海角大神

Authors once turned to fire to be rid of writing they didn鈥檛 want the world to read. Terry Pratchett took a slightly more creative 鈥� and modern 鈥� route. He ordered that his hard drive be crushed by a steamroller after his death. The destroyed drive is now on display at England鈥檚 Salisbury Museum.聽

The drastic action represents a new solution to a question that has plagued authors, their families, and their publishers for centuries: If an author doesn鈥檛 want his or her work published posthumously, must families and publishers comply 鈥� even if they believe the work is valuable? 鈥淵ou could say that on the one hand, an author should retain a kind of sovereignty over [his or] her unpublished material...,鈥� says Paul Saint-Amour, Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg professor in the humanities at the University of Pennsylvania.聽

But what about the possible loss to world culture? Franz Kafka, for instance, told his friend Max Brod he wanted his unpublished works burned after his death. If Brod had done so, Kafka masterpieces 鈥淭he Trial鈥� or 鈥淭he Castle鈥� would have been destroyed. Was Brod right not to do so?

Sometimes an author鈥檚 desires are difficult to discern. The family of 鈥淭he Girl with the Dragon Tattoo鈥� author Stieg Larsson used another writer to complete one of his unfinished novels. But Larsson鈥檚 partner, Eva Gabrielsson, said Larsson would never have wanted that. 鈥淭o Kill a Mockingbird鈥� author Harper Lee was alive but older when her second work, 鈥淕o Set a Watchman,鈥� was released in 2015. Questions were raised as to whether this was really Lee鈥檚 wish. (The Alabama Securities Commission stated that it was.)

Sometimes a good compromise can be delaying publication. Professor Saint-Amour points to 鈥淒e Profundis,鈥� Oscar Wilde鈥檚 1897 letter to a male lover. The full text appeared in 1962 鈥� long after the letter鈥檚 recipient and his family had died. Saint-Amour says, 鈥淚 think that those surface solutions can be elegant in that they recognize the long-term cultural interest in a work while also recognizing that certain kinds of expressive works can be sensitive for the living.鈥�