Philip José Farmer (1918-2009) is a Grand Master of Science Fiction.
For most science fiction fans, he is probably best known for his series “The World of Tiers” and “Riverworld,” and for his works that push the boundaries of sexuality.
For pulp fans like myself, it’s his several works that make use of pulp and proto-pulp characters such as Tarzan, Doc Savage, Sherlock Holmes and others that most interests me here. Over the years he has written several works, novels, non-fiction, and shorter works, using these characters. Since he has passed away, several of these works have been recently reprinted, but a few are still hard to find. A few of these I will have more in-depth postings about in the future, so this is intended as a high-level overview and introduction.
As regarding his longer works with pulp and proto-pulp characters, these are the works I am familiar with (with their original publication dates):
- “A Feast Unknown” (1969)
- “Lord of the Trees” (1970)
- “The Mad Goblin” (1970)
- “Lord Tyger” (1970)
- “Tarzan Alive” (1972)
- “Time’s Last Gift” (1972)
- “The Other Log of Phileas Fogg” (1973)
- “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life” (1973)
- “The Adventure of the Peerless Peer” (1974)
- “Hadon of Ancient Opar” (1974)
- “Ironcastle” (1976) [translation of work by J.H. Rosny with tweaks by Farmer]
- “Flight to Opar” (1976)
- “Greatheart Silver” (1982)
- “Escape from Loki” (1991)
- “The Dark Heart of Time” (1999)
- “Evil in Pemberly House” (2009) [finished by Win Scott Eckert]
- “Song of Kwasin” (2012) [finished by Christopher Paul Carey]
So, a quick overview of these works:
“A Feast Unknown,” “Lord of the Trees” and “The Mad Goblin” are part of a series known by most as the “Secret of the Nine.” They claim to be adventures of the real Tarzan and the real Doc Savage, here known as Lord Grandrith and Doc Caliban. They are immortal, due to a treatment provided by a secret society of immortals known as the Nine, who have manipulated the ancestors of both men, revealed to be half-brothers. After the Nine try to engineer a fight between the two men, they instead team up against the Nine. “A Feast Unknown” is notorious for being a soft-porn book, so be advised.
“Lord of the Trees” and “The Mad Goblin” are parallel sequels to it; one focusing on Lord Grandrith and the other on Doc Caliban. A fourth work was planned but never completed. What has been written (“Monster on Hold”) has been published in collections like “Pearls from Peoria” (Subterranean Press, 2006). The three works have been reprinted by Titan Books with great introductions by Win Scott Eckert.
What if you set out to create your own Tarzan by creating the same conditions? This is the premise of “Lord Tyger.” I have not read it, but it’s also been reprinted by Titan Books.
“Tarzan Alive” and “Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life” were written as “biographies” of these two characters, written as if they were real people. In these works, Farmer proposes the idea of the Wold Newton Family, an interconnected family who produced the many heroes and villains throughout fiction. This has been expanded to the idea of the “Wold Newton Universe”, which looks for interconnections and crossovers between many literary characters. Some people like this, some don’t. “Tarzan Alive” has been reprinted by Bison Books with additional material, and “Doc Savage” is about to be reprinted with additional material by Meteor House, with a regular edition from Altus Press.
“Time’s Last Gift” is a time-travel story that seems to have Tarzan going back in time. Since he is now immortal, that shouldn’t be a problem for him. Farmer will use this premise in other works. Again, this one has been reprinted by Titan Books.
We all know the story of “Around the World in Eighty Days,” but what if that was just a cover for something else? This is revealed in the “Other Log of Phileas Fogg,” which tells of his involvement in a covert war between two alien races (and the real connection between two literary villains). This has also been reprinted by Titan Books.
“The Adventures of the Peerless Peer” has Sherlock Holmes traveling to Africa to track down a German spy during World War I. Along the way he encounters some other pulp characters, and runs into Tarzan, and eventually finds a lost civilization found by Allan Quatermain. Due to copyright issues, Farmer later revamped the work as “Adventures of the Three Madmen,” replacing Tarzan with Mowgli. This appeared in the collection “Grand Adventure.” Titan has reprinted the original work, but as part of their “Further Adventurers of Sherlock Holmes” series instead of their more recent Farmer reprint series. But like their other reprints of Farmer’s works, this one also has a nice afterward by Win Scott Eckert.
“Hadon of Ancient Opar” and “Flight to Opar” were the first two of a planned trilogy set in Opar, the lost civilization found by Tarzan. However, this is set in Opar’s golden age. A character who may be the time-lost Tarzan from “Time’s Last Gift” makes an appearance. The final part (“Song of Kwasin”) was recently completed and published with the first two books in a single volume from Subterranean Press. Titan plans on reprinting “Hadon” and “Flight,” but I have no idea if they will also republish “Song.” Meteor Press has recently published a prequel, “Exhiles of Kho” by Christopher Paul Carey.
“Ironcastle” is actually a novel written by J.H. Rosny, who has been called the “Edgar Rice Burroughs of France.” Farmer translated and made some tweaks to it, linking the main character, Hareton Ironcastle, to others by mentioning he made an expedition to Conan Doyle’s “Lost World” accompanied by Doc Savage’s father. Black Coat Press has put out a straight translation in one of their collections of Rosny works.
Greatheart Silver is a character Farmer created for a series of short stories appearing in the “Weird Heroes” series of books. He is a former zeppelin pilot turned detective, who is trained by an old pulp hero. The first Silver story has cameo appearances by a wide range of pulp heroes and villains. Tor Books years ago did a collection of all three stories, but it is now out of print. No idea if we’ll get a reprint of these stories.
In the 1990s, Farmer was allowed to do authorized novels for Tarzan and Doc Savage. For Doc, he did “Escape from Loki,” which tells of when Doc and his five aides met during WWI. I’ve never read the Tarzan work, so can’t comment on it. Both are out of print, and I have no idea if they will be reprinted.
“The Evil in Pemberly House” (Subterranean Press) was completed by Win Scott Eckert before Farmer’s death. The main interest in this story is that it stars the daughter of Doc Savage (here called “Doc Wildman”). Plot-wise, it’s meant to be a gothic novel with some very explicit scenes, but for the pulp fan (or Wold Newton fan), the references to many pulp and literary characters may be of more interest. Eckert is coming out with a sequel called “The Scarlet Jaguar” (Meteor House).
Titan Books has put out a collection of Farmer’s (and others) shorter works set in the Wold Newton Universe called “Tales of the Wold Newton Universe.” Among the stories included that should interest pulp fans is “Skinburn,” which has the son of a pulp hero; “After King Kong Fell,” which has cameos from some pulp heroes; and “The Freshman,” which is set in H.P. Lovecraft‘s world.
There are some other pulp inspired works which so far are only available in Subterranean Press’s “Pearls from Peoria” collection. This includes his screen treatment for the planned second Doc movie; “Savage Shadow” from “Weird Heroes” that has Maxwell Grant (author of The Shadow) write a story about Kenneth Robeson (author of Doc Savage); and the “Monster on Hold” fragment. I do hope these works get reprinted in books with a wider availability.
So hopefully this will get some people started. With the recent reprint series from Titan Books, this is a great time to check out many of these works.
