Author Existence Failure: Difference between revisions

* Stieg Larsson died of a massive heart attack in 2004 after having completed the third book of his supposed-to-be-decalogy ''[[The Millennium Trilogy|Millennium]]'' (''The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'', ''The Girl who Played with Fire'' and ''The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest''). All of the completed novels were only published after his death.

* [[Herman Melville]] died before completing his final novel, ''Billy Budd''.

* Patrick O'Brian, author of The Aubrey/Maturin series, died after finishing the first three chapters of the 21st book. [[The Powers That Be]] published it anyway. It was surprisingly well-received. O'Brian had previously foreshadowed in his books that he had no intention of ending the series, with two characters discussing how many nearly-great stories through history would have been better off with no ending whatsoever.

* Robert C. O'Brien, author of the Newbury Medal Award-winning ''[[The Secret of NIMH|Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH]]'', passed away shortly before finishing his [[After the End|post-apocalyptic]] children's novel ''[[Z for Zachariah]]''. Luckily, his wife and daughter (authors themselves) finished it based off the notes he left behind and published it posthumously. His daughter, Jane Leslie Conly, went onto publish two more ''NIMH'' books.

* [[Michael Crichton]] was about a third of the way through a contracted novel with Harper Collins at the time of his death. The book is currently being completed from his notes, and any more information than that is being kept under wraps. He also had a completed manuscript, ''Pirate Latitudes'', which was published a year after his death.

* [[CS Lewis (Creator)|CS Lewis]] left unfinished upon his death a manuscript of ''The Dark Tower'', which would have been a sequel of sorts to [[The Space Trilogy]]. It was published in its fragmentary form with some of his unfinished short stories.

* A scene from [[Mark Twain (Creator)|Mark Twain]]'s unfinished final novel ''The Mysterious Stranger'' somehow made its way into the 1985 claymation film ''The Adventures of Mark Twain'' (the infamous "Satan" sequence.) Talk about your [[Small Reference Pools]].

** There were actually three unfinished versions of ''The Mysterious Stranger'', referred to, in chronological order, as "The Chonicle of Young Satan", "Schoolhouse Hill", and "No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger: Being an Ancient Tale Found in a Jug and Freely Translated from the Jug". A version of the novel was published in 1916 by Albert Bigelow Paine as "The Mysterious Stranger", based on the first version, with substantial alterations and an ending taken from later versions. "No. 44, the Mysterious Stranger" is the only version where Twain actually wrote an ending, and is considered the definitive version. (It is effectively a full novel, but considered by scholars to not be as polished as Twain would have wanted.) All three versions were published, unaltered, in 1969; with the last re-published in 2005. The last version shows Twain at his darkest, clearly highlighting his growing depression, and hostility toward organized religion.

 

== Live Action TV ==

** Of course, misuse of Computer Slang and the last minute reversal of Peri's death aside, most fans are OK with Pip and Jane Baker's ending and agree that Holmes' ending would have been a disaster.

*** Holmes reckoned the BBC had already made the decision, and wanted to give the Doctor an impressive [[Sherlock Holmes|"Reichenbach Falls"]] exit. He was wrong, but only by a couple of years.

* George Harrison died while working on the album ''Brainwashed''; it was completed by his son Dhani Harrison and former Travelling Wilbury bandmate Jeff Lynne. They made it considerably more lavish than George would have if he had lived--we have [[Word of God]] on that; Lynne felt that doing otherwise would've dishonored his memory.

** On the subject of the Traveling Wilburys, the band averted this by continuing after [[Roy Orbison]] died shortly after their first album's release, but it severely shortened their intended plans, and they released one more album in 1990 before splitting.

* And speaking of Roy Orbison, he was in the midst of a major comeback when he died of a heart attack in 1988.

* [[Jimi Hendrix]] died before completing a planned double album provisionally titled 'First Rays of the New Rising Sun'. It was subsequently released over three posthumous albums; ''Cry of Love'', ''Rainbow Bridge'', and ''War Heroes''. When the Hendrix family regained control of his estate in 1997 they withdrew these albums and released a re-compiled ''First Rays...'', based mostly on Jimi's notes, as an 'official' Hendrix album.

** The "non-family" posthumous albums featured various session guitarists overdubbed and intermingled with Hendrix's work, and given that Hendrix's guitar is pretty much why people listen to Hendrix, fans were not amused in the slightest.

* [[Hideto Matsumoto]] (better known as "[[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]]") from the band [[X Japan]] died before completing his third solo album, ''Ja, Zoo''. It is still debated today whether his death was an accident or a suicide.

** hide and Yoshiki had also planned, up until hide's death, to reunite [[X Japan]] with another vocalist than Toshi or with hide on lead vocals in 2000.

* Hard rock band Snot was receiving a lot of attention in the late nineties from their major label debut ''Get Some'' and their infamous antics on the 1998 Ozzfest tour. They were working on a second album until singer Lynn Strait was tragically killed in a car accident. Because Lynn died before he recorded vocals for most of the album, the band used the recorded instrumental tracks for the tribute album ''Strait Up'' with guest vocals. The only track that had Lynn's vocals, "Choose What?", was later released as a bonus track on the live album ''Alive''. The band broke up immediately following his death, but a couple of the members started a new revision of the band ten years later called [[Sdrawkcab Name|Tons]].

* [[Type O Negative]] frontman Peter Steele died of heart failure in April 2010, just as he was due to begin writing and recording for a followup to ''Dead Again''. With his passing, the band ceased to exist as well.

* Both [[Hank Williams]] and Patsy Cline died extremely young (29 and 30, respectively), leaving plenty of unreleased material behind and inevitably having several posthumous hits. [[Hank Williams Jr]] even overdubbed one of his dad's unreleased songs as a "duet".

* [[ES Posthumus]]' Franz Vonlichten died in May of 2010, effectively stopping the group.

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