Throwback Thursday: The Fascinating Origins of James P. Blaylock’s The Elfin Ship
There was a time in my adolescence when I hit Barnes & Noble every Sunday. I’d gather my allowance, hop on the bus from New Jersey, and spend an afternoon in the stacks, perusing cheap science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. It was glorious time, and I still have most of those old books, mostly because I have a brain disease and cannot get rid of books no matter what.
In those days, I often bought books solely for the cover art, or, once I thought I had things figured out, the publisher. For a few years, Del Rey could sell me any book. Any book. They just got me. And so one day, without knowing anything about it, I bought a book called The Elfin Ship, by James P. Blaylock. I loved it, but I had no idea that the story behind the book was almost as interesting.
The Elfin Ship
NOOK Book $9.99
The Elfin Ship
NOOK Book $9.99
Jonathan Bing the Cheesemaker’s Excellent Adventure
In a nutshell, The Elfin Ship goes like this: when the usual shipments of Christmas decorations and gifts don’t arrive in Twombly Town, a small group of adventurers, including the learned Professor Wurzel and Jonathan Bing, local cheesemaker, set off downriver to see what’s happened. Along the way they encounter adventure and puzzles and slowly realize that an evil dwarf has set into motion a sinister plot. But the story isn’t exactly the big attraction—it’s fun, and surprising, but it’s not what we’re here to discuss.
The main attraction of The Elfin Ship and its two sequels, The Disappearing Dwarf and The Stone Giant, is the tone: in a word, it’s whimsical. Blaylock manages a magical balancing act, offsetting a outlandish setup and humorous tone with characters who totally believe in their own universe. Many writers go wrong with whimsy when they make their characters as silly as their satirical setting. Blaylock’s characters are good-hearted people prone to silliness, but he treats them with respect and gravitas that only makes the whimsical nature of the story all the more wonderful. He also introduces a sort of pseudo-science (in addition to a more traditional magic system) that’s delightful, with characters muttering about various laws (like The Three Major Urges) that, at least, sound authoritative.
Jonathan Bing the Cheesemaker’s Excellent Adventure
In a nutshell, The Elfin Ship goes like this: when the usual shipments of Christmas decorations and gifts don’t arrive in Twombly Town, a small group of adventurers, including the learned Professor Wurzel and Jonathan Bing, local cheesemaker, set off downriver to see what’s happened. Along the way they encounter adventure and puzzles and slowly realize that an evil dwarf has set into motion a sinister plot. But the story isn’t exactly the big attraction—it’s fun, and surprising, but it’s not what we’re here to discuss.
The main attraction of The Elfin Ship and its two sequels, The Disappearing Dwarf and The Stone Giant, is the tone: in a word, it’s whimsical. Blaylock manages a magical balancing act, offsetting a outlandish setup and humorous tone with characters who totally believe in their own universe. Many writers go wrong with whimsy when they make their characters as silly as their satirical setting. Blaylock’s characters are good-hearted people prone to silliness, but he treats them with respect and gravitas that only makes the whimsical nature of the story all the more wonderful. He also introduces a sort of pseudo-science (in addition to a more traditional magic system) that’s delightful, with characters muttering about various laws (like The Three Major Urges) that, at least, sound authoritative.
The Disappearing Dwarf
NOOK Book $9.99
The Disappearing Dwarf
NOOK Book $9.99
The backstory
What I didn’t learn until years later was the story of the book’s publication. In 1978, Blaylock sent the manuscript for what was then called The Man in the Moon to Del Rey and received a personal rejection letter from Lester Del Rey himself, in which the publisher strongly suggested Blaylock delete the last half of his book and rewrite it, with some suggestions about where the story could go. Blaylock hadn’t kept a copy of his manuscript, so he just rewrote the book from scratch, and Del Rey bought the revised version. Blaylock thought the original was lost. Then in 2002, a copy surfaced, and was later published by Subterranean Press in a limited edition (sadly long sold out).
Comparing the two is fascinating. The first third of The Elfin Ship more or less matches the first half of The Man in the Moon, but the endings are completely different, with, yes, the Moon (and a man) playing a big role in the original, whereas neither even shows up in the revision. It’s a strange opportunity to see the value of a strong editor: it’s up to you to read both and judge whether Del Rey improved upon Blaylock’s vision—or ruined it. (Basically the same thing just happened to Harper Lee with To Kill a Mockingbird/Go Set a Watchman, albeit with slightly more fanfare.)
Either way you slice it, the books have the same whimsical, wonderful tone and playfulness about them, making it well worth your time to track down both—not to mention the sequels, and, to be fair, everything else Blaylock has written.
The backstory
What I didn’t learn until years later was the story of the book’s publication. In 1978, Blaylock sent the manuscript for what was then called The Man in the Moon to Del Rey and received a personal rejection letter from Lester Del Rey himself, in which the publisher strongly suggested Blaylock delete the last half of his book and rewrite it, with some suggestions about where the story could go. Blaylock hadn’t kept a copy of his manuscript, so he just rewrote the book from scratch, and Del Rey bought the revised version. Blaylock thought the original was lost. Then in 2002, a copy surfaced, and was later published by Subterranean Press in a limited edition (sadly long sold out).
Comparing the two is fascinating. The first third of The Elfin Ship more or less matches the first half of The Man in the Moon, but the endings are completely different, with, yes, the Moon (and a man) playing a big role in the original, whereas neither even shows up in the revision. It’s a strange opportunity to see the value of a strong editor: it’s up to you to read both and judge whether Del Rey improved upon Blaylock’s vision—or ruined it. (Basically the same thing just happened to Harper Lee with To Kill a Mockingbird/Go Set a Watchman, albeit with slightly more fanfare.)
Either way you slice it, the books have the same whimsical, wonderful tone and playfulness about them, making it well worth your time to track down both—not to mention the sequels, and, to be fair, everything else Blaylock has written.