-Rudyard Kipling quoted by Robert Heinlein in the SFWA Bulletin, Fall 1979.
The sheer quantity of Poul Anderson's output leads me to guess, first, that he was able to write very quickly and, secondly, that his published texts were mostly either first drafts or minimally altered second drafts. Please correct me if anyone knows that this is wrong.
If it is right, then it follows that all the colorful, descriptive details that we appreciate were present from the beginning of the writing process. I mention this to contrast it with what I have recently read of Ian Fleming's writing process. Apparently, a publisher saw a first draft, then Fleming added the details for which he is admired in the second draft. This matters because the single posthumously published novel was only a first draft. If this is the case, then, in this single example, we are privileged to sample that first stage of this author's creative process.
If Anderson left any work unfinished, then I suspect that it would consist of a text fully readable and satisfying as far as it went but unfortunately broken off at some point in the narrative.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
After Karen Anderson died, her heirs deposited 73 boxes of papers with the Riverside Library of the University of California. From skimming thru lists of the contents of those boxes, I could tell Poul Anderson did have some apparently unfinished stories or drafts of stories. I
would like to think those mss. only need some polishing up to be publishable. Either Greg Bear or S.M. Stirling would seem natural candidates for that job!
Stirling also said he would love to do a Dominic Flandry pastiche if the opportunity to do so ever came.
Anderson did have to sometimes revise drafts of stories, usually because of suggestions made by editors like John Campbell. And sometimes a publisher would change texts in ways Anderson did not approve of.
Ad astra! Sean
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