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SEARCH
THIS SITE:
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©
1998 - 2020 by
Zacharias L.A. Nuninga
(Netherlands)
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Somewhat
delayed books |
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26 Aug
2020
Meteor
House published the following statement about the delay of their
announced books:
 «Due to
Covid19 affecting everything in the world these days, from our printers
to the mail system (especially internationally) we're a little late
getting this year's books out. But, we now have the signature sheets
(after their journey from the US, to Spain, to Italy, to the UK, and
back to the US) and should have all our books (A Rough Knight for the Queen
in paperback and limited edition hardcover and Up from the Bottomless Pit
in paperback, both by Philip José Farmer) in hand and ready
to ship by the end of next week.»
So, the books will now be released early September.
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Riverworld
box 1980 |
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31 Jul
2020
It
took me many years to get a copy of the box Philip
José Farmer's Fabulous Riverworld (09/1980) with
the first three novels of the Riverworld series and the collection with
one Riverworld story.
 When
I finally found a copy for sale of the box I also saw a second copy
offered to my big surprise. I almost tended to order them both, but I
could just hold back.
Publisher Berkley filled the boxes with copies of To
Your Scattered Bodies Go, The Fabulous Riverboat, The
Dark Design, and Riverworld and Other Stories.
The contents of the boxes are the same, but the printings of the
included books may vary.
The box has no ISBN or price printed on it, but I received from someone
the ISBN 0-425-04820-9.
The contents of the second Berkley box, The
Complete Riverworld Novels (10/1981), may even more vary. It
also caused some confusion. because there is no 20th printing of Scattered Bodies and
no 19th printing of Fabulous
Riverboat
to be found. My guess is that an extra print run was made of the 19th
of the first and of the 18th of the second title for inclusion in the
boxes. The printing number and date were not changed, but these extra
print runs were counted with the new printings after that. Of The Dark Design is
one of the two 8th printings with different dates included.
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Two
more older fanzines |
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25 Jun
2020
As
I wrote
before several more items were on its way to me. Two of the items are
older fanzines, one from 1957 and the other from 1964. They were
received this week.
Two also ordered books were sent back. One back to France by me,
because I got the wrong printing as was advertised by the book dealer.
The other was sent back to Germany by the post office, because my
address was not complete on the envelop. That seller will send it to me
again, with the full address this time he promised.
I still have to receive more books, but the shipments take longer than
usually because of the Covid-19 problems.
Brian McCabe |
Richard Bergeron |
The fanzine Skyhook
#24, Summer 1957, contains a long letter
by Philip José Farmer. In it Phil praises the previous issue
and
its contents, and made a remark on an error made in Farmer's in that
issue published poem "Black
Squirrel on Cottonwood Limb's Trip".
You can read this letter
online at The Official
Philip José Farmer Web Page.
In the fanzine Zenith
Speculation #7, December 1964, Charles Platt
wrote a critical essay, "The
Strange Relations of Philip José Farmer",
in which he explores the biological ideas Farmer used in some
novels and stories. The cover by Brian McCabe illustrates
Farmer's
novel Flesh.
By the way, the editor of Zenith
Speculation, Peter R. Weston, changed the fanzine's title
in 1966 to only Speculation.
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Newly
received books and a fanzine |
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13 Jun
2020
Some
time ago, in February this year, I wrote I could stop collecting as
I had received the last missing first printing in my collection, that
of The
Green Odyssey (1957). Yes, it was the last first printing I
was looking for, but not the last item of his work.
The past couple of weeks I received these books and a fanzine, and more
are still on its way to me. Most of the newly received ones were
already included in the
bibliography, but two are 'new' on these pages.
The items are
as follows.
A Czech book from Slovakia:
From
France:
From
Germany:
From
Israel:
From
Italy:
From
Lithuania:
An
UK fanzine from the US:
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A
letter in The Patchin Review |
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10 Jun
2020
Charles
Platt published in the period 1981-1985 seven issues of his fanzine The Patchin Review (The inside guide to science
fiction).
«Because I lived in New York City, and knew all the editors,
and
also knew most of the writers in the United States and Britain, I felt
I was in a position to publish a small magazine of commentary that
would be frank about the changes that were occurring and could agitate
against some of them. That was my intention in The Patchin Review.
I also decided to have some fun by publishing a self-satirical gossip
column.», writes Charles Platt in his new introduction for The Complete Patchin Review
(2019).
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«Right from the start, it caused endless trouble for
me.» he writes in the same introduction.
In The Patschin Review
Issue #7,
the Final Issue, of March 1985 Philip José Farmer wrote a
letter, about some of his 'guilty pleasures', his favorite writers, and
about the outline he wrote for a novel titled Wild
and Weird Clime.
In Issue #5 came the announcement «Also coming up, I hope,
will
be an article by Philip José Farmer in defense of
fantasy», but this one wasn't published, alas.
Ansible Editions published in 2019 all seven issues in The Complete Patschin Review
as a free ebook.
Thanks Willem Hettinga for sending me this information!
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More
ebooks in the US and Germany |
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27 May
2020
Meteor
House, a publisher's name which you can see regularly on
these pages, recently released the ebook of Dayworld:
A Hole in Wednesday. This novel is written by Philip
José Farmer and co-authored by his grand nephew Danny Adams.
Originally published in a limited hardcover edition, and in a trade
paperback, the novel is now available for $ 2.99 via Amazon or BN. If
you haven't the printed version yet, then I recommend you to buy the
ebook. It is a great novel!
Publisher Heyne in Germany released in December 2016 the ebook of the
omnibus Fleisch.
The omnibus had seen eight printings from Heyne since its first
publication in 1989. It contains three novels: Die Verkörperung des
Bösen (The Image of the Beast), Außer Atem
(Blown)
and Fleisch
(Flesh).
The price for the ebook is € 9,99 or $ 11.99 in the US.
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Alan
Green visits Duchess Zuni in Poland |
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24 May
2020
 Earlier, in October 2019, was the
Spanish edition released. This time there will be a Polish edition of
Farmer's first book, The Green Odyssey (1957).
Publisher Stalker Books will publish in August 2020 the Polish
translation, Odyseja
Greena, in their series 'Klasycy amerykańskiej SF'
(American SF classics).
The paperback with 240 pages will sell for Zł 33,99 (about €
7,50), and has ISBN 9788366280601.
This novel is in the public domain and it has since seen
several
publications in the US, at least 13, for prices of 'for free'
(download) till $ 25 for a hardcover.
See the book page for this.
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A
Rough Knight for the Queen |
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29 Apr
2020
Meteor
House announced another book for release this year, A Rough Knight for the Queen,
a non-fiction work:
Trade paperback |
«Philip José Farmer fans know that he was
fascinated with 19th
century explorer and author Sir Richard Francis Burton. Farmer made
Burton the protagonist of the Hugo winning novel, To Your Scattered Bodies Go,
the first book in the Riverworld series. In Gods of Riverworld,
the
final book in the series, Peter Jairus Frigate (Farmer’s
fictional
stand in) said that he had written a biography of Richard Burton...
Now
Meteor House brings you Farmer’s 26,000 word biography of
Burton in
both an affordable trade paperback and in a signed limited hardcover.
Both editions feature introductory material by Mick Walton (author of Sir Richard Burton and His Circle),
Mark Hodder (author of the Burton
and Swinburne novels) and Paul Spiteri (editor of Pearls from Peoria).
The hardcover limited edition will be signed by Walton, Hodder,
Spiteri, and cover artist Charles Berlin.».
The price of the
trade paperback is $15, and of the signed limited edition hardcover $40.
The
print run of the hardcover limited edition will be determined by the
number of preorders. This means the majority of hardcovers will be sold
before the book is even printed, so preorder
your copy today! |
Signed limited
hardcover |
The books will be released in August 2020.
The biography "A
Rough Knight for the Queen" was only once published before,
in the collection Pearls from Peoria (2006).
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Erotic
Gas of Dream Makers |
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19 Apr
2020
 On
at least two occasions in the past Philip José Farmer and
Charles Platt met each other. In May 1979, forty-one years ago, Platt
interviewed Farmer. This interview, simply titled "Philip José Farmer",
and a lot of others Platt had conducted, were published in the US by
Berkley Books as Dream
Makers (1980). In the same year it was published
in the UK by Savoy Books as Who
Writes Science Fiction?
The book was translated in German in 1982. It got published in a
revised hardcover edition in the UK by Xanadu (1986) and in the US by
Unger (1987).
I just discovered that it also was republished in the US by The
Stairway Press in April 2014 as trade paperback and ebook.
And in December 2017 as ebook by Gateway in the UK. Originally
published in two volumes, the profiles collected in the Gateway ebook
have been specially updated with afterwords written in 2017.
 But
this is not the only publication from Charles Platt, with a
contribution by Philip José Farmer, that UK publisher
Gateway
released as ebook. Platt wrote in 1969 a pornographic novel, The Gas,
that was originally intended for publication by Essex House, but they
stopped. It was then published in the US by Ophelia Press (1970) and
later by Loompanics Unlimited (1995).
Publisher Savoy Books wanted to release it in 1980 in the UK. Farmer
wrote a "Foreword"
for this edition. Alas most of the print run of this edition was
destroyed by the authorities.
in December 2017 the book was released as ebook by Gateway. Including
Farmer's foreword. In a complete new "Introduction: Repulsive and
Unpublishable" Charles Platt describes all the problems this book has
had in the US and the UK before and after it got published.
The Gas
was
translated into German and published three times. Two of the
publications, both with Farmer's foreword, are limited editions only,
with a signature by Platt. It is the only translation I know of.
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The
Captain's Daughter in Japan |
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15 Apr
2020
 From
Amazon.jp is an anthology on its way to me, 最初の接触 (First Contact).
It was published by Hayakawa in May 2019 and includes seven stories by
Murray Leinster, John Wyndham, James Blish, James White, Damon Knight,
Poul Anderson, and by Philip José Farmer.
Phil Farmer's story is "キャプテン
の娘" ("The Captain's
Daughter" a.k.a. "Strange Compulsion"), which was published
before in September 1968 in the Japanese S-F Magazine.
 While
I was sniffing online at Japanese web pages I also found and bought the
first four books in The
World of Tiers series. Three of them are first editions that
were already known in the Bibliography. One of them, 階
層宇宙の創造者 (The Maker of Universes),
is an undated later yet unknown printing. Maybe a second printing, with
a different price (¥ 320).
And finally I bought the Japanese first printing of The
Fabulous Riverboat (わが夢のリバーボート). It was
already known on these pages.
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The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer in Iran |
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2 Apr
2020
In
the Iran year 1397 released publisher Drop a Persian translation of The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer, with the title:
شرلوک
هولمز و نجیب زاده ی بی همتا.
This title translates like: Sherlock
Holmes and the Unmatched Gentleman. The transliteration of
the Persian title isn't easy to speak out loud: Shrlwk Hwlmz w njyb zadh y by hmta.
According to our calendar the book was
published in December 2018. The price of 140,000 real looks extreme,
but it is only about $3.50. The novella was published as written by
John H. Watson.
See this Iran
bookpage.
With this first Persian translation Farmer's books now have been
translated in 32 countries, witch brings the total number of countries
that
released Farmer's work —including the US, UK, Canada and
Australia—
to 36.
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First
Bulgarian editions in my collection |
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16 Mar
2020
As
you might
know by now I try to collect all editions worldwide of Philip
José Farmer's work. Including all the reprints of his books.
The
collection now includes about 1350 editions and printings of Farmer's
books. I'm still looking for about 200 known editions and reprints.
Next to his books I also collect all anthologies, magazines and
fanzines, and his non-fiction work as well as the non-fiction written
about him.
The collection grows and grows every year. But till now I hadn't found
any of the Bulgarian editions for sale. There were seven books I was
looking for, but recently I found four of them online at a Bulgarian
book shop. Thanks for the service Zhivka Zhelyazkova!
The four books are:
There are still three more novels, in
The World of Tiers series, that I am looking for. See the index of Bulgarian books.
Only the first two books in the Riverworld series
were translated.
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French
ghost editions |
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14 Mar
2020
 For
years I had two French
books in the International Bibliography of which I wasn't sure they
really exist. Both come from the French publisher Pocket (or Presses
Pocket). I have searched for them for many years, but never found proof
that they really exist. I haven't been able to find or buy them in all
these years.
Les
murs de la Terre
First is the December 1997 French edition of Behind the Walls of Terra,
Les murs de la Terre.
I found an online reference to this one years ago, but that was all. I
hoped to be able to purchase a copy in due time, but no. The shown
cover is of the 1995 reprint.
 Le
privé du cosmos
The second one is the March 1992 French edition of Venus on the Half-Shell,
Le privé du cosmos.
There is still an online link to this one in the French bibliography NooSFere.
But not any actual proof that it exists, neither anywhere else on the
net. The shown cover is of the 1988 first printing.
Because I never in the past 20+ years found copies of these books I
entered both on the page 'Ghost
editions' (see here
and here). I do not
believe they really exist. They may have been announced for release,
but never published.
On both book pages are the ghost editions still to be seen, with an
explanatory note. In due time they will vanish from those pages.
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Up
from the Bottomless Pit cover revealed |
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10 Mar
2020
There
was an entry here on February 1 this year, about the forthcoming book
from Meteor House, Up from the Bottomless Pit.
This week the cover was revealed, drawn by Keith Howell.
The novel will have a foreword by Christopher Paul Carey, and an
introduction by award winning environmental writer Sharman Apt Russell.
Originally this novel was announced for a
publication in 1975 by Ballantine Books with the title The Dragon's Breath.
But Ballantine / Del Rey didn't like the novel, and neither the asked
for rewrite. Farmer wrote another novel for them instead, Dark
is the Sun.
This novel was published before in the fanzine Farmerphile,
in ten parts (2005-2007). It was included in the collection Up
from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories, published by
Subterranean Press in 2007 in two expensive limited editions.
Meteor House will bring the first trade paperback edition with an
affordable price. You can preorder
it now, it will be shipped in August 2020.
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Cover
again by Manchu |
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23 Feb
2020
 French
publisher Le Livre de Poche released in 2012 the 8th reprint of Le
labyrinthe magique (The
Magic Labyrinth).
The cover illustration of that one was from National Geographic/ Getty
Images, a total different one than the earlier printings. Usually the
publisher uses the same cover illustration on all printings.
I just discovered the 9th printing, published in 2015. In this case the
original illustration by Manchu has been used again. See left.
It's hard to find online the different printings of a title. Book
dealers often only give the publication year of the first printing,
even with reprints.
The newly discovered book has been added on the book page.
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Finally
my own copy |
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16 Feb
2020
For
a very long period of time I still was missing a first hardcover
edition of The Green Odyssey. It
was published by Ballantine Books in 1957, many years before I started
reading science fiction, and even more years before I started
collecting all the novels and stories written by Philip José
Farmer.
I started collecting the US publications in 1973 with snail mail orders
to Richard Witter (F&SF Book Co.) in New York. One of my first
orders were copies of the original hardcover editions of To
Your Scattered Bodies Go and The Fabulous Riverboat
(1971).
I received the second one, but Scattered
Bodies was just out of print, alas. I bought it several
years ago for more than hundred times the original price.
Once there was internet one could check the online dealers, and I saw
the book at Abebooks for about a thousand times the original price,
from 2000 till 2500 dollars and more.
The last time I checked Abebooks the prices ranged from $2.250 till the
huge amount of $9.500 for a clean copy. Most of the small print-run of
the hardcover went to (military) libraries. Clean copies are very
scarce also, and very expensive. This particular book is one of the
scarcest titles in the Ballantine hardcover series.
But recently I found online a copy for sale for a very reasonable
price. Not a clean copy, but an ex-library one in a reasonable good
condition. See the picture above.
Finally my collection of Farmers first editions is complete, I now can
stop collecting...
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Japanese
sience fiction magazines |
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5 Feb
2020
Last
November I ordered and received seven books from a Japanese web shop.
That went very smoothly. So I looked again but did not see yet any of
the other missing books in my collection.
But I discovered that the web shop also has a huge collection of
Japanese magazines for sale. It took me a while to check them all, and
I found eleven science fiction magazines that I wanted. Most of them
are issues of the S-F
Magazine (S-F
マガジン).
The issues, and the stories in it are:
I added and corrected some data with
these publications.
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Up
from the Bottomless Pit |
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1 Feb
2020
 A new
announcement from Meteor House of a forthcoming book:
«Philip José Farmer’s Up from the Bottomless Pit,
originally written in the late 1970s with the working title The Dragon’s Breath,
is a near-mainstream novel about the ultimate ecological nightmare. Set
in an alternate/near future 1970s, Up
from the Bottomless Pit
tells of a world so ravenous in its desire for oil that it has thrown
caution to the wind. Using an experimental deep-water laser drill off
the California coast, humankind burns a hole through the ocean floor
only to unleash a deadly torrent that initially threatens the greater
Los Angeles area, but quickly escalates to a catastrophe of worldwide
proportions with the potential to wipe out all life on the planet.
This is the Farmer novel you’ve heard about but never got to
read! Now, available for the first time ever in a trade paperback
edition, you can get Up
from the Bottomless Pit for only $20
(+shipping).»
This novel was published before in ten issues of the fanzine Farmerphile
(2005-2007). In 2007 it was included in the collection Up
from the Bottomless Pit and Other Stories, published in
expensive hardcover ($125 or $300) by Subterranean Press.
The above illustration is one of many by Keith Howell, used in these
publications.
Go to the website of Meteor
House to preorder your copy. Books will be shipped to you in
August 2020 right after FarmerCon XV.
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La
odisea de Green |
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1 Feb
2020
 In
October 2019 the Spanish publisher 'La biblioteca del laberinto'
released the first Spanish translation —62 years after its
original
publication— of The Green Odyssey. It is
published in their series Delirio Ciencia Ficción, #130,
with the title La odisea de Green.
The cover illustration is the same uncredited one as with the first
hardcover publication by Ballantine Books in 1957.
The book starts with an essay
by David Pringle and John Clute, that was published before in The Encyclopedia of Science
Fiction. It is also publshed with permission of the
authors on this website, as "The
Most Anarchic SF Writer".
In the Spanish edition the same, translated, title is used: "El
excritor más anárquico de la ciencia
ficción".
The essay is illustrated with some photos of Phil and also with several
book covers.
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Philip
José Farmer Day
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26
Jan
2020
Unknown
artist.
January
26. 1918
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Latest
additions to my PJF collection |
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24 Jan
2020
In
December
2019 and this month, January 2020, I received three foreign
publications with stories by Philip José Farmer. They were
mentioned earlier on this page, but I did not have the publications
myself yet. I try to buy every publication worldwide for my already
very huge Farmer collection.
Often I get very nice responses from the sellers when I explain the
reason why I want to buy the book or magazine, in a language I do not
understand. Always referring to this website. From a Czech book shop I
got: «Your website is fine and interesting.»
The new publications are:
- Japan: Dangerous Visions 1 (危険なヴィジョン 1)
- Romania: Dangerous Visions (Viziuni periculoase)
- Czech Republic: The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction
The first two books, from Japan and
Romania, contain "Riders of
the Purple Wage". The Czech version of The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction contains the novelette "A Scarletin Study",
published under the pseudonym Jonathan Swift Somers III.
I had to correct some of the information that already was included.
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New
Publications
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| Forthcoming Books |
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Up
From the Bottomless Pit
Meteor House, August 2020.
---
A
Rough Knight for the Queen, a biography of Richard Burton.
Meteor House, August 2020.
---
The
following are not yet confirmed, but these titles are mentioned in the
past years. All from Meteor House:
The
Monster on Hold, written by Farmer & Win Scott
Eckert, in 2021 - 2022 (?).
---
Christopher Paul Carey will maybe write a trilogy about Kôr,
son of
Hadon of Opar. Might be published in 2021 - 2022 (?).
---
Read
more >>
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