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News
& What's New - December 2008 |
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Restyling
and statistics |
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31
December 2008
Two
years ago I started with the restyling of the one hundred book pages.
There are still seven pages to go before I'm finished with that part of
the website. Right now I'm working on the book page of The
Dark Design. It will take some time before this page is ready.
When I started changing the book pages I stopped giving the
numbers of the books and covers on these pages. The last time they were
counted, in November 2006, we had 1275 publications and 750 different
cover scans on the book pages.
Today there are 1544 publications, consisting of 1055 books and 236
omnibuses with two or more novels or collections, and 1061 different
cover scans.
So, a lot has already been added and more will follow with the last
seven pages. Hope you like it.
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More
Green Odysseys |
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31
December 2008
Just
discovered another two earlier publications in France of The
Green Odyssey, L'odyssée
verth (03/1984) and L'odyssée
verte (02/1990).
French books do not give much printing information, only the date of
publication at the back of the book. For that reason it is not always
easy to know how many printings a certain book has had.
Both books, with cover illustrations by Wojtek Siudmak,
have been added on the book
page.
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Friends
of ERB |
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29
December 2008
In
February 2008 I received information
from Christian Gitton (France). 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. There were too much Farmer articles for one issue
it seems, so the 'PJF Special' continued in issue number 65.
Christian helped me to get both issues. That happened several months
ago. After I received the issues I put them on my desk, to include the
information on the website. But new magazines and books piled upon them
in no time and I discovered just now that I had forgotten the
fanzines a bit. It is time to correct this.
In number 64 there are three PJF articles, covering nearly half of the
44 pages the fanzine counts. Maurice Leborgne gives in his article a summary
of the online
article by Dennis E. Power, "Triple Tarzan Tangle". Next is
the translated foreword
for the 2006 edition of Tarzan Alive by Win Scott
Eckert. And finally a very long article
by Michel Vannereux about the ERB related books by Farmer.
Number 65 of La Tribune
des amis d'Edgar Rice Burroughs continues with three
articles, all by Michel Vannereux, about ERB related books
and articles by Farmer.
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Romanian
books received |
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26
December 2008
Patience,
that is what you need when you try
to order books from some foreign
countries.
It is great that today so many book shops also have an online shop, but
the website is written in the language of that particular
country, of course. When you try to order some books through the online
shop the owner thinks that you do understand the language, naturally.
Because when you order books in their language you do have to
understand the language, why else would you order the books? It takes
some explaining that I do not want to read the books, only want them
for my collection of Farmer books.
They don't say it, but surely must think that I'm crazy. Maybe I am,
ordering so many books just to put them on some shelves...
It could also be the reason that only a few of the book shops that I
try to contact with e-mails in English respond with a positive and
helpful answer in the same language.
Many times have I tried to get the editions from Romania, but only last
month did one of the book shops reply. A few days ago six books were
delivered at my home address, the five Riverworld novels and
the third
of the Dayworld series, Dayworld
Terminus (Dayworld Breakup).
The Riverworld books, with
cover illustrations by David Ho.
However, these dark and stylish pictures have nothing to do with the
contents of the five books.
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German
article about Riverworld |
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21
December 2008
Christian
Endres (Germany) wrote an e-mail to me in November about an article in
a German magazine, Nautilus
Abenteuer & Phantastik Nr. 57, December 2008. He
also helped me with a copy of the magazine, because I could not order
one from the publisher. Vielen Dank Christian!
The article from Markus Jungvogel, "Welt ohne Tod"
("World Without Death"), is about Farmer's Riverworld books. In this
very interesting piece Jungvogel describes the setting of the
Riverworld, the events that take place in the five novels, and the
purpose of the artificial Riverworld. Although the novels deal with
some serious questions about ethics and philosophical questions about
religion, they also seem a kind of satire to the science fiction genre
as a whole to Jungvogel.
In the same issue is also an article by Christian Endres himself, about
the 'controversial classic' from Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland.
Christian gives an interesting view on this "most cryptical and
controversial novel from the British literature" —that I have
read once as a child only— and states that even Farmer's
Riverworld refers to Carroll's classic book.
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The
Fabulous Riverboat restyled |
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13
December 2008
The
book page of the novel The Fabulous Riverboat has
finally been restyled. On the old page you could see 75 publications,
with only 25 covers. The restyled page now brings 106 publications,
with 70 cover scans!
As with the previous pages that have already been restyled I
checked every entry again with the books from my collection or with the
information online if I still do not have the book.
Like with the missing 20th printing of the Berkley Books edition of To
Your Scattered Bodies Go, there is no proof to be found of a
19th printing of The
Fabulous Riverboat from Berkley Books. My guess is that
both the 19th printing of To
Your Scattered Bodies Go and the 18th printing of The Fabulous Riverboat
had an extra (small) printrun, for the publisher to be able to include
these books in the boxed set
of Riverworld books in 1981. The third novel in the series, The
Dark Design, can be found in the boxed set with the 8th
printing, but with two different publication dates.
I also found a publication from the United Kingdom that had
been mentioned for years on the page Ghost
Editions, the Panther printing of 1980 with the cover price
of £1.25.
This one is mentioned as an existing book in the Galactic Central
bibliography Philip
José Farmer: Good-Natured Ground Breaker,
but I could not find an actual copy of the 1980 printing. According
to the later printings, that mention all of the previous
printings from the name changing publisher Panther - Granada - Grafton
or HarperCollins, there is no 1980 edition.
However, there are two printings which both claim to be the third
printing from 1979. But the lettering on the cover is very different
—see the book page—
and the price is different.
Strange thing is that I had both books in my collection for years but
never before compared the two. That has been corrected now, as has the
page with the Ghost Editions.
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Latest
update of pjfarmer.com |
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12
December 2008
With
the December update of the Official PJF Home Page
are eight newly discovered letters from Phil, published in different
fanzines over the years, added to the site. Only two of them were
mentioned earlier on this page. The others were unknown to me, they
will be added soon to the letters
page.
There is more interesting news on the website of my good friend Mike, a
photo of Phil, a book cover, a book in which Phil is quoted, the newly
announced novel The Evil
in Pemberley House, and an update on Farmercon 91.
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pjfarmer.com |
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Two
German
Riverworld books received |
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7
December 2008
The
last two translated novels of the five novels in the Riverworld series have
been
received from Germany. The novels, published by Piper in November and
December 2008, are Das
magische Labyrinth (The Magic Labyrinth), which
includes an extra story "Die Überquerung des dunklen Flusses" ("Crossing the Dark River"),
and Die Götter
der Flusswelt (Gods of Riverworld), which
includes also an extra story, "Den glänzenden Fluss hinauf" ("Up the Bright River").
Both included stories were never before published in Germany. But why
the other Riverworld stories, "A
Hole in Hell" and "Coda",
and maybe even "Riverworld
War", have not been included in the new German translations
is unknown. Their publication would have made the Riverworld series
complete in the German language. The story "Riverworld" had
already
been included in the first of the German books in this series, Die Flusswelt der Zeit
(To
Your Scattered Bodies Go).
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More good
news from SubPress |
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3
December 2008
Subterranean
Press announced that they have acquired a new novel by Philip
José Farmer and Win Scott Eckert: The Evil in Pemberley House
— a darkly erotic novel that is part of Farmer’s
Wold Newton canon. The limited edition will include a chapbook with a
whole host of unpublished background material.
The completion of the novel by Win Eckert had already been announced at
Farmercon 90 in Peoria last July.
An excerpt of The Evil
in Pemberley House
has been published in Farmerphile
#14. There is also an interview with Win in the same issue. You can
order a copy of the magazine at the Official
PJF Home Page.
See also Win Eckert's special website
about the novel.
The publication of the book by SubPress is very good news indeed.
Congratulations to Win, and to Phil of course!
I can't wait to see and read it. Alas, a publication date hasn't been
announced yet.
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The Other
in the Mirror |
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3
December 2008
"A
peek at the Advance Uncorrected Proof of the upcoming Phil Farmer
omnibus, The
Other in the Mirror, due out March 2009 from Subterranean
Press. Rejoice: Bob Eggleton, who did the gorgeous cover illustration
for Phil's last collection, will happily be on board for this book's
cover as well."
Chris Carey, the editor of the book, wrote this on his blog
a few days ago. The book is in progress as you can see. It can be
pre-ordered at the website
of SubPress. None of the three editions have been sold out yet, but
—as with previous PJF editions from SubPress— that
might happen any day now.
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| Added
Books |
In December thirty-five new
book publications have been added on the book pages.
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 The
Fabulous Riverboat
Thirty-one publications have been added on the restyled page.
Gods
of Riverworld
The German edition (Die
Götter der Flusswelt) from Piper, 2008.
The
Green Odyssey
Two French editions, L'odyssée
verth (1984) and L'odyssée
verte (1990), both from Presses Pocket.
The
Magic Labyrinth
The German edition (Das
magische Labyrinth) from Piper, 2008.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages in December 2008:
1544
publications
1061 different covers
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 "Vincent Di Fate")
 "Wojtek Siudmak")
 "John Picacio")
 "Mike Dudash")
 "Grupul Ducomy")
 "-")
 "Richard Powers")
 "Markus Gann")
 "Daniel Ljunggren")
 "Keith Howell")
 "-")
