# The incomplete works of **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 8, 2024, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426 "2024-08-08T13:54:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2024, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/21 "2024-08-09T18:49:43Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Sherlock Holmes – There are plenty of copies of “THe Complete Sherlock Holmes Stories”. But they really aren’t. Neither the two-volume paperback editions nor the single thick hardcover editions, nor William S. Baring-Gould’s _Annotated Sherlock Holmes_ nor Leslie Klinger’s later _The New Annotated Sherlock Holmes_ really has all of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes writings collected within their bindings. The world’s largest collection of Sherlock Holmes material is just a couple miles from me, in the University of Minnesota Library. [https://www.lib.umn.edu/collections/special/holmes](https://www.lib.umn.edu/collections/special/holmes) But a lot of it isn’t stories, but trivia related to Holmes, Conan-Doyle, actors who played Holmes, etc. There are many copies of the stories, from first editions to versions from many publishers in many languages – but those are really all the same (barring typo/misprints). I don’t know if the collection contains these other stories by Conan Doyle (didn’t even know they existed before reading this), but the catalog to the collection is online. P.S. The University is seeking to add to this collection. So those who have collections of material might consider that. ---
**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:** [August 9, 2024, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/22 "2024-08-09T18:53:14Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Adrian Conan Doyle, Arthur’s son, wrote a dozen Holmes pastiches in the 1940s, half co-written with top mystery writer John Dickson Carr. The mysteries were sound but the stories were dull. Arthur was a lunatic hack writer. He cared about the sensational aspects of the stories more than he did about sound plots. That helps make him readable today when other better contemporary constructors are forgotten. Adrian was not a lunatic. Only the most lunatic napkin readers bother to find him. Which means that I have them, of course. Despite the fact that some people call **The Exploits of Sherlock Holmes** (the collection of Adrian Conan Doyle/John Dickson Carr Holmes stories) “Sherlock Holmes Exploited”, I have to say that I like them. I think this is entirely due to Carr, who wrote half the stories by himself, and was probably the major writer of the others. Of all the Sherlock Holmes pastiches, these come the closest to Arthur Conan Doyle’s style and feel. I have to admit that I do like several of the others, especially when they give you an interesting mashup of literary or real characters with Holmes and Watson, but most of them aren’t anywhere near Doyle in style. Holmes has met Dracula at least three times, The Phantom of the Opera at least twice, and Jack the Ripper more times than I can count. There’s no damned limit to the pastiches. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2024, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/23 "2024-08-09T19:03:05Z")
Any of you Holmes completists include Herlock Sholmès, the British rival/antagonist of Maurice Leblanc’s “gentleman cambrioleur” Arsène Lupin, in your pastiche collections? 😀 ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 9, 2024, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/24 "2024-08-09T19:39:16Z")
Yes, I have _Arsene Lupin vs. Herlock Sholmes_. ---
**Author:** ![Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ecc23a/32.png) [@Reno\_Nevada\_Jr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reno_Nevada_Jr)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/25 "2024-08-10T00:15:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > That’s why the best parodies are from top mystery writer Robert Fish. They were published in two volumes and then nine more stories were added for the compilation: [Schlock Homes: The Complete Bagel Street Saga](https://www.amazon.com/Schlock-Homes-Complete-Bagel-Street/dp/0934468168/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3SK1F075F6SXX&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.7zRSo8YWHyiAZsDqFk3YSt2lXizJsZhGbfE10BN14tnYSv4FBF6gb9l9PZc5y_Ib.cFhV6NZey9GdGGEqyjAaJh9zWkaAkCgkldv4HU8gMa0&dib_tag=se&keywords=robert+fish+schlock+homes&qid=1723228157&s=books&sprefix=robert+fish+schlock+homes%2Cstripbooks%2C111&sr=1-1). How good you do have to be that your parodies are sought by completists? THANK YOU for posting this! I read those original 2 volumes when i was a teen, many years ago, and I had stuck in my head the idea they were written by LESLIE Fish. I will have a better chance of finding them now (if I dare to see if they stand up to my memory of them). > [@CalMeacham](#): > > Even though deCamp himself is now gone, I haven’t heard of any plans for a “Complete Complete Compleat Enchanter” > > [The Complete Compleat Enchanter - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Complete_Compleat_Enchanter) Somewhere in my cluttered office I have a copy of [The Enchanter Completed](https://www.amazon.com/Enchanter-Completed-Harry-Turtledove-ebook/dp/B00APA4JHU/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2GAARP4MURJ0U&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.1u_leuSG4c2jJ9GBEMg2Lx2UbRwKJKbCFgtz0qQBaPlmer4csnbob1XzsvO2Creq5nAxXvlMPu0qXzjhLb3NkhRYLm69RpSM4CAhCjmqU6wx-j8OVpJnBCce97hG2YPzoW7qf4mNcaT1cX7CisHPPLtKsGpKfJ0hChg5TEjrZhgy_eKY2Qnl-axFwWIT6s_sc3d7pkKkUf0QEixPcGRkEFlJ_j-82ppZn4J_qIdllU8.Tjusk6KQM5L4ORGzb-F2MB5QeyZghA2YqD0lBd6i_8A&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+enchanter+completed&qid=1723248769&sprefix=the+enchanter+completed%2Caps%2C160&sr=8-1), a tribute to Sprague de Camp. I don’t think many of the stories feature Harold Shea, though. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/26 "2024-08-10T01:08:54Z")
Not so complete after all. From your Wiki link: > Following publication of _The Complete Compleat Enchanter_, the Harold Shea series was continued by de Camp in partnership with Christopher Stasheff and other authors in the anthologies _The Enchanter Reborn_ and The Exotic Enchanter. I have a first edition of _The Castle of Iron_, the second Shea book, mostly because I collect books published by Gnome Press. It was not a success at the time, 1950, probably a reason why the next collection of Shea stories didn’t come out until 1960. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/27 "2024-08-10T01:40:24Z")
The collected works of Marx and Engels, published in English 1975-2004, runs to 50 volumes. A new German edition is planned to run to 114 volumes. For all you aficionados out there, a new English translation of Capital is due out this September, from Princeton University Press. It will be interesting to see what it makes of the reference to oral sex. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/28 "2024-08-10T05:16:00Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Farmer never was able to capture the cadence of Sherlockian dialogue. Whether or not that’s true, it didn’t stop him from writing a lot of stuff that throws together many of the fictional characters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. There was a real event near Wold Newton, Yorkshire on December 13, 1795 where a meteorite fell. In his stories, there were two coaches riding nearby. This meteorite caused genetic mutations in the occupants of those coaches. In his stories, the descendants of them are a large number of fictional characters. ---
**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:** [August 10, 2024, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/29 "2024-08-10T12:24:07Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Not so complete after all. From your Wiki link: …as I said in the very thread entry you quote from. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/30 "2024-08-10T14:02:22Z")
Several other authors tried to connect various series they wrote earlier in their career into a single series later in their career, sometimes consistently, sometimes not very consistently. Isaac Asimov did this. Robert Heinlein did this. Madeleine L’Engle’s books can be looked at as individual novels, as series with several books in the series, or with all the books in a single series. She apparently did this while initially writing each book and keeping a single universe’s background in her mind. And then there’s the enormous amount of Sherlock Holmes pastiches written by many people. Trying to figure out which of them are connected with others of the pastiches is a real mess. ---
**Author:** ![jsc1953](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/31 "2024-08-10T14:03:07Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Of course, even though Pratt was gone, de Camp couldn’t help himself, and wrote more Harold Shea stories with Christopher Stashieff. My apologies if I’m mis-remembering and making a hash out of this, but didn’t L. Sprague de Camp do the same with Robert E. Howard? Took some of Howard’s unpublished napkins, changed some character names and published them as Conan the Barbarian stories? ---
**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:** [August 10, 2024, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/32 "2024-08-10T17:38:20Z")
> [@jsc1953](#): > > My apologies if I’m mis-remembering and making a hash out of this, but didn’t L. Sprague de Camp do the same with Robert E. Howard? Took some of Howard’s unpublished napkins, changed some character names and published them as Conan the Barbarian stories? Close. L. Sprague deCamp 1.) took some Robert E. Howard stories that were about other characters and rewrote them as Conan stories, often tossing in some gratuitous fantasy. So the El Borak story “Hawks over Egypt” became the Conan story “Hawks over Shem”. de Camp claimed he could do this because “all f Howard’s heroes are ‘cut from the same cloth’”. Some Howard aficianados disagree strongly. But it did give them enoughmaterial to publish a whole series through Lancer paperbacks. 2.) took some incomplete Conan stories and fleshed them out. Lin Carter did some of this, too. 3.) Wrote some original Conan fiction, often in collaboration with Carter. In fact, apparently some of the stories had previously been Lin Carter’s Thongor stories, rewritten with Conan as the hero. De Camp did a lot of editing of the Conan stories. A lot of fans felt that the Howard stories didn’t need any editing, and that De Camp’s additions were both not necessary, and a way for De Camp to claim a share of the royalties. Since De Camp’s death, the Conan stories have been re-published in mass market editions without the De Camp additions. Also Howard’s other works, like King Kull and Bran Mac Morn. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/33 "2024-08-10T19:23:44Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Even though deCamp himself is now gone, I haven’t heard of any plans for a “Complete Complete Compleat Enchanter” The proper note from wiki is: The original tales and de Camp’s additions from the 1990s were issued together as _The Mathematics of Magic: The Enchanter Stories of L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt_ (2007). Since no stories were written after 2005, there is a Completed Enchanter. > [@jsc1953](#): > > My apologies if I’m mis-remembering and making a hash out of this, but didn’t L. Sprague de Camp do the same with Robert E. Howard? Took some of Howard’s unpublished napkins, changed some character names and published them as Conan the Barbarian stories? The Conan books were all published originally by Gnome. I cover the authorship in depth, book by book, on my Gnome Press site. The books are, in publication order, [Conan the Conqueror](https://gnomepress.com/conan-the-conqueror/), [The Sword of Conan](https://gnomepress.com/19-the-sword-of-conan/), [King Conan](https://gnomepress.com/28-king-conan/), [The Coming of Conan](https://gnomepress.com/36-the-coming-of-conan/), [Conan the Barbarian](https://gnomepress.com/44-conan-the-barbarian/), [Tales of Conan](https://gnomepress.com/53-tales-of-conan/), and [The Return of Conan](https://gnomepress.com/65-the-return-of-conan/). Info about the Harold Shea book can be found at [The Castle of Iron](https://gnomepress.com/castle-of-iron-the/). ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/34 "2024-08-10T19:33:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > We’ll never be sure we’re at the end of all of J. R. R.'s writings. I think the only scholars who’ve edited any books with newly found materials by Tolkien are, after the death of his son Christopher in 2020, Brian Sibley, Verlyn Flieger, Carl Hostetter, and Peter Grybauskas. Brian Sibley edited a book called _The Fall of Numenor_ in 2022, Verlyn Flieger edited a book called _The Story of Kullervo_ in 2015, Carl Hostetter edited a book called _The Nature of Middle-earth_ in 2021, and Peter Grybauskas edited a book called _The Battle of Maldon: together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth_ in 2023. (There are, of course, other scholars writing analyses of Tolkien’s works.) Sibley is British. Flieger, Hostetter, and Grybauskas all live within a few miles of me. An announcement I found online says that this year there will be a book published called _The Collected Poems of J R R Tolkien_, which will be edited by Wayne G. Hammond and Christina Scull. Those two (who are married) live in Massachusetts. They’ve previously edited some companions to Tolkien’s works and some collections of his art. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/35 "2024-08-10T21:00:39Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > took some Robert E. Howard stories that were about other characters and rewrote them as Conan stories, often tossing in some gratuitous fantasy. So the El Borak story “Hawks over Egypt” became the Conan story “Hawks over Shem”. de Camp claimed he could do this because “all f Howard’s heroes are ‘cut from the same cloth’”. Some Howard aficianados disagree strongly. The first Conan story Howard ever published was a re-written Kull story, so I suspect Howard would be inclined to side with deCamp. Although I do like the stories with the original character names. ---
**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:** [August 10, 2024, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/36 "2024-08-10T22:12:46Z")
> [@mbh](#): > > The first Conan story Howard ever published was a re-written Kull story, so I suspect Howard would be inclined to side with deCamp. Although I do like the stories with the original character names. I’m not sure he’d like the idea of someone coasting on his efforts, though. And a lot ogf De Camp’s changes were made to shoehorn the stories into a preconceived timeline. There are paragraphs devoted to that at the end of _The Dark Stranger_ By the way, the Conan story “The Frost Giant’s Daughter” was a re-written story originally starring a hero named “Amra”, who is apparently not Conan under his sea-faring name. The changes are pretty minimal. ---
**Author:** ![Boycott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boycott/32/6741_2.png) [@Boycott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boycott)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2024, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/37 "2024-08-10T22:36:48Z")
Technically there should be no “Complete Works of Charles Dickens” because he died before he completed The Mystery of Edwin Drood. He left behind no clues as to how he intended to conclude the book because he’d only got to the halfway point when he passed away. What he wrote did get published as his final novel but plenty of authors attempted to piece together how they interpreted Dickens plot to have been. It lay pretty dormant in obscurity until a broadway play in the 1980s gave it new life and a very unique way of reaching a conclusion. The cast of the play would act out the story as Dickens wrote it and then when it reached the point where his pen stopped once and for all, the production would come to a halt in order to allow the audience to vote on a set of different scenarios in order to choose how they wanted the story to pick up. This meant if they played for every night for a week you could potentially get a different ending for each night and in order to decide which ending was best you’d have to keep coming back. It was pretty genius and was the brainchild of Rupert Holmes. Who you all probably know as for this [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/zROIlspgOjM/maxresdefault.jpg "Rupert Holmes - Escape (The Pina Colada Song) • TopPop") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zROIlspgOjM) ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/38 "2024-08-12T08:04:04Z")
Going back to Sherlock Holmes, There was a collection of parodies and pastiches published in 1944 [The Misadventures of Sherlock Holmes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes). It was edited by the American mystery writers Frederic Dannay and Manfred B. Lee under their joint pseudonym [Ellery Queen](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ellery_Queen).[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-redmond-4)[[5]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-misadventures-5)[[6]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-6) The book angered the heirs of [Sir Arthur Conan Doyle](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sir_Arthur_Conan_Doyle) (the creator of Sherlock Holmes)[[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-byrne-1)[[4]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-redmond-4) and it was pulled from publication after the original run.[[7]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-7)[[8]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Misadventures_of_Sherlock_Holmes#cite_note-8) After years of searching, I was able to pick up a copy on eBay for a surprisingly low price. it even had the paper dustrjacket, although this was a bit torn. ---
**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:** [August 12, 2024, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/39 "2024-08-12T12:40:12Z")
> [@Boycott](#): > > Technically there should be no “Complete Works of Charles Dickens” because he died before he completed The Mystery of Edwin Drood. Plenty of authors left unfinished works at their deaths, but we don’t generally say that “there is no complete works of…” because of it. Robert E, Howard left unifinished manuscripts and outlines, and never finished his novel **Almuric** (nobody’a sure who did finish it, but it was completed before publication). Heinlein left the outline for what became **Variable Star**. C.S. Forester never finished “Hornblower During the Crisis”. Tolkien left lots of notes and “Unfinished Tales”. I think they used the title of one or two books. As for **Drood** , it wasn’t _that_ obscure. I knew about it before the play came out, and lots of people took a hand at trying to complete it. ---
**Author:** ![Gordon\_G](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/3da27b/32.png) [@Gordon\_G](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gordon_G)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2024, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426/40 "2024-08-12T12:55:53Z")
I’m not sure it’s Complete (although it says so on the cover) but I’m very fond of my copy of the 1927 The Works of Edgar Allan Poe in One Volume which I found at a small Berkeley flea market decades ago. Googling just now it appears to be not at all rare; the first hit is a “pre-owned”(!) copy for $17.99 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-incomplete-works-of/1005426.md?page=3)