Crossposted from Peoria Pundit. I must note that RAH dedicated Stranger in a Strange Land to Philip Jose Farmer.
Peoria Journal Star writer Jerry Klein today described Philip Jose Farmer:
“For all his international fame, he was one of the most humble people I ever knew. He wasn’t exactly celebrated in Peoria, however, like the prophet being without honor in his own country. He had the most incredible imagination. I hope that what he is experiencing now is wonderful beyond his wildest dreams.”
I agree with everything Mr. Klein said. But I wouldn’t use the word “humble.” Humility didn’t become Phil Farmer, who died in his Peoria home at age 91. Phil knew damn well that he was a giant in the field of science fiction. He was resigned to being that prophet who isn’t recognized in his home town. But there are too many stories out of Phil visiting libraries and book stores and re-arranging the shelves to give HIS books better exposure to believe he was “humble.”
Farmer was by all accounts pleasant and generous man. I know this because he kindly welcomed me into his home back in the summer of 1986, when I was an intern the Journal Star. I had tried to get boss Ed Lembeck to agree to let me do a story on Farmer. He was less than enthused. I got the impression the PJS administered Phil Farmer in small doses. After all, he wrote about, you know, s-e-x.
But my thinking at the time — and now for that matter — is when you have a creative genius who is also an accomplished writer living in your town, a smart newspaper ought to get the guy words in the paper as often as possible.
So, I called Mr. Farmer and said I’d like to interview him for a story that might or might not appear in the Peoria Journal Star. He agreed. Twenty years later, I now realize he knew damn well the PJS wasn’t to a run a just because interview with him written by an intern who was obviously a fan boy.
So one Saturday, I went over to his home and interviewed. I think it lasted an hour. I showed me his books and the modest desk where he did his writing. And the monstrous painting of him with a one of his creations sitting on his shoulder. He told me stories of the Golden Age of Science Fiction. He talked about Robert Heinlein. And Issac Asimov. And he told storied about John W. Campbell, the legendary editor of Astounding. We talked about how he borrowed Kurt Vonnegut’s fictional science fictiona writer Kilgore Trout as a pen name for “Venus on the Half Shell.”
He talked about the trends in science fiction, including cyber punk. He described himself as probably the first cyberpunk. I didn’t see it then, and I still don’t.
I started to write it, but never finished, knowing that there wasn’t a news peg that made it newsworthy. And since blogs hadn’t been invented …
I did keep the micro cassette tape, but after too many moved to count, it was lost. Too bad, because I would love to put that on the Internet now.
I didn’t see him again until August 2002 when Lakeview Library held the 50th Anniversary Celebration of The Lovers. It was apparent that Farmer was not really doing well, and I expected to not see any new work from him.
And I didn’t.
And unless there is an unpublished novel somewhere, I won’t.
