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Literary Stock Advice: Who To Buy And Who To Sell

  First Posted: 02/17/2012 1:06 pm   Updated: 02/17/2012 1:06 pm

From Book Riot:

According to a story in The Atlantic I included in today’s Critical Linking, the Ransom Center at the University of Texas has started guessing which authors will have lasting historical import and then buying up their papers. Usually, libraries and archives have waited until such status has been assured before dropping millions of dollars on diaries, letters, manuscripts, tax receipts, and other documents.

But in true Texas oil-hound fashion, the Ransom Center seems to think that they can get ahead of the game by placing their bets now and have done so on contemporary authors like David Foster Wallace and Denis Johnson. In a sense, they are playing the literary archive game like the stock market, hoping to buy low now and reap the benefits for posterity.

This led me to wonder: what living writers’ future reputations would I get in on right now? And which might I “sell”?

Jonathan Franzen: SELL
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I have a comp for you: Sloan Wilson. Haven't heard of him, right? He wrote one of the big social novels of the mid-1950s, The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit. It was a huge success and was made into a decent movie starring Gregory Peck. And no one reads it now. Franzen is a great chronicler of contemporary society, but that's what he does best. Generally, literature about the society of its day tends to age rather poorly; the stuff that endures transcends the specifics of its time. Oh, and guess who wrote the introduction to the 2002 re-issue of The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit? Yup, Franzen himself.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
npw350
There is no time or distance.
148 Fans
01:14 PM on 02/19/2012
George R R Martin: And even if he nails the landing of Song of Ice and Fire, we are kind of ready for that. Dear God yes. I'm beginning to believe that he's actually unable to finish a story.
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Reyeshawk13
Nothing to see here.
213 Fans
07:48 PM on 02/17/2012
Collins has got to do better than the third Hunger Games book next time out. That reeked of rushing to meet a deadline and lack of care about how we got to the end.

Martin needs to spend less time being famous and more time polishing the stuff that got him there. "Sand Kings" is one of the best, scariest stories I've ever read and "A Song of Fire and Ice" started off strong. The last two desperately needed an editor.
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BobLaughlin
44 Fans
 
07:11 PM on 02/17/2012
Is it generally agreed that Toni Morrison has the most important hair of any living American writer?
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since1969
2 Fans
06:56 PM on 02/17/2012
Interesting. But why doesn't Didion get the same treatment as Roth vis-à-vis their past greatness?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
mjclear
515 Fans
01:36 PM on 02/17/2012
A rather creepy concept: comparing literature to stock. I doubt if most credible writers start a project calculating its future marketability. At least I hope not. My opinion: if I like it today ( I like Franzen today) then it has literary value. Tomorrow is fickle but it will take care of itself.
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