Little did I know when Patti Abbott invited me to join her Friday’s Forgotten Books group back in 2009 that 650 posts later, I’d still be writing about Forgotten Books and forgotten authors (you can read my first FFB post here).
I decided to commemorate this milestone by choosing Christopher Fowler’s aptly titled book: The Book of Forgotten Authors (2017). I picked Fowler’s book because I rediscovered it on my shelves when I was looking for volumes in Fowler’s Bryant & May Peculiar Crimes Unit series. And, I was looking for the Bryant & May books because Rick Robinson’s wonderful reviews (you can read them here, here, and here) motivated me to read a series I’ve been collecting–but not reading–for many years (the story of my Life…).
I’m a sucker for books like The Book of Forgotten Authors. It’s a browsers delight! And, it has generated a whole list of books that I’ll be searching for.
I want to thank all of you who have followed my FFB reviews for 12 years. I hope to continue to contribute FFB reviews for many more years. How many of these authors are you familiar with? GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
Why are good authors forgotten? — 1
1. Margery Allingham — 5
2. Virginia Andrews — 8
3. Charlotte Armstrong — 11
4. Frank Baker — 15
5. R.M. Ballantyne — 18
6. Alexander Baron — 21
7. Peter Barnes — 24
8. Lesley Blanch — 27
9. Kyril Bonfiglioli — 30
The forgotten Disney connection — 33
10. Earnest Bornemann — 38
11. Pierre Boulle — 41
12. Mary Elizabeth Braddon — 44
13. Caryl Brahms — 47
14. Pamela Branch — 49
15. Brigid Brophy — 52
16. Thomas Burke — 55
17. Dino Buzzati — 57
18. Patricia Carlon — 60
19. Barbara Comyns Carr — 62
The Forgotten (pre-Tarantino) pulp fiction — 64
20. John Dickson Carr — 68
21. Leslie Charteris — 71
22. John Christopher — 74
23. John Collier — 77
24. Norman Collins — 80
25. Richard Condon — 84
26. Edmund Crispin — 87
27. E.M. Delafield — 90
28. Patrick Dennis — 93
29. Raymond Durgnat — 95
The forgotten rivals of Holmes, Bond and Miss Marple — 98
30. Rosalind Erskine — 102
21. Dr. Christopher Evans — 110
32. Jack Finney — 113
33. Ronald Firbank — 116
34. Peter Fleming — 120
35. Lucille Fletcher — 122
36. R. Austin Freeman — 124
37. Michael Green — 127
38. Peter Van Greenaway — 130
The forgotten books of Charles Dickens — 133
39. Robert Van Gulik — 137
40. Thomas Guthrie — 140
41. Charles Hamilton — 143
42. James Hanley — 145
43. Sven Hassel — 148
44. A.P. Herbert — 151
45. Georgette Heyer — 154
46. Eleanor Hibbert — 157
47. Harry Hodge — 160
48. Sheila Hodgetts — 161
The forgotten queens of suspense — 166
49. Polly Hope — 175
50. Richard Hughes — 180
51. Graham Joyce — 182
52. Robert Klane — 185
53. Thomas Nigel Kneale — 188
54. Ronald Knox — 191
55. Gavin Lambert — 194
56. George Langelaan — 197
The forgotten nonsense writers — 200
57. Noel Langley — 206
58. Marghanita Laski — 209
59. Michael McDowell — 212
60. John McGlashan — 215
61. Juliane Maclaren-Ross — 218
62. Richard Marsh — 220
63. Arthur Mee — 222
64. Gustav Meyer — 226
65. Margaret Millar — 229
The forgotten Booker authors — 232
66. Clifford Mills — 236
67. Gladys Mitchell — 239
68. Brian Moore — 242
70. Peter Nichols — 244
71. Bill Naughton — 247
72. Emma Orczy — 250
73. Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett — 254
74. Thomas Love Peacock — 256
Forgotten for writing too little and too much — 259
75. Joyce Porter — 266
76. David Pownall — 268
77. Philippa Pullar — 271
78. Barbara Pym — 274
79. Richard Quittenton — 276
80. T. Lobsang Rampa — 278
81. Simon Raven — 281
82. Maurice Richardson — 284
The rediscovered forgotten authors — 287
83. Arnold Ridley — 294
84. Tom Robbins — 296
85. Cynthia Propper Seton — 299
86. Idries Shah — 301
87. Richard Shaver — 304
88. Matthew Phipps Shiel — 307
89. Peter Tinniswood — 309
Lost in translation: the forgotten world authors — 312
90. Thomas Tryon — 319
91. Arthur Upfield — 321
92. Edgar Wallace — 324
93. James Redding Ware — 327
94. Keith Waterhouse — 327
95. Winifred Watson — 330
The justly forgotten authors — 337
96. Dennis Wheatley — 343
97. T.H. White — 346
98. Kathleen Winsor — 349
99. Cornell Woolrich — 352
The last word — 355
Acknowledgements — 359
Index — 361
Where Were All The BAME Writers? — 373
100. William Melvin Kelley — 377
Wow!
Having a look at this list less than a dozen authors rang a bell – John Dickson Carr and Charteris, Finney and Van Greenaway and of course Edgar Wallace.
Too many books and not enough time!
I haven’t even managed to read all books in my collection – of course some I didn’t like so put them back on the shelf.
As a teenager I read at least one book a day but these days are gone …
Wolf, I still try to read a book a day. You’re right: when I was a teenager it was easy to read a book a day, mostly ACE Doubles!
You must read pretty fast. I’m a slow reader. Usually about 25 pages an hour depending on the book. I try to read 100 pages a day.
Steve, when I worked as a consultant in the 1970s, I spent a lot of time reading in airports. I think that daily practice sped up my reading ability.
I’m familiar with about half these writers (too many to go through and count). A few are favorites such as Graham Joyce, Margaret Millar, John Collier and Arthur Upfield. Looks like an interesting book to browse through.
Steve, you would enjoy THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS. I enjoyed Fowler’s comments on all these writers, too!
I’ve read 56 of these authors and have found (Richard Shaver) only (Richard Shaver) one (Richard Shaver) of them (Richard Shaver) not worthy (Richard Shaver) of my time (Richard Shaver). Can you guess which one that is, George?
Jerry, clearly you’re not someone who wants a close Shave(r). I’m impressed with that 56 authors number! You are clearly very well read!
I’ve heard of about a third of these, many of them long ago. Of that third I’ve actually read something (even if only a short story) by around twenty. Some of the categorical placements are really puzzling. Cornell Woolrich isn’t forgotten at all, much less “justly” forgotten. Why are Michael McDowell and Margaret Millar, both among my favorites, considered “nonsense” writers, whatever the hell that means. John Dickson Carr forgotten? Really? I’m tempted to read this, and definitely would if my library had it. They don’t.
Michael, AMAZON has THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS for $7.95: https://www.amazon.com/Book-Forgotten-Authors-Christopher-Fowler-ebook/dp/B07J4WBQHM/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=the+book+of+forgotten+authors&qid=1627043736&s=books&sr=1-3
No, $13.95 is what I see for the paperback.
Oops, $15.99 for paperback.
Rick, I think AMAZON shows different prices to different customers.
Michael, you fell into the same trap I did, trying to make the “categories” work. They aren’t categories, just essays. The writers are in alphabetical order.
Thanks Jeff! That makes so much more sense!
Yeah, I started looking at the “categories” but almost immediately noticed that the authors were listed alphabetically.
Thanks, Jeff and Jeff. That was driving me batty.
Michael, the two Jeffs are hard to beat! Between them, they seem to know EVERYTHING!
Familiar with? A bunch of them. But that doesn’t mean I’ve read them. For instance, many I know from my book selling days, but have never read – Pamela Branch, Patricia Carlon (a very interesting character) and the like were people whose books I would buy when I came across them, but never actually read. Out of the 100 listed, I would say I am “familiar” with nearly two-thirds. How many have I actually read? 31, at first glance. Favorites would include Jack Finney, Charlotte Armstrong, John DIckson Carr, Edmund Crispin, R> Austin Freeman, Arthur Upfield, and Cornell Woolrich (his short stories).
I definitely need to get my hands on this one.
Jeff, I’ve assembled a list of a dozen books (and a few more will find their way onto the list) while reading THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS. You’ll find a lot of books to like in this book.
The library has my copy in transit, so probably next week.
Jeff, your Library is giving you quick service!
Familiar with (as in “heard of them”) well over half; familiar with (as in “read something they wrote”) about a third. I can’t see how Barbara Pym—one of my favorite writers—could be considered forgotten for any reason. On the other hand, Joyce Porter, who wrote the (imho) truly execrable Inspector Dover mysteries, richly deserves the obscurity into which she and her creation have fallen. Of all the writers here, probably the most interesting is Kyril Bonfiglioli, whose own life was itself quite an adventure (although it’s possible he embellished his history somewhat). He wrote a trilogy of books about an art dealer called Charlie Mortdecai: DON’T POINT THAT THING AT ME, AFTER YOU WITH THE PISTOL, and SOMETHING NASTY IN THE WOODSHED. Very 1970s—and you can’t read them one right after the other or you’ll get an ice cream headache. But space them out and they’re fun:
https://www.amazon.com/Mortdecai-Trilogy-Kyril-Bonfiglioli/dp/0141003774/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?dchild=1&keywords=kyril+bonfiglioli&qid=1627040669&sprefix=kyril+&sr=8-13
Deb, I’m with you on Barbara Pym. I read Kyril Bonfiglioli’s trilogy back in the Seventies. Maybe I need to reread them…
Deb, after reading a couple of recommendations, I bought a trade paperback of the Bonfiglioi trilogy, but gave up after a couple of tries. I didn’t like the character. There was a 2015 movie based on the books starring Johnny Depp that was a financial and critical BOMB too.
Wow—that musta been some bomb! I’ve never heard of it—but “starring Johnny Depp” would not have sweetened the deal for me. Those Charlie Mortdecai books are very arch and very 1970s. I read them decades ago—and thought they were fun—not sure how they’d hold up for me today.
Deb, I have those Charlie Mortdecai books around here somewhere. If I find them, I’ll read them again.
Jeff, I remember that John Depp movie that bombed. It didn’t see it, but friends told me it sucked.
The film was terrible, and the often terrible Depp (I’ve never enjoyed his work much, and usually not at all) was definitely a contributing factor.
Bonfiglioli was also the mostly absentee editor (of sorts) of SCIENCE FANTASY, which he saw retitled IMPULSE and then the publishers remade as SF IMPULSE, the companion magazine to NEW WORLDS in the UK…Keith Roberts, Charles Platt and others did most of the actual editing, and they published no little good to brilliant work. He was busy indulging his art collecting as well as fiction-writing, and famously found at some sort of rare item at the equivalent of a tag or estate sale and through the purchase of a hugely valuable item for a few pounds was set up for life.
Ah yes, Joyce Porter and her Dover novels and stories. I read two f the novels, had four more on hand and the hardcover of the story collection. I hated Porter and decided not to touch any more. Barbara was curious why I was removing them from the shelf to donate, so I gave her the first to read. Her comment was “Well, you warned me.”.
You & Barbara were totally on point! I try to give a writer the benefit of the doubt, so I read not one, not two, but three of those Dover novels (they were in an omnibus, iirc). I think I was hoping each one was just an anomaly and eventually one of them would click. Well, as the old saying goes: once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy action. I was stupefied that Porter was able to write and publish so many book featuring such an awful protagonist. Dover is not only a bumbler, he’s the sort of aggressively stupid & lazy person you’d hate to work with (or have anything to do with, actually) in real life. But beyond all that, there’s such a streak of meanness, bordering on cruelty, running through the books. Absolutely no redeeming features, as far as I’m concerned.
Deb, you and Rick have convinced me to jettison my Joyce Porter collection–unread. The Dover books sound awful!
Rick, I have some Joyce Porter on my shelves. Maybe I should donate them, too, and free up some shelf space.
Me too! I remember reading things about Porter & Dover in TAD or other fanzines and they didn’t appeal to me. I did read a couple of short stories she wrote, but never tackled a Dover novel.
If Trumpers would read…
I think Todd’s comment is right on. The meanness of the whole Dover universe, coupled with a stupid, lazy, self-centered main character who always (through circumstance rather than any attempts of his own) emerges victorious would certainly appeal to those who think Trump got where he got through hard work, grit, determination, and—oh, who cares?—he’s sticking it to the libs!
Deb, Porter’s DOVER series is now in a box ready to be donated to the local Library Book Sale. Diane rejoiced!
This looks right up my alley as I’ve been cultivating an interest in forgotten 20th century authors. Jack Finney had two big titles, “The Body Snatchers,” and “Time and Again” and was a HUGE influence on Rod Serling’s “Twilight Zone” scripts (particularly “Walking Distance”). He also inspired Richard Matheson’s “Somewhere in Time.” John Collier was a terrific writer and script doctor who was revered by Ray Bradbury and had stories adapted for “The Twilight Zone” and “Alfred Hitchcock Presents.” Cornel Woolrich, whose work was filmed by Hitchcock, Val Lewton and Truffaut, has had quite a few titles republished in the last few years. He can be as much of a pulpy slog as Lovecraft but his best work does get under your skin. “The Once and Futiure King” still sells steadily so T.H. White is hardly forgotten, if somewhat sidelined these days. Armstrong and Pym ring a bell.
I was surprised that Robert Nathan was omitted frim the lists. He was a hugely popular novelist in the 20s-40s and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s favorite writer. Nathan wrote some lovely, gentle fantasies that struck a deep nerve with pre-WW II America. Two of them, “The Bishop’s Wife” and “Portrait of Jenny,” were memorably filmed in the forties.
Byron, I’ll have to track down some Robert Nathan. I heard of him, but don’t recall reading any of his work. Like you, I’m very familiar with Jack Finny and John Collier. Val Lewton, not so much.
Ann really enjoys Robert Nathan. We once found, in a Hawaiian antiques store, a bunch of Robert Nathan books inscribed to Leonard Wibberly — another forgotten writer.
Jeff, I’m not familiar with Robert Nathan or Leonard Wibberly. I need to track down some of their books!
Val Lewton was the producer at the RKO Lewton Unit during WW2, which on shoestring budgets did such brilliant horror and suspense films as CAT PEOPLE, I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, THE BODY SNATCHER, THE LEOPARD MAN (as might not be surprised to learn, the titles were forced on the unit initially), THE 7TH VICTIM, and a quite a few more…the only duds were YOUTH RUN WILD (an early juvenile delinquency film, dealing with wartime lack of supervision) and THE GHOST SHIP (awkward from jump, narrated, I kid you not, by a mute seaman, and with nothing to do with Richard Middleton’s fine funny ghost story). Also the sequel of sorts to CAT PEOPLE, CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE, was more a fine, sad fantasy film than a horror, despite the child neglect theme running through it.
Lewton co-wrote some of the films, had published in WEIRD TALES, and was the inspiration for Kirk Douglas’s character in THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL. Robert Wise, Jacques Tourneur and Mark Robson were among the directors getting their first major work with these films.
Todd, thanks for the info on Val Lewton!
I suspect you are familiar with Wibberly…THE MOUSE THAT ROARED at very least, and its sequel…
(Man, I can’t blame all my typos here on the Acer computer, though I can some of them…)
Todd, you’re right! I have read THE MOUSE THAT ROARED (sometime in the early 1960s). I even saw the film based on Wibberley’s novel.
And, of course, he was Wibberley! (I thought that looked off.)
Maybe half at most but some of them I really liked a lot years ago: Barbara Pym, Brian Moore, Delafield and Patricia Carlon to name a few. I too love to read books like this.
As coincidence would have it, I just started re-reading Lesley Blanch’s THE SABERS OF PARADISE. Some of these writers may be “forgotten” by name, but titles like ALFIE (Bill Naughton), THE SCARLET PIMPERNEL (Baroness Emma Orczy), THE FLY (George Langelaan), and PLANET OF THE APES (Pierre Boulle) surely still enjoy some recognition, even if the authors themselves don’t. As Byron noted, THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING has remained in print for decades. I believe a new pb edition came out in the last couple of years. Some of these writers showed up regularly on best-seller lists (Richard Condon, Tom Tryon) and paperback racks (Charlotte Armstrong, John Dickson Carr) back in the day. Will James Patterson’s fiction factory be similarly forgotten in another 40 years?
Fred, my guess is Patterson’s fiction factory will continue to churn out books for its audience as long as sales hold up. You make a strong distinction between the work surviving–like THE ONCE AND FUTURE KING–and the growing obscurity of the author–like T. H. White. Only Christie and Doyle seem to remain in the current Zeitgeist.
I got this from the library a while ago, but it went back after the briefest of looks as I had too many other books on deadline. I should just buy it. Thanks for the shout out.
Rick, your wonderful reviews of Bryant & May motivated me to start reading a series I’ve been collecting for decades! And, just by accident, I stumbled across Fowler’s THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS which seemed like a natural for FFB.
I think a fair amount of these are writers Fowler wanted to write about. You might as well insist that Nobody Reads Ross Macdonald or Karen Blixen/Isaak Dinesen any longer…all of these writers (including, sadly, Richard Shaver–and I gather Joyce Porter!) have some sort of coterie audience still, and as several have noted they are still being read widely enough…being in print, aside from public domain POD editions, is an indication of that, certainly.
I’ve read a majority (deeply into some such as Collier) and have not heard of only a small handful.
Or even Isak Dinesen. Not being able to edit one’s comments once posted has its downside!
Todd, I played along with Fowler’s choices (and omissions). All in all, THE BOOK OF FORGOTTEN AUTHORS provided me with plenty of enjoyment.
And congratulations! I think you are the most assiduous contributor to the roundelay! Or you and Steve Lewis.
Todd, I give all the credit to Steve Lewis and his marvelous blog!