In the Magazine News section of the September issue of Locus Magazine they were kind enough to say a few words about Farmerphile. It has already resulted in several orders for Issue No. 1. Fantasy author Robert Jordan was in Atlanta doing a book signing earlier this week. I (Mike) went to get some books signed and brought along a copy of Farmerphile. I asked him if he was a fan of Philip José Farmer to which he answered a hearty "Sure!" So I told him about Farmerphile and gave him the copy and said that if he ever had the urge to say something nice about Phil, in the form of a 1000 or so word essay, my email address is inside. He is a tad busy these days so I don't hold out much hope, but he was very gracious about the whole thing.
Don't forget about the Who Will Finish, "Who Stole Stonehenge?" contest. Right now we have a very small field of entrants, but all three of them are published authors. There is still plenty of time left as the contest deadline is December 31st, 2005. I can't wait to read these stories.
We did manage to make several additions to the website this month. We finally got around to updating the Bibliographies page. Something that has been on our "to do" list for over a year now. On this page you will also find a link to bilbiographer Phil Stephensen-Payne's Galactic Central website, a great resource for bibliographic data.
Christopher Carey found another blurb for us, this one on Alan Hanson's A TARZAN CHRONO-LOG. Chris also sent us a scan of the paperback edition of SCIENCE FICTION: CONTEMPORARY MYTHOLOGY, which contains a rare collaboration by Phil, along with Beverly Friend, on the article The Remarkable Adventure. We have actually had the hardcover of this for years but for some reason the article never made it onto the website.
Farmer fan Claus Skaanning created a poll for us and posted it on the PJF Forum. Rick took the poll, added some short story collections to it and added it to the website. Click here to vote for your favorite Farmer titles.
It has been a while since we have added something really rare to the website and this month we managed to find on ebay a copy of Gegenschein #27 which contains Phil's article Phonemics. We have long had a photocopy of this article, which is how it is being reprinted in PEARLS FROM PEORIA, but this was the first actual copy of the fanzine that we had seen in almost ten years of looking. Gegenschein was an Australian fanzine by Eric B Lindsay, that became a personal journal (a listing of all his recent fan activity such as fanzines recently received and several book reviews) beginning with this issue. Except for Phil's article, the entire 22 page fanzine is by Lindsay himself. This has to be one of the hardest to find fanzines we have acquired. One of these days we might do a webpage just about Phil's appearances in rare fanzines.
We reported back in March that The Golden Age and the Brass was going to be reprinted in BURROUGHS BULLETIN OMNIBUS EDITION OF #1-12 (1947-1956). This is now available to order from Bud Plant.
This past month I once again had the pleasure of reading the next book in Spider Robinson's Callahan series, CALLAHAN'S KEY, and I have added some details about this book to the Ralph von Wau Wau page. Sadly there is only one more Callahan book for me to read, and I'm already half way done with it. Just as Spider borrowed Ralph von Wau Wau from Phil, he has borrowed a couple of characters from Laurence Shames' great series of novels set in Key West. This reminded me that I still had two of Shames' books still unread. If you have not discovered him yet, you are in for a treat.
If you have not seen it yet, or maybe have not watched it in over a year, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on October 16th at 11:00am. This will be the 19th time the pilot has been shown.
The hit counter as of September 9th says 115,249 which is 3,072 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
It was with great pleasure that we added the stories and articles from this first issue of Farmerphile to the website; to the Short stories page, to the Excerpts, abridgements and serials page and the Articles about page.
This past month I (Mike) had the pleasure of reading the next book in Spider Robinson's Callahan series, CALLAHAN'S LEGACY. I started reading these stories just so I could add references to the Ralph von Wau Wau page, but I have become a huge fan of this series. While I am not looking forward to finishing the series, I am looking forward to reading more of Spider's books and short story collections.
Ok, we've held off as long as we could. Speaking of Farmerphile, and speaking of Ralph von Wau Wau, here is the first of several amazing surprises we have coming up in Farmerphile. Announcing a very exciting, and daunting, proposition for those Farmer fans who are also writers, or those writers who are also fans: Who Will Finish, "Who Stole Stonehenge?" Click on the link for details on how you can complete this unfinished Ralph von Wau Wau story by Philip José Farmer. The winning entry will be published in an upcoming edition of Farmerphile.
We have several other editions to the website, three of them on the Forthcoming books page. First, we have the exciting news from Bison Books about their edition of TARZAN ALIVE. They are really going all out to make this the definitive edition and are including Phil's An Exclusive Interview with Lord Greystoke from Esquire magazine, April 1972, which was a publicity piece for the book and Extracts from the Memoirs of "Lord Greystoke" which first appeared in MOTHER WAS A LOVELY BEAST. Second, we have heard from Phillip Rose that PEARLS FROM PEORIA is now slated to be released in September. All the corrections have been made, the text is finalized, now he just needs to get a firm schedule from his printer. Having just had printing problems of my own, and not being able to release the July issue of Farmerphile until August 5th, I can sympathize. Third, we have finally learned the title of the collection from Baen Books that was announced in the August 2004 edition of Locus and we first told you about in November 2004: STRANGER RELATIONS. This book, which we are looking forward to seeing on the shelf at the local chain book store, will contain the original novella version of The Lovers, followed by the novel FLESH and the short stories previously collected in STRANGE RELATIONS. It will be really great to see so much of Phil's best early work available again in a mass market edition.
Thanks to Christopher Carey for finding the listing for STRANGER RELATIONS on amazon.com. Chris also discovered that Phil is cited in THE NEW ANNOTATED SHERLOCK HOLMES. You can actually search the book at amazon.com for "Philip Jose Farmer" and you will find three references. Both TARZAN ALIVE and DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE are cited in the bibliography and there is a note in "The Disappearance of Lady Francis Carfax" about Phil's theory that Lady Francis is related to Lord Rufton.
Several people contacted us over the last week or so to tell us that Phil is mentioned in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine, in an article about Jimi Hendrix. The article mentions how the idea of "Purple Haze" came from the novel Night of Light: Day of Dreams by Philip Jose Farmer. What? Before you go searching this website for a book by that title, don't bother. They got Night of Light correct, but where in the world they came up with Day of Dreams is just beyond us. We sent them an email last week but have not heard back from them. What is really funny that is there is Hendrix cd that contains liner notes that credit the novel Night of Flight with giving Jimi the idea for Purple Haze. It makes you wonder if people who write about rock and roll have such a distain for science fiction that don't care if they get their facts correct.
On a happier note our good friend Fender Tucker, of Ramble House books, was written up in his local newspaper, The Shreveport Times. Even though the article is mainly about all of the Harry Stephen Keeler books he has printed, in the lone photograph he is shown holding a cover from LOVE SONG.
The hit counter as of August 9th says 112,177 which is 2,451 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Although it has been lamented that Phil is better known in France (and Spain, and Russia, and Denmark...) than in his own home town of Peoria, IL, he has appeared in the local papers a number of times - too many times in fact to try to list them all on this website. However, we have added two of them; one from when Phil was in college and one from when Phil was at perhaps the height of his popularity. Apparently getting written about in Time Magazine will get your local paper's attention.
It was just back in May that we first learned of Phil being the keynote speaker at the 75th Anniversary Dinner (of the publication of TARZAN OF THE APES), held in Chicago in 1989. While in Peoria we discovered a folder that contained the program from this event as well as a copy of Phil's speech. If all goes as planned you will see this speech in a future issue of Farmerphile.
While digging in Phil's actual basement we also uncovered two new items to add to PJF's (virtual) Basement. The first is another uncompleted manuscript of which you can buy a photocopy. My reaction to finding this was surpassed only by Win's as he scanned through it and quickly realized the Wold Newton ties we had just uncovered. The second item is an original piece of artwork by the great scifi artist Jack Gaughan. We do not yet have a price on this, but we should have one soon. If you are interested in this, feel free to email an offer in the meantime.
That was not everything we discovered in Peoria, there will be a few more items added next month. On our way to the airport we stopped by the Bradley University Field House and looked through the trophy cases in the entry way. We found this trophy which was from the 1940 Illinois College Conference Track and Field Championship. Bradley University came in second. Phil is in the front row, second from the right. Here is a close up of Phil.
We have mentioned Farmerphile a few times above so now would be a good time to reveal some details about Issue No. 1. We have the first of a semi-regular column by Bette Farmer, and what should be regular features; Creative Mythography by Win Eckert and Bibliophile by Paul Spiteri. These two columns may sometimes be written by other contributors. We also have a short essay about Phil by Joe Haldeman, we hope this - essays about Phil by his peers - will also be a regular feature. The highlights of the issue though, are of course by Philip José Farmer himself. We have an installment of Phil's unpublished novel UP FROM THE BOTTOMLESS PIT and the short story The Face that Launched a Thousand Eggs. This story, written in 1953, is based on an incident that happened to Phil while he was in college and is a very exciting tale.
Publication of Farmerphile is going to be delayed by one week because I have to do some work related travel this week, but as soon as I get back we will start printing and we hope to have copies available around July 25th.
Those on the newsletter list have already heard about one positive online review of Jason Robert Bell's stage adaptation of A FEAST UNKNOWN. Last week Jason sent us a link to a second good online review. It sounds like things are going very well.
I did not get a chance to read the next book by Spider Robinson in the Callahan series but I did make an addition to the Ralph von Wau Wau page this month. Win pointed out to me that now that Ralph has his own page, I should list some details from VENUS ON THE HALF-SHELL on it. However, I did find the next two books in the Callahan series and plan on reading at least one them before the next update.
We heard from Phillip Rose, right after the bombings in London, about the status of the long awaited PEARLS FROM PEORIA. "Mike, we are in one piece thankfully, but ordinary routines are a little disrupted and will take a few more days to get back to normal. I think we'll see another galley from the printer next week with the latest corrections all inputted for a final check by Paul and myself. I am currently negotiating for a committed date with the printers and will advise you as soon as this is complete."
As I was working on this update Sunday night I heard from long time Farmer fan Craig Kimber that editor Byron Preiss was killed in a car accident on Friday. Byron published several of Phil's short stories in anthologies such as WEIRD HEROES (1, 2, 6 and 8), THE ULTIMATES (FRANKENSTEIN, DRACULA and WEREWOLF) and THE PLANETS. Artist Jim Steranko has written an obituary posted here.
If you have not seen it yet, or maybe have not watched it in over a year, the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on July 17th at 11:00am. This will be the 18th time the pilot has been shown.
The hit counter as of July 11th says 109,726 which is 2,232 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Here is the latest news on PEARLS FROM PEORIA. Wednesday Phillip Rose received a bound copy of the book for final proof reading. As we have said before, seeing it on the computer screen is not the same as seeing it on the page. Paul Spiteri would have received a copy of the book as well but it would not fit in his letterbox, so Paul has to pick it up today. You have to remember that this is one very large book. Phillip tells me "We are very, very nearly there: text, artwork, binding and endpaper materials should all be finalized in the next week." Then the last hurdle will be getting the printer to print and bind all 550 copies. Without any more delays on the printer's part this should almost certainly be done by late June.
Christopher Carey, who is always on the lookout for news items for us, found two things this past month. The first was a surprise: Kim Newman, in the introduction to THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF VAMPIRES (Carroll & Graf, 2004 revised edition), is quoted as saying: "Readers interested in the cameo appearance characters, as strong a feature of this series as directors appearing as actors in Jim Landis films, are referred to http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/AnnoDracula.htm." Chris says that it was a bit of a shock seeing "pjfarmer.com" in a Vampire book. Not so surprising, the May issue of Locus Magazine reports: WIN SCOTT ECKERT delivered non-fiction Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe to Chris Roberson at MonkeyBrain Books. Of course we have known about this for months, but it is fun to see it in print, especially the fact that the book is listed as non-fiction. This issue of Locus also contains an interview with Chris Roberson.
Speaking of Win, we have even bigger news than the above to report. We announced last month that Bison Books will publish a new edition of TARZAN ALIVE, in the Spring of 2006, and that it will have an all new introduction by science fiction author Mike Resnick. In addition to Mike Resnick's introduction, this edition of TARZAN ALIVE will also include an afterword by our very own Win Scott Eckert!!! The afterword will talk about Phil's creation of the Wold Newton Family and how the Wold Newton Universe has continued to grow. For more details check out the Forthcoming Books page.
Last month we told you about Jason Robert Bell's stage adaptation of A FEAST UNKNOWN. We emailed Jason yesterday to ask how his first show on Monday June 6th went. This afternoon he got back to us with a link to this webpage where you can see thirty-nine of the images that he used during his show. We asked him if he could upload a few live pictures of the show so we can get a feel for how it looked, so you might want to check that page again in a few days.
Also on the PJF Forum, you may have seen a post from Danny Adams about an essay he published on the impact that Phil Farmer has had on his life. While Phil's books have touched many of us, Danny was lucky enough to have known "Uncle Phil" personally all his life. Definitely worth checking out as Danny expresses well many of the same things that I have been saying about Phil's work for years.
This past month I managed to read the next two books in Spider Robinson's Callahan series, LADY SLINGS THE BOOZE and THE CALLAHAN TOUCH, and add references to the Ralph von Wau Wau page. While I did enjoy the two books set at Lady Sally's Place, I think I share the feeling of most die hard Callahan fans when I say that it is great to be back in a bar again. Even if it is Mary's place, run by Jake Stonebender, instead of actually being set in Callahan's. If you have not read these books yet you are in for a treat.
While the Overlook Press website still does not mention their forthcoming edition of THE UNREASONING MASK , and we can't actually find it listed for sale at amazon.com, we did stumble across this cover art for the book. We don't yet know if this is the actual artwork that will be used or not. (A couple of people have found the book on amazon.com since we posted this)
Just a few days ago, on June 5th, Zacharias updated The International Bibliography website. You definitely want to check out his updated Biography and Awards page, it is very cool.
It looks like the Scifi Channel will be showing the Riverworld Pilot yet again on July 17th at 11:00am. This will be the 18th time the pilot has been shown.
The hit counter as of June 9th says 107,494 which is 2,542 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
For those of you somehow unfamiliar with Jason Robert Bell you will find him all over this website; from his Lovers Art to his comic book Caveman Robot which he dedicated "to the brilliant Philip José Farmer", to the fact that he is one of the illustrators of PEARLS FROM PEORIA. He also tells us that when he does an art exhibition, Philip José Farmer is almost always mentioned somewhere in his artist statement as you can see in this one from the Fahrenheit Gallery and this one from the Nova Young Art Fair. However, do yourself a favor and check out his website tetragrammatron.com. Besides his artwork you will see all sorts of bizarre things, such as his Invisible Donkey Removal service and Remote Control Orpheus Terminal. Parts of Jason's website are just laugh-out-loud funny.
After a couple of years of inactivity, Forthcoming Books has suddenly become the busiest page on the website. Our second big news item is that Bison Books will publish a new edition of TARZAN ALIVE, in the Spring of 2006, including an all new introduction by science fiction author Mike Resnick. We contacted Mike and he was nice enough to tell us how he came to be involved with this book. Read about it on the Forthcoming Books page. Also added to this page is a link to the Table of Contents of MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe. Unfortunately, not a big news item this month is PEARLS FROM PEORIA. Phillip Rose just received another chunk of the book for final proofreading on May 6th. If the printer can pick up their pace just a little we should see this book printed by the end of May.
Our third big news item of the month is the fact that Farmerphile, the Farmercentric fanzine that we have talked about on this webpage and in the Newsletter has been given the green light. Click on the above link to see where we are so far, and how you might be able to contribute.
We have a few additions to the Conventions page this month. Christopher Carey pointed out that we did not have a listing for the 1970 Dum-Dum where Phil gave his speech about Tarzan's Coat of Arms. Apparently when we added it to the Articles page, we did not yet have the Conventions page. There is probably a lot of stuff like that lying around right under our noses. While on this subject we also added a mention of Phil attending the Dum-Dum at the 1976 Worldcon and Phil's Keynote Speech at the 75th Anniversary Dinner (of the publication of TARZAN OF THE APES), hosted by the Normal Beans of Chicago. Chris also sent us the blurb from THE LAST WESTERN.
The rarest addition to the website this month comes from long time contributor Craig Kimber. He provided us with a copy of Work Shop from Unifan #1, June 1978, which is a transcript from Fabula 77, where Phil, Brian W. Aldiss and Sam J. Lundwall created a science fiction story on stage in front of an audience.
I (Mike) have greatly enjoyed reading CALLAHAN'S LADY by Spider Robinson and I have added details from the book to the Ralph von Wau Wau webpage. According to the Wold Newton Crossover Chronology, in the next book in the series, LADY SLINGS THE BOOZE, Jeeves (yes, the Jeeves) is now working as one of Lady Sally's artist. As much as I love P.G. Wodehouse, I am really looking forward to this.
Phil's very short story, King of the Beasts, is a popular one having been reprinted about a dozen times. We finally obtained one of the more interesting, and hard to find, places it has appeared; Asimov's Story A Month Calendar. The story, along with a photo of Phil, appears in May.
Although it seems very unlikely, if you have not yet seen the Riverworld Pilot it will be shown yet again on May 21st at 9:00am.
The hit counter as of May 9th says 104,952 which is 2,308 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Did you know that Chris Roberson, head of Monkey Brain Books, the publisher who is bringing out MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe, is also a writer? Apparently he is a pretty good one since he is currently a nominee for the John W Campbell Award For Best New Writer. Congratulations Chris! Not to be outdone, artist John Picacio, who did the fantastic cover art for the above mentioned book has been nominated for a Hugo award for best professional artist. Click on his name and check out his webpage and it is very easy to see why.
Those of you on the email list are probably wondering why you never received the email saying that PEARLS FROM PEORIA has been delivered from the printer/binder and is now ready to ship. Well, let me just say that I have a new-found respect for book publishers and just how much work goes into printing a book. I reported back on March 9th that "Phillip Rose, the publisher, and Paul Spiteri, the editor, received the first galleys from the printer today." Actually as it turns out they received 14 pdf files by email. And that was only the first third of the book. So, all three of us printed these out and started proof reading. We didn't get the final sections of book, in pdf format, until March 24th. We thought we had found all of the typos before sending it to the printer, but once you see it on paper, you always find more. Some came from us and some came from the printer but they all had to be found and corrected. We are now just about done with this. Hopefully Phillip Rose, the publisher, will get one printed copy of the book that he can at least look through to see if all of our corrections were made before all 550 copies are printed.
Spending the last month proof reading this book is my main excuse for not getting very much added to the website this month. Although we do have several things to talk about. But first, having just read PEARLS from cover to cover I can't tell you adequately how excited I am about this book. The Terminalization of JG Ballard is just as wildly constructed as Phil's Riders of the Purple Wage and is a lot more entertaining. Every Edgar Rice Burroughs fan will get a big kick out of "A Princess of Terra" trying to make sure they figure out all of the inside jokes. Everyone who has read TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO and become interested in Sir Richard Francis Burton, will love "A Rough Knight for the Queen." "The Blind Rowers" and "Hunter's Moon" are both so well done you will just shake your head wondering why Phil did not get more recognition outside of science fiction.
Regular contributor to the website, Christopher Carey is working on his first science fiction novel. You can read about his daily progress by visiting his website and checking out his writing blog. Blogging is of course getting very popular these days, but this is the only one I have found that I go and read every day. It is a little frustrating not getting to read the actual story he keeps talking about, but I am hooked none the less.
Speaking of Chris, he alerted us to an article online by noted science fiction author/historian/professor James Gunn, called Protocols of Science Fiction. This article is about how to read science fiction and in it he mentions that in one of his classes he gives a line by line breakdown of Farmer's short story Sail On! Sail On!. We contacted Mr. Gunn to find out how we could get our hands on a copy of this but none is available. However, he is working on a book called Reading Science Fiction and his analysis of this Farmer classic may be included. We'll keep you posted.
As for actual additions to the website, here is the short, but hopefully interesting, list:
As promised I did read the third book in Spider Robinson's Callahan Series, CALLAHAN'S SECRET. We have added details from this to the Ralph von Wau Wau page. I am still looking forward to reading all the books in the Callahan series as well as everything else that Spider has written.
Alert Farmer fan Ray Marcinow noticed copies of one of Phil's books in an episode of The Twilight Zone. Check it out on the Miscellaneous items page. If you haven't signed up with Netflix yet, this is as good an excuse as any. You will find this episode on "Treasures of the Twilight Zone". While you're at it you can check out "The Twilight Zone: Vol. 37" where you will find the episode Mr. Garrity and the Graves which Phil claims is based on his story The Uproar in Acheron. After watching the episode I have to agree with Phil.
Zacharias, webmaster of, The International Bibliography sent us two more blurbs this month, one for THE IRON DREAM and one for SONG FROM THE STARS, both by Norman Spinrad.
Phil was the Guest of Honor at Marcon 29 in 1994. We have added an entry for this to the Conventions and Events page.
The hit counter as of March 9th says 102,644 which is 2,814 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Other additions to the website include four new reviews added to the Reviews webpage which brings our total to 323 of 408 known printed reviews online. We finally acquired a copy of Moebius Trip 11 which contains the original publication of The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout. We also added a letter that appeared in SFR #14.
Last month we added a section on blurbs that Phil has written for other authors, then we asked you to send us any that we don't have online. Zacharias sent us one for THE BRAZEN RULE, Dan Getz sent us one for KISS YOUR ASS GOOD-BYE and Christopher Carey sent us one for ANIMIST.
Speaking of Zacharias, he updated his website, The International Bibliography on February 27th, and one of his main topics was Ralph von Wau Wau and the Callahan Series. He also provided several links to Spider related Wold Newton websites, which is something we need to do more of here.
The biggest addition to the site this month is all the listings on the forthcoming books page. Considering that Phil's last book came out in 1999, the fact that three, or possibly four, new books are coming out this year is pretty exciting. All of these books are collections of old material but these are going to be important books:
PEARLS FROM PEORIA not only collects dozens of extremely hard to find, never before collected, stories and articles but there are also seven previously unpublished stories. Phillip Rose, the publisher, and Paul Spiteri, the editor, received the first galleys from the printer today. Some frantic proof reading and hopefully only a few corrections and the book hits the printing press. We will send out a special newsletter as soon as the books are delivered to Phillip Rose and are ready for shipping.
MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe. This is the first collection in print dedicated to Phil's Wold Newton concept. There are nine articles by Phil plus a variety of articles, essays, and timelines from 14 other Wold Newton experts. The essays cover topics ranging from the scholarly aspects of the Wold Newton 'game,' to Greystoke's daughters, Jules de Grandin's lineage, Captain Nemo's secret history, how the various men called Zorro fit into the Wold Newton Universe, the tangled family tree of Sherlock Holmes, the genealogies of Professor Moriarty and Fu Manchu, H.G. Wells' Time Traveller, and much, much more.
THE BEST OF PHILIP JOSÉ FARMER. The title says it all, an awesome collection of Phil's shorter work. You may have already read everything in this book (except for Joe Lansdale's introduction) but it is going to be a must for all serious collectors. This will make a great Christmas present for anyone you want to turn on to Phil. Also, we just found out yesterday that our very own Keith Howell is going to be doing the interior illustrations for this book. Subterranean Press could not have made a better choice as far as we are concerned.
Untitled collection from Baen Books. This collection was announced in the August 2004 issue of Locus magazine. We would love to help promote this book but we have not heard anything back from Baen Books.
There are also a couple of other books of interest that have just been released:
TALES OF THE SHADOWMEN: The Modern Babylon is an anthology from Jean-Marc Lofficier's Black Coat Press. It features short stories inspired by French pulp fiction, written by several Wold Newton "creative mythographers," including Win Eckert, Matthew Baugh, Greg Gick, and Rick Lai, as well as much more established science-fiction writers such as Brian Stableford, Jean-Marc & Randy Lofficier, John Peel, Terrance Dicks, Chris Roberson, and Robert Sheckley, among others. Nor are the stories limited to only French characters... Wold Newton Family members such as Doc Savage, Fu Manchu, Sherlock Holmes, and The Shadow, all make appearances in the anthology (even if some of them appear in disguise), as do perennial French Wold Newton Family members C. Auguste Dupin and Arsène Lupin. Several of the stories refer to or utilize Phil Farmer's Wold Newton Family theories and concepts. For fans of the monster corner of the Wold Newton Universe, there are stories featuring Frankenstein's Creature, the Cthulhu Mythos, and Erik (Phantom of the Opera).
Back in 2003 Ron Capshaw contacted us about having Phil read a manuscript for a book he was working on with the hope that he would provide a blurb or recommendation to help him get it published. Fully expecting Phil to say, "Sorry, but no", I sent the inquiry along. But something in Ron's description of the story caught Phil's attention and he said yes. The blurb in question is not printed on the back of Ron's book, The Ghost: A Historical Retrospective, but it did in fact help him get it published: "Mr. Capshaw brilliantly shows how the `changing times' never change. I enjoyed this longago plunge into neverdying fiction."
One more reprint to mention, Christopher Carey discovered that Phil's article The Golden Age and the Brass is going to be reprinted in BURROUGHS BULLETIN OMNIBUS EDITION OF #1-12 (1947-1956).
The hit counter as of March 9th says 99,830 which is 2,584 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Other items from last month's newsletter to address: We mentioned that we had just received an order for one of the last two signed copies of LOVE SONG, which left only one available. It was snatched up the next day. There are only 12 unsigned copies left, get one while you can, this could be your last opportunity to read this extremely rare book for less than $100. We also said that we would be overhauling all of the Series pages but this has not happened. We started on it, adding in thumbnail links like we have on many other pages, but we just were't happy with the results. So that has been scrapped for the time being.
As far as we are concerned the most interesting addition to the website this month, beating out Spider by a thread*, actually made it onto two separate webpages. If you check out the Articles page you will see a new entry at the top of the list, an article that Phil wrote for his college newspaper about his trip to New York for the school. Even though this "event" happened before Phil's career as an author began, since he did appear in public and then write about it, we decided to include it. Keep in mind that this is now the earliest sample of his writing that we have online. We also added this to the top of the Conventions and Events page. A very special thank you to Charles Frey, the Special Collections Librarian at the Bradley University Library for unearthing this gem. He has promised to keep his eyes open for Phil's byline in other issues of The Bradley Tech, so we are keeping our fingers crossed.
Speaking of events, Christopher Carey sent us some information about an exhibit put on by the Peoria Public Librabry back in June, 1998 that we somehow never added to the website. I (Mike) did not attend this event because I had already rented a house in Florida for a week's vacation the same week as Phil's appearance. If only they had given me more warning... By the way, Chris now has his own interesting webpage which is definitely worth checking out.
Dan Getz sent us a great photo of Phil and Bette from Chicon II, the 1952 Worldcon. To find out who the rest of these people are, check out the photo album webpage.
All three of Keith Howell's original illustrations for PEARLS FROM PEORIA have been sold. He is considering selling prints of the originals and I will definitely be buying a set. The picture of Ralph is my favorite but everytime I look at the Grandrith picture it gets more amazing, I swear the moon actually glows. Speaking of PEARLS FROM PEORIA, its release date is now so late in February, that it will actually be March... Maybe Phillip Rose can time it so the book comes out on March 9th, just in time for our next update.
Since we are no longer getting monthly updates from Phil for the PJF Recommends page, we have started adding blurbs from the back covers of books that Phil has commented on (you have to love the one for PORNUCOPIA by Piers Anthony). If you have any books with blurbs by Phil that you do not see here, please send us a scan.
On last month's update we said that we would be adding two new letters to the letters page this month. However we only added the one that appeared in Science Fiction Review #39. The one that was in SFR #14 was actually part of an interview and does not really work by itself.
Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography took a look at our articles about page this month and decided to help us fill in some holes (just like he did last month with the letters page). Mostly he sent us scans of covers and the articles in reference books; WORLD AUTHORS 1970-1975, ENCYLOPEDIA SHERLOCKIANA, THE ENCYLOPEDIA OF FANTASY, SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS, TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN SCIENCE FICTION WRITERS, Part 1: A-L,, THE UNIVERSE MAKERS, SCIENCE FICTION: TEN EXPLORATIONS, TWENTIETH CENTURY SCIENCE-FICTION WRITERS, SECOND EDITION and OFFICIAL PRICE GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY COLLECTIBLES.
The Scifi Channel has the Riverworld Pilot scheduled to air three more times coming up: February 14th at 11:00pm, March 22nd at 7:00pm and April 3rd at 11:00am. Even though the Riverworld Pilot was a disappointment overall, I still get a warm and fuzzy feeling when I put the DVD in my laptop.
(*I read one Callahan book and I start punning. In public no less).
The hit counter on February 9th says 97,246 which is 2,700 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography took a look at our letters page and decided to help us fill in some holes. He sent a scan of the cover of Wheelwrightings that he found online, a letter from Phil that appeared in Tarzan of the Apes No. 208 and one that appeared in Erbania 41-42. When we first created this page we only listed those letters that we had and could reproduce online. We did not consult bibliographies and list all of the "known" letters from Phil that have appeared in print the way we have listed known reviews and editions of books. With only a handful of known letters left to add, and a nice convenient list sent to us from Rias, we have added listings for all known letters to this page. If you have a copy of the magazine or fanzine in question, they're the ones that say "No more info at this time", feel free to send us a scan of the cover and the letter. Two of them say "coming soon!" and we will get those online this month.
Also on the letters page I have added a couple of letters that Phil sent to Locus magazine in 1973, which were printed in issue #148. This had been listed on the Articles About page under the title "Kilgore Trout Revisited". Since this "article" is mostly three letters from Phil we have moved it to the letters page.
Zacharias also took a look at the Interviews page and sent me some scans to fill in some holes; SPEAKING OF SCIENCE FICTION, Tangent #2, Vector #81 Whizzard #10, THE SOUND OF WONDER Vol 2 and a link to an interview that appeared in the local newspaper which you can still read online. He also sent us a photo of Phil from 1977 that we have added to the photo gallery page.
Here are a few items of commerce to update: There are still two signed copies of LOVE SONG left but six more unsigned copies sold leaving only 11 copies unspoken for. Another of Keith Howell's original illustrations for PEARLS FROM PEORIA sold leaving only one left for sale. Tim Boxell still has all of his original art from his adult comic book adaptation of IMAGE OF THE BEAST for sale.
Speaking of art we have added two very nice new pieces of fan art to the site from a French artist named Erwan. They are both based on A PRIVATE COSMOS.
In last month's update and in the last couple of newsletters, I mentioned two interesting ideas. One is the possibility of some sort of get together/swap meet for Farmer collectors (this idea is on hold for the time being). The other is the possibility of a PJF fanzine, you know on actual paper sent to you through the mail, the way it used to be done before the internet. This idea has gotten a lot of interest, including from Phil and Bette Farmer themselves. If the story mentioned above, "The Face that Launched a Thousand Eggs", does not make it into PEARLS FROM PEORIA, it will definitely make it into the fanzine. If there is one. What do you think of these for a possible fanzine name; Farmerphile, Farmerzine, or Brobdingnagian? I received many other suggestions, Farmer's Almanac being by far the most submitted, but I am hoping for something a little more original. Farmerphile actually was not a suggestion but was in a note someone sent me asking for my opinion on a screen treatment they did for one of Phil's books, he said that he was looking forward to the opinion of a real "Farmerphile". This was sent to me a couple of years ago but I just happened to see it again the same day I sent out a newsletter asking for title suggestions...
The hit counter, as we finish this up Sunday shortly after midnight Eastern time (but hey, it is still the 9th in Peoria) 94,546 which is 2,584 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
Make sure you check out the Table of Contents page to see just how many hard to find, as well as previously unpublished, items there will be in this book. You know, it just dawned on me that in two months I am going to have to go through and add: "Also Appeared In: PEARLS FROM PEORIA, Rose Press, 2005 British harcover collection", to all of those listings on the Short Stories, Articles and Poems pages and add the previously unpublished items to those pages as well. Oh well, a small price to pay to see this fantastic collection in print.
Since PEARLS will not be out in time for Christmas, go ahead and tell your loved ones that what you want instead is a copy of the Ramble House edition of LOVE SONG. There are still 2 signed copies left and 17 unsigned copies left. To see how to order one, click on the LOVE SONG link above. Fender Tucker, the publisher at Ramble House recently sent me a copy of his latest book, it bore the following inscription which I am still smiling about, "To Michael Croteau - who knows a good obsession when he finds one." The "obsession", if you have just tuned in, is collecting Philip José Farmer of course.
We are thinking of changing the name of this webpage to The Official Philip José Farmer Home Page/Art Gallery. Ok, maybe not. However one of Keith Howell's drawings from PEARLS has already sold and we have it on good authority that a second one is almost out the door. This month we are happy to announce that Tim Boxell the artist who drew the comic book version of IMAGE OF THE BEAST, is offering for sale all of the artwork from that legendary comic. There are four color pieces and 33 interior pieces. If you are 18 or over click here to take a look. Not that we are showing any of the really gruesome ones here, but you must be 18 to even think about buying any of these.
Most of the actual additions to the website this month come courtesy of Zacharias, who just updated his own remarkable PJF webpage, The International Bibliography back on December 5th. He sent us covers scans of the following books and fanzines on the Articles About page; THE SCIENCE FICTION ENCYCLOPEDIA, SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY AUTHORS (A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction), THE SECRET RECORD (Modern Erotic Literature), WHO'S WHO IN SCIENCE FICTION, Foundation #14, Science Fiction Collector #8, A READERS GUIDE TO SCIENCE FICTION, Tangent No. 2, THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, Volume 1 (A-L), Science Fiction Monthly Vol.1 #9 and SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY LITERATURE. Rias also sent us two advertisements for THE ADVENTURES OF THE PEERLESS PEER and an ad for Mid-Americon1 which can be found on the Conventions and Events page.
Don't forget, if you have not yet seen it, the Riverworld Pilot will air on the Scifi Channel December 9th at 7:00pm, January 25th at 11:00pm and on February 14th at 11:00pm. Contrary to what we have seen reported at various webpages the Riverworld DVD does not contain an audio commentary or even the trailers. The only extra features are a short documentary on a few of the special effects in the movie and French and Spanish subtitles. However, it is still worth getting! The best price we have found for the DVD is $20.40 (including shipping) at Deep Discount DVD.
I have had two recent (email) conversations with PJF fans about two interesting ideas. One is the possibility of some sort of get together/swap meet for Farmer collectors. The other is the possibility of a PJF fanzine, you know on actual paper sent to you through the mail, the way it used to be done before the internet. I plan on discussing both of these topics at some length in the next PJF Newsletter, so you if you have not already, now would be a good time to Join the PJF Mailing list.
The hit counter, as we finish this up Thursday afternoon says 91,962 which is 2,273 visits to this main page (not the entire website) since our last update.
The third fannish addition is actually going pro. Keith Howell sent in the first piece of fan art we put on the website years ago and he also did the cover for my PJF Collector's Guide. Last month we announced the forthcoming publication of the Farmer collection PEARLS FROM PEORIA, and we mentioned that "There are also some great illustrations by several very fine artists who are big fans of Philip José Farmer". Keith did three illustrations for the book and he is selling the originals here. My favorite is the one of Ralph von Wau Wau.
If you go to the Photo Gallery and scroll down past the first six pictures you will see two pictures we just added from the 1950 Bradley University Yearbook, Phil's final year in school.
The Ramble House edition of LOVE SONG continues to sell well. As of November 10th there are only 2 out of 25 signed copies left and 17 out of 70 unsigned copies left. To see how many copies are left now, and to order one, click on the LOVE SONG link above.
Last month I wrote at some length about the fanzine Science Fiction Review in all of it's different forms. This past month I acquired two more issues of Richard E. Geis, which gives me the first three out of four in this form. They were very interesting to read but did not mention Phil very much. Issue #2 mentions Phil when talking about Moebius Trip and how in the next issue he will be printing the uncut version of Leslie Fiedler's long review of TARZAN ALIVE (this did appear in Moebius Trip #14). In issue #3 Phil is also only mentioned once, "A copy of TARZAN ALIVE from Doubleday. Could it be that I am back on the review list? I shall read it and likely like it. Phil Farmer seems to sparkle when he deals with his resurrected Heroes." He doesn't review it though. I also purchased two issues of The Alien Critic (#'s 5 and 6) and much to my surprise they did not contain anything by or about Phil.
Our good friend Zacharias, webmaster of The International Bibliography, informed us that the August issue of Locus Magazine had a small piece about Farmer selling a collection to Baen Books. I've tried to contact Baen to no avail so far, but Phil's agent did tell me that the book will be an omnibus of THE LOVERS (novella version), FLESH, and STRANGE RELATIONS. For those of you who have never read the original version of THE LOVERS, this is great news.
Speaking of Locus Magazine, just like with Science Fiction Review, I have been collecting old issues of this great fan/semi-pro/prozine hunting for information about Phil. This past month I bought 6 copies of Locus which now gives me a complete run from issue #65 (October 1970) through #305 (June 1986). Phil is mentioned briefly in so many issues of Locus that most of them are not listed on the webpage anywhere. For example in Locus #148 there is a short article titled Kilgore Trout Revisited, where Phil says that he is not surprised that he has been accused of being "Kilgore Trout". The Miscellaneous Notes section of issue #146 (one of the ones I just got) says, "the latest rumor is that Kilgore Trout is actually Philip Jose Farmer..." This is typical of Locus, there is interesting information about Phil, but not an entire article about him, and just too many of these to put on this website.
The Riverworld Pilot will be released on DVD November 16th and according to the Scifi Channel the extra's will include filmographies and the trailer. They will also be showing the pilot twice more this year; November 28th at 9:00am and December 9th at 7:00pm.
The hit counter, as we finish this up Wednesday afternoon says 89,689 which is 2,378 hits since our last update.
The Ramble House edition of LOVE SONG is selling fast! As of October 9th there are only 4 out of 25 signed copies left and 30 out of 70 unsigned copies left. To see how many copies are left now, and to order one, click on the LOVE SONG link above.
We have a new entry on the Interviews page. It is a short interview, conducted with Phil last month through us and published on a Brazilian science fiction website called Intempol.
Most of the new content on the site this month comes from some of our regular contributors; Zacharias, who assures us that his website The International Bibliography should be updated very soon, sent us scans of three items for the articles page, two from the magazine SFX and one from the reference book WHO WROTE WHAT WHEN? He also gave us links to online reviews of TO YOUR SCATTERED BODIES GO and THE OTHER LOG OF PHILEAS FOGG. Steady contributor Dan Getz has sent us three more reviews; NIGHT OF LIGHT, DOC SAVAGE: HIS APOCALYPTIC LIFE and ESCAPE FROM LOKI.
When Paul Spiteri visited from England last month he brought me eight British paperbacks that I did not already have in my collection (I just started collecting British paperbacks after I pretty much ran out of other PJF items to collect). More importantly, he brought me two editions that I did not have scans of on the website; A PRIVATE COSMOS and THE STONE GOD AWAKENS. Hand delivered from England... talk about service.
Speaking of running out of things to collect, while searching for articles by and about Philip Jose Farmer, as well as reviews and interviews, I have purchased hundreds of fanzines. The greatest science fiction fanzine of all time has to be Richard Geis's Science Fiction Review, in all of it's many forms; Psychotic (on and off between 1955 and 1968), Science Fiction Review (1968 - 1971), Richard E. Geis (1972 - 1973), The Alien Critic (1973 - 1975) and again as Science Fiction Review (1975 - 1984). Of the 28 issues I have so far, only two of them failed to mention Philip Jose Farmer in one way or another; a review of one or more of his books, a review by him, an article about him, a letter from him, an interview of him, even a reprint of a speech by him. Every issue, especially from the early 1970's, is a wonderful glimpse of the history of science fiction because so many big name pros regularly contributed to it. This past month I acquired my first copy of one of the Richard E. Geis issues. It is a 44 page, pre-internet, blog with daily entries under headings like; THE MAIL, THE NEWS, TELEVISION, MOVIES, POLITICS, BOOK REVIEW, and the most often used THE NATURE OF THE BEAST. This issue contains a book review of TIME'S LAST GIFT, and when talking about Ed Connor's fanzine Moebius Trip he says "He publishes some good stuff such as The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout by Phil Farmer". The longest heading in the whole fanzine is, PHILIP JOSE FARMER UNTIMELY RIPT FROM SF'S WOMB AND THRUST INTO THE MAINSTREAM TO DROWN or WITH FRIENDLY REVIEWERS LIKE LESLIE FIEDLER, WHO NEEDS ENEMIES? This is followed by excerpts from Leslie Fiedler's Getting into the Task of Now Pornography and Geis's comments on them. Issues #2 and #3 are in the mail and on their way to me now, so hopefully I will have a few more interesting reviews and/or articles for next month's update.
We announced last month that Alliance Atlantis, in conjunction with The SciFi Channel, renewed their option on Riverworld. This means that there is hope for the series after all, but we still don't know if they will continue from the Pilot or start over from scratch. The latest update we have received is that not everyone involved is happy with the new concept so things are going to be delayed. This means that the show will not make it into this season's production schedule so we are now looking at 2006 as the earliest possible air date.
We also announced last month that the original Riverworld TV Pilot was finally coming out on DVD November 16th. We said last month that the listing on Amazon.com did not show any extra features but "Chris" pointed out on the PJF FORUM that CD Universe lists the DVD as having an audio commentary, as does Deep Discount DVD.
The hit counter, as we finish this up Saturday afternoon says 87,311 which is 2,404 hits since our last update.
