A Fate to Avoid....

[Paul Whybrow]

I came across a word new to me, in my rambles around literary blogs. I found it on The Passive Voice, a blog by a lawyer and writer; I recommend his newsletter to you.

Nachlass is borrowed from German and means writings that remain unpublished on an author's death.

Should this unhappy event occur (quite likely!), then hopefully a friend or relative will strive to interest an agent or publisher in one's masterpiece—as happened with John Kennedy Toole's A Confederacy of Dunces.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

It happened to William Golding but given his stature they published it anyway, not finished. The Double Tongue.

 

[KG Christopher]

I think I shall have my mortal remains compounded into a diamond, and any unpublished brilliance, I shall have condensed into a little envelope that I can put the diamond in, then I shall have it all sent on a voyage to the furthest stars for some far off culture to appreciate the apex of human kind.