Books never written.

Grin! I do this too! Among my titles are “How to Throw Your Voice” and “How To Get Your Voice Back.” I also dolled one up to be the cover of “Induction of Psycho-Neuroses by Conditioned Reflex under Stress” – the “IPCRESS” of the movie “The Ipcress File” – reproducing the book as seen briefly in the movie.

Also the classic Richard IV by Shakespeare.

I’d certainly have enjoyed an account in detail, of Flashman’s doings in the Boxer Rebellion. He’d have been aged nearly eighty then – one assumes, his swan-song as regards taking part in direct military action; unless shortly thereafter, he found himself involved in the tail-end of the Boer War?

Something I greatly liked in Fraser’s Mr. American (which novel I mostly find rather lame) – occurs at the beginning of World War I. There’s a vignette of Flashman – the year before his death, at a very great age; still mentally very sharp, and as cynical as ever – imparting to the hero, his opinion that the best thing for the Belgians to do in the circumstances, would be to accede to the Germans’ demand, and let them march through their country in the course of invading France. The Germans would be there for a while, and make life somewhat unpleasant; but in the end, having achieved their objective, they’d clear out, and things could go back to normal.

I posted:

The collected works of Marshall France; Pool of Stars,* Green Dog’s Sorrow*, and particularly Land of Laughs as mentioned in Jonathan Carrol’s* Land of Laughs.
*
“The Land of Laughs was lit by eyes that saw the lights that no one’s seen.”

in the earlier thread:

Help me stock the ultimate (fictional) library

Ed McBain who was working on a set of mysteries with alphabetic one word titles (Ax, Bread, Calypso, Doll, Fuzz, Guns, Heat, Ice, Jigsaw, Kiss, Lightning, Mischief, Nocturne, Romance, Shotgun, Tricks, Vespers, Widows ) planned to finish the series, with the last book being his last EXIT.

He died before doing it.

These are all part of his 87th Precinct series, which also included many titles of more than one word.

[Applause]

How fun! If you ever market your creations, do include a link here! (Hey, The Onion markets fake boxes for Xmas gift-giving. This’d have year-round application).

Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead

DOCTOR: Right then, Charlie boy, I’ve just got to go into my, er, shed. Won’t be long.
ROSE: What are you going to do now?
DICKENS: I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I’ve learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital.
DOCTOR: You’ve cheered up.
DICKENS: Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I’ve just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I’m inspired. I must write about them.
ROSE: Do you think that’s wise?
DICKENS: I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy’s uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth. The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth.
DOCTOR: Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic.
ROSE: Bye, then, and thanks.

John Kennedy Toole’s sequel to A Confederacy of Dunces. It was clearly written with a sequel in mind, but Kennedy killed himself before writing one.

Also, the book that I may never finish writing – Thou Shalt Not: The Slacker Bible

Louis L’Amour intended to write books in his “Sackett” series bridging times in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars but did not before his death. :frowning:

Is that quite true? In the Kindle edition at minimum resolution, Fraser’s account of Flashman at Isandlwana in the title short story of Flashman and the Tiger runs to about two dozen pages. Arguably the tantalising loose end therein is the far more startling claim that he was also at Rorke’s Drift, which I’m not sure is referenced anywhere else in the papers. (Startling, because the running joke is that Flashman is a key participant in every military disaster of the 19th century: the retreat from Kabul, the Charge of the Light Brigade, Harper’s Ferry, Pickett’s Charge, Little Big Horn etc. That he’s at Isandlwana is utterly natural, but Rorke’s Drift was a bit less likely. Even though one presumes he just found a corner to hide in.)

On Sangahyando’s point about Fraser never writing the US Civil War novel, I’ve been pretty comfortable with that. It was surely always in the nature of the project that his death would leave gaps. Which could always fit the conceit of the meta-narrative he had constructed around the discovery of the papers. Deliberately leaving an obvious major gap, while dropping lots of hints, then seems entirely in his style. He teased.

To throw in an example myself, is David Peace ever going to finish his Tokyo Trilogy? In most cases, I like to plow through a set of novels as a completed set. Like I did with his Red-Riding Quartet. Yet in this case he seems to have lost interest in the project and shows no sign of writing the third novel.

Winds of Winter. :rolleyes:

I maybe didn’t put things very well in my post – I just feel that the interview quote as cited there, puts Fraser in a bit of an unpleasant light: seems rather, that he’s deliberately spitting in the faces of his fans. I feel that it would have been kinder of him to keep his intentions to himself: going on dropping tantalising hints, while in fact not planning ever to write the American Civil War book, which he didn’t want to write. He’d had been aware that his own death, or his going totally senile, would ultimately let him off the hook.

Seconded.

100 Walks in the Ramtops
130 Days of Pseudopolis
Achmed the I Just Get These Headaches’s Book of Humorous Cat Stories
Adventures with Crossbow and Rod
Almanack And Booke Of Dayes
Almanack de Gothic
Along the Ankh with Bow, Rod and Staff with a Knob on the End
An Introduction to Escapology
Ancient and Classical Mythology
Anecdotes of the Great Accountants
Anima Unnaturale
Annotated Directory of Streets, Alleys, Roads Lanes and Yards of Ankh-Morpork
Art of War (One Tzu Sung or possibly Three Sun Sung or maybe even some unsung genius)
Back Street Pins
Battle Call
Battle Cry
Beginning Pins
Bestiary
The Boke of the Filme
Bonfire of the Witches
Book of Going Forth Around Elevenish
Book of St Ossory
The Book of Staying in The Pit
Book of the Magick of Alberto Malich the Mage
Boris von Trappe
Bu-Bubble
Bumper Fun Grimoire
Civics
Compendium of Odours
Concordat
Cordati
Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses, and Lichens of Terror Incognita
Demonylogie Malyfycorum of Henchanse thee Unsatyfactory
The Dictionary of Eye-Watering Words
Discourse on Historical Inevitability
Discourses (Ibid)
Diseases of the Dragon
Diseases of the Sheep
Dykeri
Ectopia
The Effluence of Reality
Ego Video Liber Deorum
Elephant Road
Essay on a form of wit
Felicity Beedle
Five Hours and Sixteen Minutes Among The Goblins of Far Uberwald
Fletcher’s Avian Nausea Index
Fullomyth
Gardening In Difficult Conditions
Ge Fordge’s Compenydyum of Sex Majick
Geometries (Legibus)
Girls, Giggles and Garters
Goatberger
Golem Spotter Weekly
The Goode Childe’s Booke of Faerie Tales
Greville-Pipe
Grim Fairy Tales
Grimoire
Happy Tales
The Harem Frescoes of Old Klatch, Interesting Customs Among the N’Kouf
The History of Hats
Household Medicine, Hair-Care and Simple Surgery
How to Dynamically Manage People for Dynamic Results in a Caring Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically
Howe To Kille Insects
I spy…Demons
Inne Juste 7 Dayes I wille make you a Barbearian Hero!
Iyt Gryet Teymple hyte Tsort, Y Hiystory Myistical
The Joy of Tantric Sex with Illustrations for the Advanced Student,by A.Lady
The Joye of Snacks
Koom Valley Codex
Lady Waggon’s Book of Household Management
The Lady’s Home Companion
The Laws and Ordinances of the Cities Ankh and Morpork
Legendes and Antiquities of the Ramtops
Liber Immanis Monstrorum
The Little Folks’ Book of Flower Fairies
Little Pieces for Tiny Fingers
Mallificarum Sumpta Diabolicite Occularis Singularum
Martial Arts
Mechanics (Grido)
Meditations (Didactylos)
Monster Fun Grimoire
Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure
Names of the Ants
Necrotelicomnicon
Necrotelicomnicon Discussed for Students, with Practical Experiments
Nosehinger on the Laws of Contract
Octarine Fairy Book
Octavo
The Omega Conspiracy
On Religion
On the Nature of Plants
On The Use of Pliers in Warfare, Boots and Teeth: A Soldier’s Life
Path of The Scorpion
Platitudes (Aristocrates)
Practical Siege Weapons
Principia Explosia
Principles of Ideal Government
Principles of Navigation
Principles of Thaumic Propagation
Pseudopolis Herald
Reflections
Res Centum et Una Quas Magus Facere Potest
Ritual Aggression in Pubescent Rats
The Shuttered Palace
Some Little Known Aspects of Kuian Rain-making Rituals
The Speech of Trolls
Sto Plains Dealer
Stripfettle’s Believe It Or Not Grimoire
The Summoning of Dragons
The Noble Art
Theologies (Hierarch)
Total Pins
Travels in the Dark Hinterland
True Art of Levitatione
Twurp’s Peerage
Unadorned Facts
Unhealthy and Unsafety Regulations Governing the Lifting and Moving of Large Objects
Veni Vidi Vici: A Soldier’s Life
Walking in the Koom Valley
Walnut’s Inoffensive Reptiles of the Sto Plains
Wasport’s Lives of the Very Dull People
Wellcome to Ankh-Morporke, Citie of One Thousand Surprises
What Gallows
What I Did On My Holidays
Whom’s Whom
Why Men Get Under Your Feet
With Wand and Broomstick Across the Great Nef Desert
Woddeley’s Basic Gods
Woddeley’s Occult Primer
Wrencher’s Snakes of All Nations

“Hamster Huey and the Gooey Kablooie” from Calvin and Hobbes.

A previous thread on nonexistent books we’d like to read: Help me stock the ultimate (fictional) library - Cafe Society - Straight Dope Message Board

“Dr. Fegg’s Second Book Of Nasty Knowledge”. :wink:

Of course, all of these can be found in the University Library. Good luck with getting past the Librarian, however.