The previous entry was about Farmer's novel Two Hawks from Earth (1979). Of the translation and publication in France.

By coincidence I discovered online a recent interesting review of the original novel, published on February 21, 2021. It is written by Michael Smith in his blog, "The Book that Time Forgot".

Part of his review: «This was a really interesting book. Farmer did a lot of research into the various peoples to give us a fascinating look at a world without the Americas. That Eastern Europe is populated by descendants of the tribes that migrated to America seems plausible ... So if you want a unique alternate history book I would highly recommend this one.»

Michael Smith has also reviews of The Stone God Awakens («...I would definitely recommend this book...») and Dark is the Sun («...very enjoyable. I highly recommend it...») online in his blog.
It's nice to read his praising words.

The French publisher Mnémos will release in November 2021 a translation of Farmer's novel Two Hawks from Earth, as Deux faucons de l'autre terre. It will be released as a paperback, 352 pages, for the price of € 11,90.
With ISBN 978-2-35408-917-7.

This novel was originally published as The Gate of Time in October 1966 by Belmont Books. According to his foreword in Two Hawks from Earth —published in May 1979— Farmer restored a scene and he expanded the text with «...about ten thousand words. These include some chapters which go beyond the original ending.»

The Gate of Time was translated and published once before in France. As La porte du temps by Fleuve Noir in 1983. But the revised and expanded text was not published in France till now.
The cover of the new French edition has not yet been revealed.

The first cover of the new publications from Meteor House is revealed. This one is for the limited signed hardcover, drawn by Mark Wheatley. It is a mysterious and beautiful cover!
The Monster on Hold by Philip José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert will be published in a Trade Paperback and a Signed Hardcover Limited Edition. The trade paperback will have a different cover art, done by Doug Klauba.
I am looking forward to the new books!

A great announcement from Meteor House! Which they did on Farmer's birthday. In the summer or fall of this year they will publish three new books.
The books are:

The Monster on Hold by Philip José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert. The book will be published in a Trade Paperback and Signed Hardcover Limited Edition. This is the fourth novel in the Secrets of the Nine series and was begun in the 1970s. Using Farmer’s partial manuscripts and copious notes Win Scott Eckert has completed the novel at long last.
The drawing at left is by Jason Robert Bell.

It’s Always Darkest by Frank Schildiner. Set in the same Secrets of the Nine universe as The Monster on Hold, this hard-boiled novella follows a new, yet familiar, character, a one-time initiate of the Nine who has chosen to rebel against their formidable forces. This novella will be published as a Signed Hardcover Limited Edition.

The Man Who Met Tarzan by Philip José Farmer. This book collects many of the articles, speeches, essays and letters Farmer has written about Edgar Rice Burroughs and Tarzan over several decades, culminating in his interview with the jungle lord in 1972. This collection will be published in a Trade Paperback and Signed Hardcover Limited Edition featuring vintage cover art.

See the full announcement and the ordering information at Meteor House.

Today I finally received the information from the Post Office that I could pick up the three books Meteor House had sent again to me early December 2020. First I had to pay the custom clearance.

The books had been at the Post Office in my country before, but were without further notice to me sent back to the publisher. Because I hadn't picked them up.
I had never received a notice that I could pick up the books, and so didn't know they were here.

All in all it took four months for the books to reach me.
I had ordered three other books in December, twice from Subterranean Press and one through Abebooks.
These three were all received in two-three weeks time, as is standard in most cases.
I'm glad that I finally have these books:
- Up From the Bottomless Pit (trade paperback);
- A Rough Knight for the Queen (hardcover and trade paperback.

This is the second tip I got from Fred Fischer (USA) in the past few days. First he discovered that something by Farmer had been included in the Spanish collection El otro canon de Sherlock Holmes. See the previous entry.
This time he came with the information about the book The Faces of Science Fiction (1984). This book contains black and white photos of 82 authors. The photos were all done by Patti Perret. They were especially made for this book.

The photo of Farmer with his desk and paintings of his work in the besement of their house is accompanied by a brief but very funny essay. Farmer had some ideas about all the photos in the book.

Spanish publisher Los Libros de Barsoom published in 2015 the collection El otro canon de Sherlock Holmes. With stories by Arthur Conan Doyle and stories and essays by diverse other hands. Also with several pastiches, one of them by Philip José Farmer. The novella The Adventure of the Peerless Peer was translated as "La aventura del par simpar".

The novella was not translated for the first time into Spanish. With the title La Aventura del Par sinpar, but that was twelve years ago for an illegal online publication. See the entry of November 12, 2008. The referred website to the story is not online anymore.

The new collection was originally published in February 2015, but was republished in December 2017 in a revised version. Several misprints were corrected in the second edition.
I cannot find a copy of any of the two editions for sale at the moment. I have searched many websites, but there is not one copy available. Have to try again later.

Meteor House originally announced their new books for this year to be released at FarmerCon XV. This would be in August 2020, but the con was canceled. Mainly due to the COVID-19 pandemic there were more problems, reason why the books were more delayed. At the end of September 2020 the ordered books were sent by the publisher.
But I did not receive the books. I waited and finally asked the publisher what might be the reason. The shipment had be going back and forth in the US. Only later I saw in the detailed history of the tracking info that the parcel really had been in my country, the Netherlands, but was sent back. The reason why is unknown.


Finally early December Mike Croteau, the publisher, received the books back. He sent them to me again, but I haven't received them as yet. I try to follow the tracking info this time. I only see that the parcel is moving, but not where it is at the moment. I still hope for the best.

I probably will not see the new releases this year anymore, but I still wanted the new information —as far as I have it— in the bibliography. There is a new bookpage for Up From the Bottomless Pit. The other two publications, A Rough Knight for the Queen, are added on the page 'Works by PJF'.

From my friend Fred Fischer (US) again I received some items that I didn't yet have in my collection. Two of them were already known to me and added in the bibliography, but the third, RiverCon XX, is completely new. Of the first two I had to add or change some information.


The three items are:

• Luna' #6 (1969), with an essay by Farmer: "Report".
• élan vital #1 (1977), with a graphic version of the short story "The King of the Beasts".
• RiverCon XX (1995), with an essay by Frederik Pohl about Phil.

It was nice to finally see the graphic version of the story "The King of the Beasts", but it also disappointed me somewhat. In the story Farmer leaves it open to our fantasy what kind of (alien?) creatures the biologist and its visitor are. The biologist re-creates many of the extinct species of earth, and also the most dangerous one. The drawn creatures in this graphic version seem to be humans, which spoils the punch line of the story. If you look at this illustration, maybe you understand what I mean.

Many thanks for these items Fred! Great find!

Two drawn world maps based on Philip José Farmer's novel The Gate of Time can be found on the internet. The novel was later revised and expanded as Two Hawks from Earth.
They are drawn by 'Chipmunken', published on April 1, 2020 (see here) and one by 'CourageousLife', which was published on October 2, 2020 (see here). The second one, which its original publication, is a very big picture, 8042x4500 pixels, 2.5 Mb.
'Chipmunken' gives with his map a rather detailed and interesting description of the novel that led to his map. Both drawings are very interesting!

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.

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.

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:

• Bájná loď, 1993 (The Fabulous Riverboat)

From France:

• Le noir dessein, 1995 (The Dark Design) [= new!]

From Germany:

• Das dunkle Muster, 1996 (The Dark Design) [= new!]

From Israel:

• התבנית האפלה (The Magic Labyrinth), 2004

From Italy:

• Alle sorgenti del fiume, 1989 (The Fabulous Riverboat)
• Il fiume della vita, 1976 (To Your Scattered Bodies Go)
• Il grande disegno, 1995 (The Dark Design)

From Lithuania:

• Visatų kūrėjas, 1994 (The Maker of Universes)
• Užslinks naktis, 1991 (original anthology,
  with "The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday World")

An UK fanzine from the US:

• Speculation #26, May 1970 (with a letter by PJF)

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).


«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!

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.

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).

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.

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:

• В телата си разпръснати върнете се (To Your Scattered Bodies Go)
• Приказният кораб (The Fabulous Riverboat)
• Частен космос / Зад стените на Тера (A Private Cosmos / Behind the Walls of Terra)
• Невъзможен свят (The Lavalite World)

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.

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.
A copy of the original edition of The Green Odyssey was nowhere to be found, at least not for reasonable prices. It wasn't always easy to get the catalogs from second hand book sellers. Mind you, this was the pre-internet time.
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...

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:

• S-F マガジン #53 ("Sail On! Sail On!")
• S-F マガジン #210 ("Only Who Can Make a Tree")
• S-F マガジン #213 ("Don't Wash the Carats")
• S-F マガジン #214 ("The Sumerian Oath")
• S-F マガジン #215 ("The Voice of the Sonar in My Vermiform
  Appendix")
• S-F マガジン #216 ("Brass and Gold")
• S-F マガジン #218 ("The Sliced-Crosswise Only-on-Tuesday
  World")
• S-F マガジン #317 ("The Alley Man")
• S-F マガジン #370 ("The Making of Revelation, Part I")
• SF宝石 #1 ("After King Kong Fell")
• 奇想天外 #3 (The Adventure of the Peerless Peer)

I added and corrected some data with these publications.