Photo: Ann poan

Which book took longest to write?

7 Books That Took The Longest Time To Write The Catcher in the Rye (10 years) Gone with the Wind (10 years) Les Misérables (12 years) The Lord of the Rings (17 years) Sphere (20 years due to long hiatus) The Cantos (57 years, incomplete)

bookstr.com - 7 Books That Took The Longest Time To Write - Bookstr

Can a Tesla Powerwall run an air conditioner?

This includes 120V loads such as lights, plugs and small appliances as well as 240V heavy loads such as air conditioners, electric cooking ranges,...

Last updated Nov 19, 2020

Are zombies deaf?

Applying Bekesy's post-mortem data we can estimate that zombies likely have at least a moderately-severe sensorineural hearing loss. It is also...

Last updated Jul 5, 2020

Promotion

Your favorite book might’ve taken years to write, maybe even a decade. Here are some well-known books that took 10 years or more to write for varying reasons. There are authors who can write a book within months or even weeks, churning out the pages like there’s no tomorrow. And then there are those who write at a leisurely pace, taking their sweet time with a draft until they’re satisfied with it. While neither side is inherently better than the other, some of the most recognized works of literature took quite a bit of time to complete. Here are some examples, and the reasons they took so long may not be what you expect. It’s a bit difficult to write a book when you get drafted as a soldier in World War II. That was the situation J.D. Salinger found himself in with The Catcher in the Rye. It didn’t start as a novel—he originally wrote it as a series of short stories because he was a short story author unfamiliar with writing longer fiction. It’s reasonable to assume the war and Salinger’s lack of familiarity with the novel form did a number on his writing pace. Still, he didn’t forget about his novel in the line of duty. It’s said he carried around the pages that held Holden Caulfield throughout the war, from the streets of Paris to the Nazi concentration camps. Margaret Mitchell went through nearly as many drafts of Gone with the Wind as the years it took for her to finish it—nine drafts of a thousand pages! That’s some thorough revision work for a book she didn’t intend to publish (until someone provoked her, that is). Mitchell started the book to pass the time while recovering from an ankle injury. Evidently, she was in no rush. Victor Hugo started planning out Les Misérables in the 1830s, and he didn’t start writing it until 1845, a long way from its 1862 publication date. Let’s also keep in mind Les Misérables is one of the longest novels in history, at 1,900 pages in the original French (1,400 in English). You could say that a novel of such epic proportions called for an equal amount of time to bring to fruition. Perfectionism makes things take longer to finish, and that was certainly true for Alistair MacLeod. He liked to write one sentence at a time by hand and read it aloud before continuing to the next. Later, his editor commented that MacLeod’s writing was so precise that revisions to the novel were “almost unnecessary.”

What is the bank $10000 rule?

Reporting cash payments A person must file Form 8300 if they receive cash of more than $10,000 from the same payer or agent: In one lump sum. In...

Last updated Dec 2, 2020

Who wrote the most books in the world?

Brazilian author Ryoki Inoue holds the Guinness World Record for being the most prolific author, with 1,075 books published under many pseudonyms....

Last updated Oct 8, 2022

Promotion

As a full-time academic, J. R. R. Tolkien only had so much spare time to write. He also abandoned The Lord of the Rings for a year, which didn’t help. Tolkien restarted it in April 1944 for his son Christopher Tolkien, sending chapters as they were written during Christopher’s time in the Royal Air Force. All in all, he did about 12 years of actual writing, with five years of breaks in between.

Sphere (20 years due to long hiatus)

While Michael Crichton wrote pretty quickly, his preparation beforehand could take years to complete. That’s why Jurassic Park took eight years to finish. Sphere was an odd case, though, as it took way longer to finish for completely different reasons. He stopped writing it partway through because he couldn’t think of a good ending, only to finish it 20 years later in about two months. So, he asked, “did it take 20 years, or two months?” In 1915, Ezra Pound described The Cantos as a poem “of immeasurable length which will occupy me for the next four decades unless it becomes a bore.” Evidently, it kept him occupied, because he spent over half his life writing The Cantos, dying before he could finish. These works show that many things can get in the way of a book’s progress—a full-time job, perfectionism, lack of ideas, you name it. So, when a good book survives to publication, it is something to celebrate, whether it takes months, years, or decades for it to happen.

FEATURED IMAGE VIA KATHERINE MONTOYA, BOOKSTR

bookstr.com - 7 Books That Took The Longest Time To Write - Bookstr

Who sells the best survival food?

What's the Best Emergency Food Supply? Mountain House Classic Bucket. Editor's Pick. ... ReadyWise Emergency Food Supply. best for families. ......

Last updated Sep 10, 2021

Is a lighter or heavier bow better?

If you choose to go with an ultralight bow, just remember that heavier bows tend to hold steadier. With a light bow, it's possible for shooting...

Last updated Feb 11, 2022

Promotion

What are the five basic needs of a woman?

Obviously every woman is different, but years of research showed that these are what they preferred on average. AFFECTION. CONVERSATION. HONESTY...

Last updated Jul 19, 2020

Promotion

What books can increase your IQ?

Here are seven books to add to your reading list. The Art of War by Sun Tzu. ... Thinking, Fast and Slow by Dan Kahneman. ... The Greatest Secret...

Last updated Dec 4, 2019