james_nicoll ([info]james_nicoll) wrote,
@ 2007-09-11 17:01:00
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The lost manuscript
(Inspired by a discussion at FP of the discovery of lost Heinlein documents)

If you could find a set of previously lost documents by any now-dead author, who would you most like those documents to be by?

Note that you cannot specify a living author in the hopes of using this question as an assassination device.

I once had a very detailed dream about a lost H. Beam Piper novel, one that highlighted his strengths while downplaying his weaknesses.

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[info]mrbankies
2007-09-11 05:24 pm UTC (link)
Brian Daley. Not all that well know, I think, but one of my faves. Died of cancer some 10 years or so ago, way too young.

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[info]agrumer
2007-09-11 05:26 pm UTC (link)
Shakespeare would probably have the best sale value. Though I guess the comedy section of Aristotle's Poetics would fetch a pretty penny too.

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[info]missmollyetc
2007-09-11 05:27 pm UTC (link)
Jane Austen's correspondence, because on the one hand I think it's incredibly cool that her sister burned it all as Jane wanted, but on the other hand, I just think it'd be so flippin' cool to have Jane Austen's snarky comments still around.

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[info]bluesgirly
2007-09-11 05:30 pm UTC (link)
Mark Twain. A big old truck full.

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[info]tandw
2007-09-11 05:32 pm UTC (link)
James Schmitz, but only if the package included The Venture of Karres.

E.E. Smith's notes for The Grandchildren of the Lens[1] would be useful for stopping the perennial rasfw threads on the topic.

[1]Not its real name.

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[info]ross_teneyck
2007-09-11 06:01 pm UTC (link)
I'll second the vote for the Karres sequel, with the caveat that sometimes it turns out that trunk novels are trunk novels for a reason. (Although isn't the story that he lost the manuscript in a move? In that case, it probably doesn't qualify as a "trunk novel.")

By the way, did anyone make it through the Flint et al Karres book? I started it, and was put off by all the characters acting like other people and put it down; but I seem to recall hearing rumors that if you approached it as something distinct from the Karres-verse then it was passable.

(Reply to this) (Parent)(Thread)(Expand)
(no subject) - [info]james_nicoll, 2007-09-11 06:03 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ross_teneyck, 2007-09-11 06:33 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]tool_of_satan, 2007-09-12 12:05 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]tool_of_satan, 2007-09-12 12:01 am UTC (Expand)

[info]aries_jordan
2007-09-11 05:35 pm UTC (link)
Douglas Adams. The Complete Salmon Of Doubt, plus enough material for as many more novels as he could have completed if he had lived to be ninety-something.

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[info]elynne
2007-09-11 06:48 pm UTC (link)
*nod* And/or more in the line of Last Chance to See, the Infocom version of HHGTTG, or any other computer project he might have worked on. Le sigh.

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(no subject) - [info]james_nicoll, 2007-09-11 06:50 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]montoya
2007-09-11 05:46 pm UTC (link)
Tolkien. If only somebody would look through his stuff, I bet they could find enough material for maybe even a whole SERIES of books.

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[info]gjules
2007-09-11 05:47 pm UTC (link)
Hmm. I'd have a hard time choosing between Austen and Shakespeare, but I'd probably go with Shakespeare in the end; he has more lost works than Austen, and there's more potential for academic turmoil over the resultant Jossing of the established versions.

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[info]tsm_in_toronto
2007-09-11 05:48 pm UTC (link)
I remember reading somewhere -- sorry, I forget where -- that sometime back in the 1940s, Theodore Sturgeon hit a dry spell, and wrote to Robert Heinlein to ask for some story ideas. IIRC correctly, Heinlein wrote a letter back with something like 30 or 50 paragraph-length story outlines. And no one knows what became of them. I have a vague recollection that Sturgeon's brother, on settling his estate, had hoped to find them (I think that was what the article was about, but I read it a long time ago).

I would really, really, really like to read that list, wherever it is (where I am assuming the story of its existence was true).

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[info]supergee
2007-09-11 08:12 pm UTC (link)
It was published in NYRSF several years ago.

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(no subject) - [info]razorsmile, 2007-09-11 08:31 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]supergee, 2007-09-12 12:35 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]tsm_in_toronto, 2007-09-12 01:10 am UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]tsm_in_toronto, 2007-09-12 01:22 am UTC (Expand)

[info]aisb23
2007-09-11 05:55 pm UTC (link)
The complete correspondence of a certain Saul of Tarsus.

Or at the other end of the ancient history spectrum the lost memoirs of Lucius Cornelius Sulla.

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[info]keithmm
2007-09-11 06:33 pm UTC (link)
What are you hoping for, something along the lines of:

Dear Peter,
You would not believe how gullible the rubes are! Totally pwned them! I have to admit that grabbing bit from Isis and Mithras, totally brilliant idea, old friend. You were right on that one.

On a more serious note, I've been hearing some rumors from the suckers that there's a move to give you some title. "Pape" or something. What's up with that? We agreed, man, 50/50. Talk to you when I get to Rome.

Paul

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2007-09-11 07:53 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]j_larson, 2007-09-11 08:11 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - (Anonymous), 2007-09-11 10:50 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]aisb23, 2007-09-11 08:59 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]ratmmjess
2007-09-11 05:55 pm UTC (link)
A new Stanley Weyman novel--no, I'm wrong.

Patrick O'Brian's completed manuscript for the last Aubrey-Maturin novel.

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[info]ffutures
2007-09-11 09:00 pm UTC (link)
Yay to the latter!

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(no subject) - [info]timill, 2007-09-12 06:23 am UTC (Expand)

[info]paraleipsis
2007-09-11 06:12 pm UTC (link)
Anything by Agathon. You know, like, anything. (I'm going for this wild card because even if they're bad, they would contribute immeasurably to our understanding of classical Greek drama.)

For similar reasons of historical curiosity, I wouldn't mind having the Isle of Dogs by Jonson and Nashe. If it has to be something I'm pretty sure would be good, more Sophocles would always be nice...

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[info]phanatic
2007-09-11 06:26 pm UTC (link)
Frank Herbert. Then I'd like Brian Herbert to die in a fire.

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[info]mjlayman
2007-09-12 12:53 am UTC (link)
Now, now. He could just become fascinated by snowglobes.

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[info]dd_b
2007-09-11 06:32 pm UTC (link)
Hmm; accepting that stuff written but not published by a successful writer is at the very, very best a crapshoot, Doc Smith and Robert Heinlein anyway of course. Also Dorothy Sayers.

There are a bunch of classical writers that we've lost works of, and those would be academically fascinating to everybody interested, and I know enough of them that I just *might* ask for those back instead; some of the Greeks in particular. If those qualify for this question at all.

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[info]debgeisler
2007-09-11 08:56 pm UTC (link)
Many many many unpublished Dorothy Sayers books.

Many.

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(no subject) - [info]ffutures, 2007-09-11 09:01 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]jodi_davis
2007-09-11 06:40 pm UTC (link)
Dorothy Dunnett

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[info]mayaknife
2007-09-11 10:46 pm UTC (link)
I second that.

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[info]rysmiel
2007-09-11 06:53 pm UTC (link)
The complete text of The Mezentian Gate.

Or to discover that Mervyn Peake had written complete versions of Titus Alone and the fourth one before becoming ill enough that it had the impact it did on his writing.

The Arthur epic poem that Milton was thinking of writing.

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[info]tekalynn
2007-09-12 01:12 am UTC (link)
Oh, GOD yes. Or the fourth Zimiavian novel Eddison said he had in his head.

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[info]jeffr23
2007-09-11 06:59 pm UTC (link)
Robert Anton Wilson. I've no idea if there's anything to find in his actual literary estate, but for the purposes of this exercise, I'd like to see the rest of The Historical Illuminatus Chronicles, as well as as many notes and partial texts of Tale of the Tribe and Bride of the Illuminatus (including any bits Shea wrote before he went, if that's not cheating) as can fit in the trunk...

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[info]celestialweasel
2007-09-11 07:32 pm UTC (link)
And what about the stuff allegedly trimmed from Illuminatus?

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(no subject) - [info]jeffr23, 2007-09-11 07:53 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]commodorified
2007-09-11 07:13 pm UTC (link)
Do they have to be documents known to have existed at one time?

If so, I second Jane Austen's Letters.

If not, I'd like four more Kate Ross books please. Indeed, I'd like Kate Ross to be living at this hour.

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[info]wordweaverlynn
2007-09-12 01:51 am UTC (link)
Hey, if we get to revive writers (without any Monkey's Paw nonsense), Mike Ford is my number one pick.

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[info]xinit
2007-09-11 07:17 pm UTC (link)
The Secret L. Ron Hubbard "I can't believe these idiots are paying for this Xenu Crap" papers...

Man, that would be choice.

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[info]snowwy
2007-09-11 07:39 pm UTC (link)
Not papers. TAPE. I want the audio recording of the apocryphal bet he made with Heinlein.

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(Anonymous)
2007-09-11 07:18 pm UTC (link)
Cyril Kornbluth.

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[info]tomscud
2007-09-11 08:04 pm UTC (link)
"Roger Zelazny" was my knee-jerk reaction, and here it is.

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[info]cymrullewes
2007-09-11 08:46 pm UTC (link)
This has my vote.

(Reply to this) (Parent)
(no subject) - [info]aisb23, 2007-09-11 08:58 pm UTC (Expand)
(no subject) - [info]ljgeoff, 2007-09-12 10:46 pm UTC (Expand)

[info]wordweaverlynn
2007-09-11 08:05 pm UTC (link)
The complete works and letters of Sappho.

The missing Emily DIckinson letters, including the final, *addressed* versions of the Master letters--with replies, dammit.

The three Shakespearean plays we know we don't have, plus his correspondence.

All the papers of the Bronte family, including Emily's second novel and the letters.

Byron's memoirs, burned by his friends.

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[info]rustybutterkniv
2007-09-12 02:03 am UTC (link)
I'm with you, I had a dream once that I had discovered a new Emily Dickensen poem, which I recited in my dream. Unfortunately I couldn't remember any of it when I woke up beyond the tone.

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[info]kalmn
2007-09-11 08:28 pm UTC (link)
i have absolutely no idea, however-- _whiskey and water_, newly out from elizabeth bear, has an english professor finding out about all the writing that a certain will shakespeare has been doing since he died.

also: http://papersky.livejournal.com/296693.html

heck with previously lost documents. i want them to have *not stopped writing*.

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[info]razorsmile
2007-09-11 08:38 pm UTC (link)
That [info]papersky post makes me sad. Suicidal, even. But first, a priest to forgive my sins.

And it wasn't just Shakespeare :D ...

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(no subject) - [info]kayshapero, 2007-09-12 07:51 am UTC (Expand)

[info]calledisrael
2007-09-11 08:33 pm UTC (link)
my instinctive answer surprised myself:
martin luther king jr.

beyond him, i would probably say henri nouwen or bonhoeffer.

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[info]razorsmile
2007-09-11 08:34 pm UTC (link)
I have to go with Frank Herbert' complete _________ of Dune, Dune _________ and __________s of Dune, the hitherto undiscovered seventh, eighth and ninth Dune books.

Also, they find him frozen in the basement and reanimate him for profit, fun and the American Way.

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