Philip José Farmer International Bibliography

In July 2013 Meteor House will publish Phil Farmer's fictional biography of Doc Savage. It will be published as a Deluxe Hardcover. with lots of extra material, especially written for this edition.

The book can be preordered from Meteor House!

Next to the Deluxe Hardcover there will be an edition in trade paperback – and also an e-book – from Altus Press. This will be released after the publication of the hardcover.

Mark Sparacio finished the cover illustration and design for The Scarlet Jaguar by Win Scott Eckert, a sequel to The Evil in Pemberly House.

The book will be published by Meteor House in July 2013. You can preorder your copy now! Do not wait too long for it.

Claudio Bovino from Milan in Italy helped me out in getting me a copy of the new Italian edition of Philip José Farmer's Lord Tyger. Published by Mondadori in the Urania Collezione series, No. 124.
I received my copy last week. Mille grazie Claudio!

Next to an essay about the life and work of Farmer, there is also a bibliography with the translated publications in Italy of all of his books and stories.

The previous update mentioned the restyling of the story page with "Sail On! Sail On!". I came across false information about a non-existing Gollancz (UK) edition of A Century of Science Fiction, 1971. That entry was deleted from the list.
But now I deleted another entry, of the same anthology. This time of a US edition.

At first I had the information of a Simon & Schuster reprint of 1976, but it seemed that it had been published by Amereon Ltd. instead. So I corrected the entry. You can find this information on lots of places on the internet, but nowhere is there a picture of the cover. I have tried to order a copy of that edition, but received a copy of the 1962 Simon & Schuster Book Club Edition, without the dustjacket.
Also I could get no confirmation from the sellers of the Amereon Ltd. edition, that it actually was from Amereon.
My conclusion: we have another non-existing edition, and for that reason I deleted the entry from the story page.
There are now 'only' 73 publications of the story.

With "Sail On! Sail On!" Philip José Farmer not only wrote a great alternative-history story. It might also be —as far as I know— the first Steampunk story, written thirty-five years before anyone had ever heard of this theme in science fiction.
In more than one case Farmer was far ahead of his time...
"Sail On! Sail On!" was and still is a very wonderful and brilliant short story to read.

I needed a lot of time with the update and restyling of the story page. Because of missing information, wrong information, and newly discovered publications. I had to check and recheck a lot, and ordered many items I didn't yet have in my collection.
There are for instance three different publications of the hardcover Worlds of Maybe (1970), an anthology edited by Robert Silverberg, instead of the one I had. Wrong information about a Simon & Schuster hardcover reprint of A Century of Science Fiction (1976), edited by Damon Knight. This reprint is from Amereon Ltd. I'm still waiting for my ordered copy.
Not only did St. Martin's Press publish a hardcover of Decade the 1950s (1978), edited by Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, but also a trade paperback in 1979.
There was also information on a non-existing reprint of A Century of Science Fiction by Gollancz (UK) in 1971. I have searched for a long time but found no proof of this reprint, not even with the mentioned ISBN 0-575-00817-2. Maybe there has been a mix-up with the publication by the Book Club Associates (UK) in 1972. In several cases I saw the two publishers, Gollancz and BCA, mentioned together with the book of 1971 or 1972.

I discovered an Italian publication I didn't know of before, in the textbook I lunari contro i solani (1992), also a publication in Kazakhstan (a 'new' country in the bibliography) in 1992 with the translated novel Пробуждение каменного Бога (The Stone God Awakens), and two Russian publications.
There are now 74 publications worldwide of "Sail On! Sail On!", see the story page. I think I take some rest now...

Last month I got an email from Ralf Lux, Potsdam, in Germany. He let me know that his website with Clifford D. Simak - The International Bibliography had started. It was published online on the same date that Simak died 25 years ago.

According to the credits my website inspired him to do the same for Simak. And Ralf did a wonderful and thoroughly good job with the bibliography. I have tried to find some omissions in his bibliography, but I did not succeed. On the contrary, his bibliography even helped me in some cases to verify data of books with stories by Simak and Farmer.
I'm much impressed by the quality of Ralf's International Bibliography of Clifford D. Simak.

There are a few other pretty good International Bibliographies, but not always as complete with details of the publishing history or the cover scans as this Simak bibliography. See for instance the sites for Robert Silverberg, Harry Harrison, Tanith Lee, and Jack Vance.

Mondadori published this month, May, a new Italian edition of Farmer's Lord Tyger. It was published in the Urania Collezione series, No. 124.
This is the third Italian publication, the previous two were published 20 and 40 years ago.

The Urania series of books cannot be bought in the (online) bookshops, only through the newsstands and kiosks in Italy. The series is treated as a magazine, which it originally was.
I hope to get a copy soon for my collection.

Here is a "Work in Progress" photo of Mark Sparacio's (website and Facebook page) cover painting for Win Scott Ekert's novel, called The Scarlet Jaguar.

The book, a sequel to The Evil in Pemberley House, will be published by Meteor House in July 2013. You can preorder your copy now! One could buy the book for the cover alone (sorry Win...).

Farmer had to cut in the manuscript of the fourth Riverworld novel, The Magic Labyrinth, because it had become too long.
PJF: «I made great slashes in the novel. Result: the reader of the fourth and final book in the series will know that many of the characters more or less prominent in the first three books had died during the battle. But the reader won't know how they died or why.»

How they died is told in "Riverworld War", five left out chapters of the novel.

Several years ago I received information from someone working at the time at Bantam Books about the name of an uncredited cover artist of the Bantam edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life. (1975). The artist was Fred Pfeiffer.

Today I received a correction about the name from Win Scott Eckert. He discovered that the cover of that edition actually had been done by Roger Kastel. See the signed print of this cover, for sale at Kastel's website.

Most of the Farmer fans will know how it all started with the Riverworld series. This is for the few who don't.
Philip José Farmer wrote this: «The first of the Riverworld series was actually written in 1952. This was a 150,000-word novel originally titled Owe for the Flesh. It was written in one month so I could enter it in an international fantasy-science-fiction-award contest. It won, but because of circumstances I won't go into here, it was never published and I got only a fraction of the money due me.»

Twelve years later, in 1964, he dusted off the unpublished novel and tried to sell it to some publishers. With no luck. Until the editor of Galaxy magazine, Fred Pohl, wanted to publish it in parts, as novelettes, in the sister magazine Worlds of Tomorrow.
In the same period as the two parts "Day of the Great Shout" (January 1965) and "The Suicide Express" (March 1966) were published, came the first of the so called side stream stories, "Riverworld" (January 1966).

There exists three versions of the novelette or novella "Riverworld". The first two do not differ very much. The third version is nearly three times as long as the first. With this version Farmer was satisfied.

I'm satisfied with the restyling of this story page...

There is more news to add to the previous entry about the upcoming new edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life.

In a joint publishing venture, not only is Meteor House publishing the deluxe hardcover edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life, but Altus Press is publishing the trade edition and eBook. Great news also!
Read the Press Release from Altus Press.

This summer we we will see at least two new books from Meteor House. Michael Croteau, the publisher, and also the webmaster of The Official PJF Web Page, announced The Scarlet Jaguar and Doc Savage: His Apocalytic Life.

The Scarlet Jaguar by Win Scott Eckert is a new Patricia Wildman adventure, a sequel to The Evil in Pemberley House.
From the announcement: «When we last saw Patricia Wildman, daughter of Doc Wildman, the bronze champion of justice, six months had passed since the main events of The Evil in Pemberley House. She and her associate Parker, an ex-Scotland Yard Inspector, had set up Empire State Investigations at her Pemberley House estate—and she just received a mysterious phone call from her supposedly late father. . .»

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life will be published in a newly revised Deluxe Hardcover Edition.
From the announcement: «...the newly revised edition of Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life also features a brand new foreword by Farmer and pulp expert Win Scott Eckert, updates to the “List of Doc Savage Stories” including the latest novels, and rare material culled from Mr. Farmer’s notes.
The deluxe hardcover edition arrives just in time for Doc’s 80th anniversary, and features tributes by other Farmer and Doc experts, including John Allen Small, Keith Howell, Rick Lai, Art Sippo, Christopher Paul Carey, and current Doc Savage writer Will Murray, as well as other bonus materials not seen in prior editions...»

Go to the site of Meteor House to read more about these books or to preorder them The books will be published in July 2013.
I'm curious if Meteor House will publish also another edition of The Worlds of Philip José Farmer this summer.

We are still discovering previously unknown, and often hard to find, Canadian printings or editions of books by Philip José Farmer.
This time Fred Fischer (Houston, TX, USA) discovered a Canadian first printing of Venus on the Half-Shell from publisher Dell (February 1975).
I haven't been able to find a copy for my collection yet.

Philip José Farmer started his career as a writer with a non science fiction story, "O'Brien and Obrenov" (1946). It is one of five psychological tales by Phil. He was not successful with these stories. The second of these, "The Blind Rowers", was published in 1967, the other three stayed unpublished in Phil's archives, till one of them, "The Good of the Land", was published in 2002.
All five of the psychological tales were included in the special collection Pearls from Peoria (2006). The other two stories are "Hunter’s Moon" and "The Rise Gotten".

In "The Rise Gotten" a man is humiliated one time too much by his long time wife, who was very irrational. The story tells in full horrific detail where that can lead to...

Two stories of Philip José Farmer were originally published in the magazine Playboy, "The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol" in December 1977 and "The Leaser of Two Evils" in July 1979.

"The Henry Miller Dawn Patrol" was very much appreciated by the readers of Playboy, according to the comments the magazine received. The story even won the Annual Playboy Editorial Award in 1978.

That the story was reprinted in 1982 in The Best From Playboy, Number Nine, was unknown till now.
Today I received a donated copy of the magazine from Fred Fischer (Houston, TX, USA), with some kind words. Many thanks Fred!

Earlier this month I wrote about Philip José Farmer's story "Rastignac the Devil", because of redoing that story page. While checking all the information of the publications I discovered something strange. I thought there was only one, but it looked like there are two Italian publications called I libro di Gamma (number 1) with the story.

"Rastignac" had been published in the Italian magazine Gamma, issue number 4, in 1966. The publisher rebound the first five issues in softcover and sold them as Il libro di Gamma. This was to be the first in a series of rebound issues of Gamma, called Il libro di Gamma, but it is not numbered.

This book was split up in two books, both called Il Libro di Gamma, and both with number 1 to make things more confusing. But they got different subtitles.
I found and bought copies of both books with Farmer's story in it and added the information on the story page.

Who doesn't know the very famous anthology Dangerous Visions (1967), edited by Harlan Ellison? My guess is that there are not many science fiction fans who can say they don't. The book has been published many times since that first one from Doubleday.

Ellison commissioned authors to write original stories for his Dangerous Visions. Thirty-three stories that were intended to bring something completely new. Ellison: "This book was constructed along specific lines of revolution It was intended to shake things up. It was conceived out of a need for new horizons, new forms, new styles, new challenges in the literature of our times."

Philip José Farmer wrote "Riders of the Purple Wage" for this anthology. His first version was about 15,000 words, but Farmer got permission to rewrite and expand it to a story twice that long. Making it the longest story in the anthology.

"Riders" was nominated for the Nebula Award (1968) and won the Hugo Award (1968). The story page shows that the story has been published 76 times globally till now.
While redoing the story page I discovered several before unknown foreign publications, but also a ghost edition of one Spanish publication.

Farmer wrote three novellas –parodies– about the pulp character Greatheart Silver. All three for the Weird Heroes book series, edited and developed by Byron Preiss.

The second story, "The Return of Greatheart Silver", was published in Volume 2 of the series in December 1975. It is again a very humorous story, with many inside jokes. For instance Farmer refers to a publisher, The Fokker D-LXIX Press. This is actually the publisher of a special edition of his A Feast Unknown (1975).
The Fokker D-LXIX Press has a special computer, a DRECC (Digital Rewrite Euphoric Classics Computer), that is able to rewrite any novel into an erotic version of it within sixty seconds. The computer was doing the entire Tarzan corpus, and already had done a rewrite of the 1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, into the erotic The Secret Life of Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. Which is also the subtitle of this Greatheart Silver story...

The three Greatheart Silver novellas were published in novel form, Greatheart Silver, by Tor in 1982. See also the Wikipedia entry about the novel.

Farmer wrote two known Star Trek treatments. They were rejected at the time for the series, so he rewrote them as the stories "The Shadow of Space", and "Sketches Among the Ruins of My Mind".

But he wrote a third treatment we didn't know of.
This one, "The Rebels Unthawed", was written in 1966 but apperently never submitted for the Star Trek series. About forty years after it was written, the treatment was found in Farmer's archives and reworked for publication in the fanzine Farmerphile (2007). At nearly the same time it was published also in the collection Up From the Bottomless Pit.

French publisher Opta published 127 hardcovers in their series Club du livre d'anticipation (Science Fiction Book Club), during the period 1965-1987.
One of these books, the thirteenth in the series, is an omnibus with two novels by Philip José Farmer, Les amants étrangers - L'univers à l'envers (The Lovers & Inside Outside), 1968.

The book states that the printing of it is limited to 4,000 numbered copies, plus 150 copies for employees, marked H.C. (Hors Collection, means not one of the limited collectors edition),

Fred Fischer (Houston, USA) has a copy that states that the printing is limited to 6,500 numbered copies, plus the extra 150 copies.
Our conclusion is, that the book had a second printing of 2,500 copies. The only difference between twe two printings is the statement of the number of printed copies. The information of the printing date is the same.

Before this publication hits the shelves in the bookshops I received a copy of Philip José Farmer's far-future novel The Wind Whales of Ishmael.

I received my copy early thanks to the authors of the Foreword, Michael Croteau, and the Afterword, Danny Adams. Both signed the book for me also (Thanks!).

Titan Books again published a beautiful trade paperback. What makes the Titan Books extra special is the bonus material that is included in every publication. Exclusively written special for these reissues of Farmer's work, giving very interesting background information about the novel at hand, and its place in Farmer's oeuvre. Danny Adams, Farmer's great-nephew, for instance speculates if Ishmael might be a member of the Wold Newton Family.
Both the Foreword and the Afterword are great additions to the novel!

Philip José Farmer was not amused with the publication of his story "Rastignac the Devil" in Fantastic Universe, May 1954. His story had been rewritten unauthorized, and as a result the story was "ruined" (Farmer's words)..

Rich Horton about this story: "This story has some interesting ideas but is rather a mess. It's set on a French-colonized planet a few hundred years in the future. The human colonists live in harmony (of sorts) with two other species: the reptilian Ssassaror and the amphibian Amphibs. This harmony is enforced by the "Skins" everyone wears, which condition people to submission, vegetarianism, non-violence, etc. There is also a sanctioned custom of stealing babies of other species and raising them as changelings. Rastignac is a human who wishes to go into space, and who realizes that the Skins are inhibiting people from independent thought and ambition. He also recognizes that the Amphibs have altered their Skins and are plotting to take over the other two species. He is imprisoned for his beliefs, but escapes with the help of some other outcast friends, and in the company of a beautiful and vicious human girl who was raised by the Amphibs. He plans revolution, first, then to rescue an Earthman who has landed a spaceship on the planet. But things don't go quite as he hopes ... The main problem here is a disjointed plot, which shows signs of having been made up as the story was being written. A rigorous rewrite and a careful investigation of the central conflict might have been interesting."

Rich exactly puts his finger on the sore spot. Alas, Farmer never restored this story to his original tale. Why he still gave his permission to reprint and translate the unauthorized rewritten story is unknown to me.

Atlantis (Germany) will publish a translation of The Peerless Peer as Sherlock Holmes und die Legende von Greystoke, April June (?) 2013.

In June 2013 will The Mad Goblin be reissued by Titan Books.

The Scarlet Jaguar by Win Scott Eckert will be published by Meteor House in July 2013.

Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life will be reissued by Meteor House and by Altus Press in July 2013.

Titan Books will reissue Flesh in August 2013.

The Worlds of Philip José Farmer, Volume 4, will be published by Meteor House in 2013.

In October 2013 we will see a brand new anthology of Wold Newton stories, Tales of the Wold Newton Universe, from Titan Books.

And finally, in December 2013, will Titan Books reissue Venus on the Half-Shell.