An American professor has got his hands on an unpublished novel by John Steinbeck. But the rights holders refuse to have it published
While researching John Steinbeck, for a book to be published in June, reports “The Guardian”, Gavin Jones, professor at Stanford, discovered in the archives of the University of Texas an unpublished novel by the American writer, price Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962.
The iconic author of “The Grapes of Wrath” and “Of Mice and Men” has written a unique science fiction novel. “Murder At Full Moon” features an amateur detective confronted with sordid murders which he attributes to werewolves. Written in the 1930s under the pseudonym Peter Pym, the 233-page manuscript had been reviewed by editors. In addition to the investigation, the plot is a pretext to explore the animal side of man and his links with nature and animals. For Gavin Jones, this register heralded the noir novel of the American West.
For the McIntosh and Otis agency, which manages Steinbeck’s estate, it is impossible to publish a novel for which the writer had not fought after multiple refusals and did not wish to publish under his name. “Murder At Full Moon” is one of three unpublished novels Steinbeck has written. He had destroyed the other two and kept that one.
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