Posthumous publication

Posthumous publication is the release of creative work after its author’s death. It may involve works the author prepared for release or material edited and assembled by others.

The Diary of Anne Frank: Anne Frank’s diary, first published in Dutch in 1947 after her death in Bergen-Belsen. Otto Frank edited and selected the diary entries for its first publication.
Literary executor: A person appointed to manage an author's literary estate and related rights after death. The executor may decide whether manuscripts are edited, licensed, or released.
Authorial intent: The purposes and meanings an author intended a work to convey. Posthumous editors may publish material contrary to an author's stated wishes.
Literary estate: The body of an author's property, rights, and papers managed after death. An estate's decisions can determine which unpublished works reach the public.
The Trial: Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel, published in 1925 after his death. Max Brod published the manuscript despite Kafka’s request that his unpublished writings be destroyed.
Critical edition: An edition that documents textual variants and explains editorial decisions using manuscript evidence. It can disclose how editors reconstructed a text from drafts and competing versions.
Destruction of unpublished works: The deliberate disposal of writings that an author left unpublished. It is the direct alternative to preserving and releasing an author's papers.
Archive: A collection of records preserved for long-term access and research. Posthumous publication often draws on archives and can increase interest in them.
The Pale King: David Foster Wallace’s unfinished novel, assembled and published in 2011 after his death. Its editor shaped surviving fragments into a book without a completed authorial manuscript.
Textual criticism: The study of how texts change across manuscripts, editions, and stages of transmission. Its methods help establish which wording belongs in a posthumous edition.

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