Win Eckert

In his classic "biographies" of fictional characters (Tarzan Alive and Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life), Hugo- and Nebula-award winning author Philip Jose Farmer introduced the Wold Newton family, a collection of heroes and villains whose family-tree includes Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, Philip Marlowe, and James Bond. In books, stories, and essays he expanded the concept even further, adding more branches to the Wold Newton family-tree. MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE, edited by Win Scott Eckert, collects for the first time those rarely-seen essays. Expanding the family even farther are contributions from Farmer's successors--scholars, writers, and pop-culture historians--who bring even more fictional characters into the fold.

"Outstanding book, in presentation, content, and participation. I am sure Farmer is quite pleased."
-Blue Tyson, Not Free SF Reader.

"Like most of the authors in Myths for the Modern Age, I discovered Farmer's biographies in middle school and spent quite a while afterwards convinced that Sherlock Holmes, Lord Greystoke, Clark Savage and the rest were based on real people. Like them, I got over that but still enjoyed playing with the idea of it... Eckert's introduction, and Dr. Peter Coogan's essay on the theory and methodology of Wold-Newtonry, go a long way to helping readers unfamiliar with the basic framework understand the basic concept. It's important to approach this book with the understanding that Wold-Newtonry is not a hard and fast field of study -- it's meant to be fun, a point Dr. Coogan makes clear early on... You'll absolutely enjoy yourself getting lost...and you might even start making connections from the main Wold Newton Universe research to your own favorite novel or tv show. I know I'm already trying to figure out if there are connections to the works of Madeleine L'Engle and the tv show Lost."
-Talekyn, LiveJournal.

Myths for the Modern Age: Philip Jose Farmer's Wold Newton Universe
click for larger image	click for larger image	click for larger image	In his classic "biographies" of fictional characters (*Tarzan Alive* and *Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life), Hugo- and Nebula-award winning author Philip Jose Farmer introduced the Wold Newton family, a collection of heroes and villains whose family-tree includes Sherlock Holmes, Fu Manchu, Philip Marlowe, and James Bond. In books, stories, and essays he expanded the concept even further, adding more branches to the Wold Newton family-tree. MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSE FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE*, edited by Win Scott Eckert, collects for the first time those rarely-seen essays. Expanding the family even farther are contributions from Farmer's successors--scholars, writers, and pop-culture historians--who bring even more fictional characters into the fold. Complete contents and ordering information here.
"I realized when I had the idea for a cosmic event linking and explaining the origin of my favorite pulp characters, that the tentacles would reach very far and very wide. I am very impressed with the ingenuity and research Mr. Eckert and his colleagues have shown in expanding my universe. I'm just waiting for then to prove I am also part of the extended family." -Philip Jose Farmer
Locus Recommended Reading 2006 list and 2007 Locus Award Finalist.
"Pulp addicts and those addicted to six-degrees-of-separation sorts of literary games will likely love this book, and may want to follow up on it by visiting one of the half-dozen or more websites (including one in French) that are devoted to expanding the Wold Newton families, the most thorough of which seems to be Eckert's own at http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp.htm." - Gary K. Wolfe, Locus magazine, Locus Looks at Books: Short Takes (April 2006 issue). Locus Online. Featured in Locus magazine's New & Notable Books (March 2006 issue).
"A loving homage to the dreamweavers who have created all those thrilling heroes and to Philip Jose Farmer, who so cannily understood how primally popular fiction's adventure heroes impacted on Western imagination and culture." -Claude Lalumiere, The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2005 at Locus Online.
"Informative, witty, and endlessly fascinating, this anthology of post-Farmerian speculation should appeal to literary scholars, genre aficionados, and lay readers alike." -Paul Goat Allen, The Barnes & Noble Review.
"It really is weirdly fun, reading all these essays and theories on how these various pulp classics fit together, and if you go to pjfarmer.com and click on the Wold Newton link, you'll see for yourself. Or you could just pick up Eckert's new collection of essays on the subject." -Greg Hatcher, Comic Book Resources.
""There's fun to be had with this bloodline of the gods, and the book immerses itself in sanity-melting levels of minutiae. We learn how H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu have infiltrated the sunlit world, how Mowgli is kin to Tarzan, how a zillion different Zorros can be shoe-horned into one definitive history. It's a dry intense read but if the thought of Sherlock Holmes being great uncle to MacGyver makes you smirk, then this one's for you." - Nick Setchfield, SFX #139 (January 2006 issue).
Prof. Santa's Best Christmas List Ever, 2005, Ain't It Cool News.
"Anyone who calls himself a fan of classic pulp fiction should own this...I truly love this book." -Ron Fortier, Pulp Fiction Reviews, writer, The Green Hornet, Terminator: Burning Earth, Captain Hazzard, Brother Grim, etc.
The Agony Column
"Myths for the Modern Age expands the boundaries of the reader's imagination? This is a must-read and a definite reference book for all literature icon readers...I can't get enough of it!" -Paul Dale Roberts, Jazma Online.
"Outstanding book, in presentation, content, and participation. I am sure Farmer is quite pleased." -Blue Tyson, Not Free SF Reader. "Like most of the authors in Myths for the Modern Age, I discovered Farmer's biographies in middle school and spent quite a while afterwards convinced that Sherlock Holmes, Lord Greystoke, Clark Savage and the rest were based on real people. Like them, I got over that but still enjoyed playing with the idea of it... Eckert's introduction, and Dr. Peter Coogan's essay on the theory and methodology of Wold-Newtonry, go a long way to helping readers unfamiliar with the basic framework understand the basic concept. It's important to approach this book with the understanding that Wold-Newtonry is not a hard and fast field of study -- it's meant to be fun, a point Dr. Coogan makes clear early on... You'll absolutely enjoy yourself getting lost...and you might even start making connections from the main Wold Newton Universe research to your own favorite novel or tv show. I know I'm already trying to figure out if there are connections to the works of Madeleine L'Engle and the tv show Lost." -Talekyn, LiveJournal.