DAMN

[ffutures]

heliograph has pointed out that The Passionate Witch was completed posthumously, to an extent that it is basically written by someone else and still very much in copyright. This REALLY annoys me, since there is nothing about another author in the book - which makes me suspect that it was a VERY illegal printing. The copyright situation on the rest of Smith is okay, fortunately, so I can still go ahead with this project - I've just lost a day or so, and one of the sources I particularly wanted to include, but there's a LOT more Thorne Smith and it's all pretty good, so no problemo.

[fx - kicks self for wasting 30 hours without checking the full copyright details first]

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"[fx - kicks self for wasting 30 hours without checking the full copyright details first]"

Or, say, asking someone who you know is working on a 1920s/1930s game. I honestly don't know how OK the copyright situation is: nobody's done any e-books of his stuff that I've seen, though that may just be an oversight. He definitely died in 1934, though.

Lemme know which titles you need pre-80s versions of and I'll make you a care package. I'd suggest:

The Stray Lamb: Man turns into various animals
Night Life of the Gods: bringing statues of Greek gods to life, and other wild stuff.
Turnabout: man and wife swap bodies
Rain In The Doorway: the doorway is to an alternate universe. Very wild, tie in with earlier FF
Skin & Bones: Man turns into skeleton and back again uncontrollably
The Glorious Pool: the fountain of youth

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Like you I'm surprised that there is nothing at all on line, but I suppose that he's a little unfashionable now, plus he is only just out of Euro copyright.

The first four of those sound very useful, and I think I've read all of them at one point or another, the other two sound less gameable somehow (and I haven't read them), so not sure. If you think they're useful I'll take a look.

Let me see what I can find next weekend before you start preparing parcels.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"the other two sound less gameable somehow"

It really depends on how you set up the game. If I send you one it's just as easy to send them all.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

"The Passionate Witch" always tasted far more like a book-of-a-film-script to me, and so feels less like the clear quill. I don't think "Bats in the Belfry" is real Thorne Smith either, for all his name appears on the cover. Could it be that Thorne, like EE "Doc", had a literary grave robber executor?

Adding to the ones above, I know we've got "The Bishop's Jaegers". You've listed all the ones that came out in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy reprints, but I'll need to check with tigermoth to see which ones we still have.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I'll check the Fantasy Encyclopaedia tonight - it was right about Passionate Witch, ought to know if there are any other funny ones.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Yes - Bats is the sequel to Passionate Witch, and it's by the same author although often attributed to Smith. Sorry - I should have mentioned the sequel last night.