One book phenomenon

14.11.03 in General by Carleen Huxley | 3 comments

There’s something that I’ve been very curious about for awhile. You have all these authors, famous authors like Nora Roberts, Grisham, Clancy, Patterson, Stephen King, etc., who write hundreds of books. People could probably argue all day about which one of their books are the best but none of them really live up to the idea of a “classic” book. Then you have people like Sylvia Plath, Boris Pasternak and Harper Lee who write just one book, a real “classic” book that becomes the subject of critical debate and discussion in essays, books and literature classes from around the world. I wonder if there is a name for this phenomenon? I’m sure there are more authors that belong in this catagory but I can’t think of anymore myself. I’ve tried searching on google but haven’t had any luck since I’m not even sure how to phrase this in a search.

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14.11.03 at 10:37:26

MitchNo Gravatar

Mitch’s avatar

Isn’t just called “literature”? Isn’t the other stuff commonly known as “crap”? :-) Maybe I’m just being elitist…

14.11.03 at 13:56:00

BethNo Gravatar

Beth’s avatar

How about “one hit wonder”?

14.11.03 at 14:33:25

Carleen

Carleen’s avatar

Actually, Jenn already thought of the “one hit wonder” idea but the
then she decided that it didn’t work because “one hit wonder”
songs usually lost their popularity shortly after they were
a hit, whereas these books do just the opposite. But, it works.