Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog

Lost Manuscripts: The Perils of Public and Private Transport December 11, 2016

Some years before Bach was born, Beach pater left a manuscript for his first book on a tube train. Of course, back then, if you lost a manuscript it was over. Photocopies were practically unheard of and expensive and computers were but a gleam in Turing’s eye. The manuscript was happily retrieved some hours later, by a man who had looked into a ghastly abyss called ‘rewrite’. But Beach, musing about this particularly hellish episode: which he sometimes feels belongs to his own life, looked for other examples of the same. Here are some highlights from a half hour research. Of course, none of these books matter today. Few if any weep for their loss: though the history of croquet sounds intriguing. But the pain of those involved must have been immense.

Cabs, taxis and, indeed, any form of public transport prove particularly deadly to manuscripts

Some say that rewriting a book produces something superior. Perhaps for a tyro writer. For a Mill or Dickens who loses a manuscript there can be no going back…

Of course, there were adverts. This is something that confuses Beach. Would even an illiterate thief not sense the value of a bag full of paper and the likelihood of a reward?

The author is properly modest about this one. Let’s hope he remembered them by heart.

Well, only a sermon…

This actually sounds like a fascinating work. Then, finally we come to the one that is somehow closest to Beach’s own heart. Perhaps it is the topic. Is there any game as fascinating and as vicious as croquet. Anyone who dedicated a few years to writing about the game must have had an unusual sensibility: was this a history or simple tips for the discerning player. In any case, image the hole that ballooned in their heart when the manuscript went missing. Christ!