Philip José Farmer would have been very happy with this publication, it looks much more like a 'real' Tarzan book than the original one.

Robert R. Barrett in his Foreword: «Ballantine originally planned to issue Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time in a trade paperback, which very much pleased Phil. Ballantine also hoped to release the novel at the same time as the movie Tarzan and the Lost City in 1998. But many things conspired to interfere with this plan. ... Finally, Ballantine made the decision to put out the novel as a mass market paperback and wait another year, releasing it to coincide with Disney's animated Tarzan film.»
It was then published under the title The Dark Heart of Time.


The undervalued Ballantine publication, has been corrected more than a little with the fantastic beautiful hardcover and trade paperback editions of Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time.
The name of Tarzan is clearly in the title of the novel this time, not in a subtitle as with the Ballantine book. And the books got a very nice cover illustration by Mark Wheatly!
Meteor House did a great job with these editions!

You can order this book now at Meteor House! The hardcover cost $35, and the trade paperback $20. I saw the hardcover also for sale at Amazon.

Meteor House has sent me the following items:
- The Philip Jose Farmer Centennial Collection (hardcover),
- The Philip Jose Farmer Centennial Collection (paperback),
- Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time (hardcover),
- Tarzan and the Dark Heart of Time (trade paperback),
- FarmerCon 100 programs (3 booklets),
- The first issue of the new fanzine FarmerFan,
- and also some magnets and pins with FarmerCon 100 pictures.


I hope to receive the limited deluxe hardcover of The Philip Jose Farmer Centennial Collection in the near future. There is a lot of work to do to add these items, and their contents (936 pages with the collection!), in the Bibliography. That will be done in the coming days.

Early 1970s there was a dispute, that became something like a feud in the following years, between Philip José Farmer and Stanislaw Lem.
As far as I can tell this might have started with an essay by Lem in the Australian fanzine SF Commentary #22, July 1971: "Sex in Science Fiction".
In SF Commentary #25, December 1971, Farmer wrote an essay, "A Letter to Lem".
In SF Commentary #29, August 1972, followed by "A Letter to Mr. Farmer" by Lem.

Stanislaw Lem had a very low opinion of the American science fiction in general. As Phil Farmer wrote: «...his arrogant sneering putdown of all American s-f writers except for a few whom he damned with faint praise.»
Lem's opinion was even much lower of the use of sex in this genre, and mentioned Farmer's work several times in this regard.

The dispute reached a high point when in 1973 the board of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA) elected Stanislaw Lem an honorary member.
This was for Farmer the reason to protest firmly in an angry letter, published in SFWA Forum #41 of July 1975, and finally to resign his membership of the SFWA. Farmer's protest was supported by several other authors, like Sam J. Lundwall and Philip K. Dick.

In SFWA Forum #41, October 1975 [note: a second issue #41], Philip K. Dick wrote an "Open Letter to Philip José Farmer", in which he mostly vented his own frustration with Stanislaw Lem, and the fact that he was "ripped off" by Polish publishers. While he was invited to these publishers thanks to Lem.
In this same issue of SFWA Forum is a reprinted essay by Stanislaw Lem: "Looking Down on Science Fiction (A novelist's choice for the world worst writing)".

There was a whole controversy concerning Stanislaw Lem in the 1970s, not only with Farmer and Dick, but many other authors as well. Next to the above mentioned publications there are many other pieces written about this in several magazines and fanzines. See for instance Science Fiction Studies #12 (July 1977), #13 (November 1977) and #14 (March 1978).

Jason Aiken, Will Emmons, and Sean Lee Levin released a fanzine, FarmerFan, at PulpFest/FarmerCon 100.
On the photo you see its first issue with a photo on the cover of Phil made by me in 2002, my first visit to the US and meeting with my hero. A photo that is used widely on the internet, with Wikipedia and ISFDB for instance.

I have no idea what the contents of this issue is, other than what it says on the cover. A copy of the first issue is on its way to me. I will keep you informed. Also will let you know then how to get one. It had a print run of only 40 copies.


There is no price on the cover. Maybe one can get a subscription on the fanzine. Issue 2 should be out in December to coincide with Wold Newton Day.