A Delay in Seeing the Light of Day

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Georgette Heyer. (National Portrait Gallery, London.)

When I prepared last week to read a 1979 edition of a 1925 novel by English author Georgette Heyer, I was fascinated by a brief foreword by her son. Richard Rougier said his mother never wanted the book — Simon the Coldheart, written in her early 20s — to be reprinted. Yet here it was being reprinted, and making its U.S. debut, in 1979 — five years after Heyer’s death. Richard said the 15th-century-set novel was not as “mature” as Georgette’s later work, but he approved its reprinting because the book had “a quick eye for historical detail and an ability to paint a scene from another age” that would mark his mother’s peak efforts.

I agree. I enjoyed Simon the Coldheart as Heyer — who I was reading for the first time — depicted the coming of age and life of her stoic, fearless, determined, ambitious, adventurous, antisocial protagonist who’s in for a surprise in the second half of the novel. Meanwhile, the book’s almost-not-reprinted history reminded me that some works of fiction came close to not being published at all.

A few of those situations are well known. Franz Kafka saw some of his writings published while he was alive, but had enough misgivings about his work to ask friend and literary executor Max Brod to destroy the rest. Brod disregarded that wish, and much of Kafka’s masterful writing — including The Trial novel — appeared posthumously.

In the poetry realm, only 10 of Emily Dickinson’s nearly 1,800 creations were published while she was alive. Much of her highly original verse finally first appeared in 1890 — four years after the poet’s death.

The Last Cavalier historical novel by Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) was published as a newspaper serial in 1869 but never in book form at the time. The late-career effort was “rediscovered” well over a century later and finally released as a book in France and English-speaking countries in 2005 and 2007, respectively. The novel will not disappoint Dumas fans.

Jules Verne’s 1960-set Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1860, didn’t get published until 1994 — 89 years after the author’s death. The early-career novel was not accepted by the publisher because it was considered too unbelievable, even though Verne’s book turned out to be prescient about a number of things — as the author would also be in his later, more famous novels.

Of course, there are cases of a novel’s publication being delayed deliberately. For instance, Agatha Christie’s wrote Hercule Poirot’s swan song, Curtain, in the early 1940s and had the book locked in a vault for more than 30 years. It was finally released in 1975, not long before the author’s 1976 death.

E.M. Forster wrote Maurice in 1913 and 1914, and revised it somewhat in later years, but didn’t allow publication in his lifetime because of worry about how the public would react to the novel’s gay theme. The book finally appeared posthumously in 1971 — the year after Forster’s 1970 death.

So, in some cases writers had a degree of control over when their novel belatedly got published and in other cases they did not. Your thoughts on this week’s topic, including the question of author consent?

My literary-trivia book is described and can be purchased here: Fascinating Facts About Famous Fiction Authors and the Greatest Novels of All Time.

In addition to this weekly blog, I write the 2003-started/award-winning “Montclairvoyant” topical-humor column for Baristanet.com every Thursday. The latest piece — about devastating budget cuts and teacher layoffs in my school district — is here.

85 thoughts on “A Delay in Seeing the Light of Day”

  3. Howzabout a book that should never have seen light of day?

    Found a paperback in the family manse on my way to the airport Saturday— an Agatha Christie, “Passenger to Frankfurt”. What could go wrong? I was amazed to learn: nearly everything, though, in a nod to irony, the book in question remained many months on the best-seller list despite being, well, flat-out crazy.

    Stop me if you heard this one before: an international shadowy group, backed by the vast capital of an evil fat woman who lives in a German castle, has insinuated itself among the young throughout the world, promoting anarchy and setting the stage for a global revolution meant to insert Young Siegfried, a blonde and beautiful youth, at the top of a new world disorder. South America falls to the machinations of the young in thrall to Young Siegfried, and when another shadowy group of good guys of the old guard get together to thwart the movement, they seize on Benvo as their solution, a drug that produces benevolence, possibly permanent in its effect, on those to whom it would be administered. The scientist who years earlier had developed Benvo was very reluctant to let his work be known, and claimed to have destroyed formulae and notes, but after the death of an international money man of his long acquaintance, he decides to turn over his notes and formulae to the old guard group. It is unclear as to whether Benvo will be, or has been put to use, among a number of plot points unresolved, by book’s end.

    Published in 1970, “Passage to Frankfort”, if nothing else, is an exhibit of surreal, overwhelmed bewilderment as reaction to contemporary events and trends— that of the author, whose mental decline is apparent in the conception and execution of this irreducibly strange little book. Elephants Can Remember, her last, merely confirms what this book portends.

    Can’t recommend, except as a sad curiosity, for Christie completists..

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    • Thank you, jhNY, for the interesting and very well-written angle on novels that should have never seen the light of day, and your focus on one of them. Sadly, some authors near the end of their lives do have a measure of mental decline (or in some cases they’re exhausted or have run out of good ideas) and that’s obviously reflected in their writing. If they’re famous enough, like Agatha Christie was, the work will of course be published anyway — and readers loyal to a certain author might still flock to the book, as was the case with “Passenger to Frankfurt.” I remember Willa Cather’s last novel being a big disappointment, as was Jack Finney’s. And the latest works by the still-living Richard Russo and Martin Cruz Smith also seemed much less accomplished than what they had written before. A shame, but age does a number on many of us. 😦

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  4. “Open All Night” is a collection of short stories by French author Paul Morand, published in 1922. The stories were translated into English by Ezra Pound during the decade, but, despite having an introduction by Marcel Proust, were deemed unacceptable by his English publisher.

    The translation remained unpublished till the 1970’s, when they were re-discovered and published by New Directions. The theme that threads through the stories is dislocation and social upheaval, even to the point of mortal danger, as experienced by women postwar (WWI) in disparate settings, through the first person perspective the male narrator.

    Worth the wait!

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Great example! Amazing that “Open All Night” was not accepted for English publication with literary heavyweights Ezra Pound and Marcel Proust connected to it. The collection’s themes you mentioned certainly seem very timely in any era — including today.

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  5. Hi Dave, Go Set a Watchman also came to my mind, but it has already been discussed. The Mystery of Edwin Drood by Dickens was incomplete when he died and so shouldn’t really have been published. Both Dr Seuss and JK Rowling struggled to get the novels accepted for publications and thus might easily have never been. Fahrenheit 451 is a bit of an amazing book as the author was broke and wrote it on a rentable typewriters in the UCLA Library. He spent 9 days and $9.80 (49 hours at 10 cents per hour) completing what was then known as “The Fireman.” I read somewhere that he had to rush the ending as he was running out of money.

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  6. Thanks to the NY Review of Books,publishers, I have made many recent happy reading discoveries, chief of authors among them Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, a Ukrainian writer who moved to Moscow in the 1920’s, and never left. His major claim to fame in his own lifetime was, early on, as an occasional drama critic, and later, as script writer for a Russian animation feature. His talent for philosophical fiction was largely unknown, but suppressed, and his manuscripts remained, after his death, in his ‘lifelong companion’, Anna Bovshek’s blanket chest, the author nearly forgotten.

    But the thawing of Russian relations with the West made it possible for an influential Russian literary thinker to examine, and later begin the publication of many works. From a blanket chest where they had lain since the1950’s, Krzhizhanovsky’s fiction pieces have come to a late prominence, and to some tastes, are among the most important pieces of Russian 20th century fiction.

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    • Thank you, jhNY! Very informative comment. A shame Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky wasn’t published more while alive, but high regard after one’s death is something, I guess. The publication history of many Russian writers is of course quite complicated — with censorship and other disturbing barriers.

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  7. As this has nothing to do with your topic, I thought to put it in a separate comment.

    It’s not like me to read 2 books in a week, but after “The Housekeeper”, I read “Cul de Sac”.
    I loved “Cul de Sac”,and thought I would recommend it as a possible next Joy book.
    It takes place in Florida. It is about guns.. in a way.
    Moreover, it is a mini “Grand Avenue”, of sorts.
    Just a mention!

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  8. The book that came to mind for me is Anne Frank’s Diary. I always wondered if it made her father uneasy putting her private diary out there in the world – for anyone to see and read – after she had died. And it makes me always be careful when I’m writing in my own diary, lest it be put out in the world someday because you just never know. Yet the book has taught us so much at the same time (and has tragically been put on the ban list at some libraries… unclear why) that I can’t imagine a literary world without it, and I’m very, very glad it was published.

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    • Thank you, M.B.! A very interesting mention. Yes, that’s definitely a book one is glad was published even if Anne Frank didn’t write it with publication in mind. A memorable book — and totally heart-wrenching given the circumstances. I can’t imagine why it has been banned in some cases; I guess some people just don’t want anything disturbing out there. Maybe a few of them are Nazi sympathizers. 😦

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  9. Inasmuch as we would possibly be deprived of a great work, anyone’s consent should be respected.
    Still, if the author was 100% honest, why would they not destroy the work? Why would they let it remain in actuality?
    Of course a friend or publisher could have a copy, and not destroy it, but say they did.

    It’s different with unpublished works that were considered meh or outrageous, just plain overlooked at the time or the author passed away before publication.

    Music is the same.

    Now you make me wonder if there are some famous authors who were never published in heir lifetime?
    I mean, not noted or became famous until after they passed, but were not published at all.

    Cool topic, Dave!

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    • Thank you, Resa! Several intriguing points! Yes, why didn’t, say, Kafka, destroy his own works rather than ask someone else to do the destroying? Maybe a subconscious desire to have the works published after all? And it’s fascinating, as well as kind of haunting, to think of writers who did write things — possibly excellent things — that we’ll never know about.

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  12. I think an author’s wishes should be followed. I like that they were in Twain’s case. I think it adds a new twist to his character. As usual, I learned a lot from your post and the comments. I love coming here.

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    • Thank you, Dan! I appreciate your kind words, and definitely agree about loving the comments. 🙂 I generally agree that authors’ wishes should be followed, although there are some cases where I have more mixed feelings. And that 100-year Twain gap was really stunning — for its length, and for actually being followed.

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  13. Robert E. Howard of Conan The Barbarian fame had several of his books published after his suicide ex. A Gent From Bear Creek being his first real novel, as the others were featured in pulp fiction mags and comic bookes. After the movie Conan, there was a renewed interest in his writing circa 1980s to ’90s. The World Fantasy Convention in Austin, Tx in 2006 celebrating the centenial of his death published others (above info from wiki) My parents retired to central Texas and lived near Cross Plains, where Howard was born. Also, Howard’s romance with his girlfriend, Novalyne Price, became the subject of the movie The Whole Wide World and had the best kissing scene in a movie in my opinion, but then I loved Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Howard in the movie *sigh* https://youtu.be/4ORPjWib5kI

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    • Thank you for all that information about Robert E. Howard! Interesting! A shame Howard died so young, and that much of his writing didn’t come out until he was not around to enjoy his fame and influence.

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  14. A great post idea, Dave!

    The first book, well actually 3 books, that came to mind when I was reading your post and follow-up comments was Mark Twain’s autobiography. In his will, Samuel Clemens instructed that his autobiography should not be published until 100 years after his death. In 2010, the autobiography was published. It is not an easy read and I intend one day to finish it. I understand that Mark Twain held the autobiography back because some passages were too personal or inflammatory. I read an interesting post in the Independent which indicated that the autobiography contained thoughts that may have tarnished Mark Twain’s reputation.

    https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/after-keeping-us-waiting-for-a-century-mark-twain-will-finally-reveal-all-1980695.html

    When we read a book, we engage with the author and the narrative. And yet, there are many layers and complexities to stories and the writers that create them. I think that is what makes reading all the more interesting.

    Any, as always, I must leave a quote:

    “I love to hear myself talk, because I get so much instruction and moral upheaval out of it.” Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1, Reader’s Edition

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  15. Hi Dave, an interesting topic! Barbara Pym’s novel Crampton Hodnet was an early, unpublished work that was found among her papers by her literary executor (Hazel Holt) after her death, and prepared for publication by her. Barbara Pym had finished it in 1939, then put it aside during the war, and didn’t find it to her satisfaction when she revisited it later (she felt it was dated). But she made some penciled revisions which were incorporated into the final work that was published in the 1980s. I read it last year (and liked it a lot). I like to think she would have been pleased it was finally published…

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    • Thank you, Sheila! Interesting scenario with that Barbara Pym novel. If she made some revisions to a work she hadn’t previously been satisfied with, it sounds like the revised published version may have indeed been to her liking. Glad you liked it yourself!

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      • I should add that all that information came from the introduction, written by Hazel Holt, to the published book. And one other interesting sidenote: Hazel Holt was the author of a number of mysteries featuring an amateur sleuth who is also an editor and writer. The plot of one of these mysteries contains elements of this episode in the author’s life (the amateur sleuth is appointed literary executor of a friend and well-known novelist–though in this case she uncovers some secrets and a murder). I liked that book too!

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  18. The journey to publication is not an easy one, not even for the finest of our writers, some of whom you’ve mentioned. E.M. Forster was wise in requesting publication of Maurice until after his death. It’s not easy to have one’s work–especially when it comes from a very private place–torn apart by both close-minded critics and readers. These days, the number of banned books on moral grounds by established and new authors appear to have no limit. Not surprisingly, Maurice is numbered among the five most frequently banned LGBT+ classics.

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    • Thank you, Rosaliene! Yes, E.M. Forster would’ve gotten a lot of intolerant reaction if “Maurice” were published during the decades he was alive. Many are of course more accepting of LGBTQ+ people in more recent years — except (also of course) for quite a number of far-right Republicans with their awful legislation and book bans. Some are just bigots, while others might not have much animosity to LGBTQ+ people but know a wedge issue when they see it. Sick. 😦

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  19. I’d say we should ask the author but obviously tht’s out of the question. It is an interesting one. I mean Steifg Larsson never saw his books published but from what you read about him, he would probably have liked that. His ‘will’ caused a lot of controversy I understand though in terms of who got what from his books. I guess it depends on alot of things. A great post.

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    • Thank you, Shehanne! Yes, in a number of cases the author is not alive to answer.

      Such a shame when a premature death happens just as a novelist is on the brink of success, as was the case with Stieg Larsson. I LOVE the three page-turning novels in his Millennium Trilogy.

      There certainly seems to have been plenty of family/estate infighting about greenlighting the subsequent Millennium novels written by another author — books I’ve decided not to read because they’re not by Larsson.

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      • They are wonderful books Dave. I realy enjoyed them all. And totally agree re subsequent novels. The family/estate thing has gone on from the start. Something to do with Swedish law. I read some Heyer novels a few years back. I had kind of given her a miss because my mother kind of ‘sneered’ at her. In fact her work was incredibly detailed and at a time when it must have taken her hours to do that kind of research.

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        • Those Larsson novels built up SO much tension. I read the three of them VERY quickly.

          And great observation, Shehanne, about how research was much more time-consuming for authors in the pre-Internet age. The Heyer novel I read was certainly not transcendent literature, but it was smart and indeed well-researched.

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        • I have often thought about how much research must be done before the first paragraph is written, Shey. I can only imagine how much time and effort this research took prior to the access we have now via technology.

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          • Absolutely Rebecca. I gather she was meticulous in her research and that was her hallmark. For me she is the mother of historical romance–Austin was obviously writing in her own time. Nowadays it’s possible to find so much online but also there’s alot of social history books etc.

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              • You are very kind, truly, Rebecca. I have always been fascinbated by the past, I guess, finding social history, the minutia if how people lived, more interesting than the actual events. And I squirrel things away, places, items.

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                  • AWWWW. Yeah I base houses especially on that. I mean In Loving Lady Lazuli, the monk’s ‘cell’ that wasn’t but a small kind of cottage was based on one I saw at Mount Grace Priory in Yorkshire. It was home to the rich sons of families who went into the church and they all had little cottages in the priory grounds. That one was the only one left standing. It was amazing so I squirreled it. x

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                    • ‘Their’ idea of a cell had 3 rooms…… Rather like the idea of the ‘Cottage,’ Mary Shelley stayed in in Dundee. Meant to say, don’t know if you know but Jon Gray has finally got an illustration of it. It is on his twitter feed and is fascinating.

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    • And thanks to you for telling me about Simon the Coldheart, which I’ve never read. Now I can look forward to it. As for almost-not-printed books, I think of Harper Lee’s “Go Set a Watchman,” which I’m not sure should have been published. A controversial decision, in any case.

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      • Thank you, Kim! My local library had a number of Georgette Heyer titles, and the book-jacket copy for “Simon the Coldheart” struck my fancy. A random choice. 🙂

        Excellent “Go Set a Watchman” mention! I myself don’t think it should have been published. It was an obvious money grab, and who knows if an ill and aged Harper Lee really gave informed consent. And I don’t recall the publisher being candid about how “GSAW” was probably an early draft of “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

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        • Yes, this one came to mind immediately, Dave. I recall GSAW is from the original draft of TKAM, all the dross the publisher wanted removed from Lee’s very lengthy novel. They felt the bigotry therein wouldn’t have been popular. In it’s original form, it was a tale of two Atticus Finches. In general I have mixed feelings about publishing posthumously if it’s against author’s wishes. Thanks for introducing me to Heyer.

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          • Thank you, Mary Jo! Yes, from what I heard (I decided not to read “Go Set a Watchman”), Atticus Finch was less appealing and pretty racist. Perhaps more realistic for 1930s Alabama, but, heck, the more-reader-friendly “To Kill a Mockingbird” still depicted plenty of racism.

            I also have mixed feelings about publishing posthumously without the author’s consent. I lean against it.

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            • Equally worse in GSAW was the deteriorating relationship between Atticus and Scout. It broke my heart reading it. However, I did find Lee’s depiction of Scout as a mature character very complex and well drawn. She remained the principled young woman she always was, despite what it cost her. In this regard she remains an admirably brave character, while Atticus fails miserably compared to his wise father figure in TKAM. It wasn’t an easy read.

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