Finding a Treasure

The other night, I was browsing through Mr. K’s Used Books. My husband and I donated lots of our books to them during our recent move, and we were given around $40 in store credit. I was in the Essays, Stories, and Poetry section, and I found this.

Intrigued, because I studied Welty in college, I pulled it off the shelf to skim through the pages. I was absolutely delighted when I saw this inscription, noticing first the dried flower attached underneath with old, yellowing tape.

Sorry I didn’t photograph the flower (you can see the very edge of the old tape at the bottom). I wanted to make sure Eudora Welty’s signature (!) could be seen with my little cell phone camera. As I read her words, I could hardly believe it was real! I text/picture messaged my best friend, Robin, and she researched pictures of her signature online and her date of death for me. She died in 2001, God rest her soul, so she was certainly alive in 1981, the date the book was signed. And here is a comparison of her signature from Krueger’s Books online.

It’s identical. I only paid $5 for this book, and I felt quite odd walking out, because Mr. K’s must not have known! But I must admit that finding such a literary treasure is one of the best feelings for a book lover like me.

David thinks we should see how much it’d go for and sale it, but I couldn’t do it.

A Literary Quandary

I’ve been thinking…

What makes literature classic? What makes a story so good that generations after it has been written people still read it? Is it just the components like rising action or a climax or a resolution put together  nicely in a piece of prose that makes that piece enduring? It’s not, is it? But what is IT?

A textbook answer might indicate that a story is classic when the theme is universal, that the dilemma or otherwise interesting plot driver relates to all kinds of people in any time period. That is very true, isn’t it? But there must be more! I’m writing this blog entry so I can have your opinion. Please respond with whatever has made a story classic to you.

Update (2/17/10):

I posted the question on my facebook/twitter and got more responses there. Here is what some of my friends had to say:

A hero/heroine who delivers one or morel [sic] memorable quotes.

Timelessness; applicability; character development and growth; depth of characters; and, like (above) said, memorable quotes, but not necessarily just from the hero/heroine.

Capturing a facet of the human condition.

Passion.

…and happily ever after!

Other people I surveyed at work also responded with the word “timelessness.” And one person noted that perhaps it depends on how critics at the time of publication received it. Another friend suggested that perhaps “classic” literature is simply a set of works from a certain era, much like the classical era in music. Who knows if Stephen King will be called classic 100 years from now? If a book or author is wildly popular in its/his/her day, does that guarantee classic status later?

It’s all very interesting, and the reason I’m thinking about it is because with all of my heart, I want to write something “classic.” I want it to be read and adored years after I’m gone. I can’t explain why I want this so badly, but there is something inside of me that must do this.