Much of the following appeared on Eric Johnson’s PKD list in the summer of 1998. This is an expanded and corrected version. Jason couldn’t have done such a through job without the help of Vittorio Curtoni and Andy Butler. Jason wants to thank them both and also Nadia Markalova who’s original question about UTM was the impetus for the research.
The Tangled History of The Unteleported Man
Compiled by Patrick Clark
"The novels which I’ve written that I later found myself in are UBIK, FLOW MY TEARS and THE UNTELEPORTED MAN." PKD in a letter to Richard Weinberg, March 6, 1979
Early to mid-1964: Phil accepts a commissioned to write a novelette for FANTASTIC.
June 7, 1964: In a letter to James Blish, Phil remarks, “A good writer even doing pulp assignments, does not write crap; he may write formula work, devoid of newness, of literary merit, but it is craftsmanship; he is given a job and he does it well. He writes the 20,000 novelette for Fantastic, as best he possibly can….”
August 26, 1964: The manuscript of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN is received by Phil’s agent, Scot Meredith Literary Agency.
November 1964: The novelette version is published in the magazine FANTASTIC, (the December issue) as "The Unteleported Man."
Early November 1964: Terry Carr reads the novelette in FANTASTIC and shows it to Donald Wollheim who asks Phil to expand the work by 30,000 words into an Ace novel. Phil agrees and signs a contract to that effect.
Nov. 11, 1964: In a letter to Terry and Carol Carr, Phil floats the idea of bringing Ray Nelson in to help with the expansion of the book. Apparently nothing comes of this suggestion.
Jan. 10, 1965: In a letter to Carol Carr, Phil writes, “After New Year’s I went back to the expansion on THE UNTELEPORTED MAN….”
May 5, 1965: The new material is received by Phil’s agent.
May 22, 1965: In a letter to Scot Meredith, Phil discusses Wollheim’s rejection of the new material for the expanded manuscript.
November 1966: THE UNTELEPORTED MAN appears as an Ace Double (along with Howard L. Cory’s THE MIND MONSTER). This version contains none of the newly written material. The blurb on the cover reads, “Find the equation for nonconformity – or else!”
1968: The first foreign language edition is published in Italy as UTOPIA ANDATA E RITORNO [UTOPIA AND BACK] by Galassia.
September 1972: A second edition is issued by Ace as another Double, this time with DR. FUTURITY as the second title. The blurb on the cover of this edition reads, “Find the unconforming equation – or die.”
1979: Mark Hurst arranges the sale of THE UNTELEPORTED MAN, COSMIC PUPPETS and DR. FUTURITY to Berkley Books. THE UNTELEPORTED MAN is to be “restructured” for publication.
January 11, 1979: In a letter to Brigette Louise _____, , Phil relates that Berkley had purchased THE UNTELEPORTED MAN and that he is busy on a rewrite of the book. He writes, “The work is almost finished.”
October 1, 1979: In a letter to Sheri Rush, Phil implies that he is behind on his contract for the revision of the novel.
April 22 and September 30 1981: In interviews with Gregg Rickman, Phil explains the history of the book:
GR: What about Unteleported Man?
PKD: That was just written as a novelette for Amazing [actually published in Fantastic, Amazing’s sister magazine, December 1964]. That was just a way to make money. They offered me double their normal word rate if I’d do a novelette based on the cover. They had a cover drawn. And I did that. It wasn’t very good.
GR: I heard that half of it was suppressed, or deleted, by the publisher [in it’s book form publication, 1966].
PKD: No. The original version is as I wrote it, but when Wollheim bought it he wanted to add another 50% more, and I wrote another 50% more, but he didn’t like it. It was too spacey for him, too much acid stuff.
So he never published the second half, and Berkley wants to bring it out, but it requires revision. The two parts don’t fit together at all. The second part is much better than the part that’s been published. It’s quite imaginative and quite radical. I mean quite experimental…. But I can’t get into that space of The Unteleported Man to rewrite it [to tie together the two halves]. I can’t get back into the action-adventure stuff, so it’s hung fire for several years.
GR: What happens in the second half?
PKD: I forget. I haven’t looked at it for years.
That part is very good. It’s really weird. I don’t know where my head was at in those days. I’d just left Anne. I was living in Oakland.
Winter 1981-82: In a phone conversation with Mark Hurst in, Phil remarks that he is working on the revisions Berkley had requested and writing a new beginning chapter saying, "I’m going to open it with a rat in a sewer."
July 1983: THE UNTELEPORTED MAN is published by Berkley Books with "Now Uncensored For the First Time!" and “With The Author’s Previously Unpublished Original Ending” on the book cover. It consists of the original material plus the expanded material Phil composed in 1965 but none of the newer material written in 1981-82. There are four missing pages which show as three gaps in the narrative in this edition.
1984: Still another edition is published by Gollancz in the United Kingdom. This is a revised version with a new title, LIES, INC. This edition has the new first chapter written by Phil, plus additions and changes to his original complete manuscript throughout. The 1965 material has been repositioned in this edition. The missing pages from the Berkley version had not been found and Phil’s new additions fills in only one of the gaps. Gollancz has writer John Sladek write some connecting material to close the remaining two gaps.
September 1985: Paul Williams discovers the missing four pages of Phil’s original manuscript and publishes them in PKDS NEWSLETTER (number 8).
Notes:
From: Andrew M. Butler
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 1998 10:16 AM
To: pkd@lists.best.com
Subject: Re: The History of UTM part 3
…To summarize these different versions:
Novella – Written by August 26 1964. Published in December 1964 as “The Unteleported Man” in Fantastic. Reprinted as The Unteleported Man by Ace (1966) and Methuen (1976) in bookform; in Sidgwick and Jackson omnibus.
Complete – Written by May 5 1965. Cuts final three paragraphs from novella and adds 30,000 words. Unpublished.
Berkley edition – As complete but with four ms pages missing (Gaps pp. 165, 192 and 199). Published as The Unteleported Man by Berkley (1983)
Restructured – Thought to date from 1979. New opening chapter, cutting the first eighteen paragraphs of the novella, rest of chapter one is chapter two; other chapters are then shifted along. A few paragraphs are added. The additional material of the complete version is situated after chapter six of novella version, with two gaps, but cuts last six pages of Berkley version (with third gap). Returns to chapter seven, paragraph twenty-four of novella from the third section of chapter fifteen. Unpublished.
Gollancz edition – As restructured version but with gaps filled by John Sladek. (Gaps p. 143 , pp. 168-169 [Gollancz] and pp. 162-3, pp. 190-1 [Panther]). Published as Lies, Inc. by Gollancz (1984) and Panther (1985).
From: Vittorio Curtoni
Sent: Wednesday, December 16, 1998 3:50 AM
To: Patrick Clark
Subject: Re: UTM translation
…On Dec. 12 Patrick Clark wrote…
>Hello, Vittorio,
> …There was an Italian translation of UTM in 1968 published by Galassia and entitled >UTOPIA ANDATA E RITORNO. I’ve been plodding along with the library’s Cassell’s >Italian/English dictionary and it seems that a literal translation would be something like >”Going and Returning from Utopia.” But Cassell’s suggests that “_____ andata e >ritorno” may mean “return ticket” in colloquial Italian and so the title would translate >back into English as “Return Ticket to Utopia” or something close to that. When you >get a moment, could you let me know which is a truer translation?
Dear Patrick,
…I’d say that this second translation is not exactly correct, because “un biglietto di andata e ritorno” means “a ticket to a certain destination and back”, i.e. the idea is implicit not only of coming back but also of first going somewhere. I hope I’m making myself clear with my English. Do you get the idea?
In my opinion, the first translation is more in line with my language. But what would you say of “Utopia and back”? If this is correct in English (I think so but I’m not absolutely sure), it would perfectly express the meaning of the Italian title.
By the way, this edition was based on the abridged version of UTM. In November 1994, Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, Milano, published a new translation, based on “Lies, Inc.”, with the same Italian title, in “Classici Urania” #212. The introduction to this edition was by yours truly. Thinking of course of the SGT.PEPPER album, I suggested to the reader to try and lick the cover of the book and promised a VERY INTERESTING experience… 🙂 Well, what do you know? After receiving my introduction, a dear friend of mine, Marzio Tosello, at the time editor in chief of “Urania”, phoned me and told me to be more serious and cut that phrase in the printed version! A true shame, I think.
Bibliography
James Carrick, DOUBLE YOUR PLEASURE: THE ACE SF DOUBLE (1989).
Terry Carr , “Letters & Queries” PKDS NEWSLETTER no. 6 (Apr. 1985): p. 9.
PKD, LIES, INC. (1984).
PKD, “The Missing Pages of The Unteleported Man” PKDS NEWSLETTER No. 8
(Sept. 1985): pp. 2, 13.
PKD, SELECTED LETTERS, VOL. 1: 1938-1971 (1996).
PKD, SELECTED LETTERS, VOL. 5: 1977-1979 (1992).
PKD, THE UNTELEPORTED MAN (1966)
PKD, THE UNTELEPORTED MAN (1983)
Terry Hughes, “Letters & Queries” PKDS NEWSLETTER no. 2 (Dec. 1983): p.5.
Mark Hurst, “Last Contact” PKDS NEWSLETTER no. 3 (Apr. 1984): p. 2.
Mark Hurst, “Mark Hurst/Philip K. Dick Chronology” PKDS NEWSLETTER no. 13 (
Oct. 1986): p. 7.
Daniel Levack, PKD: A PHILIP K. DICK BIBLIOGRAPHY (1981).
Gregg Rickman, PHILIP K. DICK: IN HIS OWN WORDS (1984).
Lawrence Sutin, DIVINE INVASIONS: A LIFE OF PHILIP K. DICK (1989).
Paul Williams, “News. The Unteleported Man” PKDS NEWSLETTER no. 1
(Aug. 1983): p. 3.
Paul Williams, ONLY APPARENTLY REAL (1986).