Franz Kafka’s dying wish were that his papers be burned; thanks to his friend and fellow author Max Brod, we now can read “The Trial” and other works that were not published during his lifetime.
Brod’s secretary, Esther Hoffe died last month at 101 years of age, and her 74 year old daughter, Hava, who inherited the Kafka papers, will make a decision in the next few months when and how they will be published. According to this San Francisco Chronicle article, Hava Hoffe is keeping scholars and archivists up at night wondering about the condition of what they believe are letters, diaries, photographs and perhaps unpublished works of the two Czech Jewish authors, with Kafka one of the best-known authors of the 20th century.
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