I was reading up on Harper Lee, who published just one novel (well, technically two but there’s a lot of controsvery surrounding the publication of her second novel with regards to her mental state and financial incentives of relatives).
Just wondering if there are any other authors who just published a single novel that was so good that they decided not to publish anything else.
by kondiar0nk
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I don’t know if it was their decision not to write anymore but
Margaret Mitchell – Gone With the Wind
Patrick Suskind – Perfume (he did write a couple novellas and some essays)
Katherine Stockett – The Help
Adam Johnson – The Orphan Master’s Son (this was actually his 2nd novel, published in ’12 – he did some short stories since then but nothing for several years)
Boris Pasternak 0 Doctor Zhivago (he did write poetry)
Classics – Withering Heights (Emily Bronte), The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde – who wrote plays and poetry but only one novel)
The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are Sylvia Plath’s the Bell Jar and J. D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. I believe I read after he died that Salinger continued to write after Catcher, but didn’t want any of his books published until after he died. As far as I know there haven’t been any Salinger novels published posthumously.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller. He wrote a bunch of short stories, but this is the only novel he ever published. There was a partially written sequel draft finished by a different author and published after his death.
Not sure if this counts, but The Caltraps of Time by David I. Masson is a collection of short stories, the only fiction ever written by this author. They are strange and wonderful in how they play with language.
A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (he died before it was published)