# What lost work of literature would you most like to get your hands on? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 12, 2003, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932 "2003-10-12T00:14:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2003, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/41 "2003-10-14T13:25:55Z")
Is a movie literature? Probably not, in which case this is a hijack: **London After Midnight** , a lost “vampire” movie starring Lon Chaney ---
**Author:** ![Conrad\_Verloc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9de053/32.png) [@Conrad\_Verloc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Conrad_Verloc)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 10:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/42 "2003-10-15T10:29:53Z")
The last half of Dicken’s _The Mystery of Edwin Drood_. Not knowing the ending drives me crazy. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 10:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/43 "2003-10-15T10:37:37Z")
Hillary Clinton’s Rose Law Firm billing records. [sub]Or did they finally discover those?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2003, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/44 "2003-10-15T11:40:10Z")
Anything by Shakespeare we’re not presently aware of. There’s the _Love’s Labor’s Won_ thing, there’s _Cardenio_ - but I’m not a fan of LLL, and I’d like to know if there’s anything else Shakespeare wrote solo. ---
**Author:** ![Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Myron\_Van\_Horowitzski](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Myron_Van_Horowitzski)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/45 "2003-10-16T20:40:51Z")
I’d like to have the musical scores to all of King David’s songs. ---
**Author:** ![Engineer\_Dude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9fc29f/32.png) [@Engineer\_Dude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Engineer_Dude)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2003, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/46 "2003-10-16T21:03:57Z")
I’d like to have a hardback copy of the book “Gadsby”, by Ernest Vincent Wright, which has been out of print for some time. It is a 50,000 word novel which never uses the letter “E”. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/47 "2003-10-17T01:44:39Z")
The original journals of Queen Victoria before her youngest, Princess Beatrice, edited them, copied from them, and then BURNED the originals! _gasp_ The journals and letters the Romanovs burned before they went into captivity. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/48 "2003-10-17T02:21:22Z")
The _Antitheses_ of Marcion. ---
**Author:** ![Trigonal\_Planar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/0ea827/32.png) [@Trigonal\_Planar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trigonal_Planar)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/49 "2003-10-17T03:30:38Z")
_The Elements_, by Euclid. There were many translations made but as far as I know the original doesn’t exist. ---
**Author:** ![myles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/779978/32.png) [@myles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myles)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/50 "2003-10-17T07:22:11Z")
A Rosetta Stone type text which just happened to fortunately have the complete Minoan Linear A script and lexicon, the Indus (Harrapan Valley) Civilization script and lexicon, and ditto for the Etruscanspeak, (oh, and any other ancient language we have so damnably few traces of, like Iberian or Tartessian), along with a copious modern English translation for all five of course! Plus, round that off with the complete works of Thespis, the works of that Hecataeus who preceded Herodotus, and, just for kicks, ANYTHING that would to the slightest degree mitigate our current complete lack of Carthaginian historiography or any classical writings from a Carthaginian perspective at that rate. Ooh, there’s so much more… What a horribly tantalizing question for an, archaeology, classics, and history buff! Oh well, if anybody was able to discover any of that stuff, they would be on the gravy train for life, damnably infuriating being reminded of what we lack. ---
**Author:** ![j\_sum1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/8baadc/32.png) [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2003, 7:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932/51 "2003-10-17T07:51:15Z")
> [@](#): > > I’d like to have the musical scores to all of King David’s songs. Me too > [@](#): > > The Elements, by Euclid. There were many translations made but as far as I know the original doesn’t exist. The original is indeed lost, nut there are manuscripts (not translations) of most of it. IIRC there are some volumes that have not been recovered. I would rather have a full set of Archimedes. We only have about a third of what he wrote and it is all fantastic ground-breaking stuff. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-lost-work-of-literature-would-you-most-like-to-get-your-hands-on/206932.md?page=2)