Write it and Retire - Rich and Famous

In every walk of life there are people who flash brilliantly for a short while never to return. It’s interesting to look at people in the creative arts and how they sometime will back off after reaching early success. Although some of the following authors wrote a few short stories a novella or two, or as in Pasternak’s case, a lot of poetry, none wrote another novel. Why not? Some hated the limelight, others were afraid of criticism, others turned their talents elsewhere. Not sure anyone in today’s world would give up so quickly after writing a best seller.

How many of these famous, one novel and out people, have you read?

Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

Boris Pasternak, Dr. Zhivago

Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind

Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights

Anna Sewell, Black Beauty

Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray

J. D. Salinger, The Catcher In The Rye

What do you think, if you wrote the big one would you just hang it up and live off the riches and glory of that novel?