Which is better?; The Ugly File

From my buddy Dave Zeltserman-

Ed, here's a question regarding your post today, especially about your comments about George Higgins. What's better as a writer—to writer 4-5 books that are considered great, and 20 books that are mediocre, or 25 books all of which are highly entertaining but none of them considered great? And then you had Hammett, who wrote 5 great books, but then the well ran dry.

Of course, with Stout, I'd argue that he wrote 5-6 great books, with the rest being mostly highly ...