A Virtual Catalogue of Books That Do Not Exist

[yellowish haze]

"The Collected Fiction of Louis Miguel Riaz"

[yellowish haze]

Two-volume set of the complete Cthulhu Mythos tales of Michael Minnis, entitled 'Apocalypse Rhythm'.

(This has been in the projects of Lindisfarne Press for years. I hope one day we will be able to remove it from this catalogue)

[marquisdenord]

When Brian McNaughton died, I think there were still a lot of unpublished stories of recent vintage. I'm not talking about his earlier potboiler works that he was embarrassed about - most or all having the word "devil" in them.

The Intro to "Throne of Bones" talked about how he had "created a world"; and, if I recall correctly, it gave me the impression that the editor had picked his favorites out for publication there, leaving others for a future book.

I've been unable to find who is in charge of Brian's estate. The word I got was that he was on bad terms with his family, for reasons unknown to me. It could be that they just threw it all out.

Are any of the members here in the publishing biz ?

[starrysothoth]

I'd like to add a title to the catalogue:

Midnight in Pyongyang by Kim Jong Il

[Piranesi]

The Lost Tragedies of Aischylos.
Collected Speeches of Cattilina.
Charles Fort, X (a novel about beings on Mars controlling events on Earth).
Charles Fort, Y (a novel about a sinister civilization on the South Pole).
Herakleitos, Peri physeos.
Kallimachos, Thaumaton ton eis hapasan ten gen kata topus onton synagoge (Collection of the marvels of the world appearing in certain places).
Rimbaud, Poemes d'Abyssinie (1880-91).
Bruno Schulz, The Messiah (the unfinished novel rumoured to be secreted away to a KGB archive).
Oscar Wilde, Pharoh, The Holy Courtisane, and The Cardinal of Avignon (three plays).

[Piranesi]

A book that may exist: La Chasse sprituelle by Arthur Rimbaud. According to Paul Verlaine this lost work was ”full of strange mysticalities and the most acute psychological insights”. Unfortunately, little else is known of La Chasse sprituelle. Will this work ever turn up?

One of Rimbaud’s recent biographers, Graham Robb, writes: ”A faint possibility exists that, since La Chasse sprituelle was written in prose, M. Mauté [the father of Verlaine’s wife, Mathilde] mistook it for one of Rimbaud’s letters and gave it to the solicitor. A ’five-part poem’ bearing the title ’La Chasse spirituelle’ may have been sold to a collector in 1905 or 1908. These dates correspond roughly to the period in which Mathilde wrote her memoirs (1907-8), when she seems to have had access to Rimbaud’s obscene letters. Were these ’destroyed’, as she claimed, or sold for profit? If the lost manuscript ever comes to light, it will break all auction records and probably fail to match the dream.”

Still, one may dream ...

[Michael]

In my dreams (literally) I see the complete works of Aristotle that have been lost to history and not just his "lecture notes."

[DoktorH]

has anyone said The King In Yellow yet? If not, I vote for that.

Chuck Palahniuk's Rant was supposed to be the start of a trilogy in that world of time-travel-by-carcrash and mandatory curfews/segregation (into nightshift people and dayshift people) to ease congestion on roads/schools/etc, but the other books have not manifested, so those as well.

Ron Swanson's personal manifestos from Parks and Recreation.

The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy. although internet/smartphones fulfill a similar function, so I am not sure if this technically exists or not.

[Michael]

Someone may have said this already; Thibaut de Castries's "Megapolisomancy: A New Science of Cities" along with the "Grand Cipher/Fifty-Book."

[Michael]

One more: Robert Louis Stevenson's first draft of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. If only his wife had just said "It's fine." maybe he wouldn't have burned it.