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©
1998 - 2013 by
Zacharias L.A. Nuninga
(Netherlands)
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The Scarlet Jaguar cover |
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15 May 2013
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...).
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Riverworld War |
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8 May 2013
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.
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Joan Hanke Woods |
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Artist correction |
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7 May 2013
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.
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Roger Kastel |
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Riverworld |
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5 May 2013
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...
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McLane |
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More new
Doc Savage editions |
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28
Apr 2013
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.
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Walter Baumhofer |
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New books
from Meteor House! |
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26
Apr 2013
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.
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The final cover
sketch for The Scarlet Jaguar,
by Mark Sparacio |
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Another
Canadian one |
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22
Apr 2013
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.
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Gadino |
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Psychological
horror story |
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14
Apr 2013
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...
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Keith Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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Farmer in
The Best From Playboy |
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2
Apr 2013
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!
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Rastignac
in Il libro di Gamma |
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27
Mar 2013
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.
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Ferruccio Alessandri |
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Riders of
the Purple Wage |
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26
Mar 2013
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.
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Michael Whelan |
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Greatheart
Silver returned |
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12
Mar 2013
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.
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Jim Steranko |
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Star Trek
treatment by Farmer |
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11
Mar 2013
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.
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Keith Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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French
omnibus has a second printing |
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7
Mar 2013
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.
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The Wind
Whales of Ismael received |
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7
Mar 2013
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!
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Unauthorized
rewritten story |
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4
Mar 2013
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.
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Clarence Doore |
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Earlier
news |
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New
Publications
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| Forthcoming Books |
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Atlantis (Germany) will publish a translation of The Peerless Peer as
Sherlock
Holmes und die Legende von Greystoke, April 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.
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