Friday, May 13, 2016

Authors took their time with these sequels

From 17 to 55 years, authors took their time with these long-awaited book sequels

9 comments:

Deb said...

I'm glad the article mentioned the likelihood that Harper Lee neither authorized nor wanted WATCHMAN to be published.

I'm curious about Salinger. He's been dead a few years now and I always thought his heirs would jump on the posthumous publication gravy train, but so far there's been nothing. Perhaps those tales of a vault full of new material were wishful thinking.

Unknown said...

I've wondered about Salinger, too, Deb. I guess the heirs don't need the money. Or there are no manuscripts.

Deb said...

Or, my favorite scenario, every single line of the mountain of manuscripts reads, "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy."

Richard Heft said...

35 years: LITTLE BIG MAN (1964) and RETURN OF LITTLE BIG MAN (1999).

Unknown said...

I've had RETURN OF LITTLE BIG MAN for nearly 15 years and still haven't read it.

Richard Heft said...

Bill: You're fine, there was a massive drop-off in content and quality during those 35 years.

Unknown said...

I was afraid of that. Probably that's why I haven't read it.

Don Coffin said...

I'm going to get pedantic here...

LOTR isn't, exactly, a sequel to The Hobbit, however.
And Second Foundation was the third book in the cycle [(Foundation (1951), Foundation and Empire (1952), Second Foundation (1953)].
Walter Miller didn't exactly wait to publish a sequel to A Canticle for Leibowitz...technically, he never finished it.

Unknown said...

I thought pretty much the same thing in all three cases, Don.