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Ernest Hemingway: The Vanished “Lost Stories”
When people think of Ernest Hemingway, they might picture a rugged writer with a typewriter, but few know about the devastating loss that marked the start of his career. Hemingway’s first full-length manuscript, famously called “Lost Stories,” disappeared forever when his wife, Hadley, left a suitcase containing all his manuscripts on a train in 1922. The loss was accidental, but the impact was crushing—Hemingway reportedly broke down in tears when he learned everything he had written to that point was gone. The suitcase held years of carefully crafted short stories, and the tragedy haunted him for the rest of his life. For Hemingway, it was more than just paper—it was the destruction of his earliest creative voice. Historians and literary scholars still wonder what those stories might have revealed about his evolution as a writer. The incident is a stark reminder of just how fragile a writer’s legacy can be, sometimes hinging on a single, heartbreaking mistake.
Franz Kafka: The Unpublished Instructions
Franz Kafka’s relationship with his writing was filled with self-doubt and hesitation. Near the end of his life, Kafka gave his close friend Max Brod explicit instructions: after Kafka’s death, Brod was to burn all his unpublished manuscripts and diaries. Kafka believed his work was unworthy of the world’s eyes, despite having written masterpieces like “The Trial” and “The Castle.” Brod, convinced of the literary value of Kafka’s work, bravely ignored his friend’s wishes and published the manuscripts instead. This act of defiance is now legendary in literary circles, as it preserved Kafka’s haunting, thought-provoking stories for future generations. Without Brod’s intervention, some of the 20th century’s most influential literature would have vanished forever. Kafka’s story highlights the inner turmoil many writers face, where the fear of not being good enough can nearly erase genius from history.
Sylvia Plath: Burning the Raw Beginnings
Sylvia Plath is celebrated for her brutally honest and emotionally charged poetry, but not everything she wrote survived her own scrutiny. Plath destroyed an early novel and a number of poems, feeling they were too raw, personal, or simply not good enough. Driven by perfectionism and a relentless inner critic, she burned these works to protect herself from vulnerability and possible judgment. Plath’s surviving writings, like “The Bell Jar” and her collected poems, show a polished, powerful voice, but they are only fragments of what she originally created. The lost works represent a side of Plath that readers can only imagine—a young writer wrestling with her deepest fears and insecurities. Her decision to destroy these pieces is a poignant reminder that the creative process is often as much about erasing as it is about creating.
Lord Byron: Scandal Sealed in Flames
Lord Byron’s life was as dramatic as his poetry, and his memoirs promised to be just as scandalous. After his death in 1824, his publisher and closest friends decided the world wasn’t ready for his unfiltered confessions. Fearing that the memoirs would ruin Byron’s reputation and cause a public uproar, they burned the only copies in a fireplace at the publisher’s office. The destruction was not just about protecting Byron—it was about shielding high society from tales of excess, love affairs, and possibly criminal behavior. The burning of Byron’s memoirs is one of the most famous acts of literary censorship in history. Today, readers and scholars are left with tantalizing rumors about what secrets Byron took to the grave, and the lost manuscript has become a symbol of the tension between personal privacy and public curiosity.
Virgil: The Aeneid’s Brush with Oblivion
Virgil’s epic poem “The Aeneid” is a cornerstone of Western literature, but it came perilously close to being lost forever. On his deathbed in 19 BCE, Virgil famously asked that the manuscript be burned because he considered it unfinished and unworthy of publication. The Roman poet was a perfectionist, and he wanted to erase what he thought were flaws in his magnum opus. Luckily, Emperor Augustus, recognizing the poem’s importance, intervened and ordered that it be preserved and published as it was. Virgil’s wish was denied, and the world gained one of its great literary treasures. The story of “The Aeneid” shows how the opinions of authors about their own work don’t always match the value that generations of readers will later find in it.
Nikolai Gogol: Guilt and the Flames of “Dead Souls”
Nikolai Gogol, celebrated for his biting satire and dark humor, shocked his friends and the literary world when he burned the second part of his masterpiece “Dead Souls” in 1852. Gogol had struggled for years with religious guilt and spiritual crisis, and in a moment of despair, he decided that his work was sinful and should not survive. The pages were reduced to ashes just days before his death, leaving only the first part of the novel for posterity. The loss is deeply felt in Russian literature, as scholars believe the second part might have altered the entire meaning of the work. Gogol’s act is a dramatic example of how personal beliefs and mental anguish can intersect with creativity, sometimes with irreversible results.
Thomas Hardy: The Bitter End of a Dream
Thomas Hardy, known for classics like “Tess of the d’Urbervilles” and “Far from the Madding Crowd,” once poured his hopes into an early novel called “The Poor Man and the Lady.” After submitting the manuscript to several publishers and facing repeated rejection, Hardy made a painful decision—he destroyed it. This act of self-destruction was driven by disappointment and frustration, emotions that every writer can relate to but few act on so drastically. The loss of “The Poor Man and the Lady” deprived readers of insight into Hardy’s earliest creative ideas and struggles. Yet, Hardy’s resilience meant he kept writing, eventually finding both critical and commercial success. His experience is a stark reminder of how fragile early dreams can be in the face of rejection.
Emily Dickinson: The Torn Poems
Emily Dickinson, now recognized as one of America’s greatest poets, was fiercely private about her writing during her lifetime. Scholars believe she destroyed dozens, if not hundreds, of her own poems, often tearing up drafts she felt did not meet her exacting standards. Many of her surviving poems were found in drawers or sewn together in handmade booklets after her death. Dickinson’s mysterious habits have left literary detectives piecing together her legacy from fragments and scraps. The poems she destroyed are lost forever, leaving modern readers to wonder about the secret themes and ideas she chose to hide from the world.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge: The Erased Visions
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, the Romantic poet behind “Kubla Khan” and “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” is said to have destroyed entire sections of his notebooks and unfinished poems during bouts of depression and illness. He was his own harshest critic, often crossing out lines or burning pages he deemed unworthy. Coleridge’s struggles with addiction and mental health made the act of creation a constant battle with himself. The loss of these writings has left gaps in the understanding of his poetic evolution and personal life. Readers today can only imagine the visionary works that might have existed if Coleridge had been kinder to his own creativity.
Marcel Proust: The Discarded Drafts
Marcel Proust, the author of “In Search of Lost Time,” was notorious for his endless revisions and perfectionism. Proust would often write drafts and then destroy them, believing they did not capture the precise nuance he sought. He is reported to have torn up entire chapters and rewritten them from scratch, never satisfied until every detail matched his vision. His obsessive process meant that much of his early writing vanished before it could be published or preserved. Proust’s relentless quest for literary perfection is inspiring, yet it also serves as a cautionary tale about the cost of holding oneself to impossible standards.
Besides founding Festivaltopia, Luca is the co founder of trib, an art and fashion collectiv you find on several regional events and online. Also he is part of the management board at HORiZONTE, a group travel provider in Germany.
