Quote:
Originally Posted by Andanzas
Quote:
|
"Dearest Max, my last request: Everything I leave behind me ... in the way of diaries, manuscripts, letters (my own and others), sketches, and so on, is to be burned unread."
|
Fortunately, Max Brod didn't respect this last wish, and now we can read Kafka's works.
|
Yeah, that's the first thing I thought about when I saw the title of this thread. Thank you Franz Kafka for your "diaries, manuscripts, letters" and thank you Max Brod for contradicting Kafka's last wishes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by RainingLemur
I think it depends on what the wishes of the author are. If they say "Burn it all/throw it away/etc." then it shouldn't be published. If there's no indication as to what the author wanted for unfinished works...I would think that it would be up to next of kin (if applicable), lawyer, or whomever they had designated to handle these things.
|
I understand what you are saying, but consider what a loss to the world if Brod had followed Kafka's instructions.
Both of John Kennedy Toole's novels,
A Confederacy of Dunces and
The Neon Bible were not published until after his death.