Legally, this is incorrect, all possessions are passed onto heirs when one dies, which includes papers/writings/recordings. Heir(s) become the new legal owner a

Legally, this is incorrect, all possessions are passed onto heirs when one dies, which includes papers/writings/recordings. Heir(s) become the new legal owner and may do whatever they wish with the documents. It can arguably be morally questionable to read and/or publish some writings if the author wrote them with the intention of keeping them private forever. Of course, if the deceased doesn't tell you you'd have to guess. At the same time the person is dead so you can't exactly hurt their feelings, and presumably they knew the risk of writing something down is that we it might be read by the non-intended audience. Though you can hurt the feelings of other people who know the deceased and/or have a vested interest in controlling their legacy. You might also hurt people who are the subject of those writings. I think I understand what you mean though, with digital assets one can actually prevent private writings and thoughts from being read by others after death, if that's what the author actually desires, in a way you really can't do with physical assets. This is arguably good as it better honors the wishes of the deceased. However, in this case this is a memoir, which are generally wrote to be read. I'm with you though, I want my thoughts to die with me.