Gone Author?

In the literary sense, authors never really die.  They live on through the books they leave behind for countless future generations to enjoy.  In the literal sense, however, authors have mortal bodies like the rest of us and eventually pass on.  So how does Robert Ludlum, V. C. Andrews, and other writers who have been dead for years continue to churn out new books?  Living writers publishing under the names of dead authors.

I don't know about the rest of you, but books written by someone other than Ludlum don't make them Ludlum's books.  Books continued by other writers are outside what I would deem the "true cannon."  Call me a purist, but I prefer to read the words of the original author, not those by someone else.  Years ago, I read The Mystery of Edwin Drood, the novel that Charles Dickens left uncompleted at the time of his death.  The edition I read contained Dickens' work plus the work of another writer who concluded the story.  Personally, I think it's a disservice to Dickens and to his fans to have someone else try to assume what Dickens would have written, but I suppose some readers aren't satisfied when a book or series dies along with the author.

Why can't readers be content with the books that an author has gifted us within his or her lifetime?  Why can't we accept that all things come to an end?  And if we really do want a story or a character to continue, why can't writers continue the original author's work under their own names?  I don't think book sales will hurt just because another writer takes up the story of Jason Bourne.  Do the many Pride and Prejudice spin-offs suffer because other people write them under their own names and not Jane Austen's?

Let's have authors take credit for their own writing and give new writers the chance to emerge from the shadows of established names to become authors in their own right.  And let's make room for new authors to develop new characters, new stories, and new books to give to the world.  As readers, it's nice to revisit the past, but we shouldn't sacrifice the present and future to it.

My soapbox moment on the perch.