Philip José Farmer - International Bibliography

It took me some time to find a way to order the first three Riverworld novels from Poland. They were published in August 2008 (see here), but only today I received these three. The novels, Gdzie wasze ciała porzucone (To Your Scattered Bodies Go), Najwspanialszy parostatek (The Fabulous Riverboat) and Mroczny wzór (The Dark Design) have been added to my Farmer collection. The books have been checked, but only the name of the cover artist of all three books had to be corrected.

There is no information on the website of the publisher MAG when the other two Riverworld novels will be published. They were announced last year to be published in 2009, but no news about it right now other than the Polish title of the fourth one, Czarodziejski labirynt (The Magic Labyrinth).

Fifty-five years after its original publication in the magazine Fantastic Universe, January 1954, Farmer's story "They Twinkled Like Jewels" sees publication again. This time in a thin booklet from Farmer Press, published in October 2009.
There is not more information in the booklet about the publisher than its name, Farmer Press. No location, no other publications, nothing. I suspect that it is a publisher solely to publish this story, a story that is in the public domain.

Mike Croteau, webmaster of the Official PJFarmer Home Page, whom I asked if he knew anything about Farmer Press, thinks the same: "I have no idea about Farmer Press. It's not anything the family or agent is associated with as far as I know. I think they are just printing stories that are somehow in the public domain."

See the earlier entry for the other (free) publication formats of this story.

Today I received my copy of the limited, lettered and by Philip José Farmer signed edition of The Other in the Mirror. This edition comes in a nice-looking, with purple cloth covered traycase. But the nicety doesn't come near the beauty of the previous traycases the publisher used, which were with stitched leather. See for instance the one that came with Up from the Bottomless Pit.

That is not something the publisher, Subterranean Press, wanted to do, but the old traycase supplier went out of business. The ordered leather traycases were not delivered anymore, see here.
Some copies of this lettered edition and the trade edition are still available with the publisher, see here.

Publisher Locus-7, the same that also published Farmer's Night of Light (Η Νύχτα του Φωτός) –see the earlier entry– has published an anthology with a translated story by Farmer.
This anthology, Εκείνες οι Άλλες Πραγματικότητες, edited by Giorgos Balanos, contains the story "Το Επαγγελμα του Θεου" ("The God Business"). The book was published in 2002, but I only just discovered it. See the publisher's website.
The new information has been added on the story page.

Today I received an email from Greece, witch confirms that we have a complete coverage of the Greek editions:
"Greetings Zacharias and congratulations for your beautiful site! I am a reader from Greece and a big fan of P.J. Farmer; may him rest in peace...
Unfortunately, in Greece science fiction is not so well known and a little mistaken. So, in my knowledge the only books translated in greek are the ones you include in your database and no other. I am writing this email mostly to congratulate you for your nice work which undoubtetly helps a professional as well as a simple reader to tidy up Farmers work in his archive. Keep up the good work!
Panagiotis Papadopoulos"

Always nice to get some compliments. Thanks!

From Poland came the translated novel Przebudzenie kamiennego boga, published in 1990 by Versus in a trade paperback. At the same time this book also got published in hardcover, as a 'Exclusiv Fantasy Book Club' edition. I haven't seen the hardcover yet.
The paperback however, a translation of The Stone God Awakens, has been added to my Farmer collection. The cover scans on the book page have been replaced with my own (larger) scans. The information in the Bibliography about this book needed no correction after checking the publication.

Finally, I found a copy of the Greek edition of The Lovers (Οι εραστές, 1996) from publisher Para Pente for my Farmer collection.
I bought it from the online bookshop Protoporia.

I received the book and checked the information that was already in the Bibliography. Although this edition has no publication date in it, it refers to a 1989 edition from Ars Longa. This is the only proof I have of the first Greek publication, I haven't been able to find any other information about it. The Para Pente edition states 'Second Edition' (Β' Εκδοση) on the cover and also on the copyright page. The cover scans, thumbnail and large, have been added on the book page.

The information about the cover artist, John Bolton, came from Russell Wright (Australia) about a year ago, see here.

Next year, in March 2010, will the novel Dark is the Sun be published as an audiobook by Blackstone Audiobooks. The narrator is Rebecca Rogers. The running time is about fourteen hours.
It will become available in three different formats:
- in MP3 on CD, list price $29.95
- on Compact Disc, list price $118.00
- on Audio Cassettes, list price $85.95

Check it online at Amazon or Barnes&Noble. Or of course with Blackstone itself.

Dark is the Sun had its 30th anniversary of publication last September. Alas, it has been out of print in the English language for more than twenty years! It sure deserves a new edition.

A complete surprise! At least, to me that is. The story "They Twinkled Like Jewels" has been published in a paperback by Farmer Press. Farmer Press? Yes, Farmer Press. I have no idea who's behind this press, and the publication hasn't been announced before it got published in October.
Amazon has it now for sale for $3.99, and for that you get a paperback with 24 pages. I ordered a copy today and maybe have some more information when I receive it.

The story is in the public domain. So, it is also available online for free, as an e-text with the Project Gutenberg. There are several different text formats online.
Librivox has the story in a free audiobook, Short Science Fiction Collection 24, in MP3 or OGG files.
And finally, "They Twinkled Like Jewels" is again available from Amazon, as a Kindle Book, an eBook also, for $0.99 (international for $3.44).

Fred Fisher, from Houston (USA), found a second printing of the Book Club Edition of Dayworld. This printing has date code P047 on page 246. This publication has been added on the book page.

A new Greek edition arrived of the anthology Αγοραστε το δια (και άλλες 69 πολύ μικρές ιστορίες του Φανταστικού), with the story "Ο Βασιλιας των Ζωων" ("The King of the Beasts"). The new edition has exactly the same data as the first one from 1999, there is no indication that it is a second printing from 2003. The only difference is the cover, the new cover is at right.

The first novel in the Riverworld series, A Vuestros Cuerpos Dispersos (To Your Scattered Bodies Go), was published in September 2007 in Spain by La Factoria de Ideas.
Now after two years it's time fort part two of the series, El Fabuloso Barco Fluvial (The Fabulous Riverboat). It has been published in a large trade paperback. The book can be bought for € 20,95.

This edition comes with a very nice cover painting by Jim Burns. The painting has originally been made for the novel Darwinia by Robert Charles Wilson. All US and UK editions have used the same cover, see here. It is a nice picture, even if it's not really Riverworldish.

At the end of the book is a four pages long bibliography of Phil's books, with –as far as they are translated– the Spanish titles. According to the information in this bibliography La Factoria de Ideas will also publish the other three Riverworld books, The Dark Design, The Magic Labyrinth and Gods of Riverworld. There is no indication when these novels will be published.

If you are looking for some rare Farmer books, even signed by the Grand Master himself, then you should pay a visit at the special page at the Official PJF Home Page for the books from the estate sale.
It has been a sad year, both Phil and Bette Farmer have passed away. Their house had to be cleared out and all the original artwork and books are being sold.

So, if you want copies of the Essex House editions of A Feast Unknown, Blown, or The Image of the Beast, all signed by Farmer, or any one of the other hundreds of books, you should go that special page. I already had received my ordered copies. Write to the webmaster, Mike Croteau, for the books you want. His email address is there.

Books from Italy, Spain, France, and Germany were delivered at my door these past few weeks. The latest shipment I received were three books from Greece. All books were added to my Farmer collection. Most of them were already known in this International Bibliography. In some cases I had to add or correct small pieces of information, and replaced the cover scans with the ones I made of the received books.

From Greece I received two anthologies with stories by Phil, but also a till now unknown translation of Night of Light (Η Νύχτα του Φωτός) from publisher Locus-7 (2007). See the website.
We missed it when it was published in 2007, but now have added the information on the book page and on the page New Publications 2007. It is only the fifth Greek book by Farmer, so far.

While I still haven't had the time to read this novel, even when it's on the top of my priorities, others did. They put their thoughts about the novel in a review. And like with the previous reviews the new ones are again very positive.

Ron Capshaw reviewed The Evil in Pemberley House for The Washington Times: "Fans who have argued that Farmer had tamed himself since that era when he had the "real" Tarzan being homosexually raped by a villain will not be disappointed by "Pemberley." The heroine is violated in every possible way. But as with other pulp treatments by Farmer, she does not lose her heroic stature as a result. "Pemberley" shows the golden age Farmer with all his virtues and flaws. "Pemberley" is horrific but not from any of the supernatural doings in Darcy's old home; instead, it is how casually the author allows his pulp heroine to be raped and tortured that conjures up true shock value — quite a feat for a story originally written in 1973, when the Internet was a Pentagon project and pornography had to be sought out rather than ordered online."
Read the full review.

Robert M. Tilendis wrote a review for greenmanreview.com: "Needless to say, nothing is as it seems, no one is what they profess to be, there are plots within plots, the ghost does show up, but Patricia has much more to worry about than a ghost who simply wants love." and "Patricia is hardly your typical helpless female. Once she frees herself of the restraints being used to hold her down, she makes short work of her captors, who flee into the night and on every subsequent appearance are still sporting bruises. The story progresses this way -- although the actual sexual encounters are few -- to a bloody and very satisfying finale."
Read the full review.

The Evil in Pemberley House can still be ordered with the publisher, Subterranean Press.

There was a very big announcement at Farmercon 90 in Peoria, July 2008. Phil Farmer had given permission to four authors to complete some unfinished stories of his. Two of these have been published by now.

Paul Spiteri finished the story "Getting Ready to Write", published in Farmerphile Issue No.13, July 2008.
Win Scott Eckert completed the novel The Evil in Pemberley House (Subterranean Press, 2009).

But the other two novels have not been published, nor are there any concrete plans yet –that I know of– to have them published in the near future. I now have added the two announced, but unpublished novels, on the page Announced Books. The third Opar (or Khokarsa) novel, The Song of Kwasin, completed by Christopher Paul Carey, and the western novel, Cougar By the Tail, finished by Tracy Knight.
I sure hope these two novels also will get published at some point in the (near) future.

Farmer wasn't well known in his own home town Peoria. But at last there is some recognition for Phil as a Peorian residence, which he was for most of his life.
Greg Wahl and Charles Bobbitt have written the book It Didn't Play in Peoria (2009), with the subtitle 'Missed Chances of a Middle American Town', about "...the city's history from this unique perspective of missed changes, lost causes, and plain bad luck–a cautionary tale of Middle America..."

Is Phil then a 'missed chance' for Peoria, like the man on the cover, Charles Lindberg, had been?
Not really, it seems. Chapter 8 has the title: "They Didn't Stay in Peoria...But One Came Back". The one that did come back to Peoria is Phil. "Peoria's as good a place as any to watch the world go to hell in a handbasket," he claimed.

Next to the piece about Phil's life and writing career, till his death last February, there are also two photos in the book from the Farmers.
See the publisher's website about the book.

Subterranean Press posted even more auctions on Ebay, with yet another title by Farmer, The Other in the Mirror.

This omnibus with three novels by Farmer has only been published in June 2009, with a price of $45.00 for the trade edition, Now is the time to buy one of these great and beautifully crafted omnibuses, for only $22.50.

We haven't seen yet the limited, lettered and traycased edition of The Other in the Mirror.

Subterranean Press just posted this in their Newsletter and on their site: "We've just posted nearly 30 new Ebay auctions, some older titles, some new, some never offered before, all of them at 50% off."
Books by Philip K. Dick, China Mieville, Charles de Lint, George R.R. Martin and many others. And also one title by Philip José Farmer, Venus on the Half-Shell and Others.

So, if you still do not have this collection of Phil's 'fictional author stories' yet, you can buy one now for only $19.00. There are only 25 copies of each book listed on eBay.

In the German Democratic Republic, better known as East Germany, has only one Farmer story been published. That happened in 1988 with "Der Dienstagsmensch" ("The Sliced-Crosswise Only-On-Tuesday World") in the anthology ad libitum. Sammlung Zerstreuung Nr.9.
Publisher Volk und Welt had a series of about twenty-five volumes in this 'Collection Amusement'. The editor, Reinhard Lehmann, used for number 9 in the series a story by Farmer also, which he took from the (West) German collection Der Dienstagsmensch.

The discovery of and information about the East German publication comes from Ralf Lux (Germany). He also made a scan of the cover. And thanks to him I have been able to order a copy of the book in Germany, which I hope to receive somewhere this week. Vielen dank, Ralf!

This publication has been added on the story page, and the index page with translated stories has a 'new' country: East Germany.

Ralf wrote me why we could be sure this was the only Farmer publication in (former) East Germany. Hans-Peter Neumann has compiled a bibliography of all East German science fiction publications, with only this Farmer entry.

In the bibliography are three Spanish books from the publisher Acervo, Los Amantes (The Lovers), Dare (Dare) and Noche de luz (Night of Light). The first two are trade paperbacks, bound in plain cardboard, with a dust jacket. The dust jackets have been glued to the spine of the books.

The third book however, Noche de luz (1979), which edition was till recently not yet in my Philip José Farmer collection, is definitely a hardcover and not a trade paperback as stated before on this site.
Fred Fisher (US) discovered this when he received his copy, after which he emailed me about it. Just received my own copy from Spain, a hardcover with in blue paper covered boards and silver lettering on the spine and front board. The information on the book page has been corrected.

More novels in the Riverworld series in Spain.

The fourth and fifth novels in the Riverworld series in Poland.

All five Riverworld books will have new editions in the US.