Subject: (urth) Operation Ares: any copies still around? and PEACE cover art

From: Christopher Culver <christopher_culver at yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, 09 May 2002 00:06:15 +0000

Does anyone know where to track down a copy of OPERATION ARES? It is
supposedly an awful book, partly because of Wolfe's not yet mature style
and bad editing, but I'd like a copy to make my Wolfe collection a bit
more complete. Hey, I actually liked "Copperhead", so maybe I'll be
thrilled at anything that has Wolfe's name on it.

Another question of early Wolfe: why did the cover "art" for the
original edition of PEACE suck? In his biographical sketch of Wolfe
before "The Death of Doctor Island" in MODERN CLASSIC SHORT NOVELS OF
SCIENCE FICTION, the editor (whose name I forget, I'm across the
Atlantic from my library at the moment) blames the plain cover art for
the poor sales of PEACE. I could see how that could happen, the cover
art looks like a generic bookcover a grade-school kid would put over a
textbook. Why would a publisher design a book so it wouldn't sell?

The ORB reissue of PEACE has an interesting error. The name of the cover
artist on the back of the book is different than the name on the
copyright page.

Christopher Culver

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Christopher R. Culver <christopher_culver at yahoo.com>
PGP public key available at members.aol.com/crculver/culver.asc
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"En la momento, kiam li eltene strecxis la krurojn, kaj
levis la okulojn, sxajnis, ke la Cxiela Rivero susure
enfalas en lian korpon." - Yasunari KAWABATA, Negxa Lando
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