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©
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Zacharias
L.A. Nuninga
(Netherlands)
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Biblio-SF Numéro 6 |
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7
Feb
2012
The French fanzine Biblio-SF
nº 6 of February 2012 has been published. It contains four
bibliographies, all compiled by the editor, Alain
Sprauel. These four bibliographies, of the French authors Christian
Léourier and Michel Pagel, the British author Stephen Baxter,
and of Philip José Farmer, are heavily illustrated with the
covers of the French publications. The book covers are printed in color.
Biblio-SF nº 6 has 58 pages, 22 of these are needed for the Farmer bibliography.
The listings of novels, collections and short fiction (stories and
poems) are given chronologically, based on the original publication.
All French editions are mentioned, reprints of these only when the
cover had changed.
In one word: fantastic! In French: fantastique!
You can order a copy from Alain Sprauel, by paying him the amount of
€ 8,00 of US$ 10.00 via PayPal. Do not forget to mention that the
money is for a copy of Biblio-SF #6.
His e-mail address for this is alain.sprauel@gmail.com. As soon as he receives the money he will send you a copy.
See here for the other issues of Biblio-SF, with many more bibliographies.
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Pierre Le Pixx |
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Two
French publications |
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5
Feb
2012
Alain
Sprauel –see the entry of January 24th– asked
me to do a final check on his Farmer bibliography, for mistakes,
omissions, or whatever, before it would be published.
Because of this I saw that the short story "The King of the Beasts"
had a French translation in 1971 in the magazine Le nouveau Planète.
I bought the magazine and added this publication on the story page.
One
of the publications Sprauel had missed in his bibliography was an
extract of the novel Dare (French: Ose) in the
anthology Découvrir
la science-fiction (1975), edited by Michel Cosem. I had
discovered this one some time ago, but added it on the book page
only now.
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Yves Tanguy |
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Mother
Earth Wants You |
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4
Feb
2012
A
strange story about a so called living and sentient future Earth. The
Earth after a holocaust. The woman are in charge with the few
–very
religious– people still living. The men are submissive, but
one
of them is doubting the stories from the priestesses about Mother
Earth. A Mother Earth with her eyes-ears, or "teevee tranceivers" as
the priestesses call them. His wife has left him, he becomes angry and
all he wants is to go against this Mother Earth...
There is a small difference between the publications of "Mother Earth Wants You".
The difference appears in one paragraph.
Chilton
edition:
- - "You're suffering from guilt and you want to die!" The Man said.
Covey ignored him. When he got to the top of the hill, dusk had fallen
on the land below and darkened somewhat the grove. - -
Chilton/Book
Club Edition, with a piece missing:
- - "You're suffering from guilt and you
want
to die!" The Man said. fallen on the land below and darkened somewhat
the grove. - -
Subterranean
Press, with the missing piece partly restored:
- - "You're suffering from guilt and you want to die!" The Man said.
Dusk had fallen on the land below and darkened somewhat the grove. - -
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Donald E. Cooke |
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Philip
José Farmer Day |
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26
Jan
2012
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A French
Farmer Bibliography |
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24
Jan
2012
Alain
Sprauel is a world famous bibliographer in France, he wrote about 225
bibliographies in a period of 15 years. These bibliographies are all
based on the actual publications, books and magazines, from his own
collection. He has a huge collection of books.
See an interview with Alain –in French of course–
online at Le
Monde
de Matéo.
Next month, February 2012, will see the publication of the magazine Biblio-SF
number 6. In this issue are four bibliographies, of two French authors,
Léourier and Pagel, and of Stephen Baxter and Philip
José
Farmer.
All original first publications and every French publication will be
listed in Alain's bibliography. The French publications will have a
cover scan included.
Alain Sprauel also compiled a Farmer bibliography
published in Le Cycle du
Fleuve (2003).
Biblio-SF
number 6 will be published mid-February and will have a sales price,
including shipping, of US $10.
As soon as it has been published I will let you know how to obtain a
copy.
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Pierre Le Pixx |
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Writings
in Bronze |
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22
Jan
2012
As
most of you will know Phil loved the stories of the old Street
& Smith pulp magazine hero Doc Savage. These stories were
published during the 1930s and 1940s. Phil was fifteen when he
discovered the first adventure of Doc in a local drugstore.
His love for Doc Savage never faded and inspired Farmer to write a
fictional biography about the bronze character with Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973). Not only that, much
later he also wrote a new adventure of Doc, Escape
from Loki (1991).
Of course Phil was not the only fan of Doc Savage. And of course he was
not the only one to write about the Man of Bronze. Will Murray started
writing essays about Doc in 1973. He wrote many articles after the
first one. About fifty of Murray's articles, from the period 1976 till
2008, have been collected in Writings
in Bronze, published by Altus
Press in 2011.
One of these essays, "Caliban",
had been published in Farmerphile,
no. 6 in October 2006.
Altus Press also published Chronology
of Bronze (2010) by Rick Lai, see the publisher's website.
This is Lai's third, completely revised version of the Doc Savage
chronology. Farmer started a chronology of his hero in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life,
but was never satisfied with his work. Rick Lai's heavily updated
version is the authoritative chronology of the Man in Bronze.
Both books can be obtained through Amazon.
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Omnibus
surprise |
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21
Jan
2012
Last
week I received many books for my Farmer collection. A Russian
omnibus (Дейр),
the Baen/Book Club Edition in hardcover of the omnibus Strange
Relations, an Italian anthology (Diavoli),
the British (actually the US) edition of the anthology The
Science Fiction Century, and three books from Lithuania.
These three books are Deira
(Dare),
Į savo
prarastus kūnus sugrįšite (To
Your Scattered Bodies Go), and Nemąstanti kaukė (The
Unreasoning Mask).
Of course I check every received book with the information already in
the bibliography. Sometimes I have to correct some information, and
I also scan the covers to replace the older –received or
found– ones.
With the above mentioned books the corrections were minor, except for
one. Much to my surprise the Lithuanian book Deira not only
contains the translated novel Dare, but
also the novel Night of Light. Not a word
about the second novel on the copyright page, nor is there a table of
contents to indicate both novels. I just discovered it because the book
starts with the title Šviesos
Naktis, which translates as Night Light. The
protagonist of the story John Carmody is translated as Džonas Kermodis.
I added the 'new' omnibus Deira in the
bibliography.
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Keith Parkinson |
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Mama's boy |
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17
Jan
2012
With
the story "Mother"
(1953) Phil Farmer wrote a Freudian story. It is about the
Oedipal relationship between Eddie Fetts and his dominant mother. Both
are survivors after a crash on the planet Baudelaire, the other crew
members are all dead.
After a few days Eddie is captured by one of the organisms on
Baudelaire, a huge otherworldly female that looks like a rock. This
alien female won't let go of Eddie and he has to make her 'womb' his
permanent home.
The story was an instant success on publication and has been reprinted
and translated many times. Sam Moskowitz wrote: "In many
ways this story was even better than "The
Lovers". From reading a criticism of Freud, Farmer had
conceived of a plot involving a literal return to the womb."
There are 89 publications, nearly all with a cover scan, on the
restyled story page. "Mother"
was even included in a college book, Introductory Psychology Through
Science Fiction (1974 and 1977), because of the Oedipus
complex.
It was also translated in the Finnish language, and included in a
special Farmer issue of the magazine Portti. The story
was illustrated by Reijo Purontakanen. Below is one of his
illustrations.
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Jack Coggins |
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2011 -
The Year in review |
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11
Jan
2012
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Laura Givens |
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Roaring
with vivid life |
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8
Jan
2012
In
2006 A & C Black Publishers from the UK published the small and
handsome paperback 100
Must-Read Science Fiction Novels. I discovered this book
back in 2009, see the entry.
And again some years after it got published I discovered another book
from the same authors, Stephen E. Andrews & Nick Rennison. This
book, 100 Must-Read
Fantasy Novels, was published by A & C Black
Publishers in 2009. It also has an
entry on Philip José Farmer, about the novel A
Feast Unknown: "Tautly written, admirably well-plotted,
fearlessly imaginative and roaring with vivid life, this is Farmer at
his apotheosis."
The book can be bought for £6.99 or $9.95 with the online
book dealers, or go to www.acblack.com.
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The State
Church knows it all |
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28
Dec
2011
Farmer's
first science fiction story had a huge impact, at the time of
publication. See the entry of December 12th.
Since the publication of "The
Lovers" many readers were asking –no,
demanding– a sequel.
Nearly a year later, in June 1953, Starling
Stories announced the
sequel, "Moth and Rust".
But it was not a sequel at all. The only thing both stories
shared
was the same Earth culture, with the State Church, or Sturch for short.
Sam Moskowitz in his essay:
"...Actually, it is a fast-moving cloak-and-dagger novel of the future,
comparable in theme to 1984
... Religion rather than sex is the major story ingredient. Farmer
explores the rise and nature of hypothetical new religions of the
future with the same scientific objectivity with which he previously
outlined the sex life of aliens."
According to Moskowitz the 'sequel' received only a lukewarm reception
upon publication.
Farmer expanded, partly rewrote and revised the story into the novel A
Woman a Day (1960), also known as The Day of Timestop,
or Timestop!.
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Ed Emsh |
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A thing
from another dimension |
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27
Dec
2011
Phil
wrote three novels in the "Doc
Caliban" series, starting with A
Feast Unknown (1969), and continued in in Lord
of the Trees (1970) and The Mad Goblin (1970).
The story wasn't finished yet and Phil had plans to write a fourth
novel in the series, originally titled The Unspeakable Threshold
(later titled The
Monster On Hold).
Alas, Phil didn't write the planned novel. The series stayed
unfinished, something that has happened to some of his other series as
well. He had an outline and a finished chapter of the projected novel.
Part of the outline and the chapter, "The
Monster on Hold", were published in 1983 in the anthology World Fantasy Convention 1983,
a souvenir book of the convention.
Farmer in his introduction: "The three novels above took place in the
late 1960s. The events of The
Monster on Hold
begin in the late 1970s when Doc Caliban penetrates Tilatoc's
supposedly impregnable fortress hideout in northern Canada. I won't
describe the result because I don't want to reveal too much about the
novel. But Caliban goes into hiding again. He hears that Anana has
decreed that whoever kills Grandrith and Caliban will become Council
members even if they are not candidates. (Caliban almost loses his life
when he gains this piece of information.) When the second section of
the novel begins (in 1984), Caliban is in Los Angeles and disguised as
an old wino. Tired of running, he's decided to attack, but, first, he
needs a lead. One night, a juvenile gang jumps him, thinking he's easy
prey. He disposes of them quite bloodily, but he spots a man observing
the fight. Later, he sees the man shadowing him. After trapping him,
Caliban questions him, using a truth drug he invented in the 1930s. As
Caliban suspects, the man is an agent of the Nine. Caliban allows him
to escape and then trails him. This leads to a series of adventures
I'll omit in this outline."
It is a thousand pities that Phil never wrote the novel. The published
chapter promised a lot.
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Rowena Morrill |
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How to
tell your mother? |
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26
Dec
2011
The
short story "Monologue"
is a very unsettling horror tale about a boy who isn't able to talk but
desperately wants to tell his mother something. How to tell her
otherwise than to show it...
Roger Elwood –who published the story in his anthology Demon Kind in
1973– said this about the story: "Outright shock and horror".
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The End
of the World |
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20
Dec
2011
Over
the years many people have predicted the end of the world. A prediction
with the exact date and time, based upon calculations or based upon
books, like the Bible. But so far, nothing ever happened... The world
still exists.
What would it look like, the end of the world? According to Philip
José Farmer's story "The
Making of Revelation, Part 1"
God
himself wants the spectacle to be filmed, with Cecil B. DeMille
–brought back from the dead– as the chief director.
The
script has to be written (and rewritten many times) by Harlan Ellison.
And God as the producer, with at least a hundred thousand angels as
assistant directors.
The result is a great action movie, really a spectacle! Even Satan has
a role.
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Love and
Sex on Ozagen |
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12
Dec
2011
Philip
José Farmer's first science fiction story shocked the world.
The
science fiction world, that is. It was rejected by two editors, before
it was accepted by Samuel Mines, editor of Startling Stories.
t was a taboo breaking story in 1952, because there was not only 'love'
in the story, but also sex. And on top of that, sex between a human and
an alien. An alien in human disguise, but nevertheless an alien. That
was something you didn't do in 1952.
But Farmer did it. And with success! For months after publication
readers were writing letters to the magazines, most of them in high
favor of the story. The story was "The
Lovers", of course.
One
of Virgil Finlay's illustrations for the story.
Mostly based on this novella Farmer received his first Hugo Award in 1953, as the Most
Promising New Author.
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Earle K. Bergey |
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Love Song
excerpts |
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10
Dec
2011
Philip
José Farmer's first science fiction story was the at that
time –early 1950s– very controversial "The Lovers".
Controversial, because in the story a human had sex with an
alien, although there were no explicit scenes about this in the story.
Farmer later proofed that he could write more explicit sex stories. He
wrote several of these, like the very erotic, gothic novel Love
Song (Brandon House, 1970).
The publishing house of this novel, Parliament News, Inc., published
two different excerpts
of the novel in two of their adult magazines, Last Date and Secret Hours, in
1970.
I still haven't found a copy of Last
Date, but together with a copy of the magazine Puritan
–see
previous entry– I found a copy of Secret
Hours. The excerpt comes with a two page illustration by
an uncredited artist.
The Short Fiction page
of the excerpts has been restyled.
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Rip Van
Winkle's Long
Wet Dream |
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7
Dec
2011
Philip
José Farmer wrote his own version of Washington Irving's
story "Rip Van
Winkle". He made it into a highly erotic and explicit, time
traveling story.
The adult magazine Puritan,
issue number 7 (1981) published it for the first time, with the title "Rip Van Winkle's Long Wet Dream".
After many years searching for it, I finally found a copy of this issue
of Puritan,
and corrected the
original title of the story. The few adult magazines with Farmer's
stories in it, are not easy to track down.
Farmer rewrote the story only slightly after that, to introduce the
'purple haze'. The second version, "The
Long Wet Purple Dream of Rip Van Winkle" was reprinted twice
in two collections of Farmer's stories.
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Howard Chaykin |
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Ten
Farmer titles from Titan Books |
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5
Dec
2011
According
to the December issue of Locus,
# 611, Titan Books will publish a total of seven Wold Newton Universe
(WNU) novels, and three standalone titles.
Two weeks ago we announced the first three known titles that are to be
published by Titan
Books: The Other Log of Phileas Fogg
(WNU), Time's
Last Gift (WNU) and Lord Tyger.
Other WNU titles that might be republished by Titan Books are: Escape
From Loki, Ironcastle, Stations
of the Nightmare, The Dark Heart of Time, Venus
on the Half-Shell, and The Wind Whales of Ishmael.
Also, but not likely because of the SubPress omnibus, Hadon
of Ancient Opar and Flight to Opar. And of
course the fictional biographies where 'it all started with', Tarzan
Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalytic Life
might be candidates.
We will have to wait and see what's actually
coming up from Titan Books in 2012 and later. It's a great idea of
Titan Books to publish a series of Wold Newton Universe novels!
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Earlier
news |
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| Forthcoming Books |
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In April 2012 Subterranean Press publishes an omnibus with the three
Opar / Khokarsa novels, Gods
of Opar: Tales of Lost Khokarsa.
A new edition of The
Other Log of Phileas Fogg will be published by Titan Books
in May 2012.
Titan Books will publish a new edition of Time's Last Gift in
June 2012.
The novel Lord Tyger
will also have a new edition from Titan Books, July 2012.
German publisher Atlantis will publish a translation of The Peerless Peer as
Sherlock
Holmes und die Legende von Tarzan.
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