Thurber's List

I've recently been reading a collection of essays and reviews by James Thurber, Collecting Himself: James Thurber on Writing and Writers, Humor and Himself (which has got to be one of the most unwieldy titles of the past half-century). One interesting snippet is a reading list Thurber compiled in 1949 for his daughter. It's specifically for entertainment and inspiration: "This is not, needless to say, my selection of the Great Books; it is merely intended as a stimulation to a young lady . . ."

Here's the list (drumroll):

Babbitt, by Sinclair Lewis

Daisy Miller, by Henry James

Gentle Julia, by Booth Tarkington

Linda Condon, Java Head, and Wild Oranges, by Joseph Hergesheimer

The Wanderer, by Alain-Fournier

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway

Invitation to the Waltz, by Rosamond Lehmann

This Simian World and God and My Father, by Clarence Day

The House in Paris, by Elizabeth Bowen

A Lost Lady and My Mortal Enemy, by Willa Cather

A Handful of Dust and Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh

Heaven's My Destination and The Cabala, by Thornton Wilder

February Hill and The Wind at My Back, by Victoria Lincoln

Blue Voyage, by Conrad Aiken

The Bitter Tea of General Yen, by G.Z. Stone

Lady Into Fox, by David Garnett

How to Write Short Stories, by Ring Lardner

The Return of the Soldier, by Rebecca West

Miss Lonelyhearts, by Nathaniel West

Now some shocking confessions. I've never heard of two thirds of these books, and even a third of the authors were unfamiliar to me. I've only actually read three of the books on the list — anyone who has passed through an American high school or college has probably read both The Great Gatsby and The Sun Also Rises, and I also read Decline and Fall by Waugh.

To save my reputation, I would like to point out that I have read books by half the authors. I've read Henry James, Clarence Day, Willa Cather, Thornton Wilder, Ring Lardner, and the two Wests — just not Thurber's selections. I know Booth Tarkington wrote The Magnificent Ambersons, and Alexander Woolcott was a huge fan of Gentle Julia, but I've never even seen a copy of anything by Tarkington.

I looked up the seven authors whose names I didn't recognize. Most of them were Thurber's contemporaries. Joseph Hergesheimer was well-known in the 1920s, but apparently his reputation declined steeply after World War II. Alain-Fournier was a French author who died in World War I, and The Wanderer (Le Grand Meaulnes) was his only novel. Rosemary Lehmann was a British writer on the fringe of the Bloomsbury Group during the 1930s. Elizabeth Bowen was an Anglo-Irish writer, also part of the interwar British literary scene.

Victoria Lincoln was harder to track down; she was a little younger than the others, but had a hit with February Hill in the 1930s. G.Z. Stone was Grace Zaring Stone, who also wrote as Ethel Vance. David Garnett was another Bloomsburyite, and Lady Into Fox was a popular allegorical fantasy of the 1930s, and was even made into a ballet.

It does make one wonder: which contemporary authors will be obscure footnotes eighty years from now? Last year's New York Times bestseller list has 27 authors on it, about the same number as Thurber's list: John Grisham, Michael Connelly, Danielle Steel, W. Bruce Cameron, James Patterson, Lisa Gardner, J.D. Robb, Jonathan Kellerman, William P. Young, Greg Iles, J.R. Ward, David Baldacci, John Sandford, Paula Hawkins, Nora Roberts, Daniel Silva, Debbie Macomber, Sandra Brown, Sue Grafton, Louise Penny, Ken Follet, Nelson DeMille, Stephen King, Dan Brown, Lee Child, Janet Evanovich, and E.L. James.

Of that entire list, only Paula Hawkins stands a chance of being remembered past her own lifetime, and even that's a long shot. Writers are dancing monkeys, and when a monkey stops dancing people forget about it quickly.

(Wild horses couldn't make me opine about which contemporary science fiction and fantasy authors will still be read in 2098. You'll just have to wait and see.)

 

For a mix of stories which will undoubtedly stand the test of time, check out my ebooks Outlaws and Aliens and Monster Island Tales!

Comments

[Gregory Benford]

A Handful of Dust and Decline and Fall, by Evelyn Waugh -- the best of the lat, plus the Hemingway & Foitzgerald... in all, read 5. sigh

[Chuk Goodin]

I was about at the same as you, read 3 of them, heard of about 2 thirds.
But was that bit about Paula Hawkins serious? I already remember Sue Grafton past her own lifetime and I'm probably not the only one.

[Cambias]

Sue Grafton died two months ago. How long will her works be remembered once there's no longer one in the publishing pipeline?