SALISBURY — John Irving has been one of the preeminent voices in literature for over half a century. His novels have become bestsellers and have been adapted into Academy Award-winning films. He won an Oscar for adapting his novel, “The Cider House Rules” into a screenplay and has had his name attached to several other literary honors through out his illustrious career.

Irving was a guest lecturer for the Rowan Public Library’s Virtual Author Talk series as part of the Library Speakers Consortium. On Oct. 26, Irving answered submitted questions regarding his writing process and his newest novel, “The Last Chairlift,” which was published one year ago.

Irving is famous for never starting one of his novels until he knows how it will end. He said his novels can live as notes, outlines and character sketches years before he officially begins putting pen to paper. For Irving, “pen to paper” is not just an expression, to this day he writes all of his novels in longhand before an assistant types up the draft on a computer.

“My novels live with me for a long time before I begin them,” Irving said. “I will not commit myself to writing the first chapter of a novel until I’m very certain what the last chapter will be.”

When Irving was a teenager, reading 19th century novelists like Charles Dickens and Herman Melville inspired him to become a novelist himself. For him, “Great Expectations” and “Moby Dick” are prime examples of what books can achieve when they are written with care.

“Those novels were, and remain, the model of the form for me,” Irving said.

One of the more amusing anecdotes during the Q&A was Irving confessing that he loathed the title of his breakout 1978 novel, “The World According to Garp.”

“I hated that title. It was always just, just a working title and I always thought I would find a better one. The problem was, when I delivered it to my editor, I didn’t hold back the title, I was still trying to think of a better title,” Irving said.

When his editor and publisher read it, they didn’t agree with Irving at all.

“They couldn’t imagine the novel could be called anything else,” Irving said.

The novel became a bestseller and put Irving’s name on the map. To this day, he calls the whole thing a “learning experience.” When asked if the title has grown on him in the decades since, Irving has evolved to becoming indifferent about the whole thing.

“It’s been around for so long, what can I do, you know?” Irving said.

Irving’s latest novel, “The Last Chairlift,” is a sprawling 900-page novel that tells the story of a man coming to terms with himself and his family. His first novel in seven years, Irving said, “It was a great novel to write during the pandemic because I didn’t have to go anywhere.”

What drives this story is how Irving goes against a reader’s expectations based on their preconceived notions of sexuality and acceptance.

“Yes, it’s a ghost story, but it’s also a love story of a family that is much loved and deservedly so, but it’s a family that I have purposefully reversed from the usual family that has within it, a queer family member,” Irving said. “In his family, being the straight guy makes him queer, queer in the sense of ‘odd one out.'”

Irving mentioned the original title for the book was “The Honeymoon on the Cliff” before he changed it. Just like the some of the 19th century novels he loves so much, Irving names all of his chapters instead of numerically labeling them, so he had plenty of options to choose from.

“I always end up with more titles than I can use,” Irving said.

According to Irving, “The Last Chairlift” will be his last “long” novel, but that doesn’t mean he will retire anytime soon. He assuredly confirmed he has already started on his next book.

Irving published his first novel in 1968 and is now 81. After all this time, Irving is relieved he was able to get his “hard” novels out of the way, so he can focus on his “easy” ones next.

“Write the hardest one or the longest one first. Give yourself a break, leave the shorter or easier novels ’til the end. Write the harder ones or the longer ones. Now, there’s a difference between longer and harder sometimes. This is my longest novel, in terms of the page count, but it was one of my easier novels to write. Many novels that have been shorter have taken me longer to write. The reason I say this one was easier is that there’s nothing in it that is outside my own personal experience,” Irving said.