Readers Predict in 1936 Which Novelists Would Still Be Widely Read in the Year 2000

Few know as much about our incom­pe­tence at pre­dict­ing our own future as Matt Novak, author of the site Pale­o­fu­ture, “a blog that looks into the future that nev­er was.” Not long ago, I inter­viewed him on my pod­cast Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture; ever since, I’ve invari­ably found out that all the smartest dis­sec­tions of just how lit­tle we under­stand about our future some­how involve him. And not just those — also the smartest dis­sec­tions of how lit­tle we’ve always under­stood about our future. Take, for exam­ple, the year 1936, when, in Novak’s words, “a quar­ter­ly mag­a­zine for book col­lec­tors called The Colophon polled its read­ers to pick the ten authors whose works would be con­sid­ered clas­sics in the year 2000.” They named the fol­low­ing:

• Sin­clair Lewis
• Willa Cather
• Eugene O’Neill
• Edna St. Vin­cent Mil­lay
• Robert Frost
• Theodore Dreis­er
• James Truslow Adams
• George San­tayana
• Stephen Vin­cent Benét
• James Branch Cabell

At first glance, this list might not look so embar­rass­ing. Nobel lau­re­ate Sin­clair Lewis remains oft-ref­er­enced, if much more so for Bab­bitt (Kin­dle + Oth­er For­mats – Read Online Now), his 1922 indict­ment of a busi­ness-blink­ered Amer­i­ca, than for It Can’t Hap­pen Here, his best­selling Hitler satire from the year before the poll. Most Amer­i­cans pass­ing through high school Eng­lish still bump into Willa Cather, Robert Frost (four of whose vol­umes you can find in our col­lec­tion Free eBooks), and per­haps Eugene O’Neill (like­wise) and Theodore Dreis­er (espe­cial­ly through Sis­ter Car­rie: Kin­dle + Oth­er For­mats – Read Online Now) as well.

Some of us may also remem­ber Stephen Vin­cent Benét’s epic Civ­il War poem John Brown’s Body from our school days, but it would take a well-read soul indeed to nod in agree­ment with such selec­tions as New Eng­land his­to­ri­an James Truslow Adams and now lit­tle-read (though once Sin­clair- and Dreis­er-acclaimed) fan­ta­sist James Branch Cabell. The well-remem­bered George San­tayana still looks like a judg­ment call to me, but what of absent famous names like F. Scott Fitzger­ald, William Faulkn­er, Ernest Hem­ing­way, or maybe James Joyce? The Colophon’s edi­tors includ­ed Hem­ing­way on their own list, but which writ­ers do you think stand as the Fitzger­alds and Faulkn­ers of today — or, more to the point, of the year 2078? Care to put your guess on record? Feel free to make your pre­dic­tions in the com­ments sec­tion below.

via @ElectricLit/Smith­son­ian

Relat­ed Con­tent:

The 10 Great­est Books Ever, Accord­ing to 125 Top Authors (Down­load Them for Free)

The 25 Best Non-Fic­tion Books Ever: Read­ers’ Picks

The Books You Think Every Intel­li­gent Per­son Should Read: Crime and Pun­ish­ment, Moby-Dick & Beyond (Many Free Online)

600 Free eBooks for iPad, Kin­dle & Oth­er Devices

Col­in Mar­shall hosts and pro­duces Note­book on Cities and Cul­ture and writes essays on cities, lan­guage, Asia, and men’s style. He’s at work on a book about Los Ange­les, A Los Ange­les Primer. Fol­low him on Twit­ter at @colinmarshall or on Face­book.