Posthumously Famous Authors

11 Posthumously Published Novels

May 29 2015

This week’s blog post is dedicated to posthumously published novels. They are presented in chronological order.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen (1817)

Northanger Abbey was Jane Austen’s first novel. It is thought that it was written circa 1798-99. Although the book was sold to Crosby & Co. in 1803 they decided against publication. The book was later sold back to Jane’s brother Henry. Northanger Abbey was finally published in December 1817, 5 months after its author’s demise.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Charles Dickens (1870)

When England’s most famous author Charles Dickens died in June 1870, his final novel, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, remained unfinished. As a result when it was published later that year the book’s killer was not revealed. The general consensus is that John Jasper, Edwin’s uncle, is the murderer.

Bouvard et Pécuchet by Gustave Flaubert (1881)

Gustave Flaubert never finished his satirical novel Bouvard et Pécuchet, despite starting work on it in 1872. Flaubert intended that it would be his seminal work, eclipsing his most acclaimed novel, Madame Bovary. However, when the book was finally published a year after the author’s death in 1880 it was not well received.

The Ivory Tower by Henry James (1917)

At the time of his death in 1916 Henry James was still working on The Ivory Tower. The book was published without an ending the year after his demise. It went on to receive considerable praise for its criticism of excessive wealth and laissez faire capitalism, although some criticised its dense prose and slow pace.

You Can’t Go Home Again by Thomas Wolfe (1940)

When Thomas Wolfe died in 1938 he left behind a vast unpublished script titled, The October Fair. His editor transformed the manuscript into the novel You Can’t Go Home Again. It is about an author who writes a book about small town America. The book goes down so badly in his hometown that he is unable to return home.

Between the Acts by Virginia Woolf (1941)

Between the Acts is a novel about a festival play in an English village, set shortly before the outbreak of WWII. It is replete with innuendo and hidden meanings. After finishing the manuscript Woolf entered a deep depression. On the 28th March 1941 she drowned herself in the River Ouse. The novel was published 4 months later.

A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (1980)

John Kennedy Toole was unsuccessful in getting A Confederacy of Dunces published during his lifetime, which resulted in him becoming very depressed, culminating in his suicide in 1969. In 1980, 11 years after his death, his mother succeeded in getting it published. The book won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1981.

Gather Yourselves Together by Philip K Dick (1994)

Philip K Dick is one of the most famous science fiction writers of all time. However, despite writing Gather Yourselves Together early in his writing career, it was not published until 12 years after his death. Publishers had initially refused it due to the length of the manuscript (481 pages).

Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man by Joseph Heller (2000)

Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man is about an aging writer attempting to write a novel that would emulate his earlier efforts. An apt subject matter considering that Heller’s most famous work, Catch-22, was published in 1961. Portrait of an Artist, as an Old Man was published posthumously in 2000, the year after his death.

The Millennium Series by Stieg Larsson (2005-2007)

At the time of his death in 2004 aged 50, Larsson’s Millennium Series were unpublished manuscripts sitting in his house. The trilogy saw the author achieve posthumous fame. In 2008 Larsson was the second highest selling author in the world. To date over 60 million copies of the Millennium Series have been sold worldwide.

The Original of Laura by Vladimir Nabokov (2009)

Nabokov had requested that the novel he was working on at the time of his death in 1977 be destroyed. In 2008 Nabokov’s son announced plans to publish it, and the following year, 32 years after his father’s demise, The Original of Laura was published. Many castigated the book, arguing that it was in no fit state to be published.

8 Posthumously Famous Authors

May 01 2015

Here are 8 posthumously famous authors.

Franz Kafka

(July 3rd 1883 – June 3rd 1924)

Franz Kafka is today regarded as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th Century. Born in Prague in what was then The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka did not find fame during his lifetime, and what little of his writing was published received only scant attention from the public. Kafka, though always committed to his craft, spent his days working in a variety of roles in the insurance sector, and later managing a family-owned asbestos factory.

Click here to read my review of The Metamorphosis and Other Stories.

Emily Dickinson

(December 10th 1830 – May 15th 1886)

Emily Dickinson was a prolific poet with over 1700 poems to her name. During her lifetime Dickinson had fewer than a dozen poems published, and it was only after her death that she became famous. Her very private nature was undoubtedly one reason for her lack of acclaim during her lifetime. Today she is remembered as an iconic poet and one of the most acclaimed American female writers of all time.

Karl Stig-Erland ‘Stieg’ Larsson

(August 15th 1954 – November 9th 2004)

Larsson was a renowned journalist and an independent researcher. However, at the time of his death in 2004 aged 50, his Millennium Series were unpublished manuscripts sitting in his house. The trilogy saw the author achieve posthumous fame. In 2008 Larsson was the second highest selling author in the world. The Millennium Series has been adapted for film and television. To date over 60 million copies of the Millennium Series have been sold worldwide.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Sylvia Plath was a well-regarded poet during her short-life. Examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963. Her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, published a month before her death in the UK and in the US in 1971, went on to achieve critical acclaim. In 1982 Plath won the coveted Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Collected Poems.

Click here to read my review of The Bell Jar.

Jane Austen

(December 16th 1775 – July 18th 1817)

Jane Austen achieved a degree of recognition during her lifetime, but she received little personal renown, due in part because she published anonymously. After her death her books became steadily more popular. It was the 20th Century that saw Jane Austen’s meteoric rise to iconic status. Today the author’s fame has transcended the literary world, evidence of which is her being ranked number 70 out of ‘100 Greatest Britons of all time’.

Jim Thompson

(September 27th 1906 – April 7th 1977)

Thompson is best remembered for his paperback pulp novels. He became well known for The Killer Inside Me (1952), and later wrote and co-wrote Hollywood screenplays. This success was only fleeting however and when he died in 1977 he was largely forgotten. Today he is widely acclaimed as being one of the greatest crime writers of all time. His novels are back in print and two of them have been adapted for the silver screen.

Click on the links to read my reviews of The Killer Inside Me and Savage Night.

Henry David Thoreau

(July 12th 1817 – May 6th 1862)

Henry David Thoreau’s prodigious writing output consists of nearly 20 volumes of writing. He self-published one of his book’s, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but only sold 300 of the 1000 copies that he had printed. It was only after his death in 1862 that he began to receive the attention that he deserved. The event that was to herald this transformation was the publishing of his journal in 1906.

Edgar Allan Poe

(January 19th 1809 – October 7th 1849)

Edgar Allan Poe was an author, poet, literary critic and editor who flirted with fame for much of his working life. If it were not for his rather premature death, the cause of which is debated to this day, Poe might have become famous. Today he is remembered not only as being one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, but is also generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre.

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Posthumously Famous Authors IV

Sep 13 2013

This is the final instalment of the Posthumously Famous Authors series.

Henry David Thoreau

(July 12th 1817 – May 6th 1862)

Notable works: Civil Disobedience, Walden, The Works of Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod.

An author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, environmentalist and transcendentalist, the multi-dimensional Henry David Thoreau’s prodigious writing output consists of nearly twenty volumes of writing. Thoreau was well known as a transcendentalist, naturalist and ardent abolitionist during his lifetime and even succeeded in having two books published, neither of which were very popular. He famously self-published A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, but only sold three hundred of the one thousand copies that he had printed.

It was only after Thoreau’s death in 1862, aged forty-four, from tuberculosis, that the respected but largely under-appreciated writer began to receive the attention that he deserved. The event that was to herald this transformation was the publishing of his journal in 1906. Thoreau’s works were to become increasingly popular over the course of the twentieth-century.

Today Thoreau is recognised as being one of the greatest writers America has ever produced. His views on politics and nature, in addition to his modern prose style having assured him of a place in history. Thoreau’s memory is honoured by The International Thoreau Society, which is both the largest and oldest society dedicated to an American author.

Edgar Allan Poe

(January 19th 1809 – October 7th 1849)

Notable works: The Raven, The Masque of the Red Death, Tamerlane & Other Poems.

Poe relished the macabre, a reoccurring theme in much of his writing. Unfortunately there was little appetite for the genre during his lifetime. However he did achieve a degree of popularity though not financial success with his poem, The Raven. (Poe was reportedly paid $9 for The Raven, a very modest sum even in the 1840s).

Today Poe is remembered not only as being one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story, but is also generally considered to be the inventor of the detective fiction genre. Evidence of the writer’s endearing popularity is the fact that an original copy of Poe’s Tamerlane and Other Poems sold at Christie’s in New York for $662,500, a record price for a work of American literature.

Posthumously Famous Authors III

Aug 16 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became famous after their deaths.

Emily Dickinson

(December 10th 1830 – May 15th 1886)

Born in Amherst, Massachusetts to a wealthy family, Emily Dickinson went on to become a prolific poet with over 1700 poems to her name. During her lifetime Dickinson had fewer than a dozen poems published, and it was only after her death that she became famous.

The very private nature of the poet is undoubtedly one reason for Dickinson’s lack of acclaim during her lifetime. By the late 1860s’ her reclusive habits included rarely leaving the house and even speaking to visitors from the other side of the door.

It was only after her demise when younger sister Lavinia discovered her poetry that family and associates realised just how prolific a poet she had been. The first collection of Dickinson’s poetry was published in 1890, though it was heavily edited. Between 1914 and 1918 nearly a dozen new editions were published and then in 1955 a completed collection of her poetry, The Poems of Emily Dickinson, was released. Interest in the poet’s work was to only increase with the passage of time. In 1981 The Manuscript of Emily Dickinson was published and then in 2001 her biography.

Today Emily Dickinson is remembered as an iconic poet and one of the most acclaimed American female writers of all time. Her poetry is studied in schools throughout the country and there was even a stamp to commemorate her in 1971.

Death and immortality are reoccurring themes in Dickinson’s poetry and it can be argued that she achieved the latter with her posthumous fame and place in the hearts of her nation’s readers.

Karl Stig-Erland ‘Stieg’ Larsson

(August 15th 1954 – November 9th 2004)

Notable works: Millennium Series

Larsson was known during his lifetime as a renowned journalist and an independent researcher. However at the time of his death, aged fifty in Stockholm of a heart-attack, after climbing the seven flights of stairs to his office, as the lift was not working, Larsson’s Millennium Series were unpublished manuscripts sitting in his house.

The first, published in Sweden in 2005, received The Glass Key Award for the best Nordic crime novel that same year. The book was published in The United Kingdom in 2008 under its English language title, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The second part of the series, published in Sweden in 2006 is known in the English speaking world as The Girl Who Played with Fire. The following year the final instalment was released, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets’ Nest.

The trilogy saw the author achieve incredible success and posthumous fame. In 2008 Larsson was the second highest selling author in the world and in 2010, USA Today’s author of the year. The Millennium Series has gone on to be adapted for film and television. Hollywood sequels to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig, are in production, and will likely see interest in the series increase yet further. To date about sixty million copies of the Millennium Series have been sold worldwide.

Click here to read Part II.

Posthumously Famous Authors II

Jul 26 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became more famous after they died.

Franz Kafka

(July 3rd 1883 – June 3rd 1924)

Notable works: The Trial, The Castle, Amerika, Contemplation, The Metamorphosis

Franz Kafka is today regarded as one of the greatest European writers of the 20th Century. Born in Prague in what was then The Austro-Hungarian Empire, Kafka did not find fame during his lifetime and what little of his writing was published received only scant attention from the public. Kafka, though always committed to his writing, spent his days working in a variety of roles in the insurance sector and later, managing a family-owned asbestos factory.

The author, who had suffered bad health for many years met his demise when a bout of laryngeal tuberculosis left him being unable to eat because of the pain, resulting in Kafka starving to death in Vienna in 1924.

Posthumous fame came quickly for the German language author when the first of his three novels, The Trial, was published a year after his death in 1925. The following year, The Castle was published and the third of Kafka’s novels, Amerika, followed in 1927. The author’s reputation has only increased over time and his insights into the human condition are viewed by many as being amongst the most poignant of any writer.

Sylvia Plath

(October 27th 1932 – February 11th 1963)

Notable works: The Bell Jar, Ariel, The Collected Poems

The Boston born American writer studied at Cambridge University and later wed British poet Ted Hughes. Sylvia Plath was well regarded as a poet during her short-life, examples of her early success included winning The Glascock Prize for poetry in 1955. In 1960 Plath’s first book of poems, The Colossus, was published.

Plath, who had a history of depression, committed suicide in 1963 by poisoning herself with carbon monoxide, in her own kitchen. Much controversy surrounded her death, with some claiming that Plath had not meant to kill herself, whilst others, particularly feminists blamed Hughes, Plath’s husband, claiming that he had been abusive.

Death did nothing to stop the writer’s growing popularity and respect from the literary establishment. Her semi-autobiographical novel The Bell Jar, published a month before her death in the UK, was published in the US in 1971 and went on to achieve critical acclaim. In 1982 Plath won the coveted Pulitzer Prize posthumously for The Collected Poems and then in 1985 her letters, titled Letters Home: Correspondence 1950 -1963 were published.

There is no doubt that Sylvia Plath’s premature death brought her much attention and was a major factor in her becoming something of a martyr to the feminist movement. However her lasting legacy is that today she is regarded as one America’s greatest ever female writers.

Click here to read Posthumously Famous Authors part 1.

Jun 28 2013

The following blog post is dedicated to two authors, who became more famous after they died.

Jane Austen

(December 16th 1775 – July 18th 1817)

Notable works: Sense and Sensibility (1811), Pride and Prejudice (1813), Emma (1816), Persuasion (1818)

Though Jane Austen achieved a degree of recognition during her lifetime for her prodigious literary talents, she received little personal renown, due in part because she published anonymously. After the author’s death her books became steadily more popular though none of them achieved best-seller status during the 19th Century.

It was the 20th Century that saw Jane Austen meteoric rise to iconic status. During the early decades of the century there was an increase in the academic study of her books and then in 1940 came the first film adaptation of one of her works, the MGM production of Pride and Prejudice, starring Laurence Olivier and Greer Garson. From the 1970s The BBC were making dramatisations of her books, the most successful being the 1990s adaptations of Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice. These only served to fuel Jane Austen fever, which to this day shows no signs of abating. Not only are her books adored by readers around the world and studied in schools, but her fame has transcended the literary world, evidence of which is her being ranked as the 70th out of ‘100 Greatest Britains’ of all time.

All of which would no doubt have made the bashful author blush if she were still around today. However there is normally a down side to fame, in this instance this may come in the form of the latest adaptation of her work, the soon to be filmed, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

Jim Thompson

(September 27th 1906 – April 7th 1977)

Notable works: The Killer Inside Me (1952), The Getaway (1959), The Grifters (1963)

The American novelist and screenwriter is best known for his paperback pulp novels. Jim Thompson started writing for magazines as early as the 1920s and later turned to crime fiction in the 40s’. Despite his prolific output (wrote 20 books in the 1950s alone), he also worked as a journalist to support his family and prodigious alcohol intake. Thompson became well known for The Killer Inside Me (1952), which remains to this day probably his most acclaimed work. He later wrote and co-wrote Hollywood screenplays for prestigious directors, including the iconic Stanley Kubrick, as well as having two of his books adapted for the cinema during his lifetime.

Jim Thompson’s success was however only fleeting and when he died in 1977 he was largely forgotten, his work out of print in his home country and his legacy appeared to be little more than a footnote in the history of pulp fiction.

Today Jim Thompson is widely regarded as one of the greatest crime writers of all time. Not only are his novels back in print but two of them have been adapted for the silver screen, The Getaway (1994) starring Alex Baldwin and Kim Basinger and The Killer Inside Me (2010) starring Casey Affleck.

It appears that Jim Thompson may well have been anticipating future success when he asked his wife to look after his manuscripts and copyrights shortly before his death.

Click on the links to read reviews for The Killer Inside Me and The Getaway

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11 Posthumously Published Novels

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