On the one hand, for Stephen Marche there are too many books and yet he uses the same-day death of Shakespeare and Cervantes to contemplate some possibilities for new ones. Wouldn’t it be fun to have another play from Sophocles (we have only seven of his one hundred and twenty), or to have the Bard�s "Cardenio," which the King�s Men performed twice in 1613 and was probably based on Don Quixote (Thomas Shelton�s translation was released in 1612)? I looked through my Kindle. Not there.
They are going to publish a new Mark Twain, entitled "who is Mark Twain?", to join "Letters from the Earth". I have often times wondered how close intellectual historians and anthropologists could get to predicting what ancient writters had composed. Was it world war that destroyed such books? mildew? or did the books get burned or go unpublished because they were too dangerous or simply rough drafts. Even if you had an idea of the forces at the time how difficult is it to recapture and write in the spirit, style and intent of an author? I happen to like the Wheel of Time work by Robert Jordan...he always said that he intended to write until they nailed shut his coffin, unfortunately they nailed it shut before he could wrap up his massive series. Alternatively the story of his death was greatly exaggerated and he intends to write his book and place it in a time capsule not to be opened for 150 years ensureing that all his faithfull original readers die before discovering the conclusion. If only I could write like Twain I do believe the telling of such a story might be sufficiently macabre and subversive.