading population: 3-1.
Chances of segment B proclaiming at length, at parties, at funerals, projecting it onto the moon, that they've never even heard of the man, never mind read his infinite warblings: bookies are no longer taking bets.
As the owner of two used bookstores in Seattle I look at sales for these writers every day as I decide what to buy for my customers. Updike has definitely downtrended the past couple of years. Didion we buy everything we see. Ehrenreich had her time but I haven't bought a copy of Nickel and Dimed in years, though I loved it way back when. Bellow is a solid buy, day in and out, though not a barn burner. McCarthy, we buy everything always. I would make a case for Philip K. Dick, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Lethem, and Susan Sontag. I'll leave it there.
Short-story writers, I would think, have a better chance of enduring for eons than War & Peace types. So, Hemingway is an example of one who will endure. He wrote plenty of long form stuff, but also those 5- to 10-minute reads that appeal to short attention span sensibilities.
I disagree with you regarding the lasting impact of Saul Bellow. I recently was given a copy, and then read, Humboldt's Gift. Wow! While there was a lot to plow through, the effort was well worth it. So, maybe the complexity and length of the book will discourage future readers, but his reflections within the story as it progressed were fascinating and relevant even today.
I confess that I finally decided that Bellow is on the list of writers I'm going to read after I die. It's not that I doubt his greatness; it's just that I've read enough mid-20th century men authors for my 47 years on this planet. There are a lot of great writers out there (including some on your list) that I haven't gotten to yet, and that's where I think I'd like to spend the last half of my life.
I'd agree on Didion, though only for her essays, not her fiction (I might include James Baldwin in that category as well). I'd add Salinger (for Catcher in the Rye) and Thoreau (for Walden and a few essays). And yes, prizes are, I'd guess, more a representation of zeitgeist than of longevity or quality* (I'm looking at you, Gone With the Wind).
*I know, I know, I'm always arguing against the concept of "quality," but I truly cannot express my loathing of Gone With the Wind.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand your numerical notation. For Morrison you use "1:2", then you switch to dashes like "10-1". Is "1:2" 50%? Then what's "10-1"? Is that 10%.
Anyway, if you changed this to actual percentages (of being remembered and read in 50 years) I think that'd be much clearer.
Works the other way around too. Ninety years ago serious literary tastemakers considered P. G. Wodehouse a commercially successful hack who turned out reams of silly, forgettable twaddle. Today he is judged as one of the greatest stylists who ever wrote in English. Who could have predicted that?
Nice to see Barbara Ehrenreich on this list! I've read almost all of her books and her intellectual range is vast. From poverty to violence to gender relations to joy to death to middle-class malaise to psychology - the issues she wrote about are neither going out of style nor likely to be resolved.
I'd add James Baldwin to the list. I am always struck by how little has changed, at least with regard to his essays, every time I read one. And he is so breathtakingly talented and astute.
I'd also suggest Jose Saramago, but maybe that is wishful thinking on my part. His writing is so out of place and out of time that it could often be any place at any time, which might help with longevity? I see Blindness being relevant and modern forever; but I also see the pool of readers willing to engage with his style probably shrinking, so!
Alice Munro maybe? Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
What a fun post and question, thank you for sharing!
This is a little late to the comment thread, but germs shared by grandchildren slow you down. And it is the children's authors I came to comment on. Eric Carle will be forever on any bookshelf of any parent, grandparent, or anyone reading to a young child. Timeless. Yesterday I engaged in a conversation about the quality of children's books. There are many which are "instructional" in nature and do not engage either the child or the reader. While others, well-written, engaging, and subtle, get the same "instructional" point across with joy and simplicity in language. Think of Green Eggs and Ham in encouraging a child to try something new, maybe add Theodor Geisel to your list!
Bellow is one of the most overrated writers in American literature who wrote three above average novels- Augie March, The Victim, and Seize The Day. Henderson the Rain King was ridiculous, one more racist farce of a white writer using a third world country- as Updike did, as Robert Stone did, as Russell Banks did, as even a superior writer- Graham Greene did, all using their idea of countries about which they were clueless to form a colorful backdrop for their male protagonist's tepid agonies which in Bellow's case often seemed to migrate to various toilets where I guess,like many male in and if ciure thesedays wecan howhim twoto three.tellectuas, he found a place that was a good fit where hecould brood and laterm make his infamous remark during the student protest cultura and racial wars of the late sixties involving King's discovery of the unfulfilled promisory note, " SHOW ME THE AFRICAN PROUST" And I can with at least three African writers- Achebe, Ngugi Wa' Thiongo, Tutuola,, Ousmane Sembene of Senegal and if you include Egypt as an African company, Mahfouz.
There are at least three Jewish fiction writers who are far better than Bellow or his fatuous pal Phillip Roth- Edward Lewis Wallant, Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, and the author who, for pure writing- sentence by sentence by paragraph, is for my money one of the top four craftspeople in the USA, like Bach with a pen
I dont know if you know Wallant's work.He wrote four novels and died young. His most welknown book is The Pawnbroker, made into a rare movie that combines elegy and bareknuckles.
Grace Paley is one of the great chroniclers of NewYorkCity Jewish,Italian and Irish families. Great ear,inimicabledialogue magically paced and cadenced . Ozick has writtenat least two novels of an enduring literary legacies- hertechnically expeimental short novel about the Holocaust "TheShawl" and the brazen baffling exploration of education- The Cannibal Galaxy that remains on the higher gifted list ofAmerican novels never taught because the universities and mostctics dont read beyond what the major publishers tell them to read - most are so timidly slavish. To becontinued. Consider this too: the greatest Jewish-American writers are the poets and some of the best Jewih American poets dont get the respect and adulationthey deserve. I am talking about Muriel Rukeyser and her. legendary poem"To Be A Jew', also Denise Levetov, Alicia Ostriker, and Naomi Replansky who recently passed away at 102. I just got my latest copy of Poets and Writers. Did they include Replansk, leftist author of Ring Song, and Dangeroous World? No.
why is that? more in afewdays;I have some deadlines for putting out my first book ofpoetry.
I should probably try Bellow again, but when I have tried, I have found his gaze to be too male for me. Hope that makes sense. I’ll take Morrison, Le Guin, Butler, and Hurston anytime over Bellow, Updike, and Roth. I realize that this is my taste, not everyone’s.
I generally agree with your sense of who will last. I was a huge Bellow fan in my 20s, but like you--and while I think he deserved his accolades--I don’t see him being a top read. Same with Updike. For me past of the reason is race and class. As a Black man, I eventually tired of the strata of people they focused on.
Several writers you don’t mention l think will continue to be read: Octavia Butler comes strongly to mind, and so does Vonnegut. In very different ways, they both get not only to a broader swath of humanity but also to human conundrums that run more deeply: our tendency toward self destruction but also our tenacious capacity for love, hope, care for one another. A third writer I would add is Ursula Le Guin, who deals in stunningly original ways with similar themes. These three are also have incredibly original writing styles. Their novels ask the big questions and none of them offer easy answers.
Chances of David Foster Wallace being remembered by segment A of the future reading population: 3-1.
Chances of segment B proclaiming at length, at parties, at funerals, projecting it onto the moon, that they've never even heard of the man, never mind read his infinite warblings: bookies are no longer taking bets.
As the owner of two used bookstores in Seattle I look at sales for these writers every day as I decide what to buy for my customers. Updike has definitely downtrended the past couple of years. Didion we buy everything we see. Ehrenreich had her time but I haven't bought a copy of Nickel and Dimed in years, though I loved it way back when. Bellow is a solid buy, day in and out, though not a barn burner. McCarthy, we buy everything always. I would make a case for Philip K. Dick, Flannery O'Connor, Philip Roth, Jeffrey Eugenides, Jonathan Lethem, and Susan Sontag. I'll leave it there.
Short-story writers, I would think, have a better chance of enduring for eons than War & Peace types. So, Hemingway is an example of one who will endure. He wrote plenty of long form stuff, but also those 5- to 10-minute reads that appeal to short attention span sensibilities.
I disagree with you regarding the lasting impact of Saul Bellow. I recently was given a copy, and then read, Humboldt's Gift. Wow! While there was a lot to plow through, the effort was well worth it. So, maybe the complexity and length of the book will discourage future readers, but his reflections within the story as it progressed were fascinating and relevant even today.
I'm pretty sure Stephen King will be remembered hundreds of years from now. He deserves to be mentioned alongside some of these names, too.
I think Toni Morrison has a higher than 2:1 chance, but I also wonder about how much dumber we're going to get over the next century or so.
Surely i think we must remember Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese Poet
"Between Sleep an Dream
Between sleep and dream,
Between me and what in me
is the I that I suppose
runs a river without end.
It passed by other banks,
diverse but distant,
on the wandering course
the whole river takes.
It arrived where I live
at the place I am today.
It passes, if I meditate on myself;
waking, it has passed by.
And the one I feel I am, and dies
in what binds me to myself,
sleeps where the river runs,
the river without end."
I confess that I finally decided that Bellow is on the list of writers I'm going to read after I die. It's not that I doubt his greatness; it's just that I've read enough mid-20th century men authors for my 47 years on this planet. There are a lot of great writers out there (including some on your list) that I haven't gotten to yet, and that's where I think I'd like to spend the last half of my life.
I'd agree on Didion, though only for her essays, not her fiction (I might include James Baldwin in that category as well). I'd add Salinger (for Catcher in the Rye) and Thoreau (for Walden and a few essays). And yes, prizes are, I'd guess, more a representation of zeitgeist than of longevity or quality* (I'm looking at you, Gone With the Wind).
*I know, I know, I'm always arguing against the concept of "quality," but I truly cannot express my loathing of Gone With the Wind.
Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand your numerical notation. For Morrison you use "1:2", then you switch to dashes like "10-1". Is "1:2" 50%? Then what's "10-1"? Is that 10%.
Anyway, if you changed this to actual percentages (of being remembered and read in 50 years) I think that'd be much clearer.
Works the other way around too. Ninety years ago serious literary tastemakers considered P. G. Wodehouse a commercially successful hack who turned out reams of silly, forgettable twaddle. Today he is judged as one of the greatest stylists who ever wrote in English. Who could have predicted that?
Nice to see Barbara Ehrenreich on this list! I've read almost all of her books and her intellectual range is vast. From poverty to violence to gender relations to joy to death to middle-class malaise to psychology - the issues she wrote about are neither going out of style nor likely to be resolved.
I'd add James Baldwin to the list. I am always struck by how little has changed, at least with regard to his essays, every time I read one. And he is so breathtakingly talented and astute.
I'd also suggest Jose Saramago, but maybe that is wishful thinking on my part. His writing is so out of place and out of time that it could often be any place at any time, which might help with longevity? I see Blindness being relevant and modern forever; but I also see the pool of readers willing to engage with his style probably shrinking, so!
Alice Munro maybe? Gabriel Garcia Marquez?
What a fun post and question, thank you for sharing!
This is a little late to the comment thread, but germs shared by grandchildren slow you down. And it is the children's authors I came to comment on. Eric Carle will be forever on any bookshelf of any parent, grandparent, or anyone reading to a young child. Timeless. Yesterday I engaged in a conversation about the quality of children's books. There are many which are "instructional" in nature and do not engage either the child or the reader. While others, well-written, engaging, and subtle, get the same "instructional" point across with joy and simplicity in language. Think of Green Eggs and Ham in encouraging a child to try something new, maybe add Theodor Geisel to your list!
Bellow is one of the most overrated writers in American literature who wrote three above average novels- Augie March, The Victim, and Seize The Day. Henderson the Rain King was ridiculous, one more racist farce of a white writer using a third world country- as Updike did, as Robert Stone did, as Russell Banks did, as even a superior writer- Graham Greene did, all using their idea of countries about which they were clueless to form a colorful backdrop for their male protagonist's tepid agonies which in Bellow's case often seemed to migrate to various toilets where I guess,like many male in and if ciure thesedays wecan howhim twoto three.tellectuas, he found a place that was a good fit where hecould brood and laterm make his infamous remark during the student protest cultura and racial wars of the late sixties involving King's discovery of the unfulfilled promisory note, " SHOW ME THE AFRICAN PROUST" And I can with at least three African writers- Achebe, Ngugi Wa' Thiongo, Tutuola,, Ousmane Sembene of Senegal and if you include Egypt as an African company, Mahfouz.
There are at least three Jewish fiction writers who are far better than Bellow or his fatuous pal Phillip Roth- Edward Lewis Wallant, Bernard Malamud, Grace Paley, and the author who, for pure writing- sentence by sentence by paragraph, is for my money one of the top four craftspeople in the USA, like Bach with a pen
I dont know if you know Wallant's work.He wrote four novels and died young. His most welknown book is The Pawnbroker, made into a rare movie that combines elegy and bareknuckles.
Grace Paley is one of the great chroniclers of NewYorkCity Jewish,Italian and Irish families. Great ear,inimicabledialogue magically paced and cadenced . Ozick has writtenat least two novels of an enduring literary legacies- hertechnically expeimental short novel about the Holocaust "TheShawl" and the brazen baffling exploration of education- The Cannibal Galaxy that remains on the higher gifted list ofAmerican novels never taught because the universities and mostctics dont read beyond what the major publishers tell them to read - most are so timidly slavish. To becontinued. Consider this too: the greatest Jewish-American writers are the poets and some of the best Jewih American poets dont get the respect and adulationthey deserve. I am talking about Muriel Rukeyser and her. legendary poem"To Be A Jew', also Denise Levetov, Alicia Ostriker, and Naomi Replansky who recently passed away at 102. I just got my latest copy of Poets and Writers. Did they include Replansk, leftist author of Ring Song, and Dangeroous World? No.
why is that? more in afewdays;I have some deadlines for putting out my first book ofpoetry.
best,
Ernie Brilll. erbrill69@gmail,.com
413-320=1807.com
I should probably try Bellow again, but when I have tried, I have found his gaze to be too male for me. Hope that makes sense. I’ll take Morrison, Le Guin, Butler, and Hurston anytime over Bellow, Updike, and Roth. I realize that this is my taste, not everyone’s.