Editing Lost literary work (section)

===19th century===
* ''[[Jefferson Bible|The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth]]'' by [[Thomas Jefferson]], a compilation of the teachings of Jesus extracted from a copy of the [[King James Bible]] and bound in 1804; no copies are known to survive since the book was lost in 1858.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Tay|first1=Endrina|title=The Philosophy of Jesus of Nazareth|url=https://www.monticello.org/site/research-and-collections/philosophy-jesus-nazareth|website=Monticello.org|access-date=July 20, 2017}}</ref>
* [[Aaron Burr]]'s farewell address to the U.S. Senate in 1805 has been lost, though the general outlines are known through contemporaneous comments. Most of Burr's letters and papers from prior to 1812 were subsequently lost in a shipwreck which resulted in Burr being one of the least understood of the American Founding Fathers, especially given that his, in general, morally upstanding life is often overshadowed by his infamous duel with fellow Founding Father Alexander Hamilton who was the less popular, and less liked, of the two.<ref>{{cite journal |title=Aaron burr's farewell address |author=Gordon L. Thomas |journal=Quarterly Journal of Speech |volume=39 |year=1953 |issue= 3 |pages=273–282 |doi=10.1080/00335635309381878}} "Except for some of his court-room speeches [...] no verbatim reports of his speeches are extant."</ref> 
* The ''[[Byron's Memoirs|Memoirs]]'' of [[Lord Byron]], destroyed by his literary executors led by [[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] on 17 May 1824. The decision to destroy Byron's manuscript journals, which was opposed only by [[Thomas Moore]], was made in order to protect his reputation. The two volumes of memoirs were dismembered and burned in the fireplace at Murray's office.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1959/08/the-burning-of-byrons-memoirs/640299/|title=Byron's Lost Memoirs|website=theatlantic.com|date=August 1959 |access-date=August 22, 2023 |last1=Moore |first1=Doris Langley }}</ref>
* ''The Scented Garden'' by Sir [[Richard Francis Burton]], a manuscript of a new translation from Arabic of ''[[The Perfumed Garden]]'', was burned by his widow, Lady Isabel Burton ''née'' Arundel, along with other papers.
* A large number of manuscripts and longer poems by [[William Blake]] were burned soon after his death by [[Frederick Tatham]].
* Parts two and three of ''[[Dead Souls]]'' by [[Nikolai Gogol]], burned by Gogol at the instigation of the priest Father Matthew Konstantinovskii.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lostmanuscripts.com/2018/07/25/dead-souls/|title=Dead Souls Pt. II & III|website=Lostmanuscripts.com|date=25 July 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2023}}</ref>
* At least four complete volumes and around seven pages of text are missing from [[Lewis Carroll]]'s thirteen diaries, destroyed by his family for reasons frequently debated.
* The son of the [[Marquis de Sade]] had all of de Sade's unpublished manuscripts burned after de Sade's death in 1814; this included the immense multi-volume work ''Les Journées de Florbelle''.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lostmanuscripts.com/tag/marquis-de-sade/|title=The Lost Manuscripts of Marquis De Sade|website=Lostmanuscripts.com|date=13 July 2021 |access-date=August 22, 2023}}</ref>
* A large section of the manuscript for [[Mary Shelley]]'s ''Lodore'' was lost in the mail to the publisher, and Shelley was forced to rewrite it.
* [[Gerard Manley Hopkins]] burned all his early poetry on entering the priesthood.
* In the ''[[Suspiria de Profundis]]'' of [[Thomas De Quincey]], 18 of 32 pieces have not survived.
* [[Alexander Ivanovich Galich]]'s completed manuscripts ''Universal Rights'' and ''Philosophy of Human History'' were destroyed in a fire, an event the grieved Galich did not long survive.
* [[Margaret Fuller]]'s manuscript on the history of the [[Roman Republic (19th century)|1849 Roman Republic]] was lost in the 1850 shipwreck in which Fuller herself, her husband and her child perished. In Fuller's own estimation, as well as of others who saw it, this work, based on her first-hand experience in Rome, might have been her most important work. 
* A schoolmate of [[Arthur Rimbaud]] claimed that he lost a notebook of poems by the famous poet, the "Cahier Labarrière", which reportedly contained about 60 poems (if true, and if all were distinct from his known verse poems, this would represent about as much in volume).<ref>''Arthur Rimbaud - Œuvre-vie'', Alain Borer, Arléa / Le Seuil, 1991, p. 169.</ref> Paul Verlaine also mentioned a text called "''[[The Spiritual Hunt|La Chasse spirituelle]]''", claiming it to be Rimbaud's masterpiece, which was never found (although a [[Literary forgery|fake]] was published in 1949).
* The first draft of [[Thomas Carlyle]]'s ''[[The French Revolution: A History]]'' was sent to [[John Stuart Mill]], whose maid mistakenly burned it, forcing Carlyle to rewrite it from scratch.
* [[Joseph Smith]]'s translation of the [[Lost 116 pages|Book of Lehi]] from the [[Mormon]] [[Golden Plates]] was either hidden, destroyed, or modified by Lucy Harris, the wife of transcriber [[Martin Harris (Latter Day Saints)|Martin Harris]]. Whatever their fate, the pages were not returned to Joseph Smith and were declared "lost." Smith did not recreate the translation.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/history/topics/lost-manuscript-of-the-book-of-mormon?lang=eng|title=Lost 116 Pages of the Book of Mormon|website=www.churchofjesuschrist.org|access-date=August 22, 2023}}</ref>
* ''[[Isle of the Cross]]'', [[Herman Melville]]'s followup to the unsuccessful ''[[Pierre: or, The Ambiguities|Pierre]]'' was rejected by his publishers and has subsequently been lost.<ref name="auto1"/>
* [[Robert Louis Stevenson]] burned his first completed draft of ''[[Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde]]'' after his wife criticized the work. Stevenson wrote and published a revised version.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-mysterious-burning-of-dr-jekyll-and-mr-hyde|title=Burnt First Draft of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde|website=www.thedailybeast.com|date=10 March 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2023}}</ref><ref name="auto1"/>
* [[Abraham Lincoln]]'s [[Lost Speech]], given on May 29, 1856, in [[Bloomington, Illinois]]. Traditionally regarded as lost because it was so engaging that reporters neglected to take notes, the speech is believed to have been an impassioned condemnation of [[slavery]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://rogerjnorton.com/Lincoln63.html|title=Lincoln's Lost Speech|website=rogerjnorton.com|access-date=August 22, 2023}}</ref>
* [[L. Frank Baum]]'s theatre in [[Richburg, New York]], burned to the ground. Among the manuscripts of Baum's original plays known to have been lost are ''The Mackrummins'', ''Matches'' (which was being performed the night of the fire), ''The Queen of Killarney'', ''Kilmourne, or O'Connor's Dream'', and the complete musical score for ''[[The Maid of Arran]]'', which survives only in commercial song sheets, which include six of the eight songs and no instrumental music.
* [[Leon Trotsky]] describes the loss of an unfinished play manuscript (a collaboration with Sokolovsky) in his ''My Life'', end of chapter 6 (sometime between 1896 and 1898).<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marxists.org/archive/trotsky/works/1930-lif/ch06.htm |title=Leon Trotsky: My Life (6. The Break) |publisher=Marxists.org |date=2007-02-06 |access-date=2012-12-01}}</ref>
* ''[[The Poor Man and the Lady]]''. [[Thomas Hardy]]'s first novel (1867) was never published. After rejection by several publishers, he destroyed the manuscript.<ref name="auto1"/>
* [[George Gissing]] abandoned many novels and destroyed the incomplete manuscripts. He also completed at least three novels which went unpublished and have been lost.<ref>Paul Delany, ''George Gissing: A Life'' (2008).</ref>
* During the many years of his career, [[Mark Twain]] produced a vast number of pieces, of which a considerable part, especially in his earlier years, was published in obscure newspapers under a great variety of pen names, or not published at all. Joe Goodman, who had been Twain's editor when he worked at the [[Virginia City, Nevada]], "Territorial Enterprise", declared in 1900 that Twain wrote some of the best material of his life during his "Western years" in the late 1860s, but most of it was lost.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Powers |first=Ron |date=May 2010 |title=Mark Twain in Love |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/mark-twain-in-love-14530235/#W79oP0rdCxmm3x6O.99 |website=[[Smithsonian Magazine]]}}</ref> In addition, many of Twain's speeches and lectures have been lost or were never written down. Researchers continue to seek this material, some of which was rediscovered as recently as 1995.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}
* Although frequently referenced in the [[Oxford English Dictionary]] and traceable in several catalogues of libraries and booksellers, no copy of the 1852 book ''[[Meanderings of Memory]]'' by Nightlark could be tracked down.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/may/10/oxford-english-dictionary-meanderings-memory|title=Meanderings of Memory|website=theguardian.com|date=10 May 2013 |access-date=August 22, 2023 |last1=Flood |first1=Alison }}</ref>
* The Reverend [[Francis Kilvert]]'s diaries were edited and censored, possibly by his widow, after his death in 1879. In the 1930s, the surviving diaries were passed on to [[William Plomer]], who transcribed them, before returning the originals to Kilvert's closest living relative, a niece, who destroyed most of the manuscripts. Plomer's own transcription was destroyed in the [[The Blitz|Blitz]]. He only learned of the originals' destruction when he planned to publish a complete edition in the 1950s.
* [[Jean Sibelius]]'s ''Karelia Music'' was destroyed after its premiere in 1893. What survives today fully are the Karelia Ouverture and the [[Karelia Suite]]. Most of the music was reconstructed in 1965 by Kalevi Kuosa, from the original parts that had survived. The parts that hadn't survived were those of the violas, cellos, and double basses. Based on Kuosa's transcription, the Finnish composers Kalevi Aho and Jouni Kaipainen have individually reconstructed the complete music to Karelia Music.
* The musical score to [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]’s 1871 opera [[Thespis (opera)|Thespis]] has been mostly lost with only 3 musical passages being known to survive.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://gsarchive.net/thespis/html/|title=Gilbert & Sullivan's Lost Opera|website=gsarchive.net|access-date=January 13, 2024}}</ref>
* [[Nathaniel Hawthorne]]'s ''Seven Tales of my Native Land'' was personally destroyed after being rejected by publishers.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://authorscalendar.info/hawthorn.htm|title=Nathaniel Hawthorne's Seven Tales of my Native Land|website=authorscalendar.info|access-date=January 15, 2024}}</ref>
* [[Richard Wagner]] [[List of compositions by Richard Wagner|many of his early works have been lost.]]
* [[Henri Duparc (composer)|Henri Duparc]] After 1890, his creative ability declined, and he destroyed his works, manuscripts, and correspondence. He died in 1933 at the age of 85.