Philip José Farmer: Venus on the Half-Shell and Others

INDEX OF
NOVELS & COLLECTIONS

NEXT BOOK
PREVIOUS BOOK

Venus on the Half-Shell and Others

Genre	Science Fiction
Type	Collection
Series	-
Edited by	Christopher Paul Carey

11 items: "Why and How I Became Kilgore Trout" (introduction), Venus on the Half-Shell (novel), "The Obscure Life and Hard Times of Kilgore Trout", "The Jungle Rot Kid on the Nod", "The Problem of the Sore Bridge—Among Others", "The Volcano", "Osiris on Crutches", "The Phantom of the Sewers", "A Hole in Hell", "The Last Rise of Nick Adams", and The Adventure of the Peerless Peer (novella).
Plus an extra story in the lettered edition only: "The Impotency of Bad Karma".
See also the page pseudonyms (fictional authors).
DEDICATION: "To Mike Croteau and Paul Spiteri, without whose help so much would have gone unpublished."

COVER TEXT:
Venus on the Half-Shell and Others collects for the first time the best of the best from Philip José Farmer's scintillating "fictional-author period."
In the mid-1970s a fever-pitched furor was created when an actual novel purported to be by Kilgore Trout —the sadsack science fiction writer who appears as a character in the works of Kurt Vonnegut— materialized on the bookracks, complete with a mysterious back cover photo of the author looking like a bearded vagabond sage. Debate raged as to who had truly written Venus on the Half-Shell. Was it Vonnegut himself, or perhaps Theodore Sturgeon, rumored to have been the inspiration for Trout? Or did Kilgore Trout really exist? Just as one respected newspaper published an article "proving" that Vonnegut had written the book, the Hugo Award-winning science fiction author Philip Jose Farmer announced he was the true author.
The controversial Kilgore Trout episode was neither the first nor the last time Farmer would impishly slip out of his own skin and assume the persona of another author. In Venus on the Half-Shell and Others, Philip Jose Farmer transforms himself into fictional personalities as compelling as they are diverse: Cordwainer Bird, Paul Chapin, Rod Keen, Harry "Bunny" Manders, Leo Queequeg Tincrowdor, John H. Watson, M.D. and even the real-life author William S. Burroughs (writing his own version of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Jungle Lord!). Also included is the original version of Farmer's classic Sherlock Holmes/Lord Greystoke pastiche The Adventure of the Peerless Peer, back in print for the first time in over thirty years.
A unique collection, Venus on the Half-Shell and Others showcases the grand imagination of one of science fiction's most resourceful and creative minds.

PUBLICATION HISTORY
| US |

3 Publications

Publisher Series+no. Bookno. Format Date Pages Price Cover art Notes	FIRST PUBLICATION Burton, MI: Subterranean Press - ISBN 978-1-59606-142-2 hardcover (23,5×16cm) 01/2008 325 $ 38.00 Bob Eggleton Trade edition. 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page. Light blue cloth boards with blue silver lettering on the spine. With a "Foreword" by Tom Wode Bellman, a general introduction, "More Real Than Life Itself: Philip José Farmer's Fictional-Author Period" and story introductions by Christopher Paul Carey, and "Philip José Farmer as Fictional Author: A Chronological Bibliography".	Bob Eggleton

Publisher Series+no. Bookno. Format Date Pages Price Cover art Notes	Burton, MI: Subterranean Press - ISBN 978-1-59606-142-2 hardcover (23,5×16cm) 03/2008 325 $ 125.00 Bob Eggleton Limited edition of one hundred and twenty-five numbered copies, signed by Philip José Farmer, in a slipcase. 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page. White leather boards with blue silver lettering on the spine. The slipcase is covered with light blue cloth. With a "Foreword" by Tom Wode Bellman, a general introduction, "More Real Than Life Itself: Philip José Farmer's Fictional-Author Period" and story introductions by Christopher Paul Carey, and "Philip José Farmer as Fictional Author: A Chronological Bibliography".	Bob Eggleton

Publisher Series+no. Bookno. Format Date Pages Price Cover art Notes	Burton, MI: Subterranean Press - ISBN 978-1-59606-142-2 hardcover (23,5×16cm) 10/2008 340 $ 300.00 Bob Eggleton Limited edition of twenty-six lettered copies, signed by Philip José Farmer, in a special traycase. 'First Edition' stated on the copyright page. White leather boards with blue silver lettering on the spine. The traycase is with dark blue and black leather, and has gilt lettering on the cover and the spine. With a "Foreword" by Tom Wode Bellman, a general introduction, "More Real Than Life Itself: Philip José Farmer's Fictional-Author Period" and story introductions by Christopher Paul Carey, and "Philip José Farmer as Fictional Author: A Chronological Bibliography". The contents page is the same as in the other two editions, and so does not show the extra story, "The Impotency of Bad Karma", that is not in those editions. Due to the delayed production time of the traycases this edition came much later.	Bob Eggleton the traycase

TOP