# Stories halted due to death **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 28, 2005, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131 "2005-06-28T02:09:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DataZak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ea666f/32.png) [@DataZak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DataZak)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/21 "2005-06-28T08:24:58Z")
> [@jsgoddess](#): > > I was talking on another board about Louis L’Amour’s _The Walking Drum_, which was a book that cried out for a sequel. L’Amour died before he could write it. > > This is one of the reasons I’m always wary about picking up a new author if his or her series hasn’t gotten some closure. Yes, I’m looking at you, Robert Jordan! > > What series, movies, TV, books, comics, left you hanging due to the death of their creator? What’s your nightmare scenario concerning current series? > > For me, if JK Rowling died, I’d have to hire a necromancer. And if Greg Keyes (_The Briar King_) kicked the bucket, well, you just wouldn’t want to see the fallout. Trust me. My nightmare scenarios: George R.R. Martin buys it before finishing the _Song of Ice and Fire_ series. I know Book 4 is coming out soon but that’s not the end of the series, is it? There’s at least, what, another book or two? Also, JK Rowling and George MacDonald Fraser. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/22 "2005-06-28T09:17:12Z")
> [@andros](#): > > Zelazny had a couple irons in the fire when he died. Jane Linskold finished a couple of them. > > My favorite is _Psychoshop_–a doubly posthumous novel by Alfred Bester (who died while writing it) and Zelazny (who picked it up from Bester’s ms and notes and died while completing it). Which are the others? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/23 "2005-06-28T10:19:52Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Which are the others? Dunno if it was abandoned or interrupted by death, but if Zelazny ever finished off the storyline started in “Changeling” and continued in “Madwand” I never heard about it. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Arky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/87869e/32.png) [@An\_Arky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Arky)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/24 "2005-06-28T11:14:14Z")
How about _The Canterbury Tales_? ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/25 "2005-06-28T11:25:33Z")
Edgar Rice Burroughs’ last John Carter story definitely ends in the middle. In the realm of mystery detection, death has not been an obstacle for several authors of series characters. Agatha Christie had two novels prepared long before, to be published after her death. _Curtain_ in which she kills off Hercule Poirot and a Miss Marple novel. And there have been recent novelizations of some of her plays (or perhaps drafts of plays, I forget the details.) And, of course, we have Wossname Goldsborough writing four or five stories about Nero Wolfe after Rex Stout’s death, and there have been two Peter Wimsey novels fairly recently (long after Dorothy Sayers’ death), based on her notes. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/26 "2005-06-28T11:29:44Z")
> [@DataZak](#): > > My nightmare scenarios: > > \ > > Also, JK Rowling and George MacDonald Fraser. Of Fraser I will say as Spock said of “Flint” (_Requiem for Methusaleh_): “That day, I shall mourn” - but the Flashmans stand pretty well by themselves, each being a random dip into a portion of the anti-hero’s long and eventful life. I’ve read them all, or just about all, and I’m not hungering for some plot threads here and there to be tied up - which is just an emphasis of how well they work individually rather than as part of a series, and not to damn with faint praise. Rowling, on the other hand, is a one-hit wonder who got indescribably lucky, far out of all proportion to the merit of the books. An okay writer, but dollar-billionnaire okay? :dubious: There are some authors about whom I have dreamed of their writing another book in a series, but JKR doesn’t make the list. Besides, there’s little danger she won’t live long enough to write one more HP. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/27 "2005-06-28T12:10:53Z")
Most of the ones I’d mention have already been given. To this I’d add that several authors left notes for incomplete or even not-begun works that others finished. Robert E. Howard left a few Conan synopses (that L. Sprague de Camp wrote up in the 1960s-1970s Lancer seeries, and which Del Rey books has finally published in their oruiginal form,). Edgar Rice Burroughs left notes for a final Tarzan adventure that was completed about 10 years ago by someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/28 "2005-06-28T12:29:51Z")
> [@Little Nemo](#): > > On the opposite note, Ed McBain (Evan Hunter) reportedly has written an 87th Precinct novel that he isn’t going to have published until after he dies. The work is called “Exit.” McBain started writing a series of 87th precient novels with one word alphabetical titles back in the sixties (take that, Sue Grafton). He purposely left out “E for Exit,” the mystery to be published after his death. The series titles, if you are interested are (so far, and I hope he finishes them): Ax Bread Calypso Doll E (Exit) Fuzz Ghosts Heat (Hark!) Ice Jigsaw Kiss Lightning (Lullaby) Mischief Nocturne O Poison Q Romance Shotgun Tricks U Vespers Widows X Y Z ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/29 "2005-06-28T14:10:17Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Which are the others? [Lord Demon](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380770237/ref=pd_sxp_f/103-1189228-5117422?v=glance&s=books) was one. Zelazny’s style was diluted somewhat. I liked it a lot, not despite that fact, but _because_ of it. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![SlyFrog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a3d4f5/32.png) [@SlyFrog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlyFrog)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/30 "2005-06-28T14:44:33Z")
I believe that Thucydides died writing mid-sentence in “The History of the Peloponnesian War.” ---
**Author:** ![Winston\_Bongo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a9adbd/32.png) [@Winston\_Bongo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winston_Bongo)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/31 "2005-06-28T14:48:30Z")
Raymond Chandler died before completing the last Philip Marlowe novel, _Poodle Springs_. It was finished, years later, by Robert B. Parker. For some reason I’ve never wanted to read it, despite being a big fan of Chandler. It just wouldn’t be the same . . . ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/32 "2005-06-28T14:51:06Z")
There is confusion about which of **V C Andrew** ’s books were written by her and which were written by her ghost writer after she died. Not that I would ever read such trashy novels 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/33 "2005-06-28T14:52:05Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > I’ve heard horrible rumors that his nitwit son and buddy are going to write the sequel he didn’t. If they turn out to be true, they’ll wake up with a burning bag of something on their doorsteps the next day. Oh, it is going to happen. [HUNTERS OF DUNE and SANDWORMS OF DUNE](http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html) will be based on FH’s notes for a 7th novel. ---
**Author:** ![Rysto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecccb3/32.png) [@Rysto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysto)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/34 "2005-06-28T15:22:50Z")
> [@adam yax](#): > > Oh, it is going to happen. [HUNTERS OF DUNE and SANDWORMS OF DUNE](http://www.dunenovels.com/timeline.html) will be based on FH’s notes for a 7th novel. I think that was one of those “Sequels you’ve decided don’t exist” things. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/35 "2005-06-28T15:26:30Z")
Giacomo Puccini had not quite completed _Turandot_ before he died. His friend, director Arturo Toscanini, prevailed upon his pupil Francisco Alfano to finish the score, but Toscanini would never conduct Alfano’s parts, [supposedly telling the audience](http://www.laopera.com/learn_more/article_detail.asp?Categoryid=16&articleid=72) “the opera ends here, because at this point the Maestro died. Death was stronger than art.” Other stories have him simply saying “Here, the Maestro laid down his pen”. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/36 "2005-06-28T16:46:49Z")
> [@Rysto](#): > > I think that was one of those “Sequels you’ve decided don’t exist” things. Although you’d have to add the prequels that we’ve decided don’t exist to it as well. It’s really the only way to keep Dune fans out of jail for murder… ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/37 "2005-06-28T17:21:39Z")
> [@Nature's Call](#): > > " > > This was 1989. > > I’m still waiting. I like a lot a comic the name of will ring no bell to non-french ears (Sambre). The first tome, that I enjoyed enormously, was published in 1986. Since then, I’ve been waiting for the following tomes. The author didn’t give up. The 5th one has been published last year, so that’s roughly one tome every four years, and I would guesstimate he’s half-way through the story. So, at this point, I’ve been waiting for 20 years and it should take another 20 years or so to know the denouement (assuming that nor the author nor me kick the bucket before)… ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/38 "2005-06-28T17:42:33Z")
I don’t know if they qualify, but Jane Austen had two unfinished novels going when she died. Perhaps she had put them away early with no intent of ever finishing them, but they are still Jane Austen, and Jane Austen was to the English language like Mozart was to music. They are: _The Watsons_ and _Sanditon_ It’s heartbreaking to read them and have them end abruptly just after development of the main characters. ---
**Author:** ![BwanaBob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bwanabob/32/2985_2.png) [@BwanaBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BwanaBob)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/39 "2005-06-28T18:03:09Z")
The author of the adventures of Tintin, Herge, died while working on an adventure titled (in English) “Tintin and Alph-Art”. He didn’t get very far but they published his preliminary drawings anyway. I don’t think his widow knows how the story was to have gone, so it’s lost forever. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2005, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131/40 "2005-06-28T18:05:40Z")
F. Scott Fitzgerald died in the middle of writing _The Last Tycoon_. In high school, I read a version that contained the parts he had written and synopses of the notes he’d left about the rest of the plot. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-halted-due-to-death/310131.md?page=3)