No More Orchids, by Grace Perkins (1932)
At a time when writers could make small fortunes by selling the film rights to their novels, plays, and magazine stories to studios hungry for scripts for talkies, the biggest fortune by far was that …
Long Reviews
In-depth reviews, excerpts, and background information on selected neglected books. This section is the centerpiece of this site.
Big Business Girl, by Patricia Reilly (1930)
When Farrar and Rinehart published Big Business Girl in 1930, they credited the book to the anonymous “One of Them” — meaning one of the women in big business. “She knows whereof she writes. She …
Which Grain Will Grow, by H. H. Lynde (1952)
Looking about for a good book to offer as my contribution to the 1952 Club, I was a bit daunted by the gulf between the extremely un-neglected candidates (Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Steinbeck’s East of …
The Goldfish Bowl by Mary C. McCall, Jr. (1932)
Mary C. McCall, Jr. (given the Junior by her mother, Mary C. McCall, as a flex against the patriarchy (her father specifically)) was a busy and well-paid writer of magazine fiction when she decided to …
The Woman Accused, by Rupert Hughes et novem alii (1933)
I should start with an apology — two of them, actually. First, I apologize for not posting here for the last two months. I recently submitted the manuscript of my book, Virginia Faulkner: A Life …
Five Star Final, by Louis Weitzenkorn (1931)
For the last couple of years, I’ve closed most nights by watching one of the hundreds (thousands?) of early sound movies made in the period commonly referred to as Pre-Code, from the introduction of sound …
La Douleur, by Marguerite Duras (1986)
Marguerite Duras is hardly a neglected writer, having at least a dozen books currently in print in English and having kept a number close to that in print since first hitting her stride with English …
Escape from Berlin by Catherine Klein (Käthe Cohn) (1944)
Catherine Klein stands in Berlin’s Tiergarten station saying farewell to her husband, who’s leaving on a train to Amsterdam, a visa to England in hand. Both Jews, after years of attempts, he has managed to …
Mightier than the Sword, by Alphonse Courlander (1912)
This is a guest post by Dr. Sarah Lonsdale. On the final page of Mightier than the Sword (1912), a novel about journalists and newspapers, the protagonist dies a lonely death in the middle of …
Another Present Era, by Elaine Perry (1990)
Harlem native Michael A. Gonzales has been on the trail of neglected Black writers for a number of years, first with his feature The Blacklist for Catapault and now with CrimeReads. More recently, he was …
Repent in Haste (1945): John P. Marquand and the Context of No Context
There was a time when John P. Marquand was considered the best novelist of manners in America, even — according to a Chicago Sun review quoted on the dust jacket of Repent in Haste, “the …
Soul Wounds, by Al Schak (1934)
I’m often asked how I find the books I write about. And no matter what I say, I know the only truthful answer is, “Serendipity.” It’s hard to look for something you don’t know about. …
A Shark-Infested Rice Pudding, by Sylvia Wright (1969)
Publishing is almost as notorious for its misleading packaging as the recording business. We may never know what Doubleday’s remit to the Paul Bacon design studio was for Sylvia Wright’s A Shark-Infested Rice Pudding, but …
Fortune Grass, by Mabel Lethbridge (1934)
“Darling, are you sure it will not be too much for you?” Mabel Lethbridge’s first husband asks when she is pregnant and he learns his father has cut him off without a penny. “Nothing is …
A Jingle-Jangle Song, by Mariana Villa-Gilbert (1968)
Mariana Villa-Gilbert, who died recently at the age of 86, spent most of her life as a largely forgotten writer. Her last novel, Manuela: A Modern Myth, came out in 1973 and, like the previous …
Faith, Hope, No Charity, by Margaret Lane (1935)
This is a guest post by Sarah Lonsdale. The novel won a prestigious international literary prize in 1936, beating George Orwell, Graham Greene, Stevie Smith and Sylvia Townsend Warner, amongst others; but you’ve probably never …
The Mermaids, by Eva Boros (1956)
“He met her on the Danube Corso, on the 29th of August, 1936.” The scene is Budapest before the horrors. He is Aladar, a 30-something businessman, divorced, seeking an escape from the oppressive heat. She …
The Pole and Whistle, George Moor (1966)
“A frank novel of today’s most controversial subject.” The tag line on the cover of the New English Library edition of George Moor’s novel The Pole and Whistle is accompanied by a photo of two …
Monday Night, by Kay Boyle (1938)
“Do you mean to say I didn’t give you anything to eat yet?” one character asks another several hours into their wanderings around Paris in Monday Night. At this point, the pair has visited three …
Makeshift, by Sarah Campion (1940)
Charlotte Herz is not a model human being. She has no patience for people she disagrees with and no qualms about telling them so. She has an affair with the husband of a kindly Englishwoman …