The Program Booklet shown above (cover art by Keith Howell) includes three "con reports," which were submitted before the event (neat trick that) as well as a sneak preview of two parodies of Phil's Riverworld series that might be printed in a future issue of Farmerphile.
The first Farmer Awards were given out; Michael Croteau won Top Farmerphile (here "farmerphile" is an adjective not a noun). Bette Farmer won Top Farmerphile Contributor (noun). George Scheetz won Top Retroactive Farmerphile (adjective again). Win Eckert won the Wold Newton Award and Phil Farmer was awarded the Maker of Universes Lifetime Acheivment Award.
The Program Booklet shown above (cover art by Shannon Robicheaux) includes letters from some friends of Phil's who could not make it to Farmercon II. Names you might recognize such as; Phileas Fogg, Kilgore Trout, Ralph von Wau Wau, Roger Two Hawks, Paul Janus Finnegan, and many others. It also contains a short story by Christopher Paul Carey, titled "A Kick in the Side" which takes place during the events of Phil's novel FLIGHT TO OPAR.
Like the previous two Farmercons, Farmerphile contributors and other guests were invited to a dinner Saturday night and to Phil's house on Sunday for a party. Unfortunately Phil was too ill to attend the events but Bette Farmer, and everyone else, had a terrific time.
The Program Booklet shown above (cover art by Keith Howell) contains a history of past Farmercon-like events and, "Just One Day!" Paul Spiteri's story of coming over from England for Phil's 90th birthday last January. There is also a history of Phil's collaborations along with descriptions of the four new ones: "Getting Ready to Write," by Phil and Paul Spiteri, THE SONG OF KWASIN by Phil and Christopher Paul Carey, THE EVIL IN PEMBERLEY HOUSE by Phil and Win Scott Eckert and COUGAR BY THE TAIL by Phil and Tracy Knight. There is also a short history of the Wold Newton and Farmerphile awards and bios of this year's winners. The booklet concludes with a curious tale about Phil and his time machine...
As with previous Farmercons, Farmerphile contributors and other guests attended a dinner Saturday night.
The Program Booklet shown above (cover art by Charles Berlin based on the French novel PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER CONQUIERT L'UNIVERS by Fran�ois Mottier) contains an article about Phil's biggest fan: Bette Farmer, "The Cache of Inspiration from Peoria" by Steve Mattsson, "Down in Phil Farmer's Basement" by Steven Connelly, "The Keys to the Gates" by Gary K. Wolfe, and "The Bright Heart of Eternity" by John A. Small. It also contains thirty examples of "What Philip José Farmer Taught Me" by Phil's peers, fans and friends, an English translation of Phil's introduction to PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER CONQUIERT L'UNIVERS, and six short excerpts from an unfinished novel titled STRANGERS AND BROTHERS about Tim Howller, the protagonist of "The Face that Launched a Thousand Eggs."
Unlike previous FarmerCons, we did not print our own program this year. In much the same way that FarmerCon itself dovetailed with PulpFest, our program was incorporated in the PulpFest program: The Pulpster #20. The four page FarmerCon supplement included a biograpy of Farmer reprinted from MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE, a listing of the FarmerCon presenters, and three excerpts from THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER 2: Of Dust and Soul.
Hosted by the Normal Beans of Chicago this was the 75th Anniversary Dinner of the publication of TARZAN OF THE APES. Phil was the Keynote Speaker. The program book contains a quote from Phil on the first page and a copy of the coat of arms that Phil designed. Most of the book contains articles about Edgar Rice Burroughs and his connections to Chicago where the dinner was held.
Philip José Farmer was the principle speaker, there is an article in the program about him by Bruce Sterling, a reprint of O'Brien and Obrenov and a full page ad from TOR.
Contains the story "Evil, Be My Good", which was later printed in THE ULTIMATE FRANKENSTEIN.
Phil was the Science Fiction Guest of Honor at this convention. There is a profile of Phil by Robert Weinberg which talks about his career and calls him a "Maker of Universes". He also talks about introducing Phil to the editors who wanted to produce the Riverworld shared-world anthologies, but only if he could contribute a Riverworld story himself.
Phil was one of the guests at this convention near St. Louis.
Philip José Farmer was the guest of honor, there is a bio of him in the program by Frederick Pohl.
This speech to a local Kiwanis club was given around 1997. Farmer describes the process he went through while writing NAKED CAME THE FARMER. He reads an excerpt from the novel and describes a scene that was cut. The short scene is included and published here for the first time anywhere.
Farmer was asked by a local church to give a talk speculating on what "faith" would look like in one hundred years.
This round-robin novel was written as project for The Peoria Public Library, which got all the proceeds from the book. The book was launched at a book signing with most of the 13 authors present on the evening of May 15th, 1998, the same night as the final episode of Seinfeld! This did cut down the attendance some, but the library did eventually sell all it's copies of the book.
While the exhibit of Farmer memorabilia at the library lasted the whole month of June, it was on the 2nd that Phil came and gave a talk and signed copies of his Peoria based mystery novel, NOTHING BURNS IN HELL. The second page of the Newsletter also talks his forthcoming Tarzan novel and the latest edition of the Riverworld books.
Harlan Ellison presented Phil with the 2001 Nebula Grand Master Award. Harlan and Gary K. Wolf both wrote tributes to Phil which appeared in the Summer 2001 issue of The Bulletin No. 150, which covered the Nebula Awards.
Web Page
The Peoria Public Library, with some help from the (then) Unofficial PJF Home Page, hosted an event celebrating Phil's winning the 2001 Nebula Grand Master Award.
Web Page
The Peoria Public Library, and the Official PJF Home Page, hosted an event celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Philip José Farmer debut science fiction story, The Lovers.
It began with Paul Spiteri planning a trip to the US from England which included a stop in Peoria to see Phil. He suggested that, similar to the events in 2001 and 2002, we have a few more people come to Peoria and have a get together with Phil and Bette Farmer. The regular contributors behind Farmerphile were invited; Michael Croteau, Chris Carey, Win Eckert, Danny Adams, Keith Howell, Charles Berlin and Jason Robert Bell (the last two being the only ones who could not attend). Bette then invited some local, or at least in-state, friends to come and before we knew it we had 30 people at dinner Saturday night and showing up at Phil's house on Saturday.
Just like Farmercon I, this "convention" began with Paul Spiteri and his family visiting from England. This time around we tried to invite everyone who had contributed to Farmerphile. Unfortunately, because we didn't start organizing this event and sending out invitations until June, many were unable to attend. Those Farmerphile contributors who could make it were; Paul Spiteri, Michael Croteau, Chris Carey, Win Eckert, Rick Beaulieau, Shannon Robicheaux, Chuck Loridans, Dennis Power, Gary K. Wolfe, Tracy Knight and none other than Joe R. Lansdale. We also expanded the guest list this year to include the members of the Wold Newton Society who happend to be in St. Louis (only three hours from Peoria) doing panels at Archon; Henry Covert, Rick Lai, John Small and, fittingly enough, there were some "crossovers" between the Farmerphile and Wold Newton groups; Win Eckert, Chuck Loridans and Dennis Power were doubly invited.
More like the Living Legend Reception in 2001 and the Lovers 50th Anniversary Celebration in 2002 than the previous two Farmercons, Farmercon 90 was held at the Lakeview Branch of the Peoria Public Library and open to the public. Programming included a Wold Newton panel, a "Mystery" panel (where it was announced that three unfinished novels, and one short story, had been completed by other writers), "First Encounters" speeches by fans and friends of Phil and an award ceremony where Jean-Marc Lofficier won the Wold Newton Award, Christopher Paul Carey won the Farmerphile award for best article and Charles Berlin won the Farmerphile award for best artwork.
This year's Farmercon was once again held at the Lakeview Branch of the Peoria Public Library and open to the public. Programming included a panel on Phil's legacy, members of the audience telling "What Phil Farmer Taught Me," a section discussing some of Phil's opening lines, and "Looking Forward" a talk about upcoming books and movies of interest to Farmer fans. Because Bette Farmer was too ill to attend the event was toned down and the Awards Ceremony was canceled. However, Dennis E. Power won the Wold Newton Award, Keith Howell won the Farmerphile Award for best artwork and Win Scott Eckert win the Farmerphile Award for best article.
FarmerCon ventured forth from the local confines of Peoria, Illinois, to Seattle, Washington to piggyback on the Locus Award/Hall of Fame weekend.
Friday night the five contributors to THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER 1: Protean Dimensions on hand had a "signing party" and signed well over one hundred copies of the book. Amazingly those sitting around watching seemed to have fun too. Saturday, FarmerCon V officially began. It was held in the room next to the Locus panels. An hour of video footage of Phil was played in the background and there was a silent auction (of books signed by Philip José Farmer, and others). Next up was the Locus Awards banquet (MC Connie Willis was kind enough to mention FarmerCon and single out those of us who attended the awards) and then the Hall of Fame Inductions that night at the SF Museum. Octavia E. Butler, Richard Matheson, Douglas Trumbull, and Roger Zelazny were this year's inductees and the ceremony was quite interesting. Sunday the FarmerCon crowd visited the Space Needle and the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum where Philip José Farmer is represented not only the Science Fiction Museum, but also in a Jimi Hendrix wall display.
This was the second year in a row FarmerCon appeared outside of Peoria, Illinois. This time FarmerCon stayed in the mid-west, joining with PulpFest. The two events fit together perfectly. Meteor House had a table in the dealers room which sold not just copies of THE WORLDS OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER, but also back issues of Farmerphile, books from Farmer's Estate and nearly twenty different books by FarmerCon attendees—who were of course on hand to sign them. Programming included FarmerCon attendees participating in the New Fictioneers readings and panels, and talks Friday night from Michael Croteau, Win Scott Eckert, Dr. Art Sippo and Rick Lai. Even with the presentation being delayed an hour, and not starting until 11:30pm, an audience stayed until 1:30am enthusiastically asking questions. Attendees ventured outside the hotel twice to all eat out togther, but Saturday we took over one of the meeting rooms and ordered pizza in. The entire weekend was an unqualified success. So much so in fact, that PulpFest has now become FarmerCon's semi-permanent home. Here is a more detailed report from attendee Sean Levin.
