Unpublished works

[mishima]

(note to moderator: wasn't really sure where to post this, please feel free to redirect it to someplace that you feel is more appropriate. Yes, that includes the Recycle Bin. )

Having read what was released of The Cannibals, I got to wondering what it would take to see a more accessible release of other partial or unreleased works. Especially the stuff that's sitting in Special Collections at the UMO library; iirc there's two "finished" novels in there along with a massive amount of other stuff (working drafts, correspondence, etc.). I'd really like to get my hands on it, being someone who read through those books of Lovecraft's letters and someone who thinks that the structure and language of Mr. King's work deserves as much analysis as any other author in the American Lit canon (okay, an argument can be made to take that statement in two ways, but that's a different topic). I know I'd like to study it, and doing so would at least keep me off the streets.

So far, it seems to me that two issues with getting some sort of release of this material are public reception (it tends to be seen as a money-grabbing move with no real merit), and Mr. King's own opinions looking back at some of the material. As my wife remarked when I was pining to read The Aftermath: "What if it's just not very good?" Sure, it could be revised in the same manner as Blaze, but that misses the point entirely. Not to mention that it's probably a little weird to have something you jotted down in a margin twenty years ago dissected for some "innate meaning."

An obvious argument against the first point would be to release the material via the website, though to me it would make more sense to have it published and have the money go to something like the University of Maine or Haven.

Anyone have any other thoughts about why this wouldn't happen, or a similar interest in seeing what all's piled up over the years?

And on a slightly related note, is *anyone* bothering to archive email correspondence for the academic geeks of the future? Sometimes I wonder if that's a research resource that we're losing right now.

[Moderator]

I think the answer to your question is also twofold and for the same conclusion you have already come to. Some of the work is not, in Steve's opinion, publishable because the writing is not up to his standards and he does not want it made public during his lifetime. The other reason is that he is reserving the right to edit incomplete or completed/unpublished manuscripts that are worth saving and publishing at a later time.

[Mr. Rabbit Trick]

The other reason is that he is reserving the right to edit incomplete or completed/unpublished manuscripts that are worth saving and publishing at a later time.

Look forward to that.