Academics are calling for the publication of a John Steinbeck novel that was initially rejected, The Guardian reports. The typescript of Murder at Full Moon, a mystery story involving a werewolf, has been sitting in an archive at the University of Texas in Austin for the past 90 years, but now pressure is mounting on Steinbeck’s estate for allowing the documents to go public. “There would be a huge public interest in a totally unknown werewolf novel by one of the best-known, most read American writers of the 20th century,” said Stanford professor Gavin Jones. “It’s certainly not Steinbeck the realist, but it is Steinbeck the naturalist, interested in human nature...which is why I think readers would find it more interesting than a more typical Steinbeck.”

The author’s publisher, McIntosh & Otis, said they would not be publishing the novel because Steinbeck “did not choose to publish the work during his lifetime,” according to the Observer. However, literature scholars disagreed, including Jones and author William Souder, who said, “Why wouldn’t a complete novel by a famous author find its way into the daylight?...I hope it does.”