7 Instances of Literary Thefts Throughout History

Countless precious, significant, or scarce manuscripts have been pilfered from their creators or the guardians entrusted with their safekeeping. Below are some noteworthy examples.

1. Hemingway’s Lost Early Works

In 1922, Ernest Hemingway, a budding newspaper correspondent, harbored grand aspirations, a new marriage, and a collection of unpublished stories. These dreams were nearly shattered during a trip to Lausanne, Switzerland, where he was reporting on an international conference. His wife, Hadley, packed his manuscripts—including a draft novel based on his World War I ambulance experiences—into a suitcase, intending to join him for a skiing trip. Tragically, the suitcase was stolen en route, resulting in the permanent loss of Hemingway’s early literary efforts.

In his 1964 memoir, A Moveable Feast, Hemingway recounted the moment he discovered the devastating news: “I had never witnessed someone so deeply wounded by anything other than death or unbearable pain except Hadley when she revealed the loss. She wept uncontrollably, unable to speak. I assured her that no matter how terrible the situation, it couldn’t be irreparable, and we would find a way through it. Eventually, she confessed the truth. Convinced she hadn’t brought the copies, I arranged for someone to cover my newspaper duties. Earning well at the time, I boarded a train to Paris. The reality struck me hard when I entered the apartment and confirmed the loss.”

Hemingway never disclosed “what he did” that night (likely involving alcohol), but Hadley remarked in the 1970s that “he handled it bravely.” However, she noted that she “could sense his profound heartbreak.”

2. Malcolm Lowry’s Debut Novel

English author Malcolm Lowry gained acclaim with his 1947 novel Under the Volcano, which chronicles the final days of a British ex-ambassador battling alcoholism in Mexico. Prior to this success, his only published work was Ultramarine, a novel that received little attention.

Published in 1933, Ultramarine drew from Lowry’s teenage experiences aboard a Far East steamship before he attended Cambridge University. He finished the manuscript during his final school term, and a publisher agreed to release it. However, disaster struck when a director from the publishing firm had his briefcase stolen from his car, containing the sole typescript of Ultramarine.

The exact circumstances of the novel’s publication remain a mystery, particularly since Lowry insisted he had discarded or destroyed all earlier drafts. The author mentioned that a friend salvaged his final draft from the trash (though it’s debated whether it was the original manuscript or a carbon copy). Additionally, another acquaintance claimed that a version of Ultramarine had been written and stored at his home, and Lowry was aware of its existence there.

3. Franz Kafka’s Lost Notebooks and Correspondence

Following Franz Kafka’s death from tuberculosis in 1924, his partner Dora Diamant retained up to 20 of his notebooks—filled with thoughts, ideas, and sketches—along with 35 personal letters. However, when the Nazis rose to power, the Gestapo raided Diamant’s Berlin residence, seizing all her documents, including Kafka’s works, in their hunt for communist propaganda.

Max Brod, a close friend of Kafka, and Klaus Wagenbach attempted to recover the writings, but their efforts were thwarted by the sheer volume of documents confiscated by the Gestapo. Political instability in Germany further hindered their search in subsequent years.

In the late 1990s, Kathi Diamant, Dora’s biographer, and San Diego State University initiated the Kafka Project, a mission to locate these missing works. For decades, they have combed through Nazi archives in Prague and Berlin, collaborated with scholars and archivists, and pursued leads suggesting the stolen writings were last seen on a train heading east to avoid destruction during air raids.

4. Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun

In 2008, news broke that Twilight author Stephenie Meyer was working on Midnight Sun, a retelling of the series’ first book from vampire Edward Cullen’s point of view. However, an overzealous fan obtained the incomplete manuscript and leaked it online without Meyer’s permission or awareness.

The unauthorized release deeply distressed Meyer, prompting her to halt progress on Midnight Sun. She explained to fans that the leak had disrupted her creative flow. Initially, Meyer had shared a preview chapter on her website, but after abandoning the project, she decided to release the entire unfinished draft for her readers.

“I’d prefer my fans not read this version. ... It was merely an incomplete draft,” Meyer stated. “However, to clear up any confusion, I’ve chosen to share the draft. ... I hope this excerpt offers deeper insight into Edward’s mind and enriches the Twilight narrative. That was my original inspiration for writing it.” Meyer ultimately completed Midnight Sun, publishing it in 2020.

5. Walt Whitman’s Lost Notebooks

As reported by The New York Times, in 1918, Thomas B. Harned, a close friend and literary executor of Walt Whitman, donated 24 of the poet’s notebooks to the Library of Congress. These notebooks included Whitman’s notes from his time as a Civil War army nurse, an early draft of his renowned poem “Song of Myself,” and a version of the wartime piece “Cavalry Crossing a Ford.”

During World War II, in 1942, the Library of Congress sent numerous valuable items, including Whitman’s notebooks, to Ohio for protection. Years later, a package believed to contain 10 of Whitman’s notebooks returned to Washington, D.C., but the notebooks were gone. (The box’s seal remained intact, indicating the theft likely occurred before shipping.)

The notebooks were thought to be lost forever until an anonymous individual found four of them among his late father’s belongings. Unaware of their significance, he attempted to sell them at Sotheby’s auction house in New York, only to learn they were stolen property and thus unsellable. His father had received them as a gift roughly 30 years earlier.

The rediscovered notebooks were returned to the Library of Congress by Sotheby’s, bringing joy to historians, conservationists, and scholars. (The remaining six are still unaccounted for.) “This is undoubtedly the most significant literary material we could have recovered in American literature,” David Wigdor, then assistant chief of the Library of Congress’s manuscript division, told The Washington Post. “These materials will be invaluable to scholars. Their importance is truly unparalleled.”

6. A Shakespeare First Folio

Prior to William Shakespeare’s death in 1616, only half of his plays had been published in small quarto editions, with no comprehensive collection available. Two of Shakespeare’s colleagues, John Heminge and Henry Condell, members of his acting troupe The King’s Men, sought to rectify this. They compiled 36 of his plays and handed them to publishers Edward Blount and Isaac Jaggard.

In 1623, the first complete edition of Shakespeare’s plays was published. Officially titled Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, it is commonly known as the “First Folio,” named after the large-format paper used for printing. (Such paper was typically reserved for royal decrees and significant works like theology and history.) Heminge and Condell claimed to have used “original” manuscripts for the First Folio, though the accuracy of this claim remains uncertain.

Scholars estimate that no more than 750 copies of the First Folio were printed, with only 235 known to exist today. Each copy is valued at millions of dollars, which likely explains why, in 1998, a First Folio was stolen from Durham Cathedral’s library in England.

A decade after the theft, in 2008, a man named Raymond Scott brought the stolen First Folio to the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C., seeking an appraisal. Scott alleged that he received the book as a gift in Cuba, from a friend whose mother had kept the “old English book” in a chest for safekeeping.

The Folger staff immediately recognized the book as a First Folio, and renowned rare-book appraiser Stephen C. Massey confirmed it was the one stolen from Durham. Authorities were notified, leading to Scott’s arrest. While it couldn’t be proven that Scott was the original thief, he was convicted in 2010 for handling stolen goods and smuggling the valuable work out of England. Scott passed away in prison in 2012.

7. J.K. Rowling’s Untitled Harry Potter Prequel

In May 2017, a brief, untitled prequel to the Harry Potter series, handwritten on a postcard, was stolen during a home burglary in Birmingham, England. The 800-word story featured a young James Potter (Harry’s father) and Sirius Black encountering Muggle policemen. The manuscript had been auctioned for charity, and J.K. Rowling advised fans not to purchase it. As of 2022, the work remains unrecovered.