This is a list of unpublished books by notable people, alphabetized by author. These notable people may be published authors, but not necessarily.
Motl, Peysi the Cantor's Son, left unfinished at the time of his death
The Word, Caleb and Lost in Austin
Sea of Time (1988), unpublished novel in the published Alex Balfour Pastmaster series
Our Married Life (1912), Johnson (1912), The Mystery of Bonita (1914) and Molly Oodle (1915). Reported in Katherine Rogers' L. Frank Baum: Creator of Oz and Michael Patrick Hearn's The Annotated Wizard of Oz. According to Hearn, although not a published statement, The Mystery of Bonita is mentioned in contracts related to The Oz Film Manufacturing Company. The others are noted on file folders that once contained them and correspondence recovered from the Reilly & Lee offices, but the manuscripts themselves remain lost. The books were intended for adult readers and correspondence for the first of these, Our Married Life, indicates that, unlike his four published adult novels, he did not want these books to appear under a pseudonym. Frank Joslyn Baum's biography of L. Frank, To Please a Child, claims that Maud Gage Baum burned Baum's unpublished manuscripts; however, it is known that much of this biography was falsified after Frank J. and Maud's falling out (including Frank J. being dropped from Maud's will) over the rights to the Oz books.
The Runaway Sea Lion (1964)
three novels, including The Martian Experiment (a.k.a. If Bullets Were Gold) and Amazon Fever[1] [2]
The God of the Martians
A Party of Animals, a 2000-page manuscript in 1976 later published in a different form[3]
Naked on My Goat, autobiographical novel
A Fine Madness, a novel which Brown says "never found a publisher"
The Poet
Fountain City, abandoned after 1,500 pages but then inspired Chabon's Wonder Boys
The Swimmer, after writing 150 pages of this novel, Cheever reduced it to a 12-page short story
The Ruling Passion and Hell Hath No Fury, both in a legal battle with Random House which Collins won in 1996
In the Realms of the Unreal (totaling more than 15,000 pages) and Crazy House: Further Adventures in Chicago (totaling more than 10,000 pages). His History of My Life (began as nonfiction) totals more than 4600 pages.
Voyage, Orestes!, massive early mimetic fiction novel, both manuscript copies lost; a small excerpt was found and published in 2019
A Time for George Stavros and Nicholas and the Higs, both lost manuscripts, and The Owl in Daylight, uncompleted at the time of his death
rough draft of an autobiography by the trainer of Rin Tin Tin
untitled sequel to Replay, in progress at the time of his death, and a collaboration with Tom Atwill
Eamon Diaz and the Vampire Queen
The Devil's Daughter
The Poor Man and the Lady, Hardy's first novel (1867); rejected by five publishers and manuscript later destroyed
Excalibur, an earlier version of his
Per Fine Ounce, a commissioned James Bond novel circa 1966; the copyright holders rejected the novel, claiming that it was "unpublishable"
The Aftermath (1963 novella), Sword in the Darkness (1970 novel) and The House on Value Street (1974 novel based on the Patty Hearst kidnapping)
Ride the Storm, third in the Moonlight Bay Trilogy
Heroes, 125-page novel which he wrote while in high school
Scorpion and Felix, an unpublished and now fragmentary comedic novel (1837)
So All Their Praises and A Man Should Rejoice
Insomnia: If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home Already
For Some We Loved (1944), about New York advertising agencies; burned by author, who described it as "a long, complicated, and very bad novel"
He continued writing through the last half-century of his long life, while he lived as a recluse. This consists of as one or two unpublished novels and possibly more than fifteen.
The Education of Albie Snow, a semi-autobiographical 1000-page, three-volume work
1950–51 novel deleted from the Strangers and Brothers series[6]
The Stone Table, an unofficial addition to the Chronicles of Narnia.[7] Arguably a published work, as Spufford has distributed copies to friends.
The Way of the Warrior, a much-revised World War II novel
If God Were Alive Today, unfinished novel about a wisecracking lecturer to college students
The Temple at Thatch, destroyed by Waugh
Golden Spike
Literature
Grimhaven, sequel to Miami Blues
Gotham, in progress at the time of his death
Panacea: The Synthesis of an Attitude, a lengthy philosophical work
a memoir about his defense of Patty Hearst
Sense of Wonder, a survey of 1940s fantasy films
autobiography about working in animation and comic books
Unsung Heroes of the Horrors, interview profiles of actors
But What I Really I Want to Do is Direct: My First Picture Shows 1965–1971, a memoir detailing his life and career as a director[8]
Memoirs of a Subdeb in Hollywood
rough draft of an autobiography by the trainer of Rin Tin Tin
Scattered Shadows, a memoir about the author's blindness
Outwitting The Devil (1970)
The Man Who Walked with Dinosaurs (autobiography) and Four Rivers (fishing memoir)
A Ship Without a Shore, memoir of Miller's WWII experiences aboard the aircraft carrier
autobiography in progress at the time of his death
The Winning of the West: Roosevelt's series was originally meant to be at least six books. Due to the death of his first wife, Roosevelt edited the series to conclude at four volumes.
China Eggs, a memoir of 1910–35, covering her family, childhood, travels, painting, life in Italy, her marriage to Prince Ranieri di San Faustino and her friendship with Ezra Pound.[9]
autobiography in progress at the time of her death
The War on Children