A short life of the author
Robert James Waller Jr. (1 August 1939 – 10 March 2017) was an American author, musician, and former business school dean whose first novel, The Bridges of Madison County (1992), became one of the most extraordinary publishing phenomena of the late twentieth century — a book that was rejected by several publishers, that had no marketing budget, and that went on to sell more than twelve million copies worldwide, spend over three years on the New York Times bestseller list, and become the bestselling novel of 1993 in the United States.
Background
Waller was born in Charles City, Iowa, and spent most of his professional life in the world of academia rather than literature. He earned degrees in mathematics and business from the University of Northern Iowa and Indiana University, and served as dean of the College of Business at the University of Northern Iowa for several years. He published academic papers, played guitar in small venues, and pursued photography and writing as avocations.
He was in his early fifties when The Bridges of Madison County was published — a late debut that made his success all the more improbable.
The Bridges of Madison County (1992)
The novel tells the story of Francesca Johnson, an Italian-born Iowa farm wife, and Robert Kincaid, a National Geographic photographer, who meet when Kincaid comes to Madison County, Iowa, to photograph its famous covered bridges. Their four-day affair — intense, passionate, and doomed by Francesca’s loyalty to her family — is told in retrospect through journals and letters discovered by Francesca’s children after her death.
The novel is barely 170 pages long, written in a prose style that is romantic, earnest, and unguarded. It was published by Warner Books in a modest first printing and caught fire through word of mouth, particularly among women readers, book clubs, and independent booksellers. By 1993 it was the bestselling novel in America, and it continued selling in enormous quantities for years afterward.
The critical response was sharply divided. Literary critics dismissed the novel as sentimental, overwrought, and poorly written — “the worst novel I’ve ever read” was not an uncommon verdict. But readers, by the millions, disagreed: they found in the story a genuinely affecting meditation on the roads not taken, the sacrifices of conventional life, and the possibility that a brief encounter can illuminate an entire existence.
The Film Adaptation (1995)
Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the 1995 film adaptation, with Meryl Streep as Francesca. The film was significantly better than its source material — Eastwood’s austere direction and Streep’s nuanced performance added depth and restraint that the novel sometimes lacked. The film was a critical and commercial success and won Streep a Golden Globe nomination.
A 2014 Broadway musical adaptation, with a score by Jason Robert Brown, received positive reviews and a Tony nomination.
Other Novels
Waller published several subsequent novels: Slow Waltz in Cedar Bend (1993), Puerto Vallarta Squeeze (1995), A Thousand Country Roads (2002, a sequel to Bridges), High Plains Tango (2005), and The Long Night of Winchell Dear (2006). None approached the commercial success or cultural impact of The Bridges of Madison County, and critics noted diminishing returns in each subsequent book.
His essay collection Old Songs in a New Café (1994) reveals a thoughtful, reflective writer more comfortable in the personal essay than in the novel form.
The Phenomenon
The Bridges of Madison County is one of those rare books whose cultural significance outstrips its literary quality. Its success demonstrated that word-of-mouth recommendation — particularly among women readers and book clubs — could make a bestseller out of a book that had no critical support, no literary pedigree, and no marketing apparatus. It helped create the modern book-club phenomenon and demonstrated the commercial power of romantic fiction marketed to adult women.
The book also opened a lasting conversation about the gap between critical and popular taste. The same qualities that made critics recoil — the earnestness, the sentimentality, the unironic celebration of romantic passion — were precisely what made millions of readers love it.
Collecting Waller
The Bridges of Madison County (1992, Warner Books) in true first edition is a significant modern collectible. The first printing was small (under 10,000 copies), and genuine first-printing copies in fine condition with dust jacket are valued at $100–$500. The book was subsequently reprinted in enormous quantities, so later printings are extremely common. Signed copies command premiums.