List of lost literary works


This is a list of lost literary works.

Antiquity (to 500 CE)

Specific titles

Unnamed works

  • Lost plays of Aeschylus. He is believed to have written some 90 plays, of which six survive. A seventh play is attributed to him. Fragments of his play Achilleis were said to have been discovered in the wrappings of a mummy in the 1990s.
  • Lost plays of Agathon. None of these survive.
  • Lost poems of Alcaeus of Mytilene. Of a reported ten scrolls, there exist only quotes and numerous fragments.
  • Lost choral poems of Alcman. Of six books of choral lyrics that were known, only fragmentary quotations in other Greek authors were known until the discovery of a fragment in 1855, containing approximately 100 verses. In the 1960s, many more fragments were discovered and published from a dig at Oxyrhynchus.
  • Lost poems of Anacreon. Of the five books of lyrical pieces mentioned in the Suda and by Athenaeus, only mere fragments collected from the citations of later writers now exist.
  • Lost works of Anaximander. There are a few extant fragments of his works.
  • Lost works of Apuleius in many genres, including a novel, Hermagoras, as well as poetry, dialogues, hymns, and technical treatises on politics, dendrology, agriculture, medicine, natural history, astronomy, music, and arithmetic.
  • Lost plays of Aristarchus of Tegea. Of 70 pieces, only the titles of three of his plays, with a single line of the text, have survived.
  • Lost plays of Aristophanes. He wrote 40 plays, 11 of which survive.
  • Lost works of Aristotle. It is believed that we have about one third of his original works.
  • Lost work of Aristoxenus. He is said to have written 453 works, dealing with philosophy, ethics and music. His only extant work is Elements of Harmony.
  • Lost works of the historian Arrian.
  • Lost works of Callimachus. Of about 800 works, in verse and prose; only six hymns, 64 epigrams and some fragments survive; a considerable fragment of the epic Hecale, was discovered in the Rainer papyri.
  • Lost works of Chrysippus. Of over 700 written works, none survive, except a few fragments embedded in the works of later authors.
  • Lost works of Cicero. Of his books, six on rhetoric have survived, and parts of seven on philosophy. Books 1–3 of his work De re publica have survived mostly intact, as well as a substantial part of book 6. A dialogue on philosophy called Hortensius, which was highly influential on Augustine of Hippo, is lost. Part of De Natura Deorum is lost.
  • Lost works of Cleopatra including books on medicine, magical charms, and cosmetics.
  • Lost works of Clitomachus. According to Diogenes Laërtius, he wrote some 400 books, of which none are extant today, although a few titles are known.
  • Lost plays of Cratinus. Only fragments of his works have been preserved.
  • Lost works of Democritus. He wrote extensively on natural philosophy and ethics, of which little remains.
  • Lost works of Diogenes of Sinope. He is reported to have written several books, none of which has survived to the present date. Whether or not these books were actually his writings or attributions are in dispute.
  • Lost works of Diphilus. He is said to have written 100 comedies, the titles of 50 of which are preserved.
  • Lost works of Ennius. Only fragments of his works survive.
  • Lost works of Enoch. According to the Second Book of Enoch, the prophet wrote 360 manuscripts.
  • Lost works of Empedocles. Little of what he wrote survives today.
  • Lost plays of Epicharmus of Kos. He wrote between 35 and 52 comedies, many of which have been lost or exist only in fragments.
  • Lost plays of Euripides. He is believed to have written over 90 plays, 18 of which have survived. Fragments, some substantial, of most other plays also survive.
  • Lost plays of Eupolis. Of the 17 plays attributed to him, only fragments remain.
  • Lost works of Heraclitus. His writings only survive in fragments quoted by other authors.
  • Lost works of Hippasus. Few of his original works now survive.
  • Lost works of Hippias. He is credited with an excellent work on Homer, collections of Greek and foreign literature, and archaeological treatises, but nothing remains except the barest notes.
  • Lost orations of Hyperides. Some 79 speeches were transmitted in his name in antiquity. A codex of his speeches was seen at Buda in 1525 in the library of King Matthias Corvinus of Hungary, but was destroyed by the Turks in 1526. In 2002, Natalie Tchernetska of Trinity College, Cambridge discovered and identified fragments of two speeches of Hyperides that have been considered lost, Against Timandros and Against Diondas. Six other orations survive in whole or part.
  • Lost poems of Ibycus. According to the Suda, he wrote seven books of lyrics.
  • Lost plays of Ion of Chios. Variously stated to have written 12 to 40 tragedies during his lifetime with only the titles and fragments of 11 of these plays survive.
  • Lost works of Juba II. He wrote a number of books in Greek and Latin on history, natural history, geography, grammar, painting and theatre. Only fragments of his work survive.
  • Lost works of Leucippus. No writings exist which we can attribute to him.
  • Lost works of Lucius Varius Rufus. The author of the poem De morte and the tragedy Thyestes praised by his contemporaries as being on a par with the best Greek poets. Only fragments survive.
  • Lost works of Melissus of Samos. Only fragments preserved in other writers' works exist.
  • Lost plays of Menander. He wrote over a hundred comedies of which one survives. Fragments of a number of his plays survive.
  • Lost poems of Phanocles. He wrote some poems about homosexual relationships among heroes of the mythical tradition of which only one survives, along with a few short fragments.
  • Lost works of Philemon. Of his 97 works, 57 are known to us only as titles and fragments.
  • Lost poetry of Pindar. Of his varied books of poetry, only his victory odes survive in complete form. The rest are known only by quotations in other works or papyrus scraps unearthed in Egypt.
  • Lost plays of Plautus. He wrote approximately 130 plays, of which 21 survive.
  • Lost poems and orations of Pliny the Younger.
  • Rhetorical works of Julius Pollux.
  • There exists of more than 60 lost works in many genres by the philosopher Porphyry, including Against the Christians.
  • Lost works of Posidonius. All of his works are now lost. Some fragments exist, as well as titles and subjects of many of his books.
  • Lost works of Proclus. A number of his commentaries on Plato are lost.
  • Lost works of Pyrrhus. He wrote Memoirs and several books on the art of war, all now lost. According to Plutarch, Hannibal was influenced by them and they received praise from Cicero.
  • Lost works of Pythagoras. No texts by him survived.
  • Lost works of Pythangelus. Cited as a tragic poet in Aristophanes play The Frogs though little is known about his existence and none of his work survives.
  • Lost plays of Rhinthon. Of 38 plays, only a few titles and lines have been preserved.
  • Lost poems of Sappho. Only a few full poems and fragments of others survive. It has been hypothesized that poems 61 and 62 of Catullus were inspired by lost works of Sappho.
  • Lost poems of Simonides of Ceos. Of his poetry we possess two or three short elegies, several epigrams and about 90 fragments of lyric poetry.
  • Lost plays of Sophocles. Of 123 plays, seven survive, with fragments of others.
  • Lost poems of Sulpicia, who wrote erotic poems of conjugal bliss and was herself the subject of two poems by Martial, who wrote that "All girls who desire to please one man should read Sulpicia. All husbands who desire to please one wife should read Sulpicia."
  • Lost poems of Stesichorus. Of several long works, significant fragments survive.
  • Lost works of Theodectes. Of his 50 tragedies, we have the names of about 13 and a few unimportant fragments. His treatise on the art of rhetoric and his speeches are lost.
  • Lost works of Theophrastus. Of his 227 books, only a handful survive, including On Plants and On Stones, but On Mining is lost. Fragments of others survive.
  • Lost plays of Thespis. None of his works survive.
  • Lost works of Timon. None of his works survive except where he is quoted by others, mainly Sextus Empiricus.
  • Lost works of Tiro. A biography of Cicero in at least four books is referenced by Asconius Pedianus in his commentaries on Cicero's speeches.
  • Lost plays of Xenocles. Referenced various times in the works of Aristophanes as an inferior poet and had won first place in the Dionysia in 415 BC though none of his works survive.
  • Lost works of Xenophanes. Fragments of his poetry survive only as quotations by later Greek writers.
  • Lost works of Zeno of Elea. None of his works survive intact.
  • Lost works of Zeno of Citium. None of his writings have survived except as fragmentary quotations preserved by later writers.

Amerindian texts and codices

Ancient Chinese texts

Classic of Music attributed to Confucius.
  • Medical treatise of the renowned physician Hua Tuo from late Eastern Han. The treatise was traditionally referred to as Qing Nang Shu, literally Book in the Cyan Bag. When Hua Tuo was sentenced to death after incurring the wrath of Cao Cao, who controlled the Imperial Court, the physician tried to entrust the text to his gaoler. However, the gaoler was afraid of potentially implicating himself and in disappointment, Hua Tuo had the text burned.
  • Book of Bai Ze. A guide to the forms and habits of all 11,520 types of supernatural creatures in the world, and how to overcome their hauntings and attacks, as dictated by the mythical creature, Bai Ze, to the Yellow Emperor in the 26th century BCE.
  • Works of the 5th century BCE philosopher Yang Zhu burned on the orders of the emperor Shi Huangdi, the founder of the Qin dynasty

Known authors

  • Ancheng, first name unknown
  • * Chen Ancheng Weiyang Shu , 1 part. Classified into the School of Minor Tales.
  • Cai, first name unknown
  • * Canshi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • Cai Gui
  • * Cai Gui , 1 part. Classified into the School of Agriculturalists.
  • Cao Yu
  • * Cao Yu , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Changlu, first name unknown
  • * Changluzi , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Chao Cuo
  • * Chao Cuo , 31 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists.
  • Chen Jun
  • * Chen Junzi , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Chenggong Sheng
  • * Chenggong Sheng , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Names.
  • Deng Xi
  • * Deng Xi , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Names.
  • Ding Kuan
  • * Dingshi Yizhuan , 8 parts.
  • Dong Anguo
  • * Dong Anguo , 16 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturalists.
  • Dong Wuxin
  • * Dongzi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Dong Zhongshu
  • * Chunqiu Gongyang Dong Zhongshu Zhiyu , 16 parts
  • * Dong Zhongshu , 123 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Dongfang Shuo
  • * Dongfang Shuo , 20 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • * Cangjie Gu , 1 part.
  • * Cangjie Xunzuan , 1 part.
  • Du Wengong
  • * Du Wengong , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Chunqiu Duo Shi Wei , 3 parts.
  • * Fan Shengzhi , 18 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturalists.
  • Feng Cu
  • * Feng Cu , 13 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Xu Taishigong , 7 parts.
  • Fu Buqi
  • * Fuzi , 16 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Fu Guang
  • * Fushi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • Gongchou Sheng
  • * Zhongshen , 14 parts. Sourced from Zhou Shi's Shizhong.
  • * Gongsun Fa , 22 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Gongsun Gu , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Gongsun Hong
  • * Gongsun Hong , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Gongsun Hunxie , 15 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • Gongsun Long
  • * Lost 8 parts of Gongsun Longzi.
  • Gongsun Ni
  • * Gongsun Nizi , 28 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Gongsun Ni , 1 part. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • * Original Chunqiu Gongyang Zaji , 83 parts.
  • * Chunqiu Gongyang Zhangju , 38 parts.
  • * Chunqiu Guliang Waizhuan , 20 parts.
  • * Chunqiu Guliang Zhangju , 33 parts.
  • * Han Shi Gu , 36 volumes.
  • * Han Shi Neizhuan , 4 volumes.
  • * Han Shi Shuo , 41 volumes.
  • * Hanshi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • * Han's version of Shijing , 28 volumes. Lost in the 11th century.
  • * Qi Shi Houshi Gu , 20 volumes.
  • * Qi Shi Houshi Zhuan , 39 volumes.
  • * The Qi version of Shijing , 28 volumes. Lost in the 2nd century.
  • * Qutai Ji , 9 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites.
  • * Xiaojing Shuo , 1 part.
  • , first name unknown
  • * Hufeizi , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Mohists.
  • Huang Ci
  • * Huang Gong , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Names.
  • Hui Shi
  • * Huizi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Names.
  • * Jia Shan , 8 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Jiang Weng
  • * Xiaojing Jiangshi Shuo , 1 part.
  • Jie, first name unknown
  • * Jiezi , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Jing Fang
  • * Jing Shi Duanjia , 12 parts. Related to Yijing.
  • Ju, first name unknown
  • * Chuzi , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists.
  • Kong Ji
  • * Zisi , 23 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Kongjia
  • * Panyu , 26 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • Kong Qiu
  • * Lost 6 parts of Kongzi Sanchao .
  • * The 21st and 22nd parts of the Qi version of Lunyu .
  • * Kong Zang , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Kuaizi , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • , first name unknown
  • * Laolaizi , 16 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Li Buchang
  • * Li Buchang , 8 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Li Chang
  • * Yuanshang Pian , 1 part.
  • Li Ke
  • * Li Ke , 7 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Li Kui
  • * Lizi , 32 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists.
  • Li Si
  • * Cangjie Pian , 1 part. Lost in the 9th century. Partly discovered.
  • * Yijing Zhangju , 2 parts.
  • Liao Cang
  • * Liao Cang , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • Liu An
  • * Huainan Daoxun , 2 parts. Related to Yijing.
  • * Huainan Wai , 33 parts.
  • Liu Bang
  • * Gaozu Zhuan , 13 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Hejian Xianwang Dui Shangxia San Yonggong , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Liu Heng
  • * Xiaowen Zhuan , 11 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Liu Jing
  • * Liu Jing , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Liu Xiang
  • * Lost 30 parts of Liu Xiang Suo Xu except for Shuoyuan , Lienu Zhuan and the survived 10 parts of '
  • * Liu Xiang Wuxing Zhuanji , 11 volumes. Related to Shangshu.
  • * Shuo Laozi , 4 parts.
  • * Xin Guoyu , 54 parts. Organized from Guoyu.
  • Liu Xin
  • * Zhouguan Jing , 6 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites.
  • Liu Xun
  • * Chunqiu Yizou , 39 parts. A collection of memorials for the.
  • * Li Yizou , 38 parts. A collection of memorials for the Shiquge Conference.
  • * Lunyu Yizou , 18 parts. A collection of memorials for the Shiquge Conference.
  • * Shangshu Yizou , 42 parts.A collection of memorials for the Shiquge Conference.
  • * Wujing Zayi , 18 parts. A collection of discussions for the Shiquge Conference.
  • Long De
  • * Yaqin Longshi , 99 parts. Classified into the Art of Music.
  • Lu Jia
  • * ', 9 parts. Lost in the 12th century.
  • * Lost 11 parts of Lu Jia except '.
  • * Lu Zhonglianzi , 14 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Lü Wang
  • * Tai Gong Lost parts of, 237 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Lüqiu Kuai
  • * Lüqiuzi , 13 parts.
  • Mao, first name unknown
  • * Mao Gong , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Names.
  • * Mao Shi Guxun Zhuan , 30 volumes.
  • * Meng Shi Jingfang , 11 parts. Related to Yijing.
  • * Yijing Zhangju , 2 parts. Related to Yijing.
  • * Zaiyi Meng Shi Jingfang , 66 parts. Related to Yijing.
  • Mi Ying
  • * Mizi , 18 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Mo Di
  • * Lost 18 parts of Mozi
  • * Fengchan Yidui , 19 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites.
  • * Ni Kuan , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Ning Yue , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Shangshu Ouyang Jing , 32 volumes.
  • * Shangshu Ouyang Shuoyi , 2 parts.
  • * Shangshu Ouyang Zhangju , 31 volumes.
  • * Pang Xuan , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Qian Louzi , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Qidiao Kai
  • * Qidiaozi , 13 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Rao, first name unknown
  • * Chen Rao Xinshu , 25 parts.
  • Rongcheng Zihuang
  • * Rongchengzi , 14 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • Shang Yang
  • * Lost 5 parts of Shang Jun .
  • Shen Buhai
  • * Lost parts of Shenzi , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists.
  • Shen Dao
  • * Lost 35 parts of Shenzi.
  • * Lu Shi Gu , 25 volumes.
  • * Lu Shi Shuo , 28 volumes.
  • * The Lu version of Shijing , 28 volumes. Lost in the 3th century.
  • * Yijing Zhangju , 2 parts.
  • Shi Jiao
  • * Shizi , 20 parts. Lost in 12th century. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • Shi Shuo
  • * Shizi , 21 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Shi Zhong
  • * Yaqin Shishi , 8 parts. Classified into the Art of Music.
  • Shou, first name unknown
  • * Chen Shou Zhouji , 7 parts.
  • Sima Qian
  • * Original version of the missing 10 parts of Taishigong .
  • Sima Xiangru
  • * Fanjiang Pian , 1 part.
  • * Jing Ke Lun , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • * Songzi , 18 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists.
  • Su Qin
  • * Suzi , 21 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • Sui Chao
  • * Sui Chaozi , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Mohists.
  • * Tian Qiuzi , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Mohists.
  • * Tianzi , 25 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Tian Yinqi
  • * Junli Sima Fa , 155 parts.
  • Wang Jun
  • * Lu Lunyu Wangjun Shuo , 20 parts.
  • Wang Tong
  • * Wangshi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • Wang Yu
  • * Wang Yu Ji , 24 parts. A compilation of Yuejing.
  • Wangshi, first name unknown
  • * Wangshi Shi , 21 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites.
  • * Lost 36 parts of Wei Liao.
  • * Gongzi Mou , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Wei Si
  • * Fajing , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Wu Yuan
  • * Wu Zixu , 8 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • * Yijing Lueshuo , 3 parts.
  • * Wuqiu Shouwang , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Shangshu Xiao Xiahou Zhangju , 29 volumes.
  • * Shangshu Da Xiahou Zhangju , 29 volumes.
  • Xiahou Sheng & Xiahou Jian
  • * Shangshu Da-Xiao Xiahou Jiegu , 29 parts.
  • Xian, first name unknown
  • * Boshi Chen Xian Dui , 1 part. A refutation of Han Fei and Shang Yang.
  • Xin, last name unknown
  • * Xin , 1 part. A refutation of Li Si. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Xin Jia , 29 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Xu, first name unknown
  • * Xuzi , 42 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Xu Le , 1 part. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Xu Shang Wuxing Zhuanji , 1 part. Related to Shangshu.
  • Xu Shaoji
  • * Laozi Xushi Jingshuo , 6 parts.
  • Xun Kuang
  • * Yuqiu Shuo , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Chunqiu Gongyang Yanshi Ji , 11 parts.
  • * Yangzi , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Yangshi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • Yang Xiong
  • * Cangjie Xunzuan , 1 part.
  • * Xunzuan Pian , 1 part.
  • * Lost 16 parts of Yang Xiong Suo Xu except for Fayan and Taixuan Jing.
  • * Xiaojing Shuo , 1 part.
  • Yi Yin
  • * Yi Yin , 51 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • * Original version of ', 1 part. Classified into the School of Names.
  • * Yin Yi , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Mohists.
  • Yingqi, last name unknown
  • * Yingqi , 12 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • * You Yu , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • Yu Chang
  • * Tianxia Zhongchen , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Yu Chu Zhoushuo , 943 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Tales.
  • * Chunqiu Yushi Wei Zhuan , 2 parts.
  • * Yu Shi Chunqiu , 15 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Yu Xiong
  • * Original version of , 22 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • * Yuanzi , 13 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists.
  • Yue, first name unknown
  • * Chen Yue , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • Zhang Cang
  • * Zhang Cang , 16 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • Zhang Yi
  • * Zhangzi , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Lu Anchang Hou Shuo , 21 parts.
  • * Xiaojing Shuo , 1 part.
  • Zhao Ding
  • * Yaqin Zhaoshi , 7 parts. Classified into the Art of Music.
  • * Zhong Jun , 8 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Zhou Bo
  • * Zhou Bo , 11 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • Zhou Wangsun
  • * Zhoushi Yizhuan , 2 parts.
  • * Pingyuan Jun , 7 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • * Zhuang An , 1 part. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • * Zhuang Zhu , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Zhufu Yan
  • * Zhufu Yan , 28 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • Zi Wan
  • * Zi Wanzi , 35 parts Classified into the School of Syncretists.
  • * Zi Wei , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Shizhong . Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Zou Shizi , 12 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • Zou Yan
  • * Zouzi , 49 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Zouzi Zhongshen , 56 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists.
  • * Zou Yang , 7 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.
  • Zuo Qiuming
  • * Chunqiu Zuo Shi Wei , 2 parts.

Unknown authors

Bai Jia , 139 volumes. Classified into the School of Minor Tales. Bati Liuji . Biezi , 13 parts. Boxiang Xiansheng , 1 part. Classified into the School of Syncretists. Cangjie Zhuan , 1 part. Chen Peng , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Chengqiuzi , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists. Chunqiu Jia Shi Zhuan , 11 volumes. Lost before the 2nd century.Chunqiu Zhangshi Wei , 10 parts. Chunqiu Zou Shi Zhuan , 11 volumes. Chuzi , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Daojia Yan , 2 parts. Dayu , 37 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists. Fajia Yan , 2 parts. Fengchan Fangshuo , 18 parts. Gongsunzi , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Gongyi , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Gu Fengchan Qunsi , 22 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Gu Wuzi , 18 parts. Related to Yijing. Gu Za , 80 parts. Related to Yijing. Guicang , 12 volumes. Discovered in 281. Lost in the 12th century.Guoshizi , 17 parts. Classified into the School of Diplomacy. Han Danianji , 5 parts. Han Fengchan Qunsi , 36 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Han Zhuji , 190 volumes. Hejian Zhouzhi , 18 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Huangdi Junchen , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Huangdi Ming , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Huangdi Shuo , 40 parts. Huangdi Sijing , 4 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Huangdi Taisu , 20 parts. Jiangjuzi , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists. Jiezi Boushu , 35 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists. Jingzi , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius.
  • Original version of Jizhong Jinian , 12 volumes. Discovered in 281. Lost in the 9th century.Jizhong Suoyu , 11 parts. Discovered in 281. Lost in the 12th century.Kongzi Turen Tu Fa , 2 volumes. Related to Lunyu. Lanyan , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Laochengzi , 18 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Laozi Fushi Jingshuo , 37 parts. Laozi Linshi Jingzhuan , 4 parts.
  • Lost 45 volumes of Li Gujing . Li Shi Chunqiu , 2 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Limu , 22 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Lu Lunyu Xiahou Shuo , 21 parts. Lu Lunyu Zhuan , 19 parts.
  • The Hejian version of Lunyu , 9 volumes. Mingtang Yinyang , 33 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Mingtang Yinyang Shuo , 5 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Nangong , 31 parts. Classified into the School of Naturalists. Neiye , 15 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Qi Lunyu Shuo , 29 parts. Qi Shi Sunshi Gu , 27 volumes. Qi Shi Sunshi Zhuan , 28 volumes. Qi Shi Zaji , 18 volumes. Qingshizi , 57 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Talks.Quezi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Diplomacy.Rujia Yan , 18 parts. Shennong , 20 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. Shenshu , 5 parts. Related to Yijing. Shi Kuang , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Talks. Shiben , 15 parts. Shizhou Pian , 15 parts. Sizi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius. Sunzi , 16 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Taigu Yilai Nianji , 2 parts. Tianyi , 3 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Talks. Tui Za Shu , 87 parts. Classified into the School of Syncretists. Wang Shi , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. Wangdizi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Taoists. Wangsunzi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Confucius. Wei Houguan , 12 parts. Wozi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Mohists. Wucao Guanzhi , 5 parts. Wuchengzi , 11 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Talks. Wuzi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Syncretists. Xiaojing Gujin Zi , 1 volume. Xiaojing Shuo , 3 parts. Xiaojing Zazhuan , 4 parts. Xiaojing Zhangsun Jiangshi Shuo , 2 parts. Yage Shi , 4 parts. Classified into the Art of Music. Yan Lunyu Zhuanshuo , 3 volumes. Yan Shishi , 10 parts. Classified into the School of Legalists. Yelao , 17 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. Yi Yin Shuo , 27 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Tales. Yin Duwei , 14 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. You Dizi , 1 part. Classified into the School of Legalists. Yuzi Shuo , 19 parts. Classified into the School of Minor Tales. Za Huangdi , 58 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Za Yinyang , 38 parts. Za Zaiyi , 35 parts. Related to Yijing. Zaishi , 17 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. Zajia Yan , 1 part. Zhao Shi , 5 parts. Classified into the School of Agriculturists. Zheng Zhangzhe , 1 part. Classified into the School of Taoists. Zhongyong Shuo , 2 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Zhou Fa , 9 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Zhou Kao , 76 parts. Zhou Shi Liutao , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Zhou Xun , 14 parts. Classified into the School of Taoists. Zhou Zheng , 6 parts. Classified into the School of Confucius. Zhouguan Zhuan , 4 parts. Classified into the Art of Rites. Zoushi , 20 parts.

Ancient Japanese texts

Tennōki

Ancient Indian texts

Jaya and Bharata, early versions of the Hindu epic MahabharataBārhaspatya-sūtras, the foundational text of the Cārvāka school of philosophy. The text probably dates from the final centuries BC, with only fragmentary quotations of it surviving.Valayapathi, Tamil epic poem, only fragments survive.Kundalakesi, Tamil epic poem, only fragments survive.Brihatkatha, a collection of stories in Paishachi composed by Gunadhya between the 1st c. BC and the 3rd c. AD. Parts of it were adapted into Sanskrit and some vernaculars.

Ancient Egyptian texts

  • The Book of Thoth, a legendary manuscript alluded to in Egyptian literature believed to contain the secrets to comprehend the power of the gods and speech of animals.
  • Additionally, thousands of other pieces are attributed to the deity Thoth. Seleuces noted that the number of his writings was 20,000 while Manetho held it was 36,525.

Avestan texts

Avesta, the holy book of Zoroaster. After Alexander's conquest, avesta was fragmented and it has been said only a third of it survived orally.Avesta recollected in 21 volumes, in Sasanian era, only a quarter of which survive.

Gnostic texts

Pahlavi / Middle-Persian texts

Khwātay-Nāmag : A chronological history of Iranian kings from the mythical era to the end of Sasanian period. This book was an important reference for post-Sasanian and Islamic historians such as Ibn al-Muqaffa' as well as Ferdowsi in his epic work Shahnameh.Ewen-Nāmag: Multi-volume book on Iranian ceremonies, entertainment, warfare, politics, precepts, principles and examples in the Sasanian era.Zij-i Shahryār: An important work of astronomy.Karirak ud Damanak: A version translated into Pahlavi of the Indian work of fiction Pancatantra.Hazār Afsān or Thousand Tales: A Pahlavi compilation of Iranian and Indian tales. This work was translated to Arabic in the Islamic era and became known as One Thousand and One Nights.Mazdak-Nāmag: Biography of Mazdak, the Zoroastrian reformer and the primate of Mazdakism movement.Kārvand: A book of rhetoric.Jāvidan Khrad : Quotations of the mythical Iranian king and sage Hushang.Scientific Works of Gondishapur Academy: Works of Greek, Indian, and Persian scholars of the Academy of Gondishapur on medicine, astrology, and philosophy. A remarkable part of their heritage was translated into Arabic during the Graeco-Arabic translation movement.
The Middle-Persian literature had a remarkable diversity based on historical accounts. Only a poor part of mostly religious texts survived by Zoroastrian minorities in Persia and India.

Manichaean texts

Ardahang (Arzhang): The holy pictured book of Manichaeism.Shabuhragan: The holy book of Mani dedicated to Shapur the Great; only fragments survive.

Lost Biblical texts

Hexapla: a compilation of the Old Testament by Origen.

Lost texts referenced in the Old Testament

Lost works referenced in Deutero-canonical texts

Lost works referenced in the New Testament

Epistle to Corinth

Lost works referenced in the Talmud

Book of Ben TaglaBook of Ben La'anaBook of Eleazar ben IraiPinax of BalaamSefer Aggadta de-Vei Rav
  • ''Megillat Setarim''

Lost works pertaining to Jesus

Gospel of EveGospel of ManiGospel of MatthiasGospel of PerfectionGospel of the Four Heavenly RealmsGospel of the HebrewsGospel of the SeventyGospel of the TwelveMemoria Apostolorum

2nd century

3rd century

  • Edict of Decius, 250 AD
  • Various works of Tertullian. Some fifteen works in Latin or Greek are lost, some as recently as the 9th century.

4th century

Praeparatio Ecclesiastica, and Demonstratio Ecclesiastica by Eusebius of Caesarea

5th century

Middle Ages (500–1500)

6th century

7th century

8th century

The Life of God's Messenger by Ibn Ishaq, although Ibn Hisham published a further revised version of the book, under the same title.

Anglo-Saxon works

The Battle of Maldon, a heroic poem of which only 325 lines in the middle survive.Waldere, an epic which is now lost apart from two short fragments.
  • The Finnesburg Fragment, comprising 50 lines from an otherwise lost poem.
  • Bede's translation of John's Gospel, c. 735.Beowulf: since a fire in 1731 parts of the manuscript have been lost, most notably a large section of the fight between Beowulf and the dragon towards the end of the poem.

Talmudic Works

Devarim Zutta, rabbinical commentary to DeuteronomyMidrash AbkirMidrash Esfah

9th century

Sefer ha-Arukh of Zemah ben Paltoi

10th Century

Sefer haMitzvot of Hafetz Gaon
  • ''Sefer Metivot''

11th Century

Alpha-Beta of Machir ben Judah

12th century

13th century

14th century

Inventio Fortunata. A 14th-century description of the geography of the North Pole.Itinerarium. A geography book by Jacobus Cnoyen of 's-Hertogenbosch, cited by Gerardus MercatorRes gestae Arturi britanni. A book cited by Jacobus CnoyenOf the Wreched Engendrynge of Mankynde, Origenes upon the Maudeleyne, and The book of the Leoun. Three works by Geoffrey Chaucer.
  • The Coventry Mystery Plays, a cycle of which only two plays survive.Carostavnik or Rodoslov. Old Serbian biography enters a new—historiographic or even chronographic—phase with the appearance of the so-called Vita, better yet "Lives of Serbian Kings and Archbishops" by Danilo II, Serbian Archbishop, formerly Abbot of the Hilandar Monastery, and his successors, most of whom remained anonymous.
  • Vrhobreznica Chronicle originates in 1371 but the work is not transcribed until two and half centuries later by a writer named Gavrilo, a hermit, who collected earlier annals in his redaction composed in 1650 at the Vrhobreznica monastery. Part of a manuscript archived as "Prague Museum #29".
  • Koporin Chronicle – a 1371 chronicle transcribed in 1453 by Damjan, a deacon, who also wrote the annals on the order of Archbishop of Zeta, Josif, at the Koporin monastery.
  • Studenica Chronicle – a 14th century chronicle from 1350–1400. Oldest survived copy in a 16th-century manuscript, together with a younger annals.
  • Cetinje Chronicle covers events from 14th century until the end of 16th century, though the manuscript collection is from the end of the 16th century.Sefer Asuppot, lost liturgical work mentioned by Jacob ben Asher, Moses of Zurich, and Samuel ben Aaron Schlettstadt

15th century

Yongle Encyclopedia. It was one of the world's earliest, and the then-largest, encyclopaedia commissioned by the Yongle Emperor of China's Ming dynasty in 1403, completed about 1408. About 400 volumes of a 16th-century manuscript set survive today.

Modern age (1500–present)

16th century

Nigramansir. A Moral Interlude and a Pithy. by John Skelton. Printed 1504. A copy seen in 1759 in Chichester has since vanished.Ur-Hamlet. An earlier version of the William Shakespeare play Hamlet. Some scholars believe it to be a lost work written by Thomas Kyd, while others attribute it to Shakespeare, identifying the Ur-Hamlet with the first quarto text.Love's Labour's Won, play by William Shakespeare.The Ocean’s Love to Cynthia. A poem by Sir Walter Raleigh of which only fragments are known.

17th century

The History of Cardenio, play by William Shakespeare and John Fletcher Keep the Widow Waking, play by John Ford and John Webster
  • Claudio Monteverdi composed at least eighteen operas, but only three and the famous aria, "Lamento", from his second opera L'Arianna have survived.
  • Lost haiku of Ihara Saikaku.
  • Jean Racine's first play, Amasie is lost. In addition, his biography of Louis XIV, Vie de Louis XIV, was destroyed in the fire at Valincour's house.
  • John Milton wrote nearly two acts of a tragedy called Adam Unparadiz'd, which was then lost.
  • Lost works of Molière:
  • * A translation of De Rerum Natura by Lucretius.
  • * Le Docteur amoureux
  • * Gros-René, petit enfant
  • * Le Docteur Pédant
  • * Les Trois Docteurs
  • * Gorgibus dans le sac
  • * Le Fagotier
  • * Le Fin Lourdaut
  • Lost works of Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh include;
  • * Ughdair Ereann. Fragments survive
  • Works by Buhurizade Mustafa Itri, a major Ottoman musician, composer, singer and poet, who is known to have composed more than a thousand works, only forty of which survive to the present.Olympica, René Descartes's youthful account of dreams and their interpretations, was last excerpted by Leibniz in 1675. L'Art de l'escrime by Descartes, a book about fencing, was also lost.De non existentia Dei by Kazimierz Łyszczyński, an atheist philosophical treatise, destroyed after the trial and execution of Łyszczyński. Fragments survived in court records.

18th century

  • All poems and literary works by Carlo Gimach, except for the cantata Applauso Genetliaco, are believed to be lost.
  • Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's journal was burned by her daughter on the grounds that it contained too much scandal and satire.
  • Edward Gibbon burned the manuscript of his History of the Liberty of the Swiss.
  • Adam Smith had most of his manuscripts destroyed shortly before his death. In his last years he had been working on two major treatises, one on the theory and history of law and one on the sciences and arts. The posthumously published Essays on Philosophical Subjects probably contain parts of what would have been the latter treatise.The Green-Room Squabble or a Battle Royal between the Queen of Babylon and the Daughter of Darius, a 1756 play by Samuel Foote, is lost.
  • Numerous works by J. S. Bach, notably at least two large-scale Passions and many cantatas are lost.
  • Mozart's Cello Concerto in F and Trumpet Concerto are lost.
  • Beethoven's 1793 'Ode to Joy', which was later incorporated into his ninth Symphony
  • Haydn's "Double Bass Concerto", of which only the first two measures survive; the rest were burned and destroyed. Supposedly a copy of it may exist somewhere, according to many different speculations.
  • Personal letters between George Washington and his wife Martha Washington; all but three were destroyed by Mrs. Washington after his death in 1799.
  • Georg Philipp Telemann: his all-encompassing oeuvre comprises more than 3,000 compositions, half of which have been lost.

19th century

  • Der Vampir by Ignaz Ferdinand Arnold. Possibly the first vampire novel ever written. There are several references to it in catalogues and biographies, but a real copy has yet to be found.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.
  • 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 "Founding Fathers of the United States", 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.
  • The Memoirs of Lord Byron, destroyed by his literary executors led by 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.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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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 Rimbaud had written, dubbed the "Cahier Labarrière", which reportedly contained about 60 poems. If this were true, and if all were distinct from Rimbaud's known verse poems, these lost poems would equal the extant works in volume. Paul Verlaine also mentioned a text called "La Chasse spirituelle", claiming it to be Rimbaud's masterpiece. It was also never found; a forgery 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 Book of Lehi from the Mormon Golden Plates was either hidden, destroyed, or modified by Lucy Harris, the wife of transcriber Martin Harris. Whatever their fate, the pages were not returned to Joseph Smith and were declared "lost." Smith did not recreate the translation.Isle of the Cross, Herman Melville's follow-up to the unsuccessful Pierre was rejected by his publishers and has subsequently been lost.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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, 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 in his My Life, end of chapter 6.The Poor Man and the Lady. Thomas Hardy's first novel was never published. After rejection by several publishers, he destroyed the manuscript.
  • George Gissing abandoned many novels and destroyed the incomplete manuscripts. He also completed at least three novels which went unpublished and have been lost.
  • 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. 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 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 Overture 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 has been mostly lost with only 3 musical passages being known to survive.
  • Nathaniel Hawthorne's Seven Tales of my Native Land was personally destroyed after being rejected by publishers.
  • Many of the early works of early works by Richard Wagner have been lost.
  • After 1890, after his creative ability declined, Henri Duparc destroyed his works, manuscripts, and correspondence. He died in 1933 at the age of 85.

20th century

  • James Joyce's play A Brilliant Career and the first half of his novel Stephen Hero. His grandson Stephen later burned Nora Barnacle's letters to James as well.
  • J. Meade Falkner left an almost complete fourth and last novel on a train and felt he was too old to start again.
  • A number of Scott Joplin's compositions have been lost, including his first opera, A Guest of Honor.
  • John P. Marquand wrote an early novel called Yellow Ivory in collaboration with his friend W. A. Macdonald.
  • Various parts of Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" were destroyed by his wife and a Doctor Flesching for protecting his reputation, which was mentioned by Sigmund Freud as highly important in his essay "The Schreber Case".
  • L. Frank Baum wrote four novels for adults that were never published and disappeared: Our Married Life and Johnson, The Mystery of Bonita, and Molly Oodle. Baum's son claimed that Baum's wife burned these, but this was after being cut out of her will. Evidence that Baum's publisher received these manuscripts survives. Also lost are Baum's 1904 short stories "Mr. Rumple's Chill" and "Bess of the Movies", as well as his early plays Kilmourne, or O'Connor's Dream and The Queen of Killarney.
  • In 1907, August Strindberg destroyed a play, The Bleeding Hand, immediately after writing it. He was in a bad mood at the time and commented in a letter that the piece was unusually harsh, even for him.
  • "Text I" of Seven Pillars of Wisdom, a 250,000-word manuscript by T. E. Lawrence lost at Reading railway station in December 1919.
  • In 1922, a suitcase with almost all of Ernest Hemingway's work to date was stolen from a train compartment at the Gare de Lyon in Paris, from his current wife. It included a partial World War I novel.The Truth about Father Christmas by Phyllis Twigg, broadcast in the UK on Christmas Eve 1922, was the first radio drama ever produced. Although she later rewrote it as a short story under a pen name, no copies of the original script exist.
  • The novels Tobold and Theodor by Robert Walser are lost, possibly destroyed by the author, as is a third, unnamed novel.
  • Jean Sibelius burned his unfinished 8th Symphony and several of his unfinished works in the 1920s.
  • The original version of Ultramarine by Malcolm Lowry was stolen from his publisher's car in 1932, and the author had to reconstruct it.
  • Franz Kafka's last lover, Dora Diamant, ignored his wishes to have his works destroyed posthumously. Instead she kept some 20 notebooks and 35–36 letters. The Gestapo in 1933 seized all papers in her home, including these notebooks and letters, in their search to find communist propaganda. Only three of these letters have been discovered since. Furthermore, when Max Brod, Kafka's literary executor who similarly ignored his wishes, died in 1968, he left Kafka's papers to his secretary, who left them to her daughters. The papers then passed into the ownership of the National Library of Israel in 2016. After a lengthy legal dispute between the library and the daughters, many of these papers have yet to be published.
  • Paramahansa Yogananda's Autobiography of a Yogi quotes extensively from his student's C. Richard Wright's travel diaries in 1935/6. Following Wright's death they became lost.
  • In 1938 George Orwell wrote Socialism and War, an "anti-war pamphlet" for which he could not find a publisher. Although many previously unknown letters and other documents relating to Orwell have been discovered in recent years, no trace of this pamphlet has yet come to light. With the beginning of World War II Orwell's views on pacifism were to change radically, so he may well have destroyed the manuscript.
  • Lost papers and a possible unfinished novel by Isaac Babel, confiscated by the NKVD, May 1939.
  • Manuscript of Efebos, a novel by Karol Szymanowski, destroyed in bombing of Warsaw, 1939.
  • Five volumes of poetry and a drama, all in manuscript, by "Saint-John Perse"—actually the pseudonym of French diplomat Alexis Léger—were destroyed at his house outside Paris in the summer of 1940. Perse was a well-known and uncompromising anti-Nazi and his house was raided by German troops. The works had been written during his diplomat years, but "Perse" had decided not to publish any new writing until he had retired from diplomacy. The real Léger went into exile following the Fall of France.
  • Walter Benjamin had a completed manuscript in his suitcase when was arrested by the Nazis while attempting to flee France for neutral Spain in the summer of 1940. Benjamin committed suicide in the Pyrenees village Portbou, Spain on September 26, 1940, and the suitcase and its contents disappeared.
  • There are reports that Bruno Schulz worked on a novel called The Messiah, but no trace of this manuscript survived his death.
  • The diary of Holocaust victim Margot Frank, Anne Frank's older sister, was never found. Of The Diary of Anne Frank, the original volume or volumes covering the period between December 1942 and December 1943 was never found, and assumed to have been taken by the Nazis who raided the hiding place. This period is only known from the version Anne rewrote for preservation, which is known to have been in many ways different from her original.
  • The novel In Ballast to the White Sea by Malcolm Lowry, lost in a fire in 1945.
  • The novel Wanderers of Night and poems of Daniil Andreev were destroyed in 1947 as "anti-Soviet literature" by the MGB.
  • Some pages of William Burroughs's original version of Naked Lunch were stolen.
  • Three early, unpublished novels by Philip K. Dick written in the 1950s are no longer extant: A Time for George Stavros, Pilgrim on the Hill, and Nicholas and the Higs.
  • In 1958, while working on the last chapter, William H. Gass's novel Omensetter's Luck was stolen off of his desk, forcing him to begin from scratch.
  • The manuscript for Sylvia Plath's unfinished second novel, provisionally titled Double Exposure, or Double Take, written 1962–63, disappeared some time before 1970.
  • Venedikt Yerofeyev's novel Dmitry Shostakovich was in a bag with two bottles of fortified wine that was stolen from him in a commuter train in 1972.
  • Several pages of the original screenplay for Werner Herzog's Aguirre, der Zorn Gottes were reportedly thrown out of the window of a bus after one of his football teammates vomited on them.
  • The screenplay for the proposed Dean Stockwell–Herb Berman film After the Gold Rush is reportedly lost.Diaries of Philip Larkin – burned at his request after his death on 2 December 1985. Other private papers were kept, contrary to his instructions.
  • The fourth novel of Sasha Sokolov have been lost when the Greek house where it was written burned down in the second half the 1980s.
  • Jacob M. Appel's first novel manuscript, Paste and Cover, was in the trunk of an automobile that was stolen in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1998. The vehicle was recovered, but the manuscript was not.
  • Mitzi Myers' four Maria Edgeworth manuscripts in progress at the time – two academic books and two annotated versions of Edgeworth novels – were lost in a house fire on August 13, 2000.

21st century

  • Terry Pratchett's unfinished works were destroyed in 2017 after his death, fulfilling his last will; his computer hard drive containing his unfinished works was deliberately crushed by a steamroller.

Lost literary collections

Rediscovered works

The 120 Days of Sodom, written by the Marquis de Sade in the Bastille prison in 1785, was considered lost by its author after the storming and looting of 1789. It was rediscovered in the walls of his cell and published in 1904.Lesbian Love, by Eva Kotchever, had only 150 copies published "for private circulation only" in 1925. Historian Jonathan Ned Katz searched and found the only known copy, owned by Nina Alvarez, who had found the book in the lobby of her apartment building in 1998 in Albany, New York. Records show that another copy was held in the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale University, but it has not been located.
  • The Gospel of Judas, a fragmentary Coptic codex rediscovered and translated, 2006.
  • Henri Poincaré's prize-winning submission for the 1889 celestial mechanics contest of king Oscar II was thought to be lost. While this version was being printed, Poincaré himself discovered a serious error. The existing version was recalled and then replaced by a heavily modified and corrected version, now regarded as the seminal description of chaos theory. The original erroneous submission was thought to be lost, but it was found in 2011.
  • W. A. Mozart and Antonio Salieri are known to have composed together a cantata for voice and piano called Per la ricuperata salute di Ofelia which was celebrating the return to stage of the singer Nancy Storace, and which has been lost, although it had been printed by Artaria in 1785. The music had been considered lost until November 2015, when German musicologist and composer Timo Jouko Herrmann identified the score while searching for music by one of Salieri's ostensible pupils, Antonio Casimir Cartellieri, in the archives of the Czech Museum of Music in Prague.A Tale of Kitty in Boots by Beatrix Potter, the handwritten manuscripts for this story were found in school notebooks, including a few illustrations. She intended to finish the book, but was interrupted by wars and marriage and farming. It was found nearly 100 years later and published for the first time in September 2016.

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