It’s a pair of rites we see often at the passing of great authors: first, the tributes from those who loved their books; then, the good-faith effort to find their unfinished works and shepherd them to the bookshelves they never would have found otherwise.
In the case of Terry Pratchett’s death in 2015, those tributes were voluminous and poignant, penned for a writer whose deft touch could leave readers laughing, thoughtful or crushed. As for the prolific Discworld author‘s unfinished works — well, those are just crushed.
As in, literally crushed.
Per Sir Terry’s wishes, a hard drive containing his unfinished books was introduced to the unforgiving end of a steamroller last Friday. The manager of Pratchett’s estate, Rob Wilkins, tweeted the ritual act’s before-and-after from the writer’s official account, displaying the hard drive — said to have contained 10 separate works in progress — then displaying what it looked like after meeting a steamroller named Lord Jericho at the Great Dorset Steam Fair.