A bag of tricks for the future!
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| 109 | 21 | Mid-1959 | Feb 1960 |
See "Time Pawn" |
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ACE, pb, D-421, Feb 1960, 138pp, $0.35, (Valigursky) // SLAVERS OF SPACE by John Brunner) | |
| In A PKD OMNIBUS, Sidgwick & Jackson, hb, 48450-0, Oct 1970, 424pp, L1.95 (?) {Levack: Bound in blue paper boards with silver lettering on the spine. No date on the title page. "This omnibus edition copyright © 1970 by // Sidgwick and Jackson Limited" on the copyright page.} | ||
The novel, DR. FUTURITY, began as a short story called "Time Pawn", one of a string of about thirty five stories PKD turned out in 1953. "Time Pawn" was published in the Summer 1954 issue of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
I’m not sure why Dick bothered in 1959 to expand the short story into what is, arguably, the worst of his novels, DR. FUTURITY. The most likely reason is, again, financial. Dick had written no new science fiction since THE MAN WHO JAPED in 1955 and his mainstream efforts had met with no success since that year. And ACE Books had published nothing of his since JAPED in 1956. Exactly how ACE and PKD came to work on the expansions of "Time Pawn" and, later, "Vulcan’s Hammer" is unknown. Correspondence suggests, however, that PKD was unhappy with this work, or, rather, unhappy at Don Wollheim of ACE Books because of the way he responded to Dick’s expansion. Says PKD in a letter to his agent at SMLA: "I worked hard on the TIME PAWN rewrite, and I did what I believed to be a good job, one that would please Don. If I went haywire, its news to me. Also, I got it in very early, far in advance of the deadline. I did everything I could to rebuild the story in the best possible way, and the letter that I sent outlining my intentions was a fair and accurate statement by me of what I intended to do, and what I actually did do. He was not stuck or stung. He had the legal right to reject my work entirely, to request any amount of changes he wished. … From my standpoint, Don is an enigma. I honestly can’t tell what will please him, obviously."
But despite grumblings on both sides, DR. FUTURITY, backed with SLAVERS OF SPACE by John Brunner, was published in February of 1960 by ACE Books as one half of an ACE Double.
DR. FUTURITY rates only ô
For an interesting Essay on Dr. FUTURITY see: The Doctor Will See You Now: The Evolution Of Dr. FUTURITY by Patrick Clark
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Le Masque Science Fiction, pb, 2, 1974, ?, ?, (?) {tr. into French by Florian Robinet as LE VOYAGEUR DE L'INCONNU} |
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J'ai Lu, pb, 7093, 1988, 219pp, ?, (?) {tr. into French by Florian Robinet and Dominique Deffert as DR. FUTUR} ISBN: 2-253-04662-0. SDM: 8901402 |
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Amber -- Warsaw, pb, ?, 1997, ?, ? (?) {tr. into Polish by Maciej Pintara as DR. FUTURITY} Mistrzowie SF i Fantasy | |
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Amber -- Warsaw, pb, ?, ?, ?, ? (?) {tr. into Polish as DR. FUTURITY} Mistrzowie SF i Fantasy |
NOTES
PKDS-6 12:
I want to qualify what I've said in denouncing my own writing. Whenever I write a book, I really write as well as I can. That even includes VULCAN'S HAMMER, DR.FUTURITY and THE UNTELEPORTED MAN. It isn't that I say, "Well, I'm only being paid 3 cents a word; what the fuck; crummy pay, crummy book." I really try to wri te a good book, but they don't always come out good. The intent is not sufficient to guarantee a good result..." (PKD to Apel & Briggs 1977)
PKDS-12 7:
{From Mark Hurst's Chronology of his relationship with PKD}
10). 1979 Acquired THE UNTELEPORTED MAN (complete version), THE COSMIC PUPPETS, and DR.FUTURITY for reprint with Berkley. Planned an illustrated THE COSMIC PUPPETS, a heavily revised DR.FUTURITY (changing title to TIME PAWN and adding some sex), ...
SL:38 SL:38 51
{...}
I admire and like Don, and he and I have had a rather long and happy business relationship, but his statements about my rewrite of TIME PAWN make me uneasy -- and well they might. You know that I worked hard on the TIME PAWN rewrite, and I did what I believed to be a good job, one that would please Don. If I went haywire, its news to me. Also, I got it in very early, far in advance of the deadline. I did everything I could to rebuild the story in the best possible way, and the letter that I sent outlining my intentions was a fair and accurate statement by me of what I intended to do, and what I actually did do. He was not stuck or stung. He had the legal right to reject my work entirely, to request any amount of changes he wished. Now, I say this only because his odd way of reacting -- both in terms of what he said and when he said it -- makes me fear on this VULCAN'S HAMMER job. From my standpoint, Don is an enigma. I honestly can't tell what will please him, obviously.
{PKD>S.Meredith, Jan 5, 1960} See also:VULCAN'S HAMMER and Time Pawn.
SF EYE, Vol.1, #2, Aug 1987. Interviewer Richard Lupoff, p53
Lupoff: Did Wollheim mess with your copy?
PKD: Never. Oh, once with DR. FUTURITY. He made a lot of cuts in DR. FUTURITY, but outside of that he never messed with them.
Lupoff: He didn’t monkey with any of your other stuff, why did he cut DR. FUTURITY?
PKD: Because in DR. FUTURITY I had Christianity dying out and interracial marriages. Don disapproved of Christianity dying out or talk of it dying out. And he definitely disapproved of the interracial marriages.
COLLECTOR'S NOTES
Rudy’s Books: Dr Futurity/Slavers of Space by Brunner ACE DOUBLE D-421 '60 PBO vg. $25.00 SF
EBAY 8-21-2001: The UNTELEPORTED MAN// DR. FUTURITY $5.77 2 bids
EBAY 8-24-01:DR. FUTURITY// UNTELEPORTED MAN $9.00 0 bids
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