When Patti Abbott invited me to participate in FORGOTTEN BOOKS some 100 weeks ago, my first posting was Theodore Sturgeon’s The Dreaming Jewels (aka, The Synthetic Man). Now that I’ve hit the century mark, I figured I should pay homage to Theodore Sturgeon, a great writer who is practically forgotten, and to North Atlantic Books who published 13 volumes of Sturgeon’s complete short stories. Given the new publishing environment and the rise of ebooks, I doubt if such a project that took over a decade to complete, will be viable again. I love this marvelous set of books. Great care was taken in the production, editing, and presentation of these volumes. All the volumes are still in print, but who knows how long that will last. Theodore Sturgeon wrote some of the most innovative and empathic fiction I’ve ever read. While his early work was more conventional, it was always distinctive. Sturgeon’s later work become more experimental. He never stopped pushing the limits of his craft. I highly recommend this monumental series!
Congrats on hitting 100. You can’t go wrong with Sturgeon.
You’re right, Bill. You can’t go wrong with Sturgeon. And this magnificent set of his stories is a joy.
I have to concur that Sturgeon s wonderful. This is a great series of books and the 13 volumes look amazing side by side n my shelf.
North Atlantic Books needs to be celebrated for this 13-volume Sturgeon Collection, Scott. I can’t imagine any current publisher attempting such a feat.
Ted Sturgeon is a terrific writer, often when reading his stuff I wonder what, if any, genre he really belongs to, though he’s always put in the SF pigeonhole. His “More Than Human” made a huge impact on me when I first read it, and a lot of his other stories are unforgettable. That said, his own comment, Sturgeon’s Law, applies even to himself, and I’m not sure I’d want to spend over $450 plus shipping for these. I do see NAB has some of the volumes in softcover, for less, and they say it’s the plan to publish the stories in 10 volumes. That would certainly be a less expensive way to go.
None of that should detract from the point you make that Sturgeon is an excellent writer.
Buying the paperback editions reduces the price greatly, especially if you order them on AMAZON from dealers who discount the volumes even if they’re “new,” Rick. Some readers might be satisfied by just buying the volumes that cover Sturgeon’s best work from the 1950s and 1960s. I agree with your comment that Sturgeon is unclassifiable. He writes fantasy and SF with equal facility.
And impressive work that lies beyond sf and fantasy, such as SOME OF YOUR BLOOD (included by Robert Arthur in the HITCHCOCK PRESENTS: STORIES MY MOTHER NEVER TOLD ME volume I picked up for myself the other day, having had only the Dell paperback split previously). Did you pick up the ARGYLL pamphlet, George? I’m very glad North Atlantic put all the volumes back in print when they reached the last they intend to do… but there are other similarly heroic presses about, such as are working on complete Vance volumes and have given us the collected short stories of Manly Wade Wellman.
I almost bought that complete Jack Vance series, Todd, but Diane might have objected to the $1,700 price tag. There are rumors that the complete Vance edition will be offered in a much cheaper paperback edition. I have the complete Manly Wade Wellman short story series from Night Shade Books.
Hello George. This week’s edition of Friday’s Forgotten Books is now up at MYSTERIES in PARADISE. Thanks for participating.
Thanks for hosting, Kerrie!
Thanks your earlier review I got volume 1 from the library and have been chipping away at it. Great stuff.
Glad you’re enjoying the Theodore Sturgeon series, Evan. Lobby your public library to buy ALL 13 volumes! Mine did.
And, as always, spare a thought for Paul Williams, and Cindy Lee Berryhill, and their family…without Williams, the Project (and so much else) wouldn’t’ve happened, and his fate is one of Fate’s nastiest jokes.
With any project the size of THE COMPLETE STORIES OF THEODORE STURGEON, Todd, plenty of people had to make sacrifices. Paul Williams was a key figure who shepherded the project along as far as he could. Fate was not kind to him.
SOME OF YOUR BLOOD was indeed a classic. I’ve read a small portion of Sturgeon’s short works and mean to get to more of them RSN.
Theodore Sturgeon’s work is marvelous, Jeff. You’ll find some incredible stories as you read through these volumes.
I think you might be underestimating how much Paul Williams made this series happen, but, yes, fate has been incrediby unkind to him and his family.
http://paulwilliams.com/index.html
Hello from Germany,
Sturgeon is alive and well in my imagination. At the end of the 70ties I was 14 years old and loved the 3 Mark (6 dollar) trades from the german publisher Goldmann. Thunder and Roses, It, Ether Breather burned into my mind and other stories sparked several other personal memories. More than Human, brilliant. Thanks to Paul for his work on PKD and TS. I´ll teach my children … Next question. Ciao, Gerwin
I discovered Sturgeon when I was around 14-years-old, too, Gerwin. No one was writing the kind of stories Sturgeon wrote. North Atlantic Press reprinted three Sturgeon volumes that had gone out-of-print so the entire 13 volume set of the Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon is available. Clearly, this is a milestone in publishing history.
The NAB series is wonderful but I see no reason why the rise of ebooks would prevent collections of this sort from happening in the future. If anything, having only digital versions of stories should make it impossible for an author to ever go “out of print” again. In that sense there may never be a NEED for this sort of collection, that is no bad thing if in exchange we have constant access to any published works.
I completely agree, Liam. Constant access to everything is the Holy Grail.