Literary executor
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The literary estate of an author who has died will often consist mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works (including for example film rights and translation rights). It may well also include: original manuscripts of published work, which potentially have a market value; unpublished work in a finished state or partially completed; and papers of intrinsic literary interest such as correspondence or personal diaries and records. (In academia, the German language term Nachlass for the legacy of papers is often used.)
A literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate. Since the literary estate is a legacy to the author's heirs, the management of it in financial terms is a responsibility of trust. The position of literary executor has more to it than the simple monetary aspect, though. Appointment to such a position, perhaps informally, is often a matter of the author's choice during his or her lifetime. If a sympathetic and understanding friend is in the position of literary executor, there can be obvious tensions. What is to be managed is not just a portfolio of intellectual property, but a posthumous reputation. Wishes of the deceased author may have been clearly expressed, but are not always respected. Family members often express strong feelings about privacy of the dead. For example, biographical writing is likely to be of a quite different authority if it is carried out with access to private papers. The literary executor then becomes a gatekeeper.
Celebrated examples of literary executors include Max Brod for Franz Kafka, Sir Edward Marsh for Rupert Brooke, and Robert Ross for Oscar Wilde. If Brod had followed Kafka's expressed wishes on the destruction of his papers, Kafka's current reputation would be almost nonexistent. The older examples of such appointments, such as Kenelm Digby for Ben Jonson, are essentially editorial rather than legal. A prominent contemporary case is Christopher Tolkien's work on J. R. R. Tolkien's papers.
