This news story about some unseen Kafka manuscripts points to a real problem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10682482 . An expert is being allowed to look at this unpublished work in order to help a judge rule over the ownership of the manuscripts. It seems very wrong that privately owned manuscripts can be kept secret. Even if the documents belong to a private individual the writings contained could surely be made public. Scholars may have no access to potentially important work by writers to whom they have devoted some or all of their lives. The loss of value which will be suffered once the contents of manuscripts are made public is surely of less importance if the owners had no role themselves in creating the work. Otherwise scholarship comes to resemble archaeology insofar as it depends on the willingness of landowners to have their land excavated.
