Record Breaking Authors
This, the latest instalment in my series of author related blog posts, is dedicated to World record breaking authors. As an author myself I find this topic fascinating, and I hope you will too.
Here are some record breaking authors:
Most Prolific Author Ever – American born author Lauran Bosworth Paine (1916-2001) can lay claim to being the most prolific author of all time. Paine, who had more pen names (70) than most authors have titles, wrote approximately 1000 books.
Best Selling Author Ever – The Guinness Book of World Records lists Agatha Christie, the creator of Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple, as the best-selling novelist of all time. She sold approximately 2 billion books.
Best Selling (non-English language) Author Ever – Prolific Belgian author Georges Simenon (1903-1989) wrote nearly 200 novels, in addition to many shorter works of fiction. He has sold approximately 550 million books.
Fastest Author Ever – Contemporary Irish novelist John Boyne claims to have written The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas – a best selling fictional account of a boy living through the Holocaust – in only two and a half days.
Worst Author Ever – Obviously this is a matter for conjecture, but it is difficult to argue with author Michael N. Marcus’s claim in his book Stinkers that ‘BIRTH CONTROL IS SINFUL IN THE CHRISTIAN MARRIAGES and Also ROBBING GOD OF PRIESTHOOD CHILDREN!!’ by ELIYZABETH YANNE STRONG-ANDERSON is the worst book ever. Every letter in this ludicrous, grammatically error strewn, excessively priced abomination (£113.92) is capitalised. Due to these reasons Yanne Strong-Anderson wins the accolade – the World’s worst author ever.
Oldest Author Ever – Ida Pollock, who died in 2013 at the age of 105, just weeks before her 125th book was published, might well be the oldest author ever. The romance novelist sold millions of books over the course of her long lifetime.
Youngest Author Ever – Dorothy Straight is on record as being the youngest published author ever. At the age of 4 she wrote a story for her grandmother, which went on to be published by Pantheon Books in 1964 when the author was 6.
Richest Author Ever – A number of sources including Celebrity Net Worth claim that JK Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter, is worth a reported $1Billion.
Poorest Author Ever – There are so many penniless authors out there, it was impossible to verify each and every claim. I have therefore been forced to leave this category blank.
Most Pretentious Author Ever – This reader appreciates Vladimir Nabokov’s (author of Lolita) remarkable linguistic abilities. However his ornate writing style, which utilises a vast array of obscure English words, in addition to French, German and Russian, as well as his obsession with wordplay (c.f. synesthetic details & acrostics) has resulted in the ever self-indulgent Nabokov winning the accolade of the most pretentious author ever.
Most Reclusive Author Ever – There have been a lot of reclusive authors down the years, but surely none more so than prolific American poet (I know I said authors) Emily Dickinson. By her late thirties her reclusive habits entailed rarely leaving the house and speaking to visitors from the other side of her closed front door.
