10 Lost Masterpieces That Could Raise the Reputation of Their Creators to the Level of "Genius"

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Undoubtedly, any creative person has enough work that no one has ever seen anywhere. From Stephen King and Steven Spielberg to ancient poets and artists, creators constantly hide a number of their masterpieces from the general public. And sometimes these works can radically change the way art connoisseurs look at their creators.

1. The Lost Film by Orson Welles

Orson Welles' stellar reputation is based on several films he made in the 40s and 50s. Like Marlon Brando, the director spent the last decades of his life drinking and gluttony, no longer interested in his art. At least that's what the Hollywood legend says. In fact, Wells spent the 70s and 80s working tirelessly on new projects, including the infamous Other Side of the Wind.

The film was filmed between 1969 and 1976 and edited before Wells' death in 1985. The Other Side of the Wind could be a real masterpiece, and many of Wells's fans argue that the film could be his greatest achievement. Unfortunately for viewers, Wells died before he could finish the film, and the ensuing copyright struggle meant that the film never made it to theaters. And only 33 years later, in 2018, the film was finally edited, and soon it will be released on screens.

2. Harper Lee's second novel

The author of To Kill a Mockingbird is considered one of America's greatest writers, despite not using a pen for decades. In fact, Lee began working on The Long Goodbye back in 1960, just after the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird. Some claim that at least 100 pages were completed, while others say that Lee wrote more than half of the book. But at one point, Harper Lee simply stopped writing. Nobody saw the completed part of The Long Farewell. If she finished and published this novel, perhaps the world would recognize Lee as a master of describing small-town life.

3. A literary novel by Robert Ludlum

Although Ludlum created the character of Jason Bourne and wrote several hugely popular books, he was never placed on a par with Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck. But this did not stop the writer from trying to "get into the highest literary league." In his own opinion, Ludlum's first novel was "an ambitious literary work," written while the author was in the Marine Corps. Unfortunately for posterity, when Ludlum was demobilized, he got so drunk with joy that he lost the manuscript of the novel somewhere in San Francisco. And by the time Ludlum wanted to write again, many years later he was only interested in thrillers. If the manuscript had survived and was published, perhaps people would have a very different view of Ludlum's work today.

4. Smith's third Spectrum game

Any retro gamer has heard of Matthew Smith. A British programmer in the 8-bit era developed some of the most beloved Spectrum games in the 1980s - Manic Miner and Jet Set Willy. When the final installment of the "Megatree" trilogy was announced, everyone was expecting something supernatural, because this game borrowed elements from the early Nintendo platformers and was supposed to be revolutionary. Instead, Smith took and left for Holland, taking the Megatree with him. There he refused further work, which led to the collapse of the project. The work he was doing was never released, and Megatree quickly faded into obscurity. It could have been a game that would solidify Smith's reputation as an innovative superstar programmer.

5. Cobain's solo album

Considering Kurt Cobain's legendary status, his unreleased solo album has received an almost mythical status. While it's unknown if anything was recorded at all, that hasn't stopped critics and casual fans alike who still keep looking for the "missing" album. According to former Hole guitarist Eric Erlendson, Kurt's solo project was supposed to be his "swan song" and the pinnacle of his career. Others argued that it was a project that would showcase a completely different side of pepper. However, no one even knows if Kurt started recording this album at all.

6. Works by Quinta Ennius

The story was clearly not kind to Quintus Ennius. The legacy of this writer of the second century BC was eaten by dust, rats, moths and various disasters. Today, only a few hundred lines from many of his poems, plays and books have survived. And this is very depressing, because Ennius was not just a talented Roman writer, but, by all accounts, he was the most talented of all. Besides writing the national epic of Rome (before Virgil's Aeneid appeared), Ennius was also considered a very successful playwright and founder of Roman literature. Virgil, Ovid, and Horace borrowed their lines from Ennius' writings, and Cicero openly admired him. In his spare time, he wrote groundbreaking treatises on philosophy and theology, and also collected the first Latin elegiac couplets. If his work had survived, Annius would have been no less famous today than Virgil or Homer.

7. Spielberg's groundbreaking play

Can a computer game make a person cry? Today the answer is likely to be yes, as modern games often look as good as a movie. But more recently, in 2004, it was much more difficult to implement this. While some games had thoughtful stories, the industry lacked the technology to make games responsive enough that characters could emotionally resonate with players. A couple of years before the release of the PS3 and Xbox 360, famed director Steven Spielberg and EA began working on an impressively ambitious game.

The plot of the LMNO game told about a mysterious alien named Eva. While players were supposed to spend most of their time avoiding FBI agents and trying to find clues, they were also going to include moments focused solely on the relationship between Eve and the player. The choices made during this time influenced how Eve acted throughout the game. With this solution, the developers hoped to create a strong bond between the player and the character. This was a very innovative concept. However, after four years of development, the game was frozen in 2008.

8. Gethe Poems of Ovid

Today it is difficult to imagine how Ovid's reputation could improve after 2000 years. The author of Metamorphosis is today known as one of the greatest poets of all time. But, perhaps, he was even more brilliant than everyone thinks. Towards the end of his life, Ovid was expelled from Rome by Emperor Augustus. As a punishment, he had to live in exile in the most remote regions of the Empire, among the "wild" Getae and Dacians near the Black Sea. Ovid, who missed Rome terribly, continued to write. Interestingly, these works were not done in Latin, and not even in Greek or any other "learned" language. They were written in the Geth language. According to Ovid's own notes, the Getae were so impressed with his poetry that they made him a "national bard."

His poems of praise were perhaps the first great works written in the Geth language, and were probably magnificent in content. Unfortunately, these verses disappeared after the death of the poet, along with the entire Getae language and culture. Had they survived, Ovid would have been known today as the greatest poet of two radically different cultures, as well as the writer who helped preserve the Geth language.

9. The Lost Book of Sayings of Jesus

At the right time, almost anywhere, a book of quotations can change history. That only is "Little Red Book" by Mao Zedong. But even a book of quotes from the man who killed millions of others and brought China to its current state could not be compared to Source Q. It is believed that this is a hypothetical collection of sayings of Jesus Christ, which the authors of the Gospels of Matthew and Luke independently used as a source along with the Gospel of Mark. This anthology was lost around the first century and has never been seen since. A similar idea emerged after an examination of the texts of the Gospels. A close study of them revealed that Luke and Matthew often used identical quotations in their writings. Since they wrote in Greek and Jesus spoke in Aramaic, there must have been minor differences in the individual translations. But there are no such differences, so many scholars assume that Luke and Matthew copied quotes from a single source: the books of Christ quotes. A book like this could transform all of Christianity.

10. "Comedy of the Holocaust" by Jerry Lewis

In 1972, director Jerry Lewis directed The Day the Clown Cried. In it, Lewis played the main role of the clown Karl Schmidt, who was repressed and spent several years in the Auschwitz concentration camp, showing tricks to Jewish children and seeing them off on their last journey to the gas chambers. The creepy film never made it to the screens, and Lewis himself was unhappy with it. In 2013, a New York film critic reported seeing several scenes from the film and was deeply impressed by them. Although Lewis knew little about the Holocaust, the critic praised his attempts to portray everyday life in a concentration camp. Maybe this tape will someday hit the screens and make Lewis overestimate as a genius innovator.

Among the underrated masterpieces and 10 lesser-known works of great writers that are definitely worth reading.