Between the Lines discussion

For some reason I'm really curious about this. There is a lot of information about what books are longest in pages, but not much information on the "record" for an author working on a single book. I guess it's not a clear cut question either, since some novels are published as serials and therefor take years and years to be complete. Thoughts?

Hmm, I coulsn't tell you waht book took the longest to write but a book that I read adn really enjoyed was anticipated for a long time:

No Great Mischief A Novel It took 13 years to write and the craftmanship is terrific.

This is one of the websites that mentions how long it took to write. http://www.nwpassages.com/bios/macleo...

Emily wrote: "For some reason I'm really curious about this. There is a lot of information about what books are longest in pages, but not much information on the "record" for an author working on a single book. ..."

And Ladies of the Club took Helen Hooven Santmyer over 50 years to write.

Shannon wrote: "No Great Mischief A Novel It took 13 years to write and the craftmanship is terrific."

Wow! I would really like to read this one. I am sure that it is well written.

Wow, this And Ladies of the Club sounds good - I've put it on my list of books to remember...

Pillars of the Earth took about 10 years but there are some on this post that took a lot longer, I see.

Wow, this topic's cool. I guess authors are just bad recorder of their books since when did they actually started doing a novel. I guess their mind is mostly filled if their book is going to be published and, of course refining the book. At least every anticipation deserves it...

Actually, The Cantos by Ezra Pound took about 52 years to write, and it was still unfinished!!! (1917-1969)

And shortest book ever written, for those interested, was the Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, which took only two weeks to write in full manuscript form!