The Man Who Ruined Science Fiction (part 2)
Starting with his 1972 anthology Signs And Wonders (note the religious imagery), Roger Elwood began packaging more and more original anthologies for numerous publishers -- and almost never revealing he provided the same service for all their rivals.
Over the next six years he packaged a whopping 60 original anthologies, including a few quality entries (such as Epoch co-edited by Robert Silverberg, the four-volume Continuum series, and the two Frontiers anthologies) but an awful lot of gawdawful dross as well.
At his highwater mark, Elwood bought 25% of all the short fiction published in North America between 1972 and 1976.
At the bottom of the barrel, the joke in fandom at the time said every Elwood original anthology contained “one good story, six mediocre stories, and a Malzberg story.”*
In short, Elwood original anthologies became the sci-fi equivalent of Starbucks or MacDonalds; i.e., there were so many of them they actually competed against themselves.
This did not make either fans or publishers happy.
The fans, because they grew to distrust any original anthologies of the era thus further depressing the market, and the publishers, because instead of delivering the equivalent of another Dangerous Visions each time, Elwood handed over mostly dull, listless material.
This is not to say there weren’t a few pearls in the pig sty, but as Ray Bradbury famously observed, “It’s easy to write a good short story, just write one short story a week for a year. Nobody can write 52 bad short stories in a row.”
While Roger Elwood accepted a lot of first time or tyro writers’ stories instead soliciting better, more established authors, relatively few of those writers went on to significant literary careers.
They can’t all be winners, true, but overall Elwood’s choices reflect a lack of dedication to the craft.
But wait! There’s more!
In addition to burning fans and publishers, Elwood also faced challenges from various contributors who felt they didn’t received their promised compensation. With the original anthology market imploding through his own damn fault, in 1976 Elwood launched Odyssey a sci-fi magazine that lived up to the standards the field came to expect of him by lasting only two issues.
But that flame out fades from view in the epic black hole of Laser Books, a 58-volume series of sci-fi novels published from 1975 to 1977.
Elwood sought, in his own inarticulate manner, the literary equivalent of Star Wars; i.e., fast paced upbeat sci-fi adventures of the space opera variety, 50-60,000 words in length, with no more sex and violence than in the Lucas film.
He persuaded Harlequin, the world famous Canadian romance publishers, to commit to the project at least three years before Lucas’ film hit the screens.
Pity, because if he waited for Star Wars and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind and Damnation Alley (all released in 1977), he could then offer writers a perfect trifecta of the type of novels he wanted.
There’s absolutely a market for short, easy to read sci-fi adventure novels that combine classic pulp with modern-but-not-too-modern sensibilities.
Go ask Tor.
© Buzz Dixon
* Barry Malzberg is an incredibly prolific and on occasion remarkably talented novelist and critic who’s written at least 77 novels in the sci-fi / crime / porn genres plus enough short stories to choke Jabba the Hut. His prolificness stands at odds with his talent, and when he connects (as he did with his novels The Falling Astronauts and Beyond Apollo) he leaves an indelible mark. When he doesn’t connect…well, he just whiffs. In addition to his fiction, his 1982 book Engines Of The Night remains one of the finest collections of science fiction criticism ever assembled. How did such an edgy and controversial writer get teamed up with Elwood? I’m guessing the fact they’re both Jersey boys may explain it…
