"Everybody has at least one good book in them."
Old Proverb

A few well-known authors only had enough gas for one novel in their tanks. Maybe they said their all, and to write anything else was just redundant. Who really but them knows the actual reason why they never put out a second novel within their lifetime.

Here's an incomplete list of such authors who for the lack of a better term are one-hit literary wonders (but oh what a wonder, in some cases!):

#1. Harper Lee (To Kill a Mockingbird I read it for the first time last year.

#2. Ralph Ellison (The Invisible Man) I read it in college.

#3. Margaret Mitchell (Gone With the Wind) Still on my reading list.

#4. Allen Tate (The Fathers) I read this for an English course.

#5. John Kennedy Toole (A Confederacy of Dunces) Author suicide. Published posthumously by Walker Percy.

#6. Emily Bronte (Wuthering Heights) Died young.

#7. Anne Sewell (Black Beauty) We all read it as kids.

#8. Sylvia Plath (The Bell Jar) Although she was primarily a poet. Author suicide.

#9. Randall Jarrell (Pictures from an Institution Also a poet. Author suicide.

#10. John Berryman (Recovery) Another poet. Author suicide.

#11. Ross Lockridge, Jr. (Raintree County) Author suicide. I saw the movie with Liz Taylor.

#12. Walter Miller (Canticle for Leibowitz). Author suicide.

#13. Thomas Heggen (Mister Roberts) Author suicide. I save the movies with Henry Fonda.

#14. Norman Maclean (A River Runs Through It) Wrote it in his 70s. Again I saw the movie.

#15. Carl Sagan (Contact) Lots of books written but one novel. Found on science fiction top reads lists.

Happy reading for you and yours out there!

By Ed Lynskey
Twitter: @edlynskey
Author of Lake Charles
"Nice addition to anyone’s summer beach reading schedule."
Florida Times-Union