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FIRST PUBLICATION

•   Famous Science Fiction, Summer 1968

HISTORY:

    "Not By Its Cover" arrived at the SMLA on Sep21, 1965. The story was first published in Famous Science Fiction in the Summer of 1968 and it was collected in Berkley’s 1980 PKD collection THE GOLDEN MAN. After an obligatory appearance in THE COLLECTED STORIES in 1987, Peter Haining chose "Not By Its Cover" for his 1997 anthology, WIZARDS OF ODD, reprinted in 1999.

    In his GOLDEN MAN notes PKD wrote this of the story:

    Here I presented what used to be a wish on my part that the Bible was true. Obviously, I was at a sort of halfway point between doubt and faith. Years later I'm still in that position; I'd like the Bible to be true, but -- well, maybe if it isn't we can make it so. But, alas, it's going to take plenty of work to do it.

   In this story wubs make a reappearance; or at least their skins. A publisher produces an expensive edition of Lucretius’ De Rerum Natura bound in Martian wub-fur. But once the book hits the market experts start to complain that the text is not true to the original and on examination the publisher discovers that the Wub-fur bound editions have been subtly changed to a text that teaches a message diametrically opposed to that of the original. Instead of promoting a philosophy of resignation to mortality the book now propounds one of immortality. The publisher finds that all its editions bound in Wub-fur indicate the same philosophy. What’s going on? Is it a property of the Wub-fur itself, which never dies? In the end the publisher finds another use for the mysterious Wub-fur.

    An imaginative story that is perhaps not fully thought out, "Not By Its Cover" rates ôôô.

Other Magazine and Anthology appearances.    Click here for Cover Pix:

1980		THE GOLDEN MAN, Berkley, pb, 04288, 1980, ?, $2.25 (?) {Ed. Hurst}
1987		THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PHILIP K. DICK, Vol.5,
1999		WIZARDS OF ODD, Orbit, pb, ?,?,? (?) {Ed. Haining}

NOTES:

Story Notes to THE GOLDEN MAN

    Here I presented what used to be a wish on my part that the Bible was true. Obviously, I was at a sort of halfway point between doubt and faith. Years later I'm still in that position; I'd like the Bible to be true, but -- well, maybe if it isn't we can make it so. But, alas, it's going to take plenty of work to do it.

Foreword by Mark Hurst

    One of the stories in THE GOLDEN MAN, "Not By Its Cover", is so rare that I got my copy from Phil himself! He now tells me that other collectors would shoot on sight for it…

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Collector’s Notes

Abebooks: "Not By Its Cover" in WIZARDS OF ODD, Orbit, pb, 1999. VG+. Lightly rubbed on the corners with faint creasing on the spine. Not store stamped. $10

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