We’re talking about books disappearing: books originally printed only in paperback—and books that are no longer in issue. I’m going to be listing, among others, people I knew personally, and series I’d expect an sf fan to have read, or looked at, or have some familiarity with.
Let’s start with:
Clifford “Cliff” Simak: City.
Gordon R “Gordie” Dickson. The Dorsai stories.
Hal Clement. Mission of Gravity
Lin Carter. Sword and sorcery…from the Old School.
Poul Anderson: many, many, from SF to near-historical.
Robert Howard. Conan, Kane, Kull.
C.L. Moore: many stories.
Leigh Brackett: many stories.
Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan, John Carter of Mars
Joe Green: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet
Anthony Gilmore: Space Hawk.
Andre Norton: the Witchworld, et al; and Star Man’s Son.
Jack Vance: the Dirdir, the Pneume, etc.
Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven as a team, the hell books.
Larry Niven: Ringworld
Joe Haldeman: the Forever War
Abbey and Asprin: Thieves’ World (give CC time)
Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover novels.
Anne McCaffrey: the Pern novels.
Roger Zelazny: Dilvish the Damned [story], Lord of Light, the Amber stories, Damnation Alley.
The point being—most of the younger people coming in may not even have heard of these.
Name more of the ones that are harder to find in print now.
Miller’s “A Canticle for Leibowitz” is still in print, but I don’t know whether it is still read in high schools, which is where I first read it. “Ringworld” and its sequels are still in print, but “World of Ptavvs,” the first Niven book I ever read, is not. Yes, most of Asimov is still in print, but the first two volumes of his short stories with his own marvelous comments seem to be missing–that was where I first read Asimov’s explanation that he worked with an all-human universe because John Campbell insisted that aliens all be evil and bloodthirsty. I’m amazed that Brunner’s “Stand on Zanzibar” seems to be out of print–it was one of those books that really grabbed me. I used to find Van Vogt irritating and pretentious, but I couldn’t stay away from his books; I can’t believe they’re mostly out of print, but it seems so. Also, Joanna Russ’s early work, “The Adventures of Alyx,” and her collections, “The Zanibar Cat” and “Extra(Ordinary) People.”
A.E. Van Vogt: “Slan” and the “Null-A” series.
(Simak’s “Way Station” was a favorite when I was young. I no longer have the book and haven’t read it in decades. I didn’t like “CIty” nearly as well.)
M.A, Foster: The “Transformer” series; and the Ler series (“Gameplayers of Zan” and others). I actually think that they were reissued recently. Foster stopped writing long ago.
Fred Hoyle: “Ossian’s Ride”.
I have whole bunch of old ones in a bookcase in the garage. Including a whole lot of old Cherryh. These are some I can remember.
“the first two volumes of his short stories with his own marvelous comments seem to be missing–that was where I first read Asimov’s explanation that he worked with an all-human universe because John Campbell insisted that aliens all be evil and bloodthirsty.”—
And it’s this kind of comment that we NEED to retain.
I had the privilege of knowing a lot of these people—When I composed my list, I was trying to remember who I most hung out with at conventions. I’ll tell you, I’ve only been once in the Science Fiction Museum in Seattle, and I didn’t complete the tour. I saw all these people suddenly collected and memorialized on a wall, and I just lost it. We’ve lost so many foundational people so fast: I knew them, and they knew John Campbell and Hugo Gernsback: and before that, there wasn’t a real body of literature. It’s like watching the Alexandrine Library burn…that everything they created is being threatened by, ironically, the pace of progress, and a world that regarded their work as ‘pulp’…and therefore not to be preserved. Here we have people finally making college courses out of the field—teaching it alongside the development of technology—but they’re having no really fast effect on the preservation of the field, which is decaying at the rate of pulp paper, being flooded in basements, thrown away by heirs who never approved of ‘that stuff’…or just mouldering away unrecorded, lost. L. Sprague de Camp sent out a letter once asking anybody—ANYbody in the world—who had a copy of The Clocks of Iraz—if he could borrow it. And I resolved never to give away my last copy of anything—but that impressed on me how fragile a creation of words is. Once that paper goes, it’s gone.
I spent a lot of time in university deciphering things carved in stone, figuring out what the full wording had to have been, what it meant, before the thing was bounced downhill and used as a patch in another wall. And it’s such thin information.
So here we sit…having just lost this incredible generation or two nearly within two decades, and a bunch of bean counters in companies that bought the publishing houses as a way to lose money creatively back BEFORE the tax laws changed—just don’t give a damn that the literature in the sf backlist should ever have new readers, or even survive. They’re not in the business of preserving human culture. They don’t give a damn. They just have to report to their stockholders.
So if you wonder what mindset lay behind the desire to get my own stuff into digital form, and keep my backlist and Jane’s and Lynn’s and other people’s backlist going—yes. There’s a reason I do this.
Some university libraries are attempting to digitize op books, (see the Hathi Trust), but the choices are being made somewhat haphazardly, and copyright issues limit what can be done. Many of the earlier sf works are still within the copyright limits; published before 1923 is currently considered to give libraries, and Google, the rights to digitize. Much of this digitization is basic scanning – not searchable, for instance – but it does get the text copied. An organized attempt to digitize important early work could probably be made, but it would take money, time, and the ability to find who owns the copyrights and to get these people to give permission for the copying. Then, of course, the digitized forms could not be distributed because even with permission to copy there would very probably not be permission to distribute. Many of the the titles in the Hathi Trust are only available through the library that owns the paper copy used for copying. Once each title goes out of copyright distribution becomes possible, but that will be a long wait for new readers.
An effort to get titles digitized would at least see that the text is preserved; people teaching sf courses should probably talk to their library – many have some kind of digitization project and might well take on a special preservation project related to teaching.
The Norwegian National Library (nb.no) is digitizing on a pretty large scale. A current project of theirs is making available all books first published in Norway in the 1690s, 1790s, 1890s and 1990s, online, for free. Out of copyright books are downloadable as pdf, the others viewable page by page in a pretty slick web-based reader, limited to Norwegian IP addresses. (And paying out of their budget for collective limited distribution rights for the 1990s books – some 104754 titles strong – by law they only have the right to archive and lend copies. Publishers and printers are required by law to send them a number of copies of every book or other publication they release.)
I had twelve on your list, plus many more you never mentioned. This is the price of the digital age.
It is estimated that only 17% of all the music ever recorded has made its way onto CD. The rest will eventually be lost to age and obscurity. I have no idea on the movies and TV that are rotting away in vaults and closets that will never make it onto DVD.
When I decided to start writing I began researching. Combing used bookstores and library book sales for books to use as reference. Plus I had the benefit of a father that read constantly and was given his collection. Mainly because no one would touch it. I estimate I now have around 4,000 books, though most are tightly packed in rubber tubs waiting to be read.
Most of the people I know have read less than 20 books on their own in their lives. I read as much as I can. A) Because I enjoy it. B) In hopes it will one day make me a better writer. To Give you some idea, here is my reading list starting from last March.
http://xenophon.page.tl/What-I-h-m-Reading.htm
Most people my age have never heard of most of the things I have read, and quite frankly, they could care less. I somehow taught myself to read before I was three by looking at the Sunday comics and haven’t stopped since.
I have some of Andre Norton’s books, including my two favorites, Moon of Three Rings and Horn Crown; I had an autographed copy of The Time Traders, the first of her books that I ever read–the book that got me reading, and writing, SF–but I think it was lost when I moved 🙁 I met Ms. Norton at Worldcon in Boston in 1989 and she graciously signed my copy of the book.
I had the original Pern books, but not sure if I still do; unfortunately a number of my older books seemed to have disappeared when I moved to my current house, although it’s possible they are somewhere in the boxes of books that I haven’t gone through in five years.
Of course, some of my most prized books are yours, CJ; Hunter of Worlds and Downbelow Station (two of my favorites to pick up, open at random, and drop into the story, as I often do with Tolkien). Now that I think of it, I have the Ballantine editions of The Lord of the Rings, as well as two separate copies (one PB, one HB) of LOTR in one volume. I understand the urge to save these precious paper copies before they are lost. I’m about to buy a Kindle…something I thought I’d never do, because I love the feel and the smell of a new book; but the lure of being able to store 3500 books in one place is just too great to resist. I will keep my “real” books 🙂 as long as I can though!
Many years ago, I read a short story about two kids, a boy and a girl, which took place in “the future”. They had a paper copy of a book (from their mother or grandmother?) and were marveling at how old fashioned it was compared to their automated book. I recall the boy wondering “what you did with the book when you finished it; perhaps you just threw it away? What a waste..” etc. I don’t recall the name of the story or the author, but it was surely prophetic! I wonder if anyone else remembers reading it?
I have all the Pern books and I’m even keeping up with the series now that the son is writing them.
I have Ringworld, and some by the team Pournelle and Niven. I loved Ringworld very much and remember thinking HARD about how it all worked. I don’t claim I understood it all, but I would set the book aside and ponder a bit before getting back into the story.
I have read many more on your list, but they were library books.
Let us not forget the Editors who collected short stories for us. I have three by Groff Conklin: Possible Worlds of Science Fiction (copyright 1951, printed 1960,$0.35), Great Stories of Space Travel (1963, $0.50), Seven Come Infinity (1966, $0.50) They are exceedingly yellowed now, probably time for a format shift with my trusty OpticBook 3600, before they completely fall apart.
I have read many of the authors you mention, but at various times have given away large numbers of books to friends or school yard sales. I think my daughter has a fair few up at her mother’s house, where I hope they are safe until she can provide a more permanent home.
Did anyone mention Theodore Sturgeon? His little boy who ate ants (The Dreaming Crystals/..?) is one of my earliest memories of SciFi, as is Bester’s The Demolished Man. I suspect I found them in my older brother’s room before I was quite old enough to understand them. I think I read them before I read Heinlein’s juveniles. Back to Sturgeon – I’m a couple of volumes short of The Complete T.S. – and that’s getting hard to find already.
I’m somewhat scared to admit I have nearly the complete collection of John Norman “Gor” books, thanks to an ex-boyfriend. 🙂
Lol—Jack, as he goes by, is an interesting fellow. I once did a con as co-guest with him in Toronto.
oh good lord! I remember those books. Can’t remember how many of them I had, but there seemed to be an endless supply.
Besides 9 on your list, definitely Heinlein — he started me on this roll when I was 15 and gave me an entirely different look on live that I’d ever imagined before and definitely had a profound impact — thank all the small gods! Frank Herbert and Dune, Katherine Kurtz’ Deryni books and H. Beam Piper’s Little Fuzzies.
Interestingly enough, back in 1974 I had a sci-fi English class (semester offering only) when I was a Junior in High School. We disected Space Odyssey, and something by Asimov that I just can’t remember now for vocalulary, imagery and structure/form of what science-fiction represented as a genre — and had to read x number of other books during the semester. I delved into the Mars chronicles and devoured Dune. I flat never looked back and rarely have read anything outside the genre unless required to for a class. Even used the subject as a foundation for one of my first college classes — sociology — we had to do a paper on the subject of change and protest and I felt sci-fi was a perfect fit. Got an A!
On another note, I went into a bookshop the other day and discovered that the sci-fi/fantasy section seems to be 90% fantasy (and twi-vampires) and 10% Warhammer 40,000. I’m tempted to try the 40k stuff, because it does have a long history.
That—is scary.
How about Ursula LeGuin’s marvellous tales such as Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed, The Lathe of Heaven, Rocannon’s World, and the Earthsea books?
All of those are still in print, as far as I know (i.e. they’re available from my local SF bookshop)?
Sheri Tepper’s early books are among my favourites; “Grass” comes to mind as does “The Gate to Women’s Country”, After Long Silence, Raising the Stones.
Hi CJ and Jane,
I will advertise your site as best I can. I thought the idea of a button or something like that was a good one, especially if it would allow button presser to (a) join comments or (b) buy books. Would you consider looking at any of your fans’ books, with the idea of doing the same for them?
I would like to buy paper books. Do you have any for sale? I own a great many. Just not all.
Your question: who do I have on my shelves now? I will answer that as if I hadn’t moved three times in the last two years. (I’m old, too.)
Clifford “Cliff” Simak: City. NO
Gordon R “Gordie” Dickson. The Dorsai stories. NO
Hal Clement. Mission of Gravity NO
Lin Carter. Sword and sorcery…from the Old School. NO
Poul Anderson: many, many, from SF to near-historical. YES
Robert Howard. Conan, Kane, Kull. YES
C.L. Moore: many stories. YES
Leigh Brackett: many stories. NO
Edgar Rice Burroughs: Tarzan, John Carter of Mars YES
Joe Green: Tom Corbett, Space Cadet NO
Anthony Gilmore: Space Hawk.NO
Andre Norton: the Witchworld, et al; and Star Man’s Son. YES
Jack Vance: the Dirdir, the Pneume, etc. YES
Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven as a team, the hell books. YES
Larry Niven: Ringworld YES
Joe Haldeman: the Forever War NO
Abbey and Asprin: Thieves’ World (give CC time) YES
Marion Zimmer Bradley: Darkover novels. YES
Anne McCaffrey: the Pern novels. YES
Roger Zelazny: Dilvish the Damned [story], Lord of Light, the Amber stories, Damnation Alley. Lord of Light ONLY
My suggestions:
James Blish: The Day After Judgement, Cities in Flight
Barbara Hambly: Dragonshadow series, Walls of Air Series,
Frank Herbert: Dune
Diana Wynne Jones: all
Grahame’s Wind in the Willows
Eleanor Cameron: The Mushroom Planet books; Court of the Stone Children
Natalie Babbitt: Tuck Everlasting
Susan Cooper “The Dark is Rising” (2nd of books in the sequence of that name)
Emma Bull: especially Finder
Ursula LeGuin: especially Tehanu and the later books that haven’t seemed to hit the public the way The Wizard of Earthsea as a trilogy did; I’m pretty sure her SF will live forever, though
Saberhagen’s Sword Books
Asimov’s Foundation, Foundation and Empire series (two at least)
Kate Gilmore’s “Enter Three witches”
Alan Garner: all, but especially “The Owl Service”
Martine Bates: The Tapestry trilogy
Golly, there’s a lot of them.
Selina Rosen’s operation [we have the link] at Yard Dog sells such as we have of my paper books. Signed, yet.
Thank you, Welwyn.
Having over half of these insulating my attic, I really need e-copies. (I actually have some in E format, scanned from originals into OCR.) One publisher that I know of does include a CD-ROM with many titles from their house with their hardcover releases. Doesn’t help with the classic Sci-fi/Fantasy however. I like the concept of the Closed Circle project. I hope some other authors catch on to it.
I have most of your list, CJ; the ones that I don’t have I either tried and went ‘Meh’ over (Conan, Lin Carter’s work, …) or don’t recall encountering at all (Space Hawk, …)
I have a lot of Welwyn’s list, too, with the same caveats.
I’ll suggest these additions:
Lloyd Alexander: anything not Prydain
John Bellairs: The Face in the Frost
Alfred Bester: Extro (also known as The Computer Connection)
Joy Chant: All
William Chester: the Kioga books
Jo Clayton: All
Brian Daley: Anything not Star Wars, but especially the Coramonde books.
Heather Gladney: I liked Teot! I guess he didn’t sell well, though.
RA MacAvoy: All.
Katherine MacLean: Missing Man
Ardath Mayhar: All
RM Meluch: Anything before the Sagittarius Command stuff.
Janet Morris (editor): the Heroes in Hell stuff. {CJ’s NOTE: Janet is alive and well and has put out her own e-book with a new Sacred Band story on Kindle: she is opening up to do some new Hell stuff.]
Eric Frank Russell: All!
James Schmitz: The Witches of Karres
Nevil Shute: In the Wet
Zilpha Keatley Snyder: All
Sheri Tepper: her really early stuff, like Marianne and the Game books
Evangeline Walton: the books of the Maginogion
Cherry Wilder: the Chameln books
One could probably make a case that some of the books we liked as *ahem* younger persons deserve to fade into obscurity. They’re old-fashioned in story and/or style, for instance, or they aren’t the best works by that author. However, tastes differ: I have met very few people who have ever even heard of Extro, the Bester title I mention above, and yet this is one of my personal all-time favorite books. I’ve read his other work, and still prefer this one. So for the sake of variety, I’d like to see more work available.
Of the original list I have multiple books by Marion Zimmer Bradley, Andre Norton, Abbey and Asprin and with some very recent exceptions all the novels Anne McCaffrey ever released on her own or with collaborators.
I’m 43, though.
I was at a B&N last night – perusing the SF section looking for anything to read…No Lynn Abby or Jane Fancher on the shelves, only two CJC’s … one Asimov, no Dickson, Heinlein, Anderson, Pournelle, etc. Lots of vampire based stories (yuck).
I don’t have a lot of complete series with me – I do have a taste for space opera and I tend to read and re-read old friends.
CJC – all (mostly hardcover)
David Brin – all
Katherine Kurtz – all Deryni
Kate Wilhelm – Where Late the Sweet Bird Sang (and all of her legal mysteries!)
Peter Hamilton
Gregory Benford
S.I. Viehl
Maureen McHugh
Cherry Wilder
Roger MacBride Allen
What about all the short stories? Almost impossible to find them at this point. I started out with a Best SF:1967 that my Dad left lying around. Bob Silverberg, Ben Bova, Harlan Ellison, Brian Aldiss… Went to the library and got some volumes of Hugo Winners edited by the Good Doctor and found Poul Anderson, Sam Delany (Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones is still one of my favorite short stories!), Phillip Jose Farmer, Fritz Leiber, Anne McCaffrey, Larry Niven… I have more than ten years of Analog up in the room over my garage with all sorts of gems in it (but I can’t find anything because there’s no index!!! – I’ve been wanting to scan it all in for years just that I can search for things). All these bits have just disappeared, with the exception of some of the stuff that Harlan re-publishes every ten or fifteen years just to keep it out there. I found an old moldy collection of Heinlein in a used bookstore the other day (hardback!) and bought it without even looking at it, because I figured there had to be *something* in there I hadn’t seen before.
That’s a whole other problem! The mags are going fast. I have a small stack of Amazing Stories on my kitchen table that a friend’s husband saw at a garage sale and got for me. They’re in incredibly bad shape, very old. And if these things aren’t digitized soon, they’ll be gone.
Back in college I was hired by the archives to read through 30 years of Time Magazine looking for a particular man’s career of writing because even Time didn’t have reliable (or any!) records going back to show his career of work. Their most reliable info started around 1994 and even then I found more than they had on record. It took me almost an entire semester of work finding all of it and in the end all I had was giant stack of photocopies that still needed to be digitized. I kind of enjoyed my part of it though. An excuse to learn more about Russia and China. Sadly, not everyone has the money or connections to have that done. I’m thinking the old anthologies probably don’t.
…and there’s the rub with the copyright problem… The old ‘zines aren’t going to last author’s lifetime +70 years. If *someone* doesn’t digitize them, they’re just gone. But if people start digitizing en masse (Google, *ahem*), then there’s the issue of making author’s work available that you do *not* have the rights to. What’s the balance between preserving the foundation that current work is built upon, and ensuring that those who built that foundation are not pushed aside?
I have a bunch of Captain Future magazines by Edmond Hamilton (husband of Leigh Brackett) from the 1940s (in one of the Pluto was ascribed to have three moons, Charon, Cerberus and Styx, I still think the modern naming committee chickened out somewhat).
I know that there are unlicensed digital version (OCRed) on the internet and all materials got recently retranslated and published in Japan. They are currently also reprinted by a US company. Afair, the German translations are supposed to get a partial republishing, too. Moonstone intends to bring out new Captain Future comics. Another company is set to reprint the original comics (nothing to do with the Pulp series). Various versions of the cartoon are out on DVD, too.
The recently announced movie may or may not have been a hoax, it’s a bit unclear since there’s a fan project around with a well-done trailer and there were announcement of a German director having secured money from a movie fund to create a script for a movie (not the aforementioned fan movie). And I don’t know which of these is a hoax or if there was a third group in the mix.
So at least the Wizard of Science seems to be secure from total oblivion for now, although the same probably can’t be said for the stories padding the Captain Future magazines.
(And if ever get the money, I’ll have my pulps restored.)
It’s bit weird to see Anne McCaffrey and especially Pern mentioned in the same sentence as disappearing books (not of the thiefing or sold out kind).
The problem with the classics is, that there are more and more classics by the year, one can’t possibly read all of them and the classics change depending upon who is compiling a list. Somebody else might have included Jules Verne or some of the East European distopias and utopias.
There’s only so many books one can read and quiet frankly there some at least I don’t want to read
I have most of the books you listed and would like to add:
Picnic on Paradise – Joanna Russ
Cities in Flight – James Blish
Dahlgrin, Time Seen as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones – Samuel Delaney
R. A. MacAvoy – Tea With The Black Dragon