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A separate question concerns the destruction of papers by the writer's heirs. That happened to Austen, whose brothers burned a good deal of her correspondence. That probably was a great loss, since that censorship was partly responsible for the "Dear Jane" phenomenon -- e.g., for nearly two hundred years no one noticed her joke in MP about sodomy in the navy. Carrol > -----Original Message----- > From: T. S. Eliot Discussion forum. [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of > Nancy Gish > Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2012 1:30 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Should a writer destroy his papers...? > > Thanks, I think it was the Aeneid I had in my head, though I wonder if it was also > Stevenson, or some of his work. > Cheers, > Nancy > > >>> "Rickard A. Parker" <[log in to unmask]> 11/13/12 2:18 PM >>> > On Tue, 13 Nov 2012 13:53:00 -0500, Nancy Gish <[log in to unmask]> > wrote: > > > I'm trying to remember a major writer who exacted a promise that his work > would be > > destroyed but then no one would. And that was good. > > > >Does anyone remember who? > > On Wikipedia there is a whole list of works destroyed at the page > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_work > > but it also states: Sometimes authors destroyed their own works. Other times > they instructed others to destroy the work after their deaths; such action > was not taken in several well-known cases, such as Virgil's Aeneid saved by > Augustus, and Kafka's novels saved by Max Brod. > > Regards, > Rick Parker