A What If? For authors who died young

What if certain authors who died in the prime of their careers or before their careers hit their prime lived to have long, full career? The ones I'm specifically thinking of are Frederic Brown, Robert E. Howard and Stanley Weinbaum but feel free to add your own.

Not young, but Osamu Tezuka's last words were directed to his body: "Please let me work!"

I would like to see what James Joyce would've written had he not died. Something even more fucked up than Finnegans Wake?

I immediately thought of Douglas Adams when I saw this topic. I haven't read the new Hitchhiker's book but I'm curious on how Adams would have taken the series.

Steig Larsson, I read on this site the fourth book in the Millennium trilogy was going to have Science Fiction in it. Missed moment of awesome for me. The series was supposed to extend to ten books.

I'd have to go with Neo Crimson. I think Douglas Adams still had a lot of vision left and on top of more 'Hitchikers', I'd of liked another Dirk Gently novel.

Crichton, god I wish he was still alive. His last "book" Pirate Latitudes reads like a cliffnotes/early draft. He was a great author, sure he died later and wrote a lot of great books, but I want MORE.

^I wish Crichton could have at least cranked out a third Jurassic Park novel (possibly a screenplay for a fourth film)

Franz Kafka, finishing all the work he left behind. Of course that's kind of a mixed bag, since he then might have still wanted it all burned unread, and done it himself.

I wish Crichton could have at least cranked out a third Jurassic Park novel

I think that horse has been pretty well pulped.

There really isn't point to think what they could have done if they had lived... Its depressing and life work in such ways that who know, maybe if they had lived, they would have created crappiest piece of work ever...

Georg Büchner

Seriously, this guy wrote Danton's Death at the age of 21. Neither Shakespeare nor Goethe had published anything noteworthy when they were at his age. It is assumed, that he might had had as much influence as Goethe on the German literature if not for his bad health.

edited 8th Sep '10 2:07:29 PM by Zarastro

Naturally, I thought of Ad Bop first, too.

I'd have loved to see more of Dirk Gently, and that occult fiction series he hinted at that one time.

Ahh, What Could Have Been...

Mervyn Peake. Gormenghast ended too soon.

Seconding Peake. A real shame.

A similar case could be Malcolm Lowry, who apparently was planning a large novel sequence when he died. As it is, he left one masterpiece but not a lot else that was completed.

I've always been curious about what poetry Wilfred Owen might have churned out after the war. Not as curious as I am about what amazing works his mother might have burned, but still. Damnit, Owen.

Octavia E. Butler wasn't all that young, but she was (IIRC) still writing fairly prolifically. I wonder if she'd have written more vampire books, or possibly extended the Lilith and Clay series?

I'm not sure what Louise Cooper's later works were like, but I know there was some talk of getting the Indigo series back in print.

edited 8th Oct '10 5:26:27 AM by FarseerLolotea