Date: Sun, 24 Mar 2002 14:50:37 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at keithlynch.net>
To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Anvil & Flint
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Sam Pierce <scpierce at alum.mit.edu> wrote:
> Speaking of Anvil, Baen has issued "Pandora's Legions" edited by
> Eric Flint.  The new version inserted three stories published Analog
> prior to the original novel (also serialized in Analog.)  Did Flint
> "update" these stories as he did with Schmitz's work?

I will let Eric reply to this one.  (He evidently has a time machine,
as he replied last January.)  Please note that I am not necessarily
agreeing with him.  He posts fairly often in the rec.arts.sf.written
newsgroup, and yes, he always takes this snide tone.

If anyone wants, I'll also post his defense of his alterations to the
Schmitz works.

From: eflint46312 at aol.com (Eflint46312)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Date: 27 Jan 2002 11:15:08 GMT
Subject: [WSFA] Re: QuickReview -- Pandora's Legions by Christopher Anvil

This strikes me as a bit silly, but since it's been raised...

My involvement with the Anvil reissue is as follows.  First, I took the
initiative in proposing the idea to Baen Books and convincing them to let me do
one volume. (I hope to do more Anvil reissues, but you've got to take these
things one step at a time, or the publisher will usually just say "no.") I
specifically advanced the proposal to do a complete collection of all the
stories which Anvil ever wrote in the Pandora's Planet setting.  Then I got in
touch with Anvil, discussed the proposal with him, and closed the deal.

Of course, I realize stuff like this is beneath contempt for some of my
critics, because they seem to think that reissues spring full-blown from
nowhere, apparently driven by the compulsive urge of publishers to reissue
titles which have been out of print for, in some cases, almost half a century.

What can I say?  It's not my fault if some people confuse this planet with the
one that has hurtling moons and Dejah Thoris.

Next, I collected all the stories relevant.  Some of these Anvil had already in
electronic format, but they were on a very old program and I had to translate
them.  This is fairly time-consuming.  The stories which were not in electronic
format I had to get scanned and proofed, etc.

Why didn't Anvil do that himself?  Well, partly because that's what editors
_do_, and partly because he's an elderly man who just suffered a serious heart
attack.

Again, things which are beneath contempt for the Aloof Critics.

That done, I spent quite a bit of time studying the stories, at which point I
talked with Anvil and suggested that rather than simply reissue the stories as
separate stories, we weave them all together (except for "Sweet Reason", which
is in the same universe but not directly connected to the Horsip/Towers
stories) into a new, unitary novel.

He liked the idea, and told me that that was what John Campbell had told him he
should have done 30 years ago.

The reasons Anvil didn't take his advice are complex, involving some
contractual issues at the time as well as the cold fact that he _had_ an offer
for what became the novel PANDORA'S PLANET, and didn't want to risk screwing it
up by proposing something different.  Also, in those days, 110,000 word novels
were a rarity and the publisher might well have choked on that alone.  So,
following the old principle "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" he
wrote the novel he did.

Of course, I realize the High and Mighty find _this_ beneath contempt also,
because authors are obviously supposed to produce perfect works of art and if
they can't pay the mortgage that's their problem.  They can support themselves
on the coin offered by the Great Ones: hot air.

Now that the author and the editor were in agreement as to _what_ we were going
to do, I set about actually doing it.  Again, this is what editors in a
situation like this _do_.  In some cases, an author will want to do it himself,
but given Anvil's age and medical condition I did it. I offer everyone my
abject apologies, of course.  But, diffidently, in my defense, I point out that
if I hadn't done it, it either wouldn't have happened at all or would have
taken much longer.  A man in his late 70s who has just had a major heart
operation is not exactly spry.  (Except under the hurtling moons of Barsoom, of
course.)

I then sent him the complete manuscript as I proposed doing it.  My input,
other than putting it together (i.e., figuring out which stories should come in
at what point), was cleaning up some remaining typos and writing a few short
transitional passages to "bridge" the new transitions, and/or eliminating
passages which were either redundant or no longer fit, etc.  None of this came
to more than a few paragraphs. I also, at Anvil's request, went through the
manuscript to remove any obsolete terms, conventions, etc.  This was very minor
-- not more than a half dozen words -- because the stories are not really dated
except for a vaguely mid-20th century "feel."  That I didn't mess with because
there was no way to eliminate it without completely rewriting the entire book.

After reading it, Anvil approved most of what I'd done, but rewrote some of my
stuff to suit him better and also rewrote some of _his_ older material.  He
sent me back the manuscript and that was the version which went to the
publisher.

Later, in the course of correcting the page proofs, I sent Anvil all the
corrections I proposed to do -- typos, whatever -- for his approval.  He
approved them and sent me a few of his own corrections which I had missed.

Again, this is how authors and editors work together.  I realize it's all very
mundane and ho-hum.  Sorry about that.  Alas, I lost John Carter's phone number
so I haven't been able to find out how to get to Barsoom where I could do all
this in the Zeus-like manner it should be done.  Sad to say, on the mucky
planet Earth I did it the way real books really get produced.  Again, my
deepest apologies.

Eric Flint
--
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