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News & What's New -
February 2008 |
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Mirror,
Mirror on the Wall |
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22
February 2008
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The Case
of the Bellman's Foreword (final) |
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22
February 2008
There
have been responses to Ralph's investigaton. On 17
February 2008 was a Blog message posted by 'Tom Wode Bellman'
himself, see here.
And Christopher Paul Carey posted a short message on 18 February 2008
on his site
referring to the Blog message from Tom.
With his message Tom Wode Bellman did not give any proof that he is
real. He only states that he has written a fictional-author story too...
Ralph doesn't have anything to add to his earlier conclusion. He only
said, that "if Tom Wode Bellman is real, then let him contact me".
Because he stills needs a ghost-writer to finish a yet uncompleted
Ralph von Wau Wau story, "Who
Stole Stonehenge?"
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The Case
of the Bellman's Foreword (2) |
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18
February 2008
The
investigation by Ralph von Wau Wau if the so called author Tom Wode
Bellman is a hoax or not, see earlier entries, has come to a
conclusion. Ralph has checked my earlier findings, see below under "The
trickster(s) did it again!". But his investigation went further,
because he did 'find' a Thomas A. Bellman Jr. in Illinois, who could be
family maybe. When he phoned the Bellmans a teenage boy, Dan, answered
the phone—his mom and dad weren't at home—and when
asked answered that his uncle is called Tom Bellman, but that Uncle
Tom, who had written some stories long ago as far as he knew, was on a
vacation on Bermuda.
After this conversation Ralph decided that it might be worthwhile to
take a flight to Bermuda. He doesn't like flying, because he always has
to stay in a special cage in the cargo bay. He still is not allowed
with the other passengers, they might be offended. Worst of all is that
he is also not allowed to use the toilets... Ralph had no complaints
about the flight crew, they were nice and even served him a few shots
of King's Ransom Scotch on a plate. There is one advantage Ralph
pointed out, you fly a lot cheaper as cargo.
On Bermuda Ralph went straight to a bar in the small city Hamilton, to
have a
drink and hopefully talk to some people. He entered "The Beach" on
Front
Street at the Harbour, a 'slightly disreputable bar' as he was told by
the taxi driver, 'but also the best place to ask some questions...'.
The bar is directly across from Number One Shed, where cruise ship
passengers make their Bermuda landfall. Maybe Tom had been seen here.
The bar was noisy and with dark corners. When Ralph asked the bartender
for a good Scotch, he got the attention of two men at the bar, who were
very curious about Ralph and what he was doing on the island. He
offered them a drink and both asked for a 'Dark and Stormy', which
seems to be a mix of rum and ginger ale.
After introducing himself he
asked them for their names. The youngest, a grey-haired men with a
small also grey beard in his
late fifties, was called Roger Crombie, and introduced himself as a
journalist and writer. The older of the two, it was hard to guess his
age because of his long beard and wild hair under a baseball cap, said
his name was 'Gillmore' or 'Gillgore'.
At least that was what Ralph understood, because the man was hardly
understandable. He maybe had more of those 'Dark and Stormy'
drinks than was good for a normal conversation and also, he had hardly
any teeth in his mouth. Ralph guessed him at least ninety years old.
'Gillmore' had also been a writer, he had written many books in the
past, but none of them were in print anymore.
Ralph explained his situation, that he was looking for another writer
on the island, Tom Wode Bellman, who had written a foreword for a book
by Philip José Farmer. Both men replied that they knew and
had met Farmer personally, what a surprise and what a coincidence! But
Tom Wode Bellman, no, it didn't ring a bell.
The rest of the conversation did not bring any news, at least not about
this case, and after a few more drinks Ralph
went to his hotel, Waterloo House, at the other end of
Hamilton, a charming, old-fashioned, family-run hotel on the water.
"That one will
be demolished next year", had Crombie told him. Interesting, but Ralph
would be staying only one, maybe two nights...
There was no Tom Wode Bellman to be found on the whole island of
Bermuda, none of the hotels or guesthouses knew a man by this name.
Back in the US did Ralph call the Bellmans again and this time he got
Thomas Bellman Jr. himself at the phone. No, he did not
know any Uncle Tom who would be a writer, and would be staying
on Bermuda. There was no Uncle Tom in his whole family: "Has Dan told
this to you? I'm sorry, but Dan likes to make up stories. He wants to
be a writer himself someday."
With this information Ralph closed the case and he comes to no other
conclusion than I already had done before, maybe a bit premature, but
nevertheless. There is no real Tom Wode Bellman, it is another nom de
plume of Philip José Farmer.
Thank you Ralph!
I'm curious if the editor of the collection Venus on the Half-Shell and Others,
Chris Carey,
will comment this time on the new information.
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Flußwelt
in Germany |
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17
February 2008
The
complete Riverworld,
Flußwelt in German, series will be published again this year
in Germany. Piper
Verlag will bring the first three novels, Die Flusswelt der Zeit
(To Your Scattered Bodies Go),
Auf den
Zeitstrom (The Fabulous Riverboat)
and Das dunkle Muster
(The Dark Design)
in April 2008. These are not merely reprints of the previously
by Heyne published books. Stories, that have not been
translated and published before in Germany, will be included in these
new
editions from Piper. The story "Am dunklen Fluss" ("Crossing the Dark River")
will be in the first book of the series.
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Strange
Relations in paperback |
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15
February 2008
Publisher
Baen published in 2006
in a nice trade paperback the omnibus Strange Relations.
The omnibus contains two novels, The Lovers
and Flesh, and
a collection with five stories, also called Strange
Relations.
This omnibus has now, published in February 2008, a new edition in a
mass market paperback (price $7.99).
Publishers Weekly: "This landmark book belongs in every SF collection",
about The
Lovers. Algis Budrys said this about the same novel,
"Acceptably written and equipped with an ingenious plot and explosive
sf premise".
Tony Lewis wrote this in Locus
about Flesh:
"Farmer must have had lots of fun writing this because I had quite a
bit reading it".
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Critical
PJF study reprinted |
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15
February 2008
Borgo
Press/Wildside Press reprinted the twenty-four year old critical study,
The Magic Labyrinth of Philip
Jose Farmer by Edgar L. Chapman. It was
published last year in September in hardcover, price $19.95,
and seems to be a print-on-demand title.
The
Magic Labyrinth of Philip Jose Farmer is still a very
readable and very interesting study about Farmer and his work, with
chapters about recurring themes in his stories as sex, religion, the
trickster, Tarzan and Doc Savage for instance. See also this review
of the original publication by Gary K. Wolfe.
I would have liked to see a completely new, or at least an updated
critical study of Farmer's work. With this book it looks like Farmer
stopped writing in the early 80's. In my opinion such a study is long
overdue. Even for want of a more recent and complete one, if you are
interested in Farmer you will have a good read with this critique.
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News from
France |
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15
February 2008
Christian
Gitton (Paris) emailed that he had found an issue of the fanzine La Tribune des amis d'Edgar Rice
Burroughs, No. 64, March 2007, which is a special PJF
issue. It has a well known cover
illustration by John Picacio.
On the website
of the publishers you can see that issue No. 65 also has PJF related
articles. Hopefully I can get these two issues, so the
information can be added on the pages of the bibliography.
The collection La nuit de la lumière
(Father to the Stars
& Night of Light)
will have a new edition in 2008 from publisher Laffont/Le Livre de
pôche. There is no information on the publishers website
yet.
Merci for this news also Christian.
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Farmerphile Issue
No. 11 |
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12
February 2008
Last
week I received my copy of Issue number 11 of this wonderful magazine Farmerphile.
I haven't had the time yet to read it, but will do so very soon.
Especially because there are two completely new, or better previously
unpublished stories by Farmer: "The First Robot" and "Duo Miaule". Also
an essay by Farmer, and articles by Spider Robinson, Howard Waldrop,
Robert R. Barrett, Cristopher Carey, Win Scott Eckert and Paul Spiteri.
Plus twenty-one birthday wishes from well known colleagues of Phil
Farmer. I will be back on this issue when I have finished reading it.
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The Case
of the Bellman's Foreword |
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12
February 2008
Ralph
von Wau Wau has let me know that he has not yet found the
mysterious Tom Wode Bellman, see the earlier entries. It seems Bellman
is on vacation on the island Bermuda and will stay there a longer
period untill the very cold weather in Illinois is gone. Later
this week, most probably on Thursday, will Ralph take a flight to
Bermuda and try to contact Bellman on the island.
Will be continued...
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Locus honors
Farmer's 90th Birthday |
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10
February 2008
The
February 2008 issue of Locus,
Issue 565, has in honor op Phil's 90th birthday four pages with
birthday greetings, letters and appreciations, from authors as
Joe Haldeman,
Richard A. Lupoff, Mike Resnick, Gary K. Wolfe, Garth Nix, Barry
Malzberg, Allan Steele, and Karl Schroeder, with a photo retrospective,
spanning Phil's life from when he was only five months old till only
last year. Charles N. Brown, the publisher, congratulates Phil in his
Editorial.
And Graham Sleight reviews on another two pages in his column
"Yesterday's Tomorrows" four previously published books by Farmer: The Best of Philip
José Farmer, To
Your Scattered Bodies Go, Lord
Tyger and Pearls from Peoria.
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New
edition of both Exorcism novels |
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9
February 2008
Creation
Books published in 2001 an omnibus edition of the exorcism novels The
Image of the Beast and its sequel Blown.
Under the imprint of Creation
Oneiros the omnibus has now been reprinted in a new edition,
with the 1975 cover illustration of the first UK edition by Jim Burns.
The book price is $15.95 or £9.95.
Have a look at Amazon.com
or Amazon.co.uk
for your copy of these highly erotic —once marked, and for
some
maybe still marked as pornographic— SF-detective novels.
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More
investigation |
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9
February 2008
Thanks
to a suggestion by Paul Spiteri (UK) I have asked Ralph von Wau Wau to
further investigate the Tom Wode Bellman case, see under. I hope he can
easily —with all the knowledge and experience he
has— confirm or deny my conclusions in this case. Ralph von
Wau Wau accepted the request I made and does not expect that he needs
much time for
his investigation if Mr. Bellman is a hoax or not.
The editor, Chris Carey,
of the collection Venus
on the Half-Shell and Others will at this time not comment
on
—as he calls it— the 'speculation'.
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The
trickster(s) did it again! |
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7
February 2008
The
foreword to the new collection Venus on the Half-Shell and Others
has been written by Tom Wode Bellman. A real-life author who got
involved in Farmer's plans of fictional authors. Or so it seemed in the
book at first glance. But I had second thoughts, I had heard
never before of Farmer's plans of an anthology with fictional author
stories by other writers, nor had I heard before of the author Tom Wode
Bellman.
Thus, I Googled the internet looking for information about Tom Wode
Bellman, which I soon found, even with a photo (at right) on MySpace (here)
and Tom Wode Bellman -
The Unofficial Blog (here).
A 90 year old man living in Illinois. Hey, that sounds familiar.
Looking at all the other information, titles of some books and
stories, like "The
Light-Hog Incident", and even a signature on a wrongly
spelled title page of a book, made it soon clear that what we have here
is another fictional author, a.k.a. Philip José Farmer.
The signature is definitely in Farmer's handwriting. But in
what story is this Tom Wode Bellman a fictional author then? Very close
to home, in the before mentioned story "The Light-Hog Incident",
only last year published in issue number 7 of Farmerphile
and in Up From the Bottomless Pit and
Other Stories.
I had hoped that the editor, Chris Carey, would have found in Farmer's
files a previously unpublished fictional author story and include that
in Venus on the
Half-Shell and Others. For instance by another Tom, the
fictional author of fast-action private-eye novels Tom Bonder maybe. He
is a character in Farmer's "Down
in the Black Gang".
But instead we got a foreword by a fictional author, something I had
not expected. It was fun while it lasted.
So Farmer, the trickster, did it again! And he did it not alone this
time. The internet information must have been made up by Farmer's
accomplices, because Farmer himself is not 'online'. I think Chris,
and Mike,
know more about this. Nice work guys!
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New
collection received |
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4
February 2008
The
trade edition of the collection Venus on the Half-Shell and Others
has been received. And what a fine collection of stories this is!
Although the collection is new, the contents is not. The book
contains stories that Farmer has written in the 70's of the past
century. Nearly all of them were published while Farmer
was using pseudonyms, or in
these cases
using the names of fictional authors for pseudonyms. The
reason why Farmer did write the 'fictional-author stories', and
involved other authors as well in his trickster's scheme of fictional
authors, is told in
the very interesting introduction
by Christopher Paul Carey, the editor, and in the foreword by Tom
Wode Bellman, one of the involved real-life authors.
Carey did a fantastic job bringing the stories together in this book
and introducing everyone of them individually. The stories are all
great —some belong to the best of Farmer's oeuvre—
and just fun to read. I have read them all before, at least once when
they were published the first time. With the book in my
hands I feel the longing to read them all again! But where to start? I
am feeling like the young boy standing with his nose at the window
of a candyshop. He has the money to buy one of the displayed candies.
They are all good and very tasty, he has had them once before, but
which one to choose for now? While I already have all the candies in my
hand, I
still find it difficult to pick the first one to start with...
Venus
on the Half-Shell and Others got a starred
review (low on that page, under SF) from Publishers
Weekly before the actual publication: "...Finally, after
demonstrating how Tarzan might have sounded had he been written by
William S. rather than Edgar Rice, Farmer dons the mantle of Conan
Doyle's Dr. Watson and introduces Tarzan to Holmes in “The
Adventure of the Peerless Peer.” Only a writer as mature as
Farmer could have pulled this stunt off so successfully."
This is again a very beautifully bound book, with a great cover by Bob
Eggleton, from Subterranean
Press. It is always a pleasure to have a book from this
publisher in my hands. Both the limited editions are not yet ready
for shipping, we have to wait a little more for those.
You will not only enjoy this book by its looks, but definitely by its
contents. It is a superb collection!
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| Added
Books |
From November 2007 till
February 2008 there were 35 publications added on the book pages.
See the Update
info
of February 2008 - extra.
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| Statistics |
Due
to the restyling of the book pages I cannot give you exact numbers
right now. When all
is finished I will give these numbers again.
These are the about numbers, the last time - in November 2006 - they
were counted:
 1275
publications
750 different covers
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 "Christian 'Tigaer' Hecker")
 "Clyde Caldwell")
)
 "John Picacio")
 "Joey Van Massenhoven")
 "Locus 565")
 "Jim Burns")
 "Bob Eggleton")
