Publishers Weekly is reporting the rediscovery of a two-page short story beginning by Roald Dahl. The story, “The Eyes of Mr. Croaker,” is an incomplete 300-word beginning of a children’s story that was commissioned in 1982. At that time, Jerry Biederman and Tom Silberkleit planned a book “containing the openings of short stories by famous writers that children could complete themselves.” Besides Dahl, they has submissions from Richard Adams, P.L. Travers, Madeleine L’Engle, Joan Aiken, and others. Dahl was the only one paid in advance; the other agreed to payments of $200 upon publication.
Then Biederman and Silberkleit went on to other projects, and the book languished. Biederman stored the Dahl manuscript in a box in his garage. Following the 1994 Northridge earthquake, which did major damage to his home, he moved the contents of his garage to his parents’ home, and over time he forgot where the manuscript was. After his father’s death, he cleaned out the garage and found “The Eyes of Mr. Croaker” in a box. Now he plans “to create an interactive version of The Do-It-Yourself Children’s Storybook that will include contributions by” contemporary authors in addition to those he’d planned to publish three decades ago. He told PW, “The concept is now possible on a massive global scale, thanks to the ability of a publisher to stage an online competition to find the best completed versions of each unfinished story.”
Dahl’s literary agent, Anthony Goff of David Higham Associates, has confirmed that the author’s estate will honor the 1982 agreement, as long as the writing is used in exactly the way it was intended—as part of a collection of “starter stories”—which was the basis upon which Dahl made his contribution. Biederman says that, following the 20th anniversary of Dahl’s death a few months ago, “It seemed wrong that Dahl’s wish to have ‘The Eyes of Mr. Croaker’ finished by his fans had not yet been fulfilled. I felt like his legacy would only be complete when his story is complete. I have an overwhelming need to have Dahl’s story finally see the light of day.”
While work has resumed on the book, Biederman has decided to put the original 300-word Dahl document up for auction on eBay “because of the participatory nature of the book concept. This was the only story Dahl wrote that was to be completed by his fans. It also makes the announcement of this important find more dramatic.” The auction (see this link) ends at 7:14PM PST on 14 December. At press time, the bid was $1,900. Biederman is now a producer of reality TV shows. He said he intends to donate some of the proceeds of the auction to a charity of the Dahl family’s choosing.