Anderson's Brain Wave was serialized in 1953 and novelized in 1954 by Ballantine Books.
His The Broken Sword was published in November 1954 by the obscure Abelard-Schuman and republished by Ballantine in 1971 with an introduction by Lin Carter entitled "A CHANGELING IN ELFLAND."
This introduction begins with two paragraphs that summarize the plot before Carter discusses the author who was then of course a very much younger man than when we knew of him later. (My only contact with Anderson was when he apologized for squeezing past me at a party during the Worldcon in Brighton in 1987.)
The second paragraph of Carter's introduction ends by informing us that the character named Skafloc:
"...was reared to manhood in the twilight fields and whispering woods of timeless and shadowy Faerie...."
-Lin Carter, "A CHANGELING IN ELFLAND" IN Poul Anderson, The Broken Sword (London, 1977), pp. 5-9 AT p. 5.
I am unsure of the status of this passage. Is Carter just writing lyrically or quoting the blurb from the original edition? (There are no quotation marks.)
Got to go. Things to do. Busy weekend. May Day and Wesak. Back here some time later.
2 comments:
Poul had a very steep improvement arc as a young writer. Envy!
Kaor, Paul and Mr. Stirling!
Paul: The text you quoted is also on the back cover of the revised version of THE BROKEN SWORD (Del Rey/Ballantine: Third Printing, March 1977).
Of course, authors can revise early works they became dissatisfied with, but I'm not sure BROKEN really needed revising. But I'm glad to have copies of both versions.
Mr. Stirling: Absolutely! Some of Anderson's earliest stories, such as "Flight to Forever," struck me as being rather crude, but still very readable. But we see him rapidly improving as early as VAULT OF THE AGES.
Ad astra! Sean
Post a Comment