At one day Byron Preiss came up with the idea of a book series, The Dungeon, much in the line of his earlier project Weird Heroes. Philip José Farmer's Greatheart Silver stories were published in the Weird Heroes anthologies.

Farmer: "...this strange brew of the unreal and the real, the classics and the pulps, is what caused Byron Preiss, the producer of this projected series, to launch it. The Dungeon works are based, in part, on the spirit that dwells in certain works of mine."

And: "...this universe next-door is a new one: pulp-and-classic. Farmerian. This, plus my love of alien adventures, is why Byron Preiss asked me to edit and oversee the Dungeon series. This series is an emulation of the spirit, not the content, of the Farmerian universe next-door, the pulp-and-classic."


Six novels were written and published in the Dungeon series. They were written by  Richard A. Lupoff (2), Charles De Lint (2), Bruce Coville (1), and Robin W. Bailey (1). These six were published by Bantam Spectra Books in the period from 1988 till 1990. In 2003 the novels were reprinted in three Dungeon omnibuses from ibooks.

All six were translated and published in Germany and Spain. Only the first four saw Italian editions, and only the first three had Japanese translations. The first two also had editions in the UK.

The covers of three of the Spanish editions, by Ciruelo Cabral, were used also for the three US omnibus editions. One of these cover illustrations you can see above.

I have finally redone the book page with the Dungeon series, with covers of all books.

Publisher Subterranean Press recently released two new eBooks by Philip José Farmer.
First is the extraordinary and outstanding collection Pearls from Peoria (2006), edited by Paul Spiteri. It contains 67 rare pieces of fiction and nonfiction. You can buy the eBook from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, or Kobo. See the publisher's page.


The second eBook is the collection Up from the Bottomless Pit (2007), edited by Christopher Paul Carey. It contains a novel, stories, and nonfiction.
You can buy this eBook also from Amazon, Barnes&Noble, or Kobo. See the publisher's page.

Next month  publisher Mnémos in France will publish a complete edition with the five Riverworld novels, Le Monde du Fleuve (Intégrale). These five will be published in a hardcover with 1280 pages for a price of €35,00.
The book number is ISBN 978-2-35408-341-0.
The hardcover will have pictorial boards with a black and white illustration on both sides. The dustjacket will be in color with the illustration as shown above.
See this page at the website of the publisher Mnémos.

From Fred Fischer (USA) I received scans to proof the existence of a yet unknown printing of the French Le noir dessein (translation of The Dark Design) from publisher Robert Laffont. The book had a reprint of 23 February 1981.

The now known four printings have covers with silver foil. The patterns on each of these can be different.

Fred wrote that he also sent me two magazines, which I haven't seen yet. It contains till now unknown work by or about Farmer. I'm very curious what it might be.
Thanks Fred!

The Dictionary of Midwestern Literature (Volume One: The Authors) surveys the lives and writings of nearly 400 Midwestern authors and identifies some of the most important criticism of their writings.

One of the 400 authors is Philip José Farmer. The entry is written by David R. Pichaske, professor of English at Southwest Minnesota State University.

Most of Farmer's important works are mentioned. About The Lovers Pichaske writes: «In a large sense The Lovers is a critique of Puritan Peoria and the whole prairie-Puritan Middle West from the viewpoint of Farmer's college crowd of proto-Beatniks.»

Thirty years ago, in 1986, the French publisher Presses Pocket published the Encyclopedie de poche de la science fiction (Guide de lecture), written by Claude Aziza & Jacques Goimard.

It is not an encyclopedia in the traditional way, with an entry describing the author's life and work.
Here we have 82 entries with an analysis of an author's work. Philip José Farmer is the only author, next to Robert A. Heinlein, that has four entries about his writings.

There are analyzes of the stories in the French collection Le livre d'or de la science fiction, of the two series World of Tiers (La saga des hommes-dieux) and Riverworld (Le fleuve de l'éternité), and finally of the novel The Green Odyssey (L'odysée verth).
Each analysis is followed by a list with Further Reading, with work by other authors, like for instance Dick, Vonnegut, Burroughs, Wells, Vance and Anderson, among many others.