10/5/2023 0 Comments Books like archy mcnally![]() Other books have been created from notes and jottings left behind. Eliot and Dante Alighieri?īooks written under the names of dead people are only one aspect of a vast and lucrative necro-publishing industry. Andrews can write posthumously, why not Flannery O'Connor, T.S. Where does it all end, this business of dead writers writing? The possibilities are mind-boggling. But Asimov's "Chronology of Science and Discovery" is advertised as "updated through 1993"-though Asimov died in 1992. Mostly they are stories and essays by Asimov. Various collections and anthologies bearing his name continue to appear. The act of foisting upon readers a novel that could not have been written by Lawrence Sanders as a work by him seems particularly questionable and sooo late-20th-century, along the lines of silicone implants and digitally enhanced photographs.īut "why should a little thing like death put an end to my writing?" Isaac Asimov wrote in a letter two years before he died. Lovecraft wrote under more than a dozen other names besides his own. Writing under other names is a practice as old as the pen. "The murder mystery as comedy of manners may seem an old-fashioned genre in today's graphically violent mystery world," reads the unsigned critique of "McNally's Dilemma," "but Sanders makes it as fresh as tomorrow." The Post and New York Times lists state, without comment, that Lawrence Sanders is the author of "McNally's Dilemma." The reviewer in Publishers Weekly didn't seem to have a clue. We did clearly state that the book was written by Vincent Lardo." Because Lardo is a writer in his own right, Ducksworth adds, "we thought it was appropriate to keep the two separate. "It was Larry's estate's wish to continue publishing the McNally books," says Putnam spokeswoman Marilyn Ducksworth. Efforts to reach Lardo through the publisher were unsuccessful. "The Hampton Affair" by Vincent Lardo is also listed in the current Putnam catalogue. The page devoted to the novel gives no indication that the book was written, um, created by Vincent Lardo. In the Penguin Putnam online catalogue, the book is listed along with other Sanders works. The back of the jacket lists four blurbs of praise for Sanders. The book's cover and dust jacket read as if the novel were written by Sanders. 10 on Sunday's Washington Post hardcover fiction bestseller list and No. For years, books by Lawrence Sanders have immediately jetted onto bestseller lists. Obviously, some publishers believe that a brand-name writer, such as Lawrence Sanders, on the book's cover will sell more books than a writer who is virtually unknown, such as Vincent Lardo. ![]() One could argue that death has been very, very good to some writers. "It's kind of a sticky issue around here," says one Pocket Books spokesman. A new Andrews series, "The Wildflowers," debuted in July. ![]() Andrews, though the real Virginia Andrews died in 1986. Andrew Neiderman, a Palm Springs, Calif., author, continues to scribble scribble scribble for Pocket Books as V.C. ![]() Ron Hubbard died in 1986, but folks still crank out science fiction and spy novels under Hubbard's name. Books "by Louis L'Amour" continue to pop up every year or so, though the prolific western writer died in 1988. The dead-author industry is alive and well. What Putnam has done is not unprecedented. And I was surprised that they were able to present it that way." When Lee discovered the deception, she was peeved. "The publisher and the estate of Lawrence Sanders have chosen Vincent Lardo to create this novel based on Lawrence Sanders's beloved character Archy McNally and his fictional world." That's when Lee leafed back to the front of the book and read the fine print on the copyright page: And the humor was just too damn ham-fisted. Archy McNally, the private-eye protagonist, was more chatty than in the other McNally books-including "McNally's Luck," "McNally's Puzzle" and "McNally's Secret"-she had read. It said so on the cover.īut when Lee, a serious Sanders fan, started reading the novel, something was not quite jake. Julie Lee, a secretary with a defense contractor in Rosslyn, cruised by a Crown Books store recently and picked up the bestseller "McNally's Dilemma" by Lawrence Sanders.Īt least, she thought it was by Sanders.
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