lookingland (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
lookingland) wrote2006-09-04 04:13 pm
lookingland) wrote2006-09-04 04:13 pm
Entry tags:
enid and honoré ~
so ~ enid blyton.
enid blyton is the highest selling author of all time. she has more than 300 books still in print in 90 languages and has sold over 600 million books worldwide. unfortunately she's dead, so she's not exactly reaping ther benefits of all this, but that's not the point.
aside from the 300 still currently in print, enid wrote roughly another 500 books (for a total of about 800) in the span of 40 years. that's 20 books a year (1.67 a month) for those of you who want the math.
it's true that many of these books are children's books and books for young audiences, but most of her adventures series were standard sized young adult novels between 150 and 250 pages. short books, perhaps, but impressive nonetheless.
i've never read anything by enid blyton. in fact i'd never heard of her until yesterday. apparently she never gained the kind of popularity in the united states that she enjoys in england, australia, and several other countries.
now previously i was impressed by honoré de balzac's output of 95 novels and i don't think you can compare the two given their literary styles, intents, etc. but my golly gee goobers, what insanity! here i was thinking balzac was some kind of prolific model to look up to and along comes enid and just blows him out of the water. even if enid's books are one quarter the length of balzac's, you're still talking about 200 to 95. of course enid's career spanned 40 years and balzac's was only 20. so maybe it's fair to say they were equally prolific perhaps. one source says that at one point in her career enid was producing 10k words a day.
and on a manual typerwiter too! ack!
and there's really not point to any of this except to say: gee, i guess i should quit making excuses and get to writing.
: o p
enid blyton is the highest selling author of all time. she has more than 300 books still in print in 90 languages and has sold over 600 million books worldwide. unfortunately she's dead, so she's not exactly reaping ther benefits of all this, but that's not the point.
aside from the 300 still currently in print, enid wrote roughly another 500 books (for a total of about 800) in the span of 40 years. that's 20 books a year (1.67 a month) for those of you who want the math.
it's true that many of these books are children's books and books for young audiences, but most of her adventures series were standard sized young adult novels between 150 and 250 pages. short books, perhaps, but impressive nonetheless.
i've never read anything by enid blyton. in fact i'd never heard of her until yesterday. apparently she never gained the kind of popularity in the united states that she enjoys in england, australia, and several other countries.
now previously i was impressed by honoré de balzac's output of 95 novels and i don't think you can compare the two given their literary styles, intents, etc. but my golly gee goobers, what insanity! here i was thinking balzac was some kind of prolific model to look up to and along comes enid and just blows him out of the water. even if enid's books are one quarter the length of balzac's, you're still talking about 200 to 95. of course enid's career spanned 40 years and balzac's was only 20. so maybe it's fair to say they were equally prolific perhaps. one source says that at one point in her career enid was producing 10k words a day.
and on a manual typerwiter too! ack!
and there's really not point to any of this except to say: gee, i guess i should quit making excuses and get to writing.
: o p
wowzers
Re: wowzers
: D
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What I loved about Enid Blyton's books is not only were the kids "real" (that's one of the reasons I think Harry Potter is so appealing to kids today - he has real emotions, not dumbed-down, politically correct ones) and they took charge of their lives. Often the adults just dismissed them or wouldn't listen, so the kids had to do it their own way. As a kid that often felt dismissed, this was a huge source of inspiration to me.
I'm not sure if her books have stood the test of time - I'll let you know when I find where I stashed them - but, her output was phenomenal, wasn't it?
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phenomenal and staggering to be certain.
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: o p