John Steinbeck's East of Eden, Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom, for example, were inspired by the Bible. Aldous Huxley got Brave New World, Faulkner got The Sound and the Fury and Isaac Asimov got The Gods Themselves from William Shakespeare. The title Cold Is the Grave, the Peter Robinson murder mystery that I reviewed here a few days ago, comes from a traditional folk ballad.
Yet it seems to me that writers have barely begun to mine the potential for good book titles from these sources. You don't have to read very far into the Bible, Shakespeare's plays or any good poetry to find phrases that would make excellent book titles. Here are just a few examples found with a few minutes of browsing:
The Bible
"Unto the Lowest Hell," Deuteronomy
"In Time of Snow," II Samuel
"Go Forth Like Sheep," Psalms
"The Stones Cry Out," Habakkuk
"Go Through the Gates." Isaiah
"A Tower and a Fortress," Jeremiah
"Evening Wolves," Zephaniah
"Behold the Stone," Zechariah
"Certain Strange Things," Acts
"For Love's Sake," Philemon
"In the Land of Promise," Hebrews
"Every Island Fled Away," Revelation
Shakespeare
"A Hot Friend, Cooling," Julius Caesar
"The Noble Ruin," Antony and Cleopatra
"Fitted With a Husband," Much Ado About Nothing
"In Silence of the Night," The Merchant of Venice
"Let Your Drums Be Still," King Henry VI
"Love's Settled Passions, King Henry VI
"Fortune's Pageant," King Henry VI
"Thy Heaven Is Earth," King Henry VI
"One Bloody Trial," King Richard III
"There's Hell, There's Darkness," King Lear
"Come, Death, and Welcome," Romeo and Juliet
"A Lovely Gentleman," Romeo and Juliet
Poetry
"Angels, Twice Descending," Emily Dickinson
"When Roses Cease to Bloom," Emily Dickinson
"Such a Gallant, Gallant Sea," Emily Dickinson
"Pursuing Winds," Emily Dickinson
"Life's Embittered Sea," Edward Arlington Robinson
"Lovely, Dark and Deep," Robert Frost
"Spring Is the Mischief," Robert Frost
"A Pattern Called a War," Amy Lowell
"Heroes Seek Release," Edna St. Vincent Millay
"The Earth as a Tomb," Carl Sandburg
"Magic in Her Nearness," Ezra Pound
Some of these "titles" probably have already been used, but since you cannot copyright a title, all are still available. One can almost imagine what kind of novel some of these suggested titles might grace. "Unto the Lowest Hell," "One Bloody Trial," "Evening Wolves" and "Heroes Seek Release" suggest thrillers. "Certain Strange Things," "A Hot Friend, Cooling" and "Spring Is the Mischief" sound like humorous tales. "Fitted With a Husband" might be a light domestic story, perhaps about newlyweds. "Love's Settled Passions" could be a novel about a married couple in comfortable middle age, while "For Love's Sake" and "Magic in Her Nearness" hint of new romance.
One can only guess what "Angels, Twice Descending," "Let the Drums Be Still" or "Every Island Fled Away" might be about.
If are are thinking about becoming an author, help yourself to any of these titles. Now all you need is the book to go behind it.
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