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News
& What's New - March 2013 |
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Rastignac
in Il libro di Gamma |
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27
Mar 2013
Earlier this month I wrote about
Philip José Farmer's story "Rastignac
the Devil",
because of redoing that story page. While checking all the information
of the publications I discovered something strange. I thought there was
only one, but it looked like there are two Italian publications called I libro di Gamma
(number 1) with the story.
"Rastignac" had been published in the Italian magazine Gamma, issue number
4, in 1966. The publisher rebound the first five issues in softcover
and sold them as Il libro
di Gamma. This was to be the first in a series of rebound
issues of Gamma,
called Il libro di Gamma,
but it is not numbered.
This book was split up in two books, both called Il Libro di Gamma,
and both with number 1 to make things more confusing. But they got
different subtitles.
I found and bought copies of both books with Farmer's story in it and
added the information on the story page.
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Ferruccio
Alessandri |
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Riders
of
the Purple Wage |
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26
Mar 2013
Who
doesn't know the very famous anthology Dangerous Visions
(1967), edited by Harlan Ellison? My guess is that there are not many
science fiction fans who can say they don't. The book has been
published many times since that first one from Doubleday.
Ellison commissioned authors to write original stories for his Dangerous Visions.
Thirty-three stories that were intended to bring something completely
new. Ellison: "This book was constructed along specific lines of
revolution It was intended to shake things up. It was conceived out of
a need for new horizons, new forms, new styles, new challenges in the
literature of our times."
Philip José Farmer wrote "Riders
of the Purple Wage"
for this anthology. His first version was about 15,000 words, but
Farmer got permission to rewrite and expand it to a story twice that
long. Making it the longest story in the anthology.
"Riders" was nominated for the Nebula Award (1968) and won the Hugo
Award (1968). The story page
shows that the story has been published 76 times globally till now.
While redoing the story page I discovered several before unknown
foreign publications, but also a ghost
edition of one Spanish publication.
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Michael
Whelan |
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Greatheart
Silver returned |
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12
Mar 2013
Farmer
wrote three novellas –parodies– about the pulp
character Greatheart
Silver. All three for the Weird
Heroes book series, edited and developed by Byron Preiss.
The second story, "The Return
of Greatheart Silver",
was published in Volume 2 of the
series in December 1975. It is again a very humorous story, with many
inside jokes. For instance Farmer refers to a publisher, The Fokker
D-LXIX Press. This is actually the publisher of a special edition of his A
Feast Unknown (1975).
The Fokker D-LXIX Press has a special computer, a DRECC (Digital
Rewrite Euphoric Classics Computer), that is able to rewrite any novel
into an erotic version of it within sixty seconds. The computer was
doing the entire Tarzan corpus, and already had done a rewrite of the
1903 children's novel by Kate Douglas Wiggin, Rebecca
of Sunnybrook Farm, into the erotic The Secret Life of Rebecca of
Sunnybrook Farm. Which is also the subtitle of this
Greatheart Silver story...
The three Greatheart Silver novellas were published in novel form, Greatheart
Silver, by Tor in 1982. See also the Wikipedia
entry about the novel.
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Jim
Steranko |
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Star
Trek
treatment by Farmer |
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11
Mar 2013
Farmer
wrote two known Star
Trek treatments. They were rejected at the time for the
series, so he rewrote them as the stories "The Shadow of Space",
and "Sketches Among the
Ruins of My Mind".
But he wrote a third treatment we didn't know of.
This one, "The Rebels Unthawed",
was written in 1966 but apperently never submitted for the Star Trek
series. About forty years after it was written, the treatment was found
in Farmer's archives and reworked for publication in the fanzine Farmerphile
(2007). At nearly the same time it was published also in the collection
Up From the Bottomless Pit.
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Keith
Howell
&
Charles Berlin |
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French
omnibus has a second printing |
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7
Mar 2013
French
publisher Opta published 127 hardcovers in their series Club du livre
d'anticipation (Science Fiction Book Club), during the period 1965-1987.
One of these books, the thirteenth in the series, is an omnibus with
two novels by Philip José Farmer,
Les amants étrangers - L'univers à l'envers
(The Lovers
& Inside Outside),
1968.
The book states that the printing of it is limited to 4,000 numbered
copies, plus 150 copies for employees, marked H.C. (Hors Collection,
means not one of the limited collectors edition),
Fred Fischer (Houston, USA) has a copy that states that the printing is
limited to 6,500 numbered copies, plus the extra 150 copies.
Our conclusion is, that the book had a second printing of 2,500 copies.
The only difference between twe two printings is the statement of the
number of printed copies. The information of the printing date is the
same.
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The
Wind
Whales of Ismael received |
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7
Mar 2013
Before
this publication hits the shelves in the bookshops I received a copy of
Philip
José Farmer's far-future novel The
Wind Whales of Ishmael.
I received my copy early thanks to the authors of the Foreword, Michael
Croteau, and the Afterword,
Danny Adams. Both signed the book for me also (Thanks!).
Titan Books again published a beautiful trade paperback. What makes the
Titan Books extra special is the bonus material that is included in
every publication. Exclusively written special for these reissues of
Farmer's work, giving very interesting background information about the
novel at hand, and its place in Farmer's oeuvre. Danny Adams, Farmer's
great-nephew, for instance speculates if Ishmael might be a member of
the Wold Newton Family.
Both the Foreword and the Afterword are great additions to the novel!
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Unauthorized
rewritten story |
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4
Mar 2013
Philip
José Farmer was not amused with the publication of his story
"Rastignac
the Devil" in Fantastic
Universe, May 1954. His story had been rewritten
unauthorized, and as a result the story was "ruined" (Farmer's words).
Rich
Horton
about this story: "This story has some interesting ideas but is rather
a mess. It's set on a French-colonized planet a few hundred years in
the future. The human colonists live in harmony (of sorts) with two
other species: the reptilian Ssassaror and the amphibian Amphibs. This
harmony is enforced by the "Skins" everyone wears, which condition
people to submission, vegetarianism, non-violence, etc. There is also a
sanctioned custom of stealing babies of other species and raising them
as changelings. Rastignac is a human who wishes to go into space, and
who realizes that the Skins are inhibiting people from independent
thought and ambition. He also recognizes that the Amphibs have altered
their Skins and are plotting to take over the other two species. He is
imprisoned for his beliefs, but escapes with the help of some other
outcast friends, and in the company of a beautiful and vicious human
girl who was raised by the Amphibs. He plans revolution, first, then to
rescue an Earthman who has landed a spaceship on the planet. But things
don't go quite as he hopes ... The main problem here is a disjointed
plot, which shows signs of having been made up as the story was being
written. A rigorous rewrite and a careful investigation of the central
conflict might have been interesting."
Rich exactly puts his finger on the sore spot. Alas, Farmer never
restored this story to his original tale. Why he still gave his
permission to reprint and translate the unauthorized rewritten story is
unknown to me.
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Clarence
Doore |
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| Added
Books |
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages this month.
 1779
publications
1164 different
covers
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