Roger Elwood

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roger Elwood (* 13. January 1943 in Atlantic City , New Jersey ; † 2. February 2007 ) was an American science fiction - writers and publishers .

biography

Elwood grew up in southern New Jersey and became a professional writer shortly after graduating from high school. He edited the wrestling magazines The Big Book of Wrestling and Official Wrestling Guide . He worked 1971-1972 on a contract basis for the Arizona- based publisher Jalart House. He regularly photographed the events because at that time these magazines placed more emphasis on photos than on text contributions.

Over time, he also had access to wrestlers' locker rooms in some shows on the east coast. During that time there were repeated rumors that the fights were being manipulated and that Elwood was critical and disaffected with the scene and wrestling for this reason. As a consequence, he left the scene abruptly around the beginning of 1973 and justified his decision by saying that it was too much time spent on poor pay.

In the first six years his anthologies were published by four different publishers. Over the next few years, that number grew to more than a dozen. Elwood wrote several novels of his own in addition to the anthology series Continuum and Frontiers .

"At one time it was estimated that Roger Elwood alone constituted about one quarter of the total market for SF short stories."

"It was once estimated that Roger Elwood alone covers about a quarter of the total SF short story market."

At the time when sales of SF anthologies were declining, Elwood switched to Laser Books , an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by publishing giant Harlequin Books to systematize SF anthologies with this outsourced company and bring them to market in a uniform form. Because of its unsuccessfulness, Elwood left the SF&F genre in the late 1970s.

Elwood's biography on the Fantastic Fiction website omits any mention of his science fiction / fantasy work and identifies him as a writer-in-residence (a writer who has a temporary position in an academic institution to share his professional insights, or occasionally as a "literature professor") at a Bible school in New York in the Midwest. The biography also claims that "12 of his novels won Media Awards for Best Book of the Year," although the Silver Angels Awards website only has a general "Print" category and does not list Elwood's name. In the 1990s, Elwood became a prolific writer of Christian novels. In that decade he published more than 30 works.

Critical voices

Elwood's significant presence in the field of genre anthology in the mid-1970s is not without criticisms, the criticisms of which range from professional to ad hominem .

"Elwood's capacity to produce anthologies at high speed was not, alas, matched with an ability to produce interesting anthologies, as well as the possibility that readers, having read a few unremarkable Elwood anthologies, were reluctant to buy more"

"Elwood's ability to produce anthologies at high speed unfortunately lacks the ability to produce interesting anthologies and the ability to encourage readers who read some nondescript Elwood anthologies to buy more."

- James Nicoll

A review of Elwood's 1976 anthology Six Science Fiction Plays in Star Trek fan magazine Enterprise Incidents noted that, except for the inclusion of the plot of the episode Griff in the story of Harlan Ellison , the book was a foray into the mediocrity of Roger Elwood.

Quality of the compilations

Nielsen Hayden complains, among other things, of the quality of the books themselves. She describes Elwood's thematic collections as "carelessly edited" and "inferior", although she classifies "some of Elwood's collections as quite decent" and "all presented good authors and good stories".

The following are examples of peer recognition in relation to some of the stories featured in Elwood's anthologies (Source: Internet Speculative Fiction Database):

  • The short story Forever and Amen by Robert Bloch (1972) from Elwood's anthology And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire and Other Science Fiction Stories was selected by Forrest J. Ackerman for his Best Science Fiction for 1973 compilation.
  • The 1973 anthology Future City included The World as Will and Wallpaper by RA Lafferty , which was reprinted in 1974 by Terry Carr in The Best Science Fiction of the Year # 3 . This was followed by publications in other anthologies.
  • Robert Silverberg's The Wind and the Rain from Elwood's 1973 anthology Saving Worlds was reprinted by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss in their Best SF: 1973 .
  • After King Kong Fell by Philip José Farmer from Elwood's 1973 anthology Omega was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1974 and reprinted by Harrison and Aldiss in Best SF: 1974 .
  • Elwood 1973 published anthology Showcase includes Silverberg's novel Breckenridge and the Continuum in 1974 by Terry Carr for The Best Science Fiction of the Year # 3 was selected, and The Childhood of the Human Hero of Carol Emshwiller added to, Nebula Award Stories 9 , edited by Kate Wilhelm .
  • Thomas F. Monteleone's short story Breath's a Ware That Not Keep from Elwood's 1975 anthology Dystopian Visions was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1976.
  • No less than twenty of the stories selected by Barry N. Malzberg for inclusion in his The Best of Barry N. Malzberg collection were first published in one or the other of Elwood's original anthologies.

professionalism

It is reported that Elwood has underpaid writers. Teresa Nielsen Hayden also discusses speculation about the financial details of some Elwood projects, "which, according to all reports, should have had generous budgets."

Elwood's 1974 eight-volume Young Adult Lerner SF Library , with three or four stories per volume, contains stories by three authors whose only sale according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database was for this book; two other authors who only sold stories to Roger Elwood; and one whose only sale was to Roger Elwood.

SF hardcovers were relatively uncommon in the 1970s and the stories were supposedly original commissions, which is why Nielsen Hayden believes this was a well-funded project. Normally the entire advance payment for an anthology is paid to the anthologist, who then purchases the story rights out of pocket, with any unspent advance payment retained. Given the availability of skilled short story writers at the time, Elwood's choice of inexperienced writers aroused suspicion.

The Lerner SF Library also contains two stories by Earl and Otto Binder , and a third story by Otto alone. Given that Earl and Otto Binder stopped writing stories together in 1955, and that Earl died in 1965 and Otto Binder died in 1974, it is unlikely that any of these stories were commissioned by Elwood.

Effects on Publishing

Nielsen Hayden reports that prior to Elwood's entry, anthologies and collections were very popular with readers and considered "safe novels" by the publishing industry. She accuses Elwood of "destroying the story collection / anthology market". By "destroying the readers' trust in collections," she says, "Elwood is wasting the publisher's credibility built over decades by better anthologists." Anthologies and stories, she notes, became "a tough sell".

Whether the effects of Elwood will be long term, as Nielsen Hayden claims, is difficult to tell from the numbers. Many anthologies are still published annually.

bibliography

Anthologies

  • Alien Worlds , 1964
  • Invasion of the Robots , 1965
  • The Time Curve , 1968 (with Sam Moskowitz )
  • Alien Earth: And Other Stories , 1969
  • The Little Monsters , 1969 (with Vic Ghidalia )
  • Other Worlds, Other Times , 1969 (with Sam Moskowitz)
  • Horror Hunters , 1971 (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire: And Other Science Fiction Stories , 1972
  • Young Demons , 1972 (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • Beware the Beasts , 1973 (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • Demon Kind , 1973
  • Future Quest , 1973
  • Way Out , 1973
  • The Berserkers , 1973
  • Future City , 1973
  • The Other Side of Tomorrow , 1973
  • Monster Tales: Vampires Werewolves and Things , 1973
  • Children of Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers , 1973
  • Androids, Time Machines, and Blue Giraffes: A Panorama of Science Fiction , 1973
  • Flame Tree Planet: And Other Stories , 1973
  • Saving Worlds , 1973 (with Virginia Kidd )
  • Showcase , 1973
  • Ten Tomorrows , 1973
  • Omega , 1974
  • Crisis: Ten Original Stories of Science Fiction , 1974
  • Chronicles of a Comer: And Other Religious Science Fiction Stories , 1974
  • The Killer Plants: And Other Stories , 1974
  • Night of the Sphinx: and Other Stories , 1974
  • Strange Gods , 1974
  • Survival from Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers , 1974
  • The Far Side of Time , 1974
  • Future Kin: Eight Science Fiction Stories , 1974
  • Horror Tales: Spirits, Spells and the Unknown , 1974
  • The Learning Maze: and Other Science Fiction , 1974
  • The Wounded Planet , 1974
  • Dystopian Visions , 1975
  • Future Corruption , 1975
  • The Gifts of Asti: And Other Stories of Science Fiction , 1975
  • Tomorrow: New Worlds of Science Fiction , 1975
  • Epoch , 1975
  • Six Science Fiction Plays , 1975
  • The Fifty-meter Monsters: And Other Horrors , 1976
  • Visions of Tomorrow , 1976
  • Futurelove , 1977
  • Science Fiction Tales , 1978
  • Spine-Chillers: Unforgettable Tales of Terror , 1978 (with Howard Goldsmith )
  • More Science Fiction Tales , 1978

Anthology series

Frontiers:

  • Frontiers 1: Tomorrow's Alternatives , 1973
  • Frontiers 2: The New Mind , 1973

Continuum: Each Continuum volume contained eight short stories: seven with four episodes by the authors Anne McCaffrey , Poul Anderson , Philip José Farmer , Thomas Scortia , Gene Wolfe , Edgar Pangborn and Chad Oliver . The eighth was a rotating writer series started by Dean R. Koontz .

  • Continuum 1 , 1974
  • Continuum 2 , 1974
  • Continuum 3 , 1974
  • Continuum 4 , 1975

Roman series

Fishing walk:

  1. Angelwalk , 1988
  2. Fallen Angel , 1990
  3. Stedfast Guardian Angel , 1992
  • Darien: Guardian Angel of Jesus , 1994
  • The Angelwalk Trilogy: Angelwalk / Fallen Angel / Stedfast , 1995
  • Darien's Angelwalk for Children , 1995
  • Angels in Atlantic City , 1998
  • Wendy's Phoenix , 1999
  • Where Angels Dare , 1999
  • On Holy Ground , 2001

Bartlett Brothers:

  • Sudden Fear , 1991
  • Terror Cruise , 1991
  • Forbidden River , 1991
  • The Frankenstein Project , 1991
  • Disaster Island , 1992
  • Nightmare at Skull Junction , 1992

Oss Chronicles:

  1. Wolf's Lair , 1993
  2. Deadly Sanction , 1993
  3. Code Name Bloody Winter , 1993

Without the Dawn:

  1. How Soon the Serpent , 1997
  2. Valley of the Shadow , 1997
  3. The Judas Factor , 1997
  4. Bright Phoenix , 1997

Novels

  • Long Night of Waiting , 1974
  • Remnant , 1989
  • The Christening , 1989
  • The Wandering , 1990
  • Children of the Furor , 1990
  • Dwellers , 1990
  • Sorcerers of Sodom , 1991
  • Dark Knight , 1991
  • Wise One , 1991
  • Soaring: An Odyssey of the Soul , 1992
  • Maggie's Song , 1993
  • Circle of Deception , 1993
  • The Road to Masada , 1994
  • Shawn Hawk: A Novel of the 21st Century , 1995
  • Act of Sacrifice: Vol. 3 , 1997
  • Ashes of Paradise , 1997
  • Stephen the Martyr , 1998
  • The Dukes of Hazzard

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Angela Ward ( Memento on 10 February 2009 at the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ I Don't Know Where I'll Go: The Other Side of Tomorrow - Roger Elwood , reviewed by James Nicoll , at James Nicoll Reviews; published August 21, 2018; retrieved August 30, 2018
  3. Comment in Teresa Nielsen Haynden's blog Making Light
  4. Roger Elwood and the anthology Markt und Mehr von Elwood by Jonathan Strahan