RAH Reading Group - Puppet Masters

[pyan]

Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG

butchered by publisher..

I was under the impression that all the revisions were approved and made by RAH himself, and the original story was only published after RAH's death, as authorised by VGH?

[Mollygurl]

Originally Posted by pyan

Glad soneone's keeping track - I still thought, until today, that we were starting with TCWWTW!

LOL! That's next I think, Pyan.

HSF - as for what we do when everyone's finished; usually somebody will make a comment/statement and the rest of us jump in and discuss it. Since TT thought up the idea for the reading group - why don't we leave it to him to get the ball rolling? As soon as everyone has finished that is...

[pyan]

Originally Posted by Mollygurl

LOL! That's next I think, Pyan.

Yes, reading the back-posts, you're right. Glad I found out now, though!
*hastily shelves TCWWTW!*

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Originally Posted by pyan

I was under the impression that all the revisions were approved and made by RAH himself, and the original story was only published after RAH's death, as authorised by VGH?

RAH was generally opposed to rereleasing revised works after initial publication...but he was also furious with his editors and their insistence to change or edit his work even as he made the required changes. This particular one they felt was far too risque, and they wanted a general drop in word count too...approximately a quarter off the top.
Mrs. Heinlein didn't share her husbands opposition to restoring the works, and aided in restoring this one and others back to Heinlein's original intent after his death.
I heard a quote regarding Puppets, but I can't remember whether it was The Interview, Grumbles, or some other essay, where he complained that they wanted the Heinlein name, but didn't care for a Heinlein story.

[Mollygurl]

TT - your comments make me curious about what they did cut out. I want to ask questions but I don't want to ruin it for those who haven't finished reading yet.

[pyan]

Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG

RAH was generally opposed to rereleasing revised works after initial publication...but he was also furious with his editors and their insistence to change or edit his work even as he made the required changes.

Didn't realise that, TT - I knew he had a lot of issues with Alice Dalgliesh and the juveniles, chronicled in GFTG, but not with the "adult" books.
Or was PM edited by Dalgliesh - thinking about it, the "eat it or I'll rub it in your hair" quote mentioned in Grumbles is from PM, isn't it?

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Just found this on the web...this isn't where I read it originally (reading this I bet it was Grumbles) but it repeats pretty much the same information...




The Puppet Masters
The next novel, one I believe was a potential early bestseller, The Puppet Masters (1951), was broken and crippled as a published book. Heinlein's manuscript is 100,000 words. Doubleday's edition as published, stripped down by Heinlein to editorial demand, is 75,000 words. Although I always liked The Puppet Masters, it was not one of my top favorites because it read jerkily. Even repeated re-readings into my adulthood teased with aspects I did not understand, yet I couldn't see just what was wrong with the story. It wasn't until I read the much longer version that it all came together. Heinlein's complete version is far more coherent as well as having more vivid and realistic details, and overall is a vastly better novel.
I take the word counts here and below from James Gifford's "The New Heinlein Opus List", which is an appendix to his book Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader's Companion, and also available online. Heinlein discusses editorial changes via colorful letters to his agent Lurton Blasingame, collected in his posthumous Grumbles from the Grave.
In a related misfortune, The Puppet Masters first was serialized in Galaxy magazine, promoted as complete and book-length though abridged even further down to 60,000 words, and additionally subjected to H.L. Gold's typically heavy-handed editing.
The Puppet Masters a potential bestseller? Here's how it might have happened. Around 1950 was the height of the flying-saucer craze in America. Amazing Stories and some other magazines and newspapers were pushing flying saucers for all the market would bear. Most science-fiction fans and writers were dubious at best about saucer claims.
But if you wanted to read a novel about flying saucers done right, could it be done? Who would you turn to? What writer of stature and capability would dare to try?
Already in mid-1941, Heinlein was generally acclaimed the top science-fiction writer by the time of his Guest of Honor appearance at the World Science Fiction Convention in Denver (the Denvention). By 1950, after breaking into both the slick magazines and the juvenile-novel markets, Heinlein was ready and able for another major challenge. He wanted to write a solid and fully adult science fiction novel, and for theme he tackled the flying-saucer scare head on. The result is The Puppet Masters. Even abridged and watered-down, it's a powerful novel of alien invasion and mental control, full of naturalistic detail.
But major publishers were only cautiously dipping their toes into the uncertain space of science fiction. Doubleday's abridged version was published and promoted as part of their new science-fiction line, a standard science-fiction novel without fanfare. No big deal. Since it was by Heinlein after all, reprintings followed, but all labelled and confined within the safe and narrow science-fiction box as it was then perceived.
In some alternate timeline, I envision The Puppet Masters becoming a major bestseller in 1951, greatly boosting science fiction's awareness and acceptance by the general public. This is fifteen years before Stranger in a Strange Land boosted that process in the mid-1960s, and well before the first Star Wars film in 1977 began a major science-fiction boom. But that didn't happen here, not in our timeline. — By the way, I mention an even earlier missed chance for Skylark and Lensman author Edward E. Smith in my review of David Kyle's The Illustrated Book of Science Fiction Ideas & Dreams.
The abridged Doubleday edition of The Puppet Masters appeared in 1951 with a sad book-jacket cover that could not entice anyone who didn't know Heinlein's name already. Galaxy ran a much nicer cover painting, but textually missed the boat by an even wider margin. There's a stolen concept here, the editors valuing the Heinlein byline to appeal to their readers, but contemptuously slighting the Heinlein story itself.
The unabridged novel appeared in 1990 as a Del Rey paperback: look on the cover for a mention that it's the uncut novel, or check the copyright page for the revised printing count beginning in 1990. Read Heinlein's complete version.

[pyan]

Now you've really upset me! - book-hunting tomorrow!

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Originally Posted by pyan

Now you've really upset me! - book-hunting tomorrow!

Sorry bud...but it really is worth having the restored in your library at some point. Way better...again, not necessary for going ahead with discussion, but worth reading at some point.

[pyan]

Oh, I know, I know, TT - but I'm just wondering how many of my RAH's I'm going to have to replace!

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Originally Posted by pyan

Oh, I know, I know, TT - but I'm just wondering how many of my RAH's I'm goint to have to replace!

I don't think he was satisfied with anything until after Strangers...society had changed so much by then, and his influence was WAY bigger after that, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted. I doubt we will see many more restored with Ginny gone now, although his original manuscripts and research sketches and everything are in the Heinlein archives down in California...you just never know. My understanding is that the archivists were completist with Heinlein, every pencil scratch is in there.

[Finnien]

Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG

I don't think he was satisfied with anything until after Strangers...society had changed so much by then, and his influence was WAY bigger after that, he could pretty much do whatever he wanted. I doubt we will see many more restored with Ginny gone now, although his original manuscripts and research sketches and everything are in the Heinlein archives down in California...you just never know. My understanding is that the archivists were completist with Heinlein, every pencil scratch is in there.

I know there are going to be some rather substantial restorations or reworkings of a couple of novels in the Virginia Edition by Meisha Merlin, although I couldn't tell you offhand which books will receive significant changes. I *think* Steve Pagel told me that Number of the Beast was one that had significant parts left out and he felt they could do a lot with it when they put it out, but I believe that's one of the last novels they're doing just due to the sheer amount of work it'll be.

I'll start reading the volumes I already have, and try to compare them to the mass market paperbacks I've also got, and see what I can find.

[TTBRAHWTMG]

Originally Posted by Finnien

I *think* Steve Pagel told me that Number of the Beast was one that had significant parts left out and he felt they could do a lot with it when they put it out, but I believe that's one of the last novels they're doing just due to the sheer amount of work it'll be.

That I would love to see...NotB really bugged me...it felt like he got going and then wimped out, and didn't see things through. Would love to see what his original intent was.

[Liz Pf]

Originally Posted by pyan

Who's left, then? - Are we just waiting for Liz? *taps foot impatiently*

Don't wait for me, ever.

I read fast ... finished it Sunday night.

--Liz
http://www.printfection.com/cartesianbear

[Liz Pf]

Originally Posted by TTBRAHWTMG

That I would love to see...NotB really bugged me...it felt like he got going and then wimped out, and didn't see things through. Would love to see what his original intent was.

You and me both ... but one of these days we're going to have to have a "Why I dislike Lazarus Long" thread.

I did enjoy NotB -- until Mr Long showed up.

The clubhouse doesn't have the uncut TPM So I may go out a'hunting books

--Liz
http://www.printfection.com/cartesianbear