This chapter is about losses. It is written in the context of positive hopes and claims about books. Book collecting and archive building form a part of its context. Special collections and rare book collections in libraries and collections formed by book lovers anywhere, for example, accentuate the positive when they focus on what they own and what they have preserved, but it is inevitable that the subject eventually turns to what they do not own and what was lost before it could be saved. Literary criticism forms another part of the context, accentuating the positive by focusing on insights and on the discovery of new or neglected talent, but it is inevitable that the subject eventually turns to faded insights, outmoded critical fads, or the rejection of formerly held ideas in the light, or should one say the flash, of new ones. And what is said here about books and book editions applies equally to electronic scholarly editions and to the electronic knowledge sites I so much hope will be developed.