While anthropology has produced a vast body of published work, far more remains unpublished. Begun in 2025, Anthropology’s Lost Library (ALL) will soon be offering a digital home for anthropological writings that were intended for scholarly and public consumption but were never completed—essays, books, and articles; theses and dissertation chapters; grant applications, journalistic pieces, and op-eds. Though ALL is still taking shape, the repository will be designed both to offer a stable and searchable home for these works and also to contribute broadly to the study of anthropology and its histories by documenting the reasons why these works were never ultimately published.
If this new project resonates with you, please contact Joshua Rubin at AnthrosLostLibrary@proton.me. While we are particularly focused at this stage on expanding our network of interested scholars, we are also seeking people who might be open to contributing pieces that can serve as a foundation for the collection. Manuscripts of any length and level of completeness are eligible for inclusion, provided that they were written with the intention of publication.
To learn more about ALL, you can visit the site here or read this recent essay in Anthropology News.
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