...if [George R. R. Martin] dies early, Hollywood will pay somebody a lot of money to finish the books from his notes. Probably Brandon Sanderson or Kevin Anderson or someone whose name rhymes with either of them. If you’re a fantasy writer looking to make it in the big leagues finishing other peoples’ work, you could do worse than to change your name to “Ganderson.” —Mighty God King

Author Existence Failure can be a sad thing. When a famous author dies and they leave only partly-completed works, never to be finished or seen by the general public.Or will they?

APosthumous Collaboration is when an unfinished work is completed by someone else for the sake of thepublisher's bank account fans.

The new author may have been close to the original one, or even helped with the work while the original author was alive, or just working off some discovered notes on what the original author had planned, but what's important is that the work has to have already been started by the original author before their passing; it doesn't count if someone just creates a brand new work using the dead author's characters or universe.

See alsoLiterary Mash-Ups.

Art

• Garfield VisitsRockwell, a calendar which remedies the lack offat orange cats inNorman Rockwell's paintings for theSaturday Evening Post.

Film

• A.I.: Artificial Intelligence was started byStanley Kubrick and finished bySteven Spielberg.
  • This one is a bit special, as it was started by Kubrick, who then handed it to Spielberg, with plans to direct it. But once Spielberg did it, it was always he who was to direct it.
• After the Rain was written byAkira Kurosawa, who was planning on directing it; after his death Koizumi Takashi took over.
• A variation of this occurred withThe Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. Heath Ledger passed away during filming, soJohnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in to play the same role and help finish the film.
• The songs forThe Shocking Miss Pilgrim andKiss Me, Stupid were written George and Ira Gershwin after George's death.

Literature

• The Gathering Storm, Towers Of Midnight and A Memory Of Light byRobert JordanandBrandon Sanderson
• Thrones, Dominations byDorothy L. Sayersand Jill Paton Walsh
  • Sayers' translation ofThe Divine Comedy wascompleted by Barbara Reynolds.
• Fall of Kings byDavid Gemmelland Stella Gemmell
• The Wanderer byCherry Wilderand Katya Reimann
• The Children of Hurin andThe Silmarillion, byJ.R.R.and Christopher Tolkien
• Hooray For Diffendoofer Day byDr. SeussandJack Prelutsky
• Variable Star byRobert HeinleinandSpider Robinson, working from copious notes
• Grumbles From The Grave by Robertand Virginia Heinlein
• Garden Of Shadows andFallen Hearts byV. C. Andrewsand Andrew Neiderman
• Antagonist byGordon R. Dicksonand David W. Wixon
• Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman by Walter M. Miller, JrandTerry Bisson
• Eternity;Home, Sweet Home 2010 A.D.;The Other Time;Trojan Orbit;Deathwish World:Mack Reynoldsand Dean Ing
• The Double Tower;Prince Alcouz and the Magician;The Scroll of Morloc;The Descent into the Abyss:Lin CarterandClark Ashton Smith
• Nekht Semerkeht byRobert E. Howardand Andrew J. Offutt
• Psychoshop byAlfred BesterandRoger Zelazny
• Donnerjack andLord Demon by Roger ZelaznyandJane Lindskold
• Poodle Springs byRaymond ChandlerandRobert B. Parker
• The Watsons byJane Austenand Catherine Hubback, John Coates, Laura Wade, or Helen Baker; each one showed up with a different version.
• Through the Ice by Robert KornwiseandPiers Anthony
  • In this case, the living author is actually the more famous one.
• Whistle byJames Jonesand Willie Morris
• The two concluding books of theDune series,Heretics of Dune andSandworms of Dune,supposedly based on Frank Herbert's notes, written by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson.
• The prolific David Foster Wallace left a large cache of notes behind before he died and so others were able to step in and finish his long-awaited novel, The Pale King.
• When young adult authorJohn Bellairs died, he left behind two unfinished manuscripts and outlines for two other stories. The finished versions of those four books, completed byBrad Strickland, were so well-received that Strickland has since been commissioned to write several more books in the series.
• E.B. White, up until his death, kept adding to and revising William Strunk'sThe Elements of Style, to the point where he was even credited as a co-author. Now since White's own death other editors have been doing the same, uncredited.
• "The Shuttered Room" and certain other fragmentary stories were completed afterH.P. Lovecraft's death byAugust Derleth.
• David Gemmell died in 2006, leaving the final volume of his Trojan War saga unfinished, but with notes to complete the work. His wife Stella was credited as co-author of 'Troy: Fall of Kings.'
• The Family, a novel about The CorleonesThe Borgias, by Mario Puzo, was completed after his death by his girlfriend Carol Gini. Notably, the last chapter features a woman mourning the death of her loverthough in the novel, her lover is also her brother.

Music

• Requiem byWolfgang Amadeus Mozartand Franz Süssmayr
• Symphony no. 10 by Gustav Mahlerand Deryck Cooke
• Free as a Bird andReal Love by John Lennonand the rest ofThe Beatles
  • In this case, the songs were credited to the Beatles and not John Lennon. It still counts as this trope, though.
• Brainwashed by Georgeand Dhani Harrisonand Jeff Lynne
• Made In Heaven byQueen was this on purpose, as Freddie Mercury didn't think he had enough time left to create whole songs (and he was sadly correct); so he just did his parts and let the rest of the band finish them after he died.
• In Your Life andTake Me to Heaven Tonight by Melanie Thornton andthe rest of La Bouche
• Countless posthumous collaborations between Tupac Shakur and others, eg "Pac's Life"with Ashanti and T.I.
• Country singer Keith Whitley's posthumous tribute album has the usual famous stars' covers of songs (including "When You Say Nothing at All" beingCovered Up by Alison Krauss), plus never-released studio tracks, plus a duet with his widow Lorrie Morgan that fits this trope.
  • And taking it a step further, a DJ spliced the Alison Krauss version of "When You Say Nothing at All" with Keith Whitley's.
• Adagio in G Minor by Tomaso Albinoniand Remo Giazotto.
• TheMermaid Avenue albums byBilly Bragg and Wilco, which set old unpublished Woody Guthrie lyrics to new music.
  • Dropkick Murphys also set unpublished Guthrie lyrics to new music, first with "Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight", then with theirSignature Song "Shippin' Off To Boston".
• Although not nearly as many as Tupac yet,Ol' Dirty Bastard has also had a steady stream of posthumous guest appearances. And while it was released while he was still alive, the albumThe Trials and Tribulations of Russell Jones was made without his involvement while he was in jail: acapellas from unfinished songs (or sometimes even previously released songs) were set to new beats, with many guest appearances filling in the gaps.
• After Johnny Mercer's death, lyrics of his were set to new music byBarry Manilow.
• Nico by Shannon Hoonand the rest of Blind Melon.
• Hank Williams Jr did this twice with his fatherHank Williams Sr. One time, he corralled his sonHank Williams III into doing an album calledThree Hanks: Men with Broken Hearts, which combined previously recorded vocals by Hank Sr. and newly recorded vocals by Hank Jr. and Hank III. Hank III doesn't even acknowledge this album's existence, because perhaps he agreed with areviewer who deemed it morbid and unnecessary. Hank Jr. also did a song called "There's a Tear in My Beer", which incorporated a vocal track recorded by his father. The video digitally inserted Hank Jr. into a performance of Sr.'s.
• Similarly to the Hank Williams example above, "Unforgettable" by Nat "King" Coleand Natalie Cole, and "God Bless the Child" by Billie Holiday andTony Bennett.
• Lynyrd Skynyrd did this with "Travelin' Man". Ronnie Van Zant's vocals were lifted from a live recording of the song and mixed into a duet with his brother.
• "What a Wonderful World" byLouis Armstrong andKenny G, which Pat Methenyreally didn't care for.
• Yo Yo Ma's venture into tango music includes a track on which he "collaborates" with deceased tango legend Astor Piazzolla using preexisting recordings.
• Michael Jackson's segments from "We Are The World" were re-used on the 2010 remake for Haiti, given his then-recent death and his heavy involvement in the original. Janet Jackson even sang along with her late brother in the remake.
  • "Hold My Hand",featuring Akon, was Michael's last known song before his death.
• Japanese R&B singerKen Hirai has a "duet" on hisCover Song albumKen's Bar with noted Japanese pop singerKyu Sakamoto,^[1] who died about 20 years before the album was recorded, covering Sakamoto's song "Miagete Goran Yoru no Hoshi wo".
• In 1969,Bob Dylan andJohnny Cash recorded a version of the former's "One Too Many Mornings", which was often bootlegged, but never really saw official release. The 2012 Bob Dylantribute albumChimes Of Freedom took this recording and added some additional vocals by The Avett Brothers. Kind of an odd example, as the song wasn't "unfinished" to begin with.
• Six months after the death of rapper Lisa "Lefteye" Lopes,TLC's fourth album3D was completed by the remaining two members with posthumous vocals by Lopes on four of the songs.

• Trope
• Real Life Writes the Plot
• Posthumous Collaboration