Book found after 30 years in freezer

[Kookamoor]

After someone has actually died it's not likely that they'll care. Emotions seem to be something unique to the living.

I couldn't disagree more. There are some very private emotions and issues within everyone's lives that are private for a reason. If I die under a bus on the way home tonight, the concept of someone then reading my journal, let alone publishing it for the world to see is heinous! Those things and thoughts are private for a reason! Just because someone dies does not mean that their wishes are no longer respected. That's what wills are for - this isn't a life after death discussion, this is about respecting someones wishes.

Publishing a book that someone didn't want published is the same as violating a will. Do you mean to tell me, Wolhay, that if a little old lady bequeathed $1 million to her 20 cats, you think that money should be used for something else? Granted, $1 million would benefit the homeless/hungry/sick far more than 20 cats, but that's not the way things work in our society. We respect the wishes of the dead, no matter how else we might benefit from their goods and material possessions.

Respect is respect.

I don't know what the author wanted any more than her family possibly knows... but the same alarm bells rang for me, mehastings.

 

[Wolhay]

I couldn't disagree more. There are some very private emotions and issues within everyone's lives that are private for a reason. If I die under a bus on the way home tonight, the concept of someone then reading my journal, let alone publishing it for the world to see is heinous! Those things and thoughts are private for a reason! Just because someone dies does not mean that their wishes are no longer respected. That's what wills are for - this isn't a life after death discussion, this is about respecting someones wishes.

You might have strong feelings about it now that you're alive but when you're dead you're not likely to care so it shouldn't matter what someone wishes when they're alive.

Publishing a book that someone didn't want published is the same as violating a will. Do you mean to tell me, Wolhay, that if a little old lady bequeathed $1 million to her 20 cats, you think that money should be used for something else? Granted, $1 million would benefit the homeless/hungry/sick far more than 20 cats, but that's not the way things work in our society. We respect the wishes of the dead, no matter how else we might benefit from their goods and material possessions.

I'm all for property rights and I'd rather see the million go the cats instead of the state which would be likely to waste it.

However, I'm not so sure that dead persons should be allowed to bury or cremate their organs that could improve the living condition of living persons or perhaps even save lives. Apart from the distribution of wealth and possessions I don't think that dead people should have much rights.

An author's wish to destroy a work of literature after they've passed on is a request based on emotions, it's not so much a matter of property since the rights aren't given to someone else.

 

[Kookamoor]

You might have strong feelings about it now that you're alive but when you're dead you're not likely to care

How do you know that for certain? What about the people still alive that I don't want to know certain things that I wrote down? When I die, I want to be remembered in a certain way - if someone goes and publishes something that hurts my relationship with people or sullies my reputation, that's not what I want to happen. Whether you like it or not, this is a right that people can dictate in their wills. And I think it's a good thing.

You want to force dead people to give up their organs despite their wishes?? Brother, that's only going to cause trouble. If those people are of particular religious persuasions they believe that they won't reach the afterlife without their bodies intact. It will not only hurt the dead, but also the living - the families they leave behind - who believe that they will not get to see their beloved ever again. I don't want to turn this into a religious discussion, I'm only pointing out that not everyone wants to give up their organs for various reasons - it's a very personal decision that individuals should be allowed to make. Call it selfish, but it's a personal liberty to dictate the destination of your remains, and the outcome of your worldly belongings.

An author's wish to destroy a work of literature after they've passed on is a request based on emotions, it's not so much a matter of property since the rights aren't given to someone else.

And bequeathing $1 million to a bunch of cats is not based on emotions? Emotions are real and people make legal decisions based upon them. If someone orders something destroyed in their will, it is a legal decision.

In this case, the woman probably didn't state anything about the lost book, in which case it is intestate and depending on the jurisdicion a number of things may occur. In many cases such belongings pass to the next of kin, in which case it becomes their property. So technically it is the decision of the next of kin as to what happens to the book - they are likely well within their rights to publish it under the author's name.

The question still remains, however, why the book was hidden in the first place. The author must have worked on the manuscript for a long time, so it is unlikely it was simply 'forgotten'.

 

[Freya]

The question still remains, however, why the book was hidden in the first place. The author must have worked on the manuscript for a long time, so it is unlikely it was simply 'forgotten'.

Maybe she was a bit loopy. Not all there. Just decided to hide in the freezer. Maybe she got really drunk, put it there and totally forgot, and then searched for years but never quite ate the last bits of food in her freezer. Maybe she put the book in the freezer and the ice cube tray with the rest of her work. I mean, I'm always putting the milk in the cupboard and the cereal in the fridge.

 

[mehastings]

This is from Booklist:

This book's backstory is more compelling than the novel itself. Wolff's first book, Whistle Stop (1941), was published to great acclaim when she was 22. She went on to publish five more novels, but when her publisher asked her to do promotion for her seventh, she refused and put her manuscript in the refrigerator, where it remained for 30 years, until her death.

 

[Freya]

Aaah clearly artists temperament. The publisher probably refused to put a picture from when the author was young and sprightly in the cover and wanted to use a more current one. The author was appalled, as she was a vain creature, and stormed out of the publishers office. Then she went to the nearest bar to drown her sorrows and lament the fact that she was getting no younger. Then she went home drunk, and bunged the book in the freezer.

I think I've found my calling! I'm going to be a detective!

 

[WoundedThorns]

the author probably forgot about it when she hid it... and didn't clean her freezer regularly =P

 

[SFG75]

I never understood how good writers could produce works and then attempt to hide them for eternity, though I have to admit that lamb chops are good.

 

[G4G]

I never understood how good writers could produce works and then attempt to hide them for eternity, though I have to admit that lamb chops are good.

Well I'd rather die than have anyone read some of my stuff. For various reasons - not just because it might be shite. So I can see why she did this.

Pork cops every time. In fact, I think i will now have sopme for Sunday dinner.

 

[Stewart]

Pork cops every time.

Nowadays we call them pigs.

 

[SFG75]

Nowadays we call them pigs.

LOL-true, but pork cutlets are to die for.

 

[G4G]

Nowadays we call them pigs.

Whatever they are called, I just polished off a plate of them with mashed potato.

Oh.

Yes.

 

[mehastings]

I never understood how good writers could produce works and then attempt to hide them for eternity, though I have to admit that lamb chops are good.

I believe it had something to do with her making a statement. One of those "I will not sell out" type thingys.

 

[CattiGuen]

Kafka didnt want any of his work published.

Anne Frank wouldve never in a million years believed that her diary would some day become eighth grade required reading.

something to think about.

 

[Dixie]

I just read a review of a book written in the 1970s, which was just found after spending 30 years in the author's freezer.

"Sudden Rain" is set in California, and is according to Janet Maslin, the reviewer, a real period piece. It looks quite amusing. The funny thing is the author, who'd published six novels, hid this particular book. She died three years ago, at age 83, and the manuscript was found posthumously among the lamb chops and TV dinners.

Nobody knows why she hid it. Maybe is was too personal, and she didn't want to hurt people close to her. Who knows.

Her name is Maritta Wolff. The theory I read was that she had a disagreement with her publisher & refused to give him that last manuscript. There was also some speculation as to her involvement in her first husband's death in a house fire..nothing ever proven.

I have read every one of her books..couldn't put them down..am sad there are no more. She had incredible insight into the human condition..Sinclair Lewis was enrapt with her insight into the "seamier side of life," as he put it.

Heading to library again today..planning to re-read every one of her books..highly recommend to all to give them a read!