November 23, 2012
Future Classics: Readers of 1936 Predict Which Authors Will Endure
Ernest Hemingway’s 1923 passport photo (Source: National Archives)
In 1936, a quarterly magazine for book collectors called The Colophon polled its readers to pick the ten authors whose works would be considered classics in the year 2000. Sinclair Lewis, author of the 1935 hit It Can’t Happen Here, was a natural choice for the top spot. Just five years earlier Sinclair had been the first American to win the Nobel Prize for literature. But some of the authors are likely forgotten names to even the most ardent reader here in the year 2012:
- Sinclair Lewis
- Willa Cather
- Eugene O’Neill
- Edna St. Vincent Millay
- Robert Frost
- Theodore Dreiser
- James Truslow Adams
- George Santayana
- Stephen Vincent Benet
- James Branch Cabell
The editors at the magazine supplemented the published list with their own ideas of who might still be read in the year 2000. Their list included authors like Thomas Wolfe, H.L. Mencken, Ernest Hemingway and Hervey Allen.
How do you think these readers of the 1930s did with their predictions? Who would you put on a list of authors read today who will still be read into the year 2080 and beyond? What do you think the future holds for the book, a form of technology that’s getting harder and harder to define as it becomes less popular as a physical object and more often a collection of words that reside in our devices?
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The last one is the only one I haven’t heard of. Edna St. Vincent Millay may be known in poetry circles, but I don’t think she’s admired much anymore.
The gentlemen occupying the 7th and 10th spots are unknown to me…but otherwise, I’d say this is an impressive list!
Could “Harvey Allen” actually be “Hervey Allen,” who wrote the best seller “Anthony Adverse?”
This is a nicely picked and interesting list to see! I also am only unfamiliar with numbers 7 and 10 on the list. I’m assuming they’re sticking to Americans, in which case there are a few writers of the time they didn’t credit to have the reputation they enjoy today. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway! arguably the most regarded today. Edith Wharton. F Scott Fitzgerald. John Steinbeck was only getting started, but John dos Passos had published a handful of now classic work, including the capstone to his massive masterpiece “USA” in the year of this article.
In some ways, James Branch Cabell could be seen as the Tolkien of his time. He wrote elaborate fantasies and was also seen as “escapist” literature (as Wikipedia puts it).
Ray Bradbury
C.J. Cherryh
Arthur C. Clark
Harlan Ellison
Neil Gaiman
Frank Herbert
Robert Heinlein
Ursula K. LeGuin
Anne McCaffrey
Elizabeth Moon
Just to start with and that’s just in the S.F. & Fantasy genres.
James Truslow Adams is the only name I do not remember. I started High School just 21 years after that list was published. I was not a fan of Dreiser, or the poets, but I read all the Sinclair Lewis I could find and I loved Cabell’s Jurgen.
Ernest Hemingway
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Sinclair Lewis
Jack Kerouac
William Burroughs
Tom Wolfe
Lorraine Hansberry
J.D. Salinger
Kurt Vonnegut
Ray Bradbury
As I re-read this list, it’s rather sad that I notice that there’s nobody here who became popular after 1980 or so. All I can think of are people like Tom Clancy, John Grisham, Stephen King — names that don’t exactly inspire admiration for me, and whose work I usually associate with books you buy at the airport and read on the plane. Usually, when I mentally compose a list of American authors whose work I think will be remembered in fifty or a hundred years, the most recent ones are those who achieved prominence in the 1960s, which only serves to remind me how much American literature — and American culture in general — have gone down the toilet (Just as a point of reference, I was born in 1957).
The only authors I can think of from the past ten or fifteen years who might have a chance are David Foster Wallace and George Pelicanos (a long shot), but your mileage may vary. Some folks might also put James Michener on the list, but I’ve never been that crazy about him. I know he’s supposed to be a writer of really enduring literature and all, and I’ve really tried hard to get into him, but for me, reading Michener is just a grind.
In reply to P.N. Elrod: No Asimov? Several of yours are chopped liver compared to the good Doctor.
Stephen King
Ray Bradbury
Terry Pratchett
Ernest Hemingway
F.Scott Fitzgerald
J.R.R.Tolkien
William Steinbeck
Edgar Allen Poe(particularly now, with the movie:The Raven having been released)
J.K.Rowling(Even though her writing isn’t that incredible, she did weave an enchanting tale, plus she influenced an entire generation to read. That has a major affect on the future)
Jack Kerouac.
I never realized Hemingway was so handsome.
I think we have nine of the ten in the house. Possibly only 8…. I’m not familiar with Adams, though.
I haven’t read them all but would enter a plea for Cabell as unjustly forgotten. Here’s a suggestion drenched in malice — name the writers of today (only those who are usually thought of seriously, as “literary” writers) who have a good opinion of themselves but will vanish quite soon. Brat Easton Ellis is my choice #1, #2, and #3. Then comes the wretched Tom Wolfe. Don’t start me (though I’m trying to start everybody else).
Very pretentious site and readers. The new “literature” IS genre fiction. I’ll take Jurassic Park and Harry Potter and the Silence of the Lambs for starters!
Another vote here for James Branch Cabell. If there had been no Tolkien with his elves, Cabell would have set the tone for late 20th century fantasy, and it would have been a lot funnier, and sexier (humour and sex both being notably absent from Tolkien’s universe). Discovering old copies of Jurgen and Figures of Earth in a second-hand bookshop was a revelation to me. He’s well worth looking up if you’ve never heard of him before.
Isn’t this supposed to be American authors? P.N. Elrod’s list has Arthur C. Clarke and Neil Gaiman, who are both Brits, and Gavin has Pratchett and Tolkien — both of whom will surely last, but both are Brits! If the original list of 1936 had set out to be international I suspect it would have been VERY different.
I feel that Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert deserve mention, and the legitimate list is fairly expansive. There is also the emergence of key translations such as the Poet’s Bible and edition of Beowulf by Seamus Heaney.
Amongst males, Virginia Woolf is underrated, whereas for both males and females, James Joyce is overrated except as a reference to word-play (avant-garde deserves to be a specialism, but not a norm).
I also recommend my own newly published book, the 1-Page-Classics, which has a lot of original content, especially philosophy and ‘vignettes’.
Neil Gaiman
Margaret Atwood
Junot Diaz
Evelyn Waugh
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Ray Bradbury
Haruki Murakami
Kurt Vonnegut
Chuck Palahniuk
I still prefer my books made of paper. It’s the right weight and scent and feel. :)
I would think Upton Sinclair is worth a mention in this renowned list of notable authors.
I’m familiar with the first 5 on your list but have only heard a quote or two from the last 5. None are on my own top 10 list. Michael Crichton will probably have something that lasts into the future, though I don’t know that his sci-fi novels are considered literature. I definitely think Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison ought to be on any list of enduring literature.
Looks like it’s correct now.
That is an interesting list. Not american but I do hope Georges Simenon is still read in 2080. That man had a gift that is rarely seen in writing, the gift of painting a rich picture in a teeny tiny amount of words.
What a delight to see the name of James Branch Cabell again. He’s been sadly neglected for too long. Fantasy is enjoying a resurgence of respect at the moment (well, financially at least)so maybe the Twilight crowd will read Jurgen or possibly Figures of Earth (giggle). Cabell is a good read.
:)
It’s interesting that Steinbeck, Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Faulkner are missing. Who knew they would become a staple of modern literature courses? My personal favorites from the era are all absent–Dorothy Parker, John Dos Passos, Ogden Nash, Christopher Morley, and Van Loon. The 1936 readers seem to have come up with an accurate list–most, or perhaps all, of these authors are in print.
Toni Morrison
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
John Steinbeck
Tom Wolfe
Junot Diaz
A.S. Byatt
John Irving
Chinua Achebe
Harper Lee
A totally subjective list but that’s the beauty of a good read. Some of these are one shot authors….but wow, what a shot! Notice I couldn’t even come up with ten authors? Such little depth and substance to so many writers today , and readers as well, sorry to say. Who has the patience now for the likes of a Thackery or Dickens?
Please keep paper and print in hand, this inane technology is destroying the little left of humanity.
Bob Dylan, for certain!
Keep an eye on John Barth, Jonathan Lethem, Michael Chabon, John Irving.
Impressive list, but how can we omit John Updike? Alice Munro? Margaret Atwood? Thomas Wolfe? So many; too many to limit…isn’t it grand?
Well, as much as I love many of the authors from the 50s through 70s, I think the list was meant to be reflective more of current literature than already established classics like Kerouac and Steinbeck, and I don’t really see anything saying it had to be American authors. For my two cents:
Haruki Murakami
Salman Rushdie
Chuck Palahniuk
Khalil Gibran
Neil Gaiman
J.K. Rowling
Dave Eggars
Christopher Moore (that’s my wishful thinking!)
Etgar Keret
Gabriel Garcia Marques
This list points to a very socially conscious reading public, back when reading was for pleasure and learning. While I’m personally surprised at how many of these names I know (thank you “Early 20th Century American Lit”), I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the same call for submissions was held today resulted in a list that highlights celebrity authors over authors like Lewis and Frost (who were celebrities in their own rights at the time) – such as:
JK Rowlings
Stephen King
The Twiglight author
The Hunger Games author
etc. etc.
Today’s readers read what Hollywood and Oprah tells them to read, and if it ain’t being made into a movie, the books just don’t sell. Sad, but true story: My niece told me the other day she doesn’t read books because it’s easier to watch the movie… Doesn’t help that her mother only reads books Oprah recommends.
I am sorry to say but literature has been dead as a door nail for at least the last one hundred years. Not one original thought has been put on paper that has given more than the authors have received.
Kind of a snooze festy list!!!
For most beautiful writing so that it’s almost being painted in your mind. Take a trip off the beaten path with Anne Rice especially her books that she wrote under her pseudonyms like “Belinda “.
Here are a couple of sites
http://www.mcsweeneys.net/articles/some-good-news-from-the-world-of-books
and
http://news.bookweb.org/news/study-finds-e-books-surge-physical-stores-still-largest-book-channel
that indicate that the publishing industry is growing, albeit slowly in this economy; anecdotal evidence aside, people are still reading books, whether dead-tree or electronic in format. Some are literary and “good,” others are popular and may be trashy. But people are still reading!
Toni Morrison
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
John Steinbeck
Cormac McCarthy
Walter Mosley
If you think about the authors who have become respected that weren’t on the list (Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and others) as opposed to the majority of the people who while still known have not persisted as obvious classic, the persistently classic authors wrote what everyone could enjoy. Look at Fitzgerald, he may not have been overly successful with critics, but people genuinely enjoyed his work. This is why, I have a hard time thinking that the so-called literary works of the day will stand the test of time, as often these books lack a sort of universality. I think 60 years from now, the classics of today are more likely to be authors like J. K. Rowling, Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, and possibly even Lemony Snicket and John Green. Authors who touch both the adult and the child stand a better chance of making it to “Classic” status than the stuffy authors who alienate anyone that does not have a hunger for tough literature. This is not to say that Margaret Atwood and Toni Morrison won’t be classics, but I don’t think they will be the quintessential examples of the early 21st century “Classic.”
How could they so gaffe on F. Scott Fitzgerald?
Peter Carey
Gabriel Garcia Marquz
A.S. Byatt
Kate Atkinson
Jane Smiley
F. Scott Fitzgerald
William Faulkner
Ruth Rendall (sorry, she’s an ace mystery writer who will be read forever)
Have your read Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here?
A chillingly, realistic account of how a democratic, free society is turned into a police state in a very short time.
My favorite take on this game is from Star Trek IV:
Kirk: You mean the profanity? That’s simply the way they talk here. Nobody pays attention to you unless you swear every other word. You’ll find it in all the literature of the period.
Spock: For example?
Kirk: Oh the neglected works of Jacqueline Susan. The novels of Harold Robbins…
Spock: Ah, the “Giants”.
In the future, as in the past, we will get the past we want.
11.) None of the above.