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News
& What's New - July 2011 |
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FarmerCon
VI this weekend |
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30
Jul
2011
This
weekend, July 29-31 2011, FarmerCon VI takes place, together with
Pulpfest 2011, in Columbus,Ohio (US). See the Official Philip
José Farmer Home Page for the latest
information, and the programming.
Alas, I cannot attend FarmerCon VI this year, but I wish everyone
attending a very good time!
Meteor
House, the publisher of The
Worlds of Philip José Farmer (2): Of Dust and Soul,
announced that the book will not be available at the time of FarmerCon
VI, alas.
Mike in his latest newsletter: "Despite their best efforts, the book
won't be ready until mid-August."
You still can order
a copy of the book, if you didn't already.
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Laura Givens |
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Job's
Leviathan, the eighth poem |
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29
Jul
2011
Phil
wrote only a few poems. Eight of them were published, as far as we
know. The last one, "Jobs
Leviathan" was published in June 1961, in the fanzine First Fandom Magazine.
The editor of that fanzine, Lynn A. Hickman, reprinted the poem some
months later in her other fanzine, JD-Argassy.
Like the other poems this one too has been reprinted in the
extraordinary collection, Pearls from Peoria.
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Adventure
Stories |
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26
Jul
2011
Mike
already mentioned it with the latest update (July 9th), of the Official Philip
José Farmer Home Page, the publication of the
story "After King Kong Fell"
in the collection The
Big Book of Adventure Stories.
Immediately after that I ordered a copy and just received the big book.
Allan Massie reviewed
the collection in The
Wall Street Journal, and said this about Farmer's story:
"The Big Book of
Adventure Stories
is full of such pleasures. Some of them are fresh and unexpected:
Philip José Farmer's story, "After King Kong Fell" (1973),
for
example. Farmer, like Gabriel Hunt, was writing after the heyday of the
pulps and has a range of sympathy and understanding of perversity
usually missing in the lurid tales. "Kong wasn't evil. It was what
happened around Kong that was evil." Read it and find out."
The new publication has been added on the story page.
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Rafael DeSoto |
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First
expedition to Mars |
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17
Jul
2011
And
yet another religious story about a Jesus character. This time not on a
Dude Ranch (see the previous entry) but on Mars. One of the recurring
themes in Farmer's fiction is the many aspects of religion, something
he
often approaches —like so many of the other themes in his
fiction— in a
controversial way. You do not have to agree with Farmer, but at least
he makes you think about his ideas.
The story "Jesus on Mars"
does that too. This is the highly condensed version of the novel Jesus
on Mars, originally intended for publication in Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction
Magazine, Number 22 (1979). Due to miscommunication the
deal with the magazine fell through.
Thanks to George H. Scheetz, who suggested it to Phil Farmer, the
abridged story was published in the collection Riverworld
War, a limited edition and a collector's item.
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Joan Hanke Woods |
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The
Battle of Armageddon |
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14
Jul
2011
In
the previous entry I asked the question if Philip José
Farmer plagiarized the discussed story. The answer was no, of course he
didn't.
But with this story, the magazine he submitted the story to was afraid
that Farmer might be accused of plagiarizing a novel. So, the editors
of the magazine turned the story down. The magazine was Playboy.
Phil Farmer had one story before in Playboy, "The Henry
Miller Dawn Patrol". That one was
very well received by the readers. The editors were interested in
another story, but they didn't dare to publish "J.C. on the Dude Ranch".
This is a very odd story, a strange mix of a western and science
fiction, peppered with much eroticism and religious stuff. It might be
that Playboy
was afraid that their readers wouldn't like the religious references in
the story, and for that reason turned it down. Because according to the
information
Farmer could not have read the so called plagiarized novel at the time
he submitted the story.
Farmer included the story "J.C.
on the Dude Ranch" in his collection Riverworld
and other Stories. It has never been reprinted in the English
language outside of this collection.
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Don Ivan
Punchatz |
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It's the
Queen of Darkness, Pal |
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12
Jul
2011
Rod
Keen wrote only one story. It was published in the August 1978 issue of
The
Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. This story, "It's the Queen of Darkness, Pal",
was published only once. It has never been reprinted.
But Philip José Farmer took over the story, changed the last
few lines, and had it published as "The
Phantom of the Sewers". in his collection Riverworld
and other Stories. So did Farmer plagiarize the story?
Rod Keen
is a fictional author from the novel The Abortion
by Richard Brautigan. Phil Farmer asked Brautigan's permission to use
the name of Rod Keen, and write a story under the byline. So he did.
But why he changed the title when the story was reprinted, with only a
slight change at the end and under Farmer's own name, is unknown.
With this story and the poem `In
Common` another two story pages have been redone.
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Alex Schomburg |
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A cover
and a printing added |
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6
Jul
2011
Our
regular contributor, Fred Fisher (Texas, US), found a copy of a missing
book in my collection, and sent that one to me. It is the 1986 Berkley
Books reprint of The Lavalite World. The
publisher was very sloppy with the printing info in this book, the
copyright page gives all the info –including the
ISBN– of the first Berkley printing.
The cover scan has been added on the book page.
Fred also found a copy of a 1979 Panther Books (UK) reprint of The
Dark Design.
The book gives the indication that it could be the second printing, but
the cover design, the lettering, and the cover price differ from the
second printing I have. The higher price indicates that this one is a
later 1979 reprint, and so, must be the third printing.
I have corrected the information of the UK printings on the book page.
Many thanks Fred for the book and the new info!
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Boris Vallejo |
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Received:
The Peerless Peer |
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1
Jul
2011
Published
for the first time in 1974 in a limited edition hardcover, and only
reprinted once in paperback in 1976. It took more than thirty years to
see it reprinted again in its original state. The story had been
rewritten after the initial publications. I'm talking about the novella
The Adventure of the Peerless Peer,
a pastiche, and one of Farmer's most funniest works.
And now again there is a new reprint of the original novella, by the UK
publisher Titan Books, in a trade paperback, in their series 'The
Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes'.
The title changed to The
Peerless Peer, but otherwise it is the same story. Written
as by John H. Watson M.D.,
and edited by Philip José Farmer.
This publication has a new and very interesting afterword by Win
Scott
Eckert, in which he points out all the Wold Newton Universe
references in the novel. Win declares this as "...one of the foremost
entries in the Wold Newton series...".
You can buy the book from Titan
Books (UK or US) or from any of the online book shops, for
only £7.99 or $9.95.
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| Added
Books |
Three publications were
added
on the book pages in July.
 The
Dark Design
The third Panther Books (UK) printing, 1979.
The
Lavalite
World
The Berkley Books reprint of 1986.
The
Peerless Peer
The new edition, with a somewhat changed title, from Titan
Books 2011.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages in July.
1732
publications
1141 different
covers
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