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News
& What's New - January 2012 |
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Philip
José Farmer Day |
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26
Jan
2012
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A French
Farmer Bibliography |
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24
Jan
2012
Alain
Sprauel is a world famous bibliographer in France, he wrote about 225
bibliographies in a period of 15 years. These bibliographies are all
based on the actual publications, books and magazines, from his own
collection. He has a huge collection of books.
See an interview with Alain –in French of course–
online at Le
Monde
de Matéo.
Next month, February 2012, will see the publication of the magazine Biblio-SF
number 6. In this issue are four bibliographies, of two French authors,
Léourier and Pagel, and of Stephen Baxter and Philip
José
Farmer.
All original first publications and every French publication will be
listed in Alain's bibliography. The French publications will have a
cover scan included.
Alain Sprauel also compiled a Farmer bibliography
published in Le Cycle du
Fleuve (2003).
Biblio-SF
number 6 will be published mid-February and will have a sales price,
including shipping, of US $10.
As soon as it has been published I will let you know how to obtain a
copy.
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Pierre Le Pixx |
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Writings
in Bronze |
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22
Jan
2012
As
most of you will know Phil loved the stories of the old Street
& Smith pulp magazine hero Doc Savage. These stories were
published during the 1930s and 1940s. Phil was fifteen when he
discovered the first adventure of Doc in a local drugstore.
His love for Doc Savage never faded and inspired Farmer to write a
fictional biography about the bronze character with Doc
Savage: His Apocalyptic Life (1973). Not only that, much
later he also wrote a new adventure of Doc, Escape
from Loki (1991).
Of course Phil was not the only fan of Doc Savage. And of course he was
not the only one to write about the Man of Bronze. Will Murray started
writing essays about Doc in 1973. He wrote many articles after the
first one. About fifty of Murray's articles, from the period 1976 till
2008, have been collected in Writings
in Bronze, published by Altus
Press in 2011.
One of these essays, "Caliban",
had been published in Farmerphile,
no. 6 in October 2006.
Altus Press also published Chronology
of Bronze (2010) by Rick Lai, see the publisher's website.
This is Lai's third, completely revised version of the Doc Savage
chronology. Farmer started a chronology of his hero in Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life,
but was never satisfied with his work. Rick Lai's heavily updated
version is the authoritative chronology of the Man in Bronze.
Both books can be obtained through Amazon.
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Omnibus
surprise |
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21
Jan
2012
Last
week I received many books for my Farmer collection. A Russian
omnibus (Дейр),
the Baen/Book Club Edition in hardcover of the omnibus Strange
Relations, an Italian anthology (Diavoli),
the British (actually the US) edition of the anthology The
Science Fiction Century, and three books from Lithuania.
These three books are Deira
(Dare),
Į savo
prarastus kūnus sugrįšite (To
Your Scattered Bodies Go), and Nemąstanti kaukė (The
Unreasoning Mask).
Of course I check every received book with the information already in
the bibliography. Sometimes I have to correct some information, and
I also scan the covers to replace the older –received or
found– ones.
With the above mentioned books the corrections were minor, except for
one. Much to my surprise the Lithuanian book Deira not only
contains the translated novel Dare, but
also the novel Night of Light. Not a word
about the second novel on the copyright page, nor is there a table of
contents to indicate both novels. I just discovered it because the book
starts with the title Šviesos
Naktis, which translates as Night Light. The
protagonist of the story John Carmody is translated as Džonas Kermodis.
I added the 'new' omnibus Deira in the
bibliography.
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Keith Parkinson |
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Mama's boy |
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17
Jan
2012
With
the story "Mother"
(1953) Phil Farmer wrote a Freudian story. It is about the
Oedipal relationship between Eddie Fetts and his dominant mother. Both
are survivors after a crash on the planet Baudelaire, the other crew
members are all dead.
After a few days Eddie is captured by one of the organisms on
Baudelaire, a huge otherworldly female that looks like a rock. This
alien female won't let go of Eddie and he has to make her 'womb' his
permanent home.
The story was an instant success on publication and has been reprinted
and translated many times. Sam Moskowitz wrote: "In many
ways this story was even better than "The
Lovers". From reading a criticism of Freud, Farmer had
conceived of a plot involving a literal return to the womb."
There are 89 publications, nearly all with a cover scan, on the
restyled story page. "Mother"
was even included in a college book, Introductory Psychology Through
Science Fiction (1974 and 1977), because of the Oedipus
complex.
It was also translated in the Finnish language, and included in a
special Farmer issue of the magazine Portti. The story
was illustrated by Reijo Purontakanen. Below is one of his
illustrations.
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Jack Coggins |
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2011 -
The Year in review |
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11
Jan
2012
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Laura Givens |
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Roaring
with vivid life |
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8
Jan
2012
In
2006 A & C Black Publishers from the UK published the small and
handsome paperback 100
Must-Read Science Fiction Novels. I discovered this book
back in 2009, see the entry.
And again some years after it got published I discovered another book
from the same authors, Stephen E. Andrews & Nick Rennison. This
book, 100 Must-Read
Fantasy Novels, was published by A & C Black
Publishers in 2009. It also has an
entry on Philip José Farmer, about the novel A
Feast Unknown: "Tautly written, admirably well-plotted,
fearlessly imaginative and roaring with vivid life, this is Farmer at
his apotheosis."
The book can be bought for £6.99 or $9.95 with the online
book dealers, or go to www.acblack.com.
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| Added
Books |
Two new additions on the book
pages in the month January.
 Dare
(omnibus)
The Lithuanian edition (Deira), 1997.
Night
of Light
Publication in the Lithuanian omnibus Deira, 1997.
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| Statistics |
These are the
numbers for the book pages in January.
1750
publications
1148 different
covers
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