If the reports are true, and J.D. Salinger’s estate is about to release five never-before-seen novels by the famously reclusive author, the literary world may be set to receive its biggest posthumous bounty since Emily Dickinson’s sister happened upon that trunk full of poems. As many have long suspected, Salinger may soon join the long, illustrious line of novelists’ whose work continues to emerge long after they depart this world.

Here, ten of the most remarkable posthumously published novels in history:

A Death in the Family

by James Agee

An autobiographical novel aimed at understanding his own father’s death, the ironically titled A Death in the Family was seven years in the making but still incomplete when James Agee died in 1955. Two years later, it was published to alleviate the financial strain Agee’s family faced—and then went on to win the 1958 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Northanger Abbey and Persuasion

by Jane Austen

Usually recognized as Jane Austen’s earliest completed novel, Austen sold Northanger Abbey for ten pounds in 1803, but it languished in the hands of her editor for nearly ten years. Eventually, Austen raised the funds to buy back the manuscript, which remained unpublished—along with Persuasion—until 1817. The rest, as we know, is history.

2666

by Roberto Bolaño

When Roberto Bolaño died in 2003, he must have left drawerfuls of unpublished work behind; some say he’s been more prolific in death than he was in life. The last novel Bolaño worked on before his death, 2666, resonated so profoundly that it was awarded the National Books Critics Circle Award—and received near-universal praise.