Reading the 20th Century discussion

Have you come across any authors who seem to be forgotten but are worth rediscovering?

I'm just reading The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L. Sayers, a novel told in letters, and have just come across a passage which mentions a couple of once bestselling novels which are now forgotten.

They are Sweet Pepper by Geoffrey Moss and If Winter Comes by A.S.M. Hutchinson, which were both very popular in the early/mid 20s.

The sarky comments about these by the character writing the letter suggest he thinks they are both awful (probably middlebrow, to tie in with our current thread!).

But, on googling the authors, Moss is said to have been popular with his fellow authors and apparently influenced Graham Greene to be interested in Germany in the inter-war period, while apparently Hutchinson was ahead of his time in writing a novel centred on divorce. I see there are books by these two available on Gutenberg and Archive.org, so I might be tempted to try them in the future.

Judy, I loved The Documents in the Case, but I must admit that I did not pick up on the authors mentioned. So many great authors tend to be forgotten- however, it is getting better, with many publishers bringing out new editions of long neglected books.

So many, I don't know where to begin. Neglected books and writers have been an intense interest of mine since boyhood, and of course there is a voluminous literature on the subject. A good place to start is the Neglected Books website and blog: http://neglectedbooks.com/

One interesting case among thousands is Hugh Edwards, who published five novels in the UK between 1932 and 1938. I've read the second, All Night at Mr. Stanyhurst's, which is a stunning little adventure story; it was reprinted in the 1960s with a preface by Ian Fleming, but has gone missing again. More information here: http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.mx/2016/... The novel can be read or downloaded for free at the Internet Archive: https://archive.org/details/allnighta...

None of Edwards' novels have entries here at Goodreads.

Certainly, as a lover of Golden Age detective fiction, this has almost been a second golden age for readers. There have been some wonderful, long out of print, mysteries re-published on kindle. It is obviously cheaper to produce kindle versions of books, but they must be making some kind of profit for publishers to consider them, I would have thought.

I am contractually obliged to mention Christopher Fowler's Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared.

Christopher Fowler, explains that the reason some books endure is far more arbitrary than you might imagine: fashion, economics, luck, film adaptations, and many other variables might play a part. What is clear is that the majority of authors eventually disappear, including those whose books become touchstones for many of our lives. And with them, go some magnificent, but forgotten, books.

Click here to read my review

Nigeyb wrote: "I am contractually obliged to mention Christopher Fowler's Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared."

Christopher Fowler has also written The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017). I am not sure if this is the same book under a different title. I suspect not.


Absence doesn't make the heart grow fonder. It makes people think you're dead.

So begins Christopher Fowler's foray into the back catalogues and backstories of 99 authors who, once hugely popular, have all but disappeared from shelves.

We are fondly introduced to each potential rediscovery: from lost Victorian voices to the twentieth century writers who could well become the next John Williams, Hans Fallada or Lionel Davidson. Whether male or female, flash-in-the-pan or prolific, mega-seller or prize-winner - no author, it seems, can ever be fully immune from the fate of being forgotten.

These 99 journeys are punctuated by 12 short essays about faded once-favourites: including the now-vanished novels Walt Disney brought to the screen, the contemporary rivals of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie who did not stand the test of time, and the women who introduced psychological suspense many decades before it conquered the world.

This is a book about books and their authors. It is for book lovers, and is written by one who could not be a more enthusiastic, enlightening and entertaining guide.

I downloaded The Book of Forgotten Authors when it was discounted a while ago, Nigeyb. Just need time to read it and I will surely add to my TBR list.

Thanks so much for the link to the Neglected Books website, Patrick - this looks like a great place to explore and discover writers who have fallen into undeserved obscurity. I’ve just dipped in and read a couple of reviews and this will certainly add to my TBR, assuming I can find the books in question.

You’ve reminded me that I added the first Christopher Fowler book to my TBR list a while back, Nigeyb, but have not yet got round to reading it. I’ve now also added the other - have just spent a few minutes trying to confirm whether they are the same book but didn’t get anywhere.

Christopher Fowler gets name checked on Neglected Books here...

http://neglectedbooks.com/?page_id=834

Back in August 2008, the Independent started publishing a series of short pieces by Christopher Fowler devoted to the subject of “forgotten authors” which finally turned into Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared

It looks as though The Book of Forgotten Authors is an expanded version of Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared, or at least that's how I interpret this enjoyable review on Shiny New Books...

A lover of old paperbacks, Christopher Fowler eventually started writing a column for the Independent on Sunday called ‘Invisible Ink’, about forgotten authors, and it was a big success. This book is the next step, featuring 99 of these ‘forgotten’ authors who get two or three pages each, with a dozen slightly longer thematic essays in between.

After Fowler’s introduction the authors are listed alphabetically, and he begins with a slightly controversial choice in Marjory Allingham. He acknowledges that she’s still mostly in print and hardly unknown, but that ‘very few readers seem to have got to grips with her novels.’ He continues by picking out the highlights of her particular style which include the ‘plum pudding principle’ – to include regular nuggets of plum amongst the supporting stodge. I have read one early Allingham novel, and immediately wanted to read more – proving the premise of this book by the end of the first chapter.

For every author I’d heard of, or even read, like Frank Baker and Kyril Bonfiglioi (I actually reviewed a reprint of the latter’s first Charlie Mortdecai novel for Shiny here), there would be names that were totally new to me like Alexander Baron or Lesley Blanch. For each, Fowler combines a biographical overview with capsule descriptions of their major works and writing style. He writes with wit and enthusiasm, and it’s obvious that he has devoured all the books mentioned.

We reach the first of the essays – ‘The Forgotten Disney Connection’. From The Swiss Family Robinson via The Parent Trap to Lady and the Tramp, and not forgetting all those fairy tales, book and story adaptations were Disney’s thing.

The other essays cover subjects such as Pulp Fiction, Dickens’s lesser known work, the rivals to Holmes and Bond, those Booker winners we’ve forgotten, and a fun one called The Justly Forgotten Authors which includes Richard Bach of Jonathan Livingston Seagull fame (I can’t believe I actually read that book in the mid-1970s!). I particularly enjoyed these sections.

All the books included were written in English, except for those in the Essay ‘Lost in Translation’ which looks at world fiction. Indeed, the majority of authors in this book are British, with some Americans, Irish and just a smattering of other nationalities.

Some will quibble over Fowler’s choice of which authors to include in this book. There’s a balance to be struck, and those readers who grew up devouring the books of Georgette Heyer and Jean Plaidy, (included here under her real name, Eleanor Hibbert), as teenaged girls may feel that these authors are still too well known and in print. We may know them, but they do deserve to find new younger audiences too. Of course, Fowler will probably not have known these authors in the same way as we do. Another small disappointment is that there is a gender imbalance in his selection too with just 28 women authors in the 99 profiles.

That aside, this is a wonderfully entertaining book that will expand any reader’s wishlist, as it has done to mine. I hope that he’ll bring out a second volume, with more female and genre authors… It is, however, an ideal Christmas gift for booklovers.

http://shinynewbooks.co.uk/the-book-o...

Also, Invisible Ink is 222 pages, whilst The Book of Forgotten Authors is 384 pages, which also suggests it's an expanded version. Certainly the writers referenced in the reviews I've read suggest, at the very least, some overlap.

I love when books are mentioned in other books. I can't remember which Patrick Hamilton book it's in but one of them mentioned Jeffrey Farnol. Farnol was a name i remembered from my childhood as having been my uncles favourite author in his youth. According to my Mum it was all highwaymen, adventure and outrageous coincidence and also hugely unfashionable. Patrick was mighty dismissive too. Probably not one that we should try to revive but i cant say I'm not curious, my uncle was one of those whimsical people who delight in the obscurity of their references as well as in their oddly forward if slightly leftfield thinking.

Patrick wrote: "A good place to start is the Neglected Books website and blog: http://neglectedbooks.com/"
That is a very interesting website and blog. Thank you Patrick.
Several of the featured neglected authors wrote short stories or, if they wrote novels as well, the novels might be available and the short stories not.
Short stories were usually published in literary magazines and not all of the magazines survived or kept an archive, so it is understandable that many short stories were lost. Most of the featured authors were also published in anthologies however, so that does not explain their neglect completely.
Do you think short stories and, by extension, their authors are more ephemeral?

P.S. I also have Fowler's "The Book of Forgotten Authors".

CQM wrote: "I love when books are mentioned in other books. I can't remember which Patrick Hamilton book it's in but one of them mentioned Jeffrey Farnol."

You and me both CQM

Jeffrey Farnol is not a name I'm familiar with though.

According to Wikipedia...

Jeffery Farnol (10 February 1878 – 9 August 1952) was a British writer from 1907 until his death, known for writing more than 40 romance novels, some formulaic and set in the Georgian Era or English Regency period, and swashbucklers. He, with Georgette Heyer, largely initiated the Regency romantic genre.

Georgette Heyer who was very popular when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s was recently discussed on Backlisted - very favourably too. They discussed her novel Venetia...

This show sees John and Andy joined by Una McCormack and Cathy Rentzenbrink to discuss Venetia, one of the Regency Romance novels by Georgette Heyer. Includes mild language and various Georgian terms for drunkeness.

https://soundcloud.com/backlistedpod/...

Judy wrote: "Thanks so much for the link to the Neglected Books website, Patrick - this looks like a great place to explore and discover writers who have fallen into undeserved obscurity. I’ve just dipped in an..."

It'a fantastic website. Another great one is Furrowed Middlebrow: http://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.mx/

Some great books on this subject:

Rediscoveries: Informal Essays in Which Well-Known Novelists Rediscover Neglected Works of Fiction By One of Their Favorite Authors

Rediscoveries II: Important Writers Select Their Favorite Works of Neglected Fiction

Writer's Choice: A Library of Rediscoveries

List of Books

A Reader's Delight

Val wrote: "Patrick wrote: "A good place to start is the Neglected Books website and blog: http://neglectedbooks.com/"
That is a very interesting website and blog. Thank you Patrick.
Several of the featured n..."

Old short story anthologies are a great place to look for neglected authors!

As if on cue, this blog post just popped up in my RSS feed: http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.mx/2018/...

Forgotten Authors Volume 1

There is no Goodreads entry for the Volume 2 yet..

The Wormwoodiana blog is a great source for neglected authors of horror, fantasy, and speculative fiction generally: http://wormwoodiana.blogspot.mx/

Patrick wrote: "Old short story anthologies are a great place to look for neglected authors! "
They are indeed. I have come across some great short stories by authors I hadn't previously heard of.

Patrick, that website looks great, I shall be exploring it.
I have found one great way of discovering lost authors is my local Oxfam bookshop, which has a table of cheap old books (99p), lots of old hardbacks, virago"s and penguin classics. I found The Misses Mallett by E H Young here, she is now one of my favourites. A bestseller in her day, apparently, but lead a very unconventional life. I recently picked up a book that isn't even on Goodreads, 'Mrs Betsey or Widowed and Wed' by Francesca Marton, the author isn't on here either. I have yet to read this one though.

Scott at Furrowed Middlebrow doesn't have Francesca Marton on his list, either. Since her novel is dated 1954, it falls within his 1920-1960 area of interest, so I alerted him.

Thanks, I do read his blog from time to time, maybe It'll crop up. I'll post on this thread when I get to it.

He just emailed to thank me for the info. I've sent him two authors in the past couple of days.

Another couple of authors were mentioned in The Documents in the Case by Dorothy L Sayers - Robert Smythe Hichens and Henry de Vere Stacpoole.

Although their names might be obscure, they both wrote famous books which are still in print. Hichens was the author of The Green Carnation, with characters inspired by Oscar Wilde and Lord Alfred Douglas, and de Vere Stacpoole wrote The Blue Lagoon a Romance, which has been filmed three times. I'd like to read The Green Carnation, but not so sure about The Blue Lagoon.

I was looking through Christopher Fowler's list of forgotten authors this morning and I have read or heard of a lot more of them than any of Goodreads suggested books of the year for the last seven years.

You do wonder how many current authors will be popular in even fifty years, Val. Which do you think has staying power? Mick Herron gets my vote.

Good point Val. I get notifications from GoodReads to vote in the best books of that particular year and have rarely heard of more than two of them. Presumably GoodReads members vote for the nominations. There's a world of contemporary reading out there that barely impinges on my consciousness.

I must get to the Fowler book soon. I was surprised to see from reviews that he includes Margery Allingham, who is still popular with vintage crime fans- but I need to read his article on her before commenting further!

In Invisible Ink: How 100 Great Authors Disappeared, Christopher Fowler covers both forgotten writers and forgotten books by otherwise popular writers - which maybe is a bit of a cheat - but could also account for Margery's presence

Thanks Nigeyb, that makes sense. I suppose some famous names were probably needed for variety and to increase interest in the newspaper column and book!

Susan wrote: "You do wonder how many current authors will be popular in even fifty years, Val. Which do you think has staying power? Mick Herron gets my vote."
I hope Hilary Mantel will still be popular and J. K. Rowling probably will be, but I wouldn't like to predict who else.

At the back of a 1960s Pan list of 'pick of the paperbacks' is this synopsis of 'The Zilov Bombs' by Donald Gabriel Barron.
"Britain occupied by the Russians - and a Resistance movement with ruthless plans of diabolical violence. A tense and original novel which makes 'exciting reading'."
Has anyone read this one, or heard of the author?

Not read it, or heard of the author however The Zilov bombs by Donald Gabriel Barron is on GoodReads with two ratings: one 4 star and one 2 star.

Are you tempted Greg?

Indeed! where did you find that cover? That's classic.
Thanks Nigeyb.

I love the selling point.
'An awful warning - quite impossible to put down'.

Sounds like classic cold war paranoia...

The minute you mentioned Pan paperback I was off to find it Greg. I love the old Pan paperbacks and they are amongst the few books I keep and collect.

I admit to buying PAN paperbacks in the past on the cover alone.

Yes, that one was published at the height of the Cold War.

They re-released some kindle Pan books with the original covers. I know kindle is not quite the same, but I loved them. I had to buy