Post by David Kartos on Mar 22, 2013 10:46:07 GMT
I recently got my hands on the July 1945 Issue of Famous Fantastic Mysteries (which I could have actualy not bothered to pay the rather high-ish price asked since the issue was fully scanned on the internet, as I found out later, prety much the same thing as happened with the Sarban Omnibus).
What I would like to know is if there is any information on who actualy edited the magazine and chopped down the stories to a third or even less of their original extent. This is sadly the only way for me to even read J.S. Bradford's 1936 "Even a Worm", considering the sole edition of this book I could ever find was a hundred dollars minimum. Problem is that, while I at least enjoy the illustrations in the issue, I have very mixed feelings on whether or not this could even be classified as still being Bradford's story, considering the novel had 300 pages, and the story, even if the pages are a bit larger and there is a bit more text crammed in then usual, is about 30. So I have very mixed feelings on how much of the original story, characters and atmosphere would even remain, as I assume many sub plots and incidents had to be completely jettisoned.
Also what mystifies me is, given the size of the whole publication, why the editors chose two novels at once (ironicaly Hodgson's "Boats of the Glen Carrig" which can be found pretty much anywhere for a buck, or completely free at places like Gutenberg takes up two thirds of this issue), when I assume the magazine rights for these novels had to be paid in full, so why not simply publish one novel unabridged, so as to have two issues' worth of content for the same amount of fees ?
Unless there was some kind of arcane regulation at the time which meant they'd pay more for an unabridged re-release ?
What I would like to know is if there is any information on who actualy edited the magazine and chopped down the stories to a third or even less of their original extent. This is sadly the only way for me to even read J.S. Bradford's 1936 "Even a Worm", considering the sole edition of this book I could ever find was a hundred dollars minimum. Problem is that, while I at least enjoy the illustrations in the issue, I have very mixed feelings on whether or not this could even be classified as still being Bradford's story, considering the novel had 300 pages, and the story, even if the pages are a bit larger and there is a bit more text crammed in then usual, is about 30. So I have very mixed feelings on how much of the original story, characters and atmosphere would even remain, as I assume many sub plots and incidents had to be completely jettisoned.
Also what mystifies me is, given the size of the whole publication, why the editors chose two novels at once (ironicaly Hodgson's "Boats of the Glen Carrig" which can be found pretty much anywhere for a buck, or completely free at places like Gutenberg takes up two thirds of this issue), when I assume the magazine rights for these novels had to be paid in full, so why not simply publish one novel unabridged, so as to have two issues' worth of content for the same amount of fees ?
Unless there was some kind of arcane regulation at the time which meant they'd pay more for an unabridged re-release ?