Mellowing period

In the book business you can usually reckon that it takes at least ten years for work of any really subtle quality to become widely known. That is not as regrettable as you might imagine: ten years is a fair mellowing period, and strong work does not easily evaporate.

Christopher Morley, John Mistletoe

Christopher Morley

Christopher Morley points out that it took several years for the quality of Emily Dickinson's poems to be recognized and appreciated. The same is true of Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and a number of other works of literature. He calls this a "mellowing period," the time it takes for the cream to rise to the top.

When I notice how quickly books, even excellent books, disappear from Barnes & Noble shelves, I find it difficult to be as optimistic as Morley. How can quality books be rediscovered a few years from now if they cannot be found? And nowadays used book stores are disappearing as quickly as independent bookstores.

Yet examine those same Barnes & Noble shelves and one can find many books published a number of years ago and yet still in print. One can still find new editions of novels by James Michener, Ken Kesey and Jacqueline Susann, for example, decades after they were first published. But are such books still in print because of their quality or their popularity? The best books are not necessarily the bestsellers, and publishers are mostly interested in making money.

At one time literary critics and literature professors played an important role in rediscovering quality literature. They wrote books about forgotten books and writers, bringing them back into the public's attention. They lectured on these books in college classes, and if one must read a book for a class, one assumes it must be a quality book. And thus its stature rises.

At present, however, the author of a book — sex, race, sexual preference — can be more important than literary quality. It can be a challenge these days even for white heterosexual men to get a book published, let alone for it to receive literary attention.

And then there is the issue of quantity, as well as quality. This has always been a problem, I suspect. My view is that there are probably more fine books written than can be fully appreciated, mellowing period or no mellowing period. Just as only so many movies and so many actors can be nominated for Academy Awards, only so many works of literature can gain wide acceptance and appreciation over time.

Many fine books and poems are likely to always be ignored or forgotten. There is room at the top only for the fortunate few.