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{{short description|American novelist}}
'''Roger Elwood''' (born ]) is an ] ] writer and editor, perhaps best known for having edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers in the early ].

{{Infobox person
|name = Roger Elwood
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1943|1|13}}
|birth_place = ], U.S.
|death_date = {{Death date and age|2007|2|2|1943|1|13}}
|death_place = U.S.
|occupation = {{hlist|Author|editor}}
}}

'''Roger Elwood''' (January 13, 1943 – February 2, 2007) was an American ] author and editor, who edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers during the early to mid-1970s.


==Biography== ==Biography==
{{section-stub}} {{Expand section|date=June 2008}}
Born and raised in Southern New Jersey, Roger Elwood started his professional writing career shortly after graduating from high school. Born and raised in ], Roger Elwood started his professional writing career soon after graduating from high school.


Elwood edited two wrestling magazines, "The Big Book of Wrestling" and "Official Wrestling Guide", on a contract basis in 1971–72 for Jalart House, an Arizona publisher, and regularly photographed matches (wrestling magazines placed a premium on photos rather than text). He became a regular with locker room access at some shows on the East Coast, which might seem to contradict rumours that he had become disillusioned with wrestling when it came to his attention that some pro wrestling matches were fixed. This period produced some fictional confessional stories (eg. "I Killed a Man in the Ring") that Elwood claimed were based on "a blending of interviews." He abruptly left the job in between late 1972 and early 1973, telling writers the wrestling magazines were too much work for too little compensation. Elwood edited two magazines about wrestling, ''The Big Book of Wrestling'' and ''Official Wrestling Guide'', on a contract basis during 1971–72 for Jalart House, an Arizona publisher, and regularly photographed matches (photographs were more important than text for wrestling magazines). He became a regular with locker room access at some shows on the East Coast, which might seem to contradict rumours that he had become disillusioned with wrestling when it came to his attention that some professional wrestling matches were fixed. This period produced some fictional confessional stories (e.g. "I Killed a Man in the Ring") that Elwood claimed were based on "a blending of interviews". He left the job abruptly between late 1972 and early 1973, telling writers the wrestling magazines were too much work for too little compensation.


Elwood was published by four different publishers in the first six years as an SF anthologist. During the following few years he would contract with over a dozen other publishers to produce many dozens of individual books and two anthology series, the four-book ''Continuum'' and two-book ''Frontiers''. The ] observes that "At one time it was estimated that Roger Elwood alone constituted about one quarter of the total market for SF short stories". Elwood was published by four different publishers during his first six years as an SF anthologist. During the next few years he would contract with more than a dozen other publishers to produce many dozens of individual books and two anthology series, the four-book ''Continuum'' and two-book ''Frontiers''. ''] ''observes that "At one time it was estimated that Roger Elwood alone constituted about one quarter of the total market for SF short stories."


Around the time the SF anthology market was bottoming out, Elwood moved on to ], an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by romance publishing giant ] to systematize and regularize SF into a uniform series of novels by diverse authors. He then effectively left the mainline science fiction/fantasy field in the late 1970s. About the time the SF anthology market was decreasing, Elwood began working for ], an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by romance publishing giant ] to systematize and regularize SF into a uniform series of novels by diverse authors. He then effectively quit ordinary science fiction/fantasy during the late 1970s, becoming a prolific writer of Christian-based novels during the 1990s, with more than thirty novels published during that decade.


Elwood's biography on the Fantastic Fiction website omits all mention of his work in the mainline science fiction/fantasy field and identifies him as a Writer-in-Residence (or occasionally a "professor of literature") at a ] in the mid-west. The biography also claims that "12 of his novels have won Excellence in Media awards for best book of the year", although the Silver Angels award website includes only a general "Print" category, and does not list Elwood's name <ref>; .</ref>. Elwood's biography on the Fantastic Fiction website omits mention of his work concerning ordinary science fiction/fantasy and identifies him as a Writer-in-Residence (or occasionally a "professor of literature") at a ] in the mid-western USA. The biography also claims that "12 of his novels have won Excellence in Media awards for best book of the year", although the Silver Angels award website includes only a general "Print" category, and does not list Elwood's name.<ref> {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090210034515/http://angelawards.com/ |date=2009-02-10 }}; .</ref>


==Criticisms== ==Criticisms==
Elwood's significant presence in the genre anthology field in the mid seventies is not without its detractors, whose criticisms range from professional to ad hominem. Many of them are summarised in senior editor ]'s original essay on Elwood, which was for some time the basis for this article <ref> (also ) by ]. Elwood's work as a genre anthology editor during the mid 1970s is not without its detractors, whose criticisms range from professional to ad hominem; ] has noted that Elwood's "capacity to produce anthologies at high speed was not, alas, matched with an ability to produce interesting anthologies", as well as the possibility that "readers, having read a few unremarkable Elwood anthologies, were reluctant to buy more".<ref name=Nicoll>, reviewed by ], at James Nicoll Reviews; published August 21, 2018; retrieved August 30, 2018</ref>


A review of Elwood's 1976 anthology ''Six Science Fiction Plays'' in the '']'' fan magazine ''Enterprise Incidents'' remarked that except for the inclusion of the original teleplay of the episode "]" by ], the book was "another excursion into mediocrity by Roger Elwood."
===Market flooding===
]


===Quality===
] and ]'s historical study '']'' (1986) says of the '''theme anthology''':
Amongst other criticisms, which she suggests "are more conjectural, but not easily dismissed", Nielsen Hayden nominates "the quality of the books themselves". She describes Elwood's theme anthologies as "carelessly edited" and "low-grade", although she allows that "some of Elwood's collections were quite decent," and that "all of them featured some good writers and good stories."
:"The seventies had also seen the growth of another phenomenon &mdash; the theme anthology. A vast number of such original anthologies, most of indifferent quality, glutted the market, to the detriment of writers, editors, magazines, and publishers alike. An editor previously unconnected with the SF field was mainly to blame, Roger Elwood. At one stage, estimates suggested that twenty five per cent of the anthologies on the market &mdash; numbering hundreds &mdash; had been edited wholly or partly by Elwood.
:"The bubble burst dramatically in the late seventies and markets for new writing shrank dramatically and suddenly"


The following are examples of peer recognition accorded to some of the stories printed in Elwood's anthologies (source: the ]):
According to Nielsen Hayden, Elwood is best remembered for "the bizarre episode in which he flooded the SF market in 1972-1975", which she credits with the collapse of that market.


* The short story "Forever and Amen" by ], from Elwood's 1972 anthology ''And Walk Now Gently Through The Fire and Other Science Fiction Stories'' was chosen by ] for inclusion in his ''Best Science Fiction for 1973'' compilation.
:''By the time Roger Elwood was finished, you couldn't have sold an SF anthology into the North American market if it were priced at ten cents and made out of Godiva chocolate.''
* The 1973 anthology ''Future City'' included "The World as Will and Wallpaper" by ], which was reprinted by ] in ''The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3'' (1974), "The Undercity" by ], which has been re-anthologized twice (in 1977 by ] and Joseph D. Olander in ''Criminal Justice Through Science Fiction'', and in 1997 by ] in ''Cyber-Killers''), and "Getting Across" by ] which has also been re-anthologized twice (in 1986 by Greenberg et al. in ''Computer Crimes and Capers'' and in 1997 by Waugh and Greenberg in ''Sci-Fi Private Eye''). The ''Future City'' anthology itself was reprinted in the United Kingdom by ] in 1976.
* Robert Silverberg's "The Wind and the Rain", from Elwood's 1973 anthology ''Saving Worlds'', was reprinted by ] and ] in their ''Best SF: 1973'' anthology.
* "After King Kong Fell" by ], from Elwood's 1973 anthology ''Omega'', was nominated for a ] in 1974, and reprinted by Harrison and Aldiss in ''Best SF: 1974''.
* Elwood's 1973 anthology ''Showcase'' contains Silverberg's novelette ''Breckenridge and the Continuum'', which was chosen by Terry Carr for ''The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3'' (1974), as well as "The Childhood of the Human Hero" by ], which was included in ''Nebula Award Stories 9'', edited by ].
* ]'s short story "Breath's a Ware That Will Not Keep", from Elwood's 1975 anthology ''Dystopian Visions'', was nominated for a Nebula award in 1976.
* No less than twenty of the stories chosen by ] for inclusion in his collection ''The Best of Barry N. Malzberg'' (1976) were first published in one or other of Elwood's original anthologies.


====Publishers==== ===Professionalism===
Elwood is reported to have underpaid authors.<ref> on Teresa Nielsen Haynden's blog </ref> Additionally, ] discusses speculation about the financial details of some of Elwood's projects "that by all indications should have had generous budgets" but were "peculiarly long on authors who had slight or nonexistent publishing credentials outside of Roger Elwood projects."

Elwood's eight-volume ] ] ''Lerner SF Library'' (1974), with three or four stories per volume, includes stories from three authors whose only recorded sale, according to the ], was to that book; two more authors who only ever sold stories to Roger Elwood; and one whose only first sale was to Roger Elwood, but who had the story republished elsewhere.

SF hardcovers were relatively uncommon during the 1970s and the stories were supposedly original commissions, so Nielsen Hayden believes it is reasonable to assume that this was a well-funded project. Normally the entire advance for an anthology is paid to the anthologist, who then purchases story rights out of his or her own pocket, retaining any unspent advance money.

Given the availability of experienced short fiction writers at the time, Elwood's choice of inexperienced authors aroused suspicions.

The ''Lerner SF Library'' also contains two stories by ], and a third story by ] alone.
Given that Earl and Otto Binder ceased to co-author stories in 1955, and that Earl died in 1965 and Otto in 1974, it seems unlikely any of these stories was a commissioned work.

===Effect on the industry===
Nielsen Hayden reports that, prior to Elwood's involvement with the market, anthologies and collections were very popular with readers, and were considered by the publishing industry to be "a surer bet than novels". She accuses Elwood of "singlehandedly breaking the story collection/anthology market". By "wreck the readers' faith in collections" she says, Elwood "squandered industry credibility accumulated over decades by better anthologists". Anthologies and story collections, she suggests, became "a hard sell".

The idea that Elwood's effect has been a long-term one, as Nielsen Hayden maintains, is difficult to maintain considering the continuing high numbers of anthologies published annually.<ref> and by ]</ref>

=== Publishers ===
Publishing houses which published Roger Elwood's anthologies: Publishing houses which published Roger Elwood's anthologies:


* 1964: Paperback Library * 1964: Paperback Library
* 1965: Paperback Library * 1965: Paperback Library
* 1966: ] * 1966: ]
* 1967: Tower * 1967: Tower
* 1968: Tower * 1968: Tower
Line 39: Line 71:
* 1971: --- * 1971: ---
* 1972: Avon, Chilton, Fleming H. Revell, MacFadden-Bartell * 1972: Avon, Chilton, Fleming H. Revell, MacFadden-Bartell
* 1973: Avon (2x), Concordia, ], ] ], Follett, Franklin Watts, ], ] (2x), Manor, ] (2x), ], Trident, Walker, Whitman * 1973: Avon (2x), Concordia, ], ] ], Follett, Franklin Watts, ], ] (2x), Manor, ] (2x), ], Trident, Walker, Whitman
* 1974: Aurora, Berkley/Putnam (3x), Curtis, ], Doubleday, Franklin Watts, ], ], ] (8x), ], Rand McNally, Thomas Nelson, Trident * 1974: Aurora, Berkley/Putnam (3x), Curtis, ], Doubleday, Franklin Watts, ], ], ] (8x), ], Rand McNally, Thomas Nelson, Trident
* 1975: Berkley, Berkley/Putnam, Bobbs-Merrill, Evans, Follett, Manor, ], Warner * 1975: Berkley, Berkley/Putnam, Bobbs-Merrill, Evans, Follett, Manor, ], Warner
* 1976: Archway, Pocket, ] * 1976: Archway, Pocket, ]
* 1977: ] * 1977: ]

====Contract timing====
It seems likely that Elwood's "mid-70s tidal wave" of anthologies were contracted at least two to three years prior to publication. Additionally, all but a couple of the contracts for Elwood's series were modest one- or two-book deals, spread out over more than two dozen publishing houses.

To quote Nielsen Hayden:

:''Anthology sales had tanked long before all the books came out, so it seems likely they were contracted significantly ahead of publication; potentially, they may all have been contracted for in the early '70s.''

She believes publishers were unaware of the situation until the books started coming out, and that this helps explain the publication pattern.

:''Publishing houses that got wind of the incipient debacle might easily have set forward the publication dates of the anthologies they had under contract, trying to avoid having them come out in the same month as a half-dozen other anthologies.''

===Quality===
Amongst other criticisms, which she suggests "are more conjectural, but not easily dismissed", Nielsen Hayden nominates "the quality of the books themselves". She describes Elwood's theme anthologies as "carelessly edited" and "low-grade", although she allows that "some of Elwood's collections were quite decent," and that "all of them featured some good writers and good stories."

===Professionalism===
Elwood is reported to have underpaid authors. Additionally, Nielsen Hayden discusses speculation about the financial details of some of Elwood's projects "that by all indications should have had generous budgets" but were "peculiarly long on authors who had slight or nonexistent publishing credentials outside of Roger Elwood projects."

Elwood's eight-volume ] ] ''Lerner SF Library'' (1974), with three or four stories per volume, includes stories from three authors whose only recorded sale, according to the ], was to that book; two more authors who only ever sold stories to Roger Elwood; and one whose only first sale was to Roger Elwood, but who had the story picked up for republication elsewhere.

SF hardcovers were relatively uncommon in the 1970s and the stories were supposedly original commissions, so Nielsen Hayden believes it is reasonable to assume that this was a well-funded project. Normally the entire advance for an anthology is paid out to the anthologist, who then purchases story rights out of his or her own pocket, retaining any unspent advance money.

Given the availability of experienced short fiction writers at the time, Elwood's choice of inexperienced authors aroused suspicions.

Nielsen Hayden suggests that:

:''an editor who's commissioning stories on a set theme for a premium project doesn't normally buy work from writers who have no track record. Editors know better than anyone else how many people there are who think they can write, and how few of them are justified in holding that opinion.''

The ''Lerner SF Library'' also contains two stories by ], and a third story by ] alone.
Given Earl and Otto Binder ceased to co-author stories in 1955, and that Earl died in 1965 and Otto in 1974, it seems unlikely any of these stories was a commissioned work.

===Industry impact===
Nielsen Hayden reports that, prior to Elwood's involvement in the market, anthologies and collections were very popular with readers, and were considered by the publishing industry to be "a surer bet than novels." She goes on to accuse Elwood of "singlehandedly breaking the story collection/anthology market". By "wreck the readers' faith in collections" she says, Elwood "squandered industry credibility accumulated over decades by better anthologists". Anthologies and story collections, she suggests, became "a hard sell".

:''That's made life harder for short fiction writers, who lost their second-rights sales, and damaged the readers' relationship with short fiction. It's been a real loss. Short fiction was always the genre's R&D lab.''

Whether Elwood's impact has been a long-term one, as Nielsen Hayden maintains, is difficult to discern from the figures, which point to continuing high numbers of anthologies published annually <ref> and by ]</ref>.

While declining to accuse Elwood of dishonesty, Nielsen Hayden suggests that:

:''there are no very creditable explanations for his flood of anthologies in the mid-1970s; that the publishers who bought them would never have done so if they'd had any idea that he was carpet-bombing SF publishing with anthology projects; that many of his anthologies (if not all the stories in them) were well below par in terms of their quality; and that the subsequent collapse of the anthology and story-collection market did long-term damage to science fiction as a whole.''

:'' Elwood professed to be as surprised as anyone when the anthology market collapsed&nbsp;&mdash; an odd claim, considering he'd been a working anthologist for a decade or more&nbsp;&mdash; and lightly departed the SF field to pursue other interests.''


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==
===Short work=== ===Short work===
Elwood's ''Fantastic Fiction'' biography claims that he has sold "a thousand articles and a few short stories" to publications including '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']''. Elwood's ''Fantastic Fiction'' biography claims that he has sold "a thousand articles and a few short stories" to publications including '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'', '']'' and '']''.

=== As editor ===


===Anthologies=== ===Anthologies===
Line 97: Line 88:
*''Alien Worlds'' (1964) *''Alien Worlds'' (1964)
*''Invasion of the Robots'' (1965) *''Invasion of the Robots'' (1965)
*''The Time Curve'' (1968) (with Sam Moskowitz) *''Strange Signposts'' (1966) (with Sam Moskowitz)
*'']'' (1968) (with Sam Moskowitz)
*''Alien Earth: And Other Stories'' (1969) *''Alien Earth: And Other Stories'' (1969)
*''The Little Monsters'' (1969) (with Vic Ghidalia) *''The Little Monsters'' (1969) (with Vic Ghidalia)
*''Other Worlds, Other Times'' (1969) (with Sam Moskowitz) *''Other Worlds, Other Times'' (1969) (with Sam Moskowitz)
*''Horror Hunters'' (1971) (with Vic Ghidalia) *''Horror Hunters'' (1971) (with Vic Ghidalia)
*''And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire: And Other Science Fiction Stories'' (1972) *''And Walk Now Gently Through The Fire: And Other Science Fiction Stories'' (1972)
*''Young Demons'' (1972) (with Vic Ghidalia) *''Young Demons'' (1972) (with Vic Ghidalia)
*''Beware the Beasts'' (1973) (with Vic Ghidalia) *''Beware the Beasts'' (1973) (with Vic Ghidalia)
Line 110: Line 102:
*''The Berserkers'' (1973) *''The Berserkers'' (1973)
*''Future City'' (1973) *''Future City'' (1973)
*''The Other Side of Tomorrow'' (1973) *''The Other Side Of Tomorrow'' (1973)
*''Monster Tales: Vampires Werewolves and Things'' (1973) *''Monster Tales: Vampires Werewolves And Things'' (1973)
*''Children of Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers'' (1973) *''Children of Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers'' (1973)
*''Androids, Time Machines, and Blue Giraffes: A Panorama of Science Fiction'' (1973) *'']'' (1973)
*''Flame Tree Planet: And Other Stories'' (1973) *''Flame Tree Planet: And Other Stories'' (1973)
*''Saving Worlds'' (1973) (with Virginia Kidd) *''Saving Worlds'' (1973) (with ])
*''Showcase'' (1973) *''Showcase'' (1973)
*''Ten Tomorrows'' (1973) *''Ten Tomorrows'' (1973)
Line 134: Line 126:
*''Dystopian Visions'' (1975) *''Dystopian Visions'' (1975)
*''Future Corruption'' (1975) *''Future Corruption'' (1975)
*''The Gifts of Asti: And Other Stories of Science Fiction'' (1975) *''The Gifts Of Asti: And Other Stories of Science Fiction'' (1975)
*''Tomorrow: New Worlds of Science Fiction'' (1975) *''Tomorrow: New Worlds of Science Fiction'' (1975)
*''Epoch'' (1975) *''Epoch'' (1975)
Line 141: Line 133:
*''Visions of Tomorrow'' (1976) *''Visions of Tomorrow'' (1976)
*''Futurelove'' (1977) *''Futurelove'' (1977)
*''Science Fiction Tales''(1978) *''Science Fiction Tales'' (1978)
*''Spine-Chillers: Unforgettable Tales of Terror'' (1978) (with Howard Goldsmith) *''Spine-Chillers: Unforgettable Tales of Terror'' (1978) (with Howard Goldsmith)
*''More Science Fiction Tales'' (1978) *''More Science Fiction Tales'' (1978)
{{col-end}} {{col-end}}


=====Anthology Series===== ====Anthology series====
Frontiers: Frontiers:
*''Frontiers 1: Tomorrow's Alternatives'' (1973) *''Frontiers 1: Tomorrow's Alternatives'' (1973)
Line 152: Line 144:


Continuum: Continuum:
Each ''Continuum'' volume contained eight short stories: seven comprising four-episode series by the authors ], ], ], ], ], ], and ]. (The stories by Pangborn are based in the world of his novel ''Davy'', but at different times within that world's fictional history.) The eighth story in each volume is part of a rotating author series started by Dean R. Koontz.
*''Continuum 1'' (1974) *''Continuum 1'' (1974)
*''Continuum 2'' (1974) *''Continuum 2'' (1974)
Line 157: Line 150:
*''Continuum 4'' (1975) *''Continuum 4'' (1975)


=====Novel Series===== === As author ===

====Novel series====
{{col-begin}} {{col-begin}}
{{col-break}} {{col-break}}
Line 163: Line 158:
#''Angelwalk'' (1988) #''Angelwalk'' (1988)
#''Fallen Angel'' (1990) #''Fallen Angel'' (1990)
#''Stedfast Guardian Angel'' (1992) #''Steadfast Guardian Angel'' (1992)


*''Darien: Guardian Angel of Jesus'' (1994) *''Darien: Guardian Angel Of Jesus'' (1994)
*''The Angelwalk Trilogy: Angelwalk / Fallen Angel / Stedfast'' (omnibus) (1995) *''The Angelwalk Trilogy: Angelwalk / Fallen Angel / Stedfast'' (omnibus) (1995)
*''Darien's Angelwalk for Children'' (1995) *''Darien's Angelwalk for Children'' (1995)
Line 175: Line 170:
{{col-break}} {{col-break}}
Bartlett Brothers: Bartlett Brothers:
*''Sudden Fear'' (1991)
*''Terror Cruise'' (1991)
*''Forbidden River'' (1991)
*''The Frankenstein Project'' (1991)
*''Disaster Island'' (1992) *''Disaster Island'' (1992)
*''Nightmare at Skull Junction'' (1992) *''Nightmare at Skull Junction'' (1992)
Line 182: Line 181:
#''Deadly Sanction'' (1993) #''Deadly Sanction'' (1993)
#''Code Name Bloody Winter'' (1993) #''Code Name Bloody Winter'' (1993)

Without the Dawn: Without The Dawn:
#''How Soon the Serpent'' (1997) #''How Soon The Serpent'' (1997)
#''Valley of the Shadow'' (1997) #''Valley of the Shadow'' (1997)
#''The Judas Factor'' (1997) #''The Judas Factor'' (1997)
Line 190: Line 189:
{{col-end}} {{col-end}}


=====Novels===== ====Novels====
{{col-begin}} {{col-begin}}
{{col-break}} {{col-break}}
*''Long Night of Waiting'' (1974) *''Long Night Of Waiting'' (1974)
*''Remnant'' (1989) *''Remnant'' (1989)
*''The Christening'' (1989) *''The Christening'' (1989)
Line 200: Line 199:
*''Dwellers'' (1990) *''Dwellers'' (1990)
*''Sorcerers of Sodom'' (1991) *''Sorcerers of Sodom'' (1991)
*''Sudden Fear'' (1991)
*''Terror Cruise'' (1991)
*''Dark Knight'' (1991) *''Dark Knight'' (1991)
*''Forbidden River'' (1991)


{{col-break}} {{col-break}}
*''Frankenstein Projects'' (1991)
*''Wise One'' (1991) *''Wise One'' (1991)
*''Soaring : An Odyssey of the Soul'' (1992) *''Soaring : An Odyssey of the Soul'' (1992)
Line 218: Line 213:
{{col-end}} {{col-end}}


=====Other===== ====Other====
*''] Scrapbook *''] Scrapbook

==References==
<references />


==See also== ==See also==
*] *]
*] *]
* The book ''Science Fiction and Market Realities'', proceedings of the conference from an Eaton Conference, ed. George Slusser, Gary Westfahl, and Eric S. Rabkin, Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1996, ISBN 0820317268, has one or more essays that discuss the effect of Elwood on the science fiction market in some detail. * The book ''Science Fiction and Market Realities'', proceedings of the conference from an Eaton Conference, edited by George Slusser, Gary Westfahl, and Eric S. Rabkin, Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1996, {{ISBN|0-8203-1726-8}}, has one or more essays that discuss the effect of Elwood on the science fiction market in some detail.

==References==
{{Reflist}}


==External links== ==External links==
*{{isfdb name|id=Roger_Elwood|name=Roger Elwood}} *{{ISFDB name|id=Roger_Elwood|name=Roger Elwood}}
* on ] * on SciFan
* *
* at * at Fantastic Fiction

{{Authority control}}


] {{DEFAULTSORT:Elwood, Roger}}
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Latest revision as of 05:50, 20 July 2024

American novelist
Roger Elwood
Born(1943-01-13)January 13, 1943
New Jersey, U.S.
DiedFebruary 2, 2007(2007-02-02) (aged 64)
U.S.
Occupations
  • Author
  • editor

Roger Elwood (January 13, 1943 – February 2, 2007) was an American science fiction author and editor, who edited a large number of anthologies and collections for a variety of publishers during the early to mid-1970s.

Biography

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008)

Born and raised in southern New Jersey, Roger Elwood started his professional writing career soon after graduating from high school.

Elwood edited two magazines about wrestling, The Big Book of Wrestling and Official Wrestling Guide, on a contract basis during 1971–72 for Jalart House, an Arizona publisher, and regularly photographed matches (photographs were more important than text for wrestling magazines). He became a regular with locker room access at some shows on the East Coast, which might seem to contradict rumours that he had become disillusioned with wrestling when it came to his attention that some professional wrestling matches were fixed. This period produced some fictional confessional stories (e.g. "I Killed a Man in the Ring") that Elwood claimed were based on "a blending of interviews". He left the job abruptly between late 1972 and early 1973, telling writers the wrestling magazines were too much work for too little compensation.

Elwood was published by four different publishers during his first six years as an SF anthologist. During the next few years he would contract with more than a dozen other publishers to produce many dozens of individual books and two anthology series, the four-book Continuum and two-book Frontiers. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction observes that "At one time it was estimated that Roger Elwood alone constituted about one quarter of the total market for SF short stories."

About the time the SF anthology market was decreasing, Elwood began working for Laser Books, an ultimately unsuccessful attempt by romance publishing giant Harlequin Books to systematize and regularize SF into a uniform series of novels by diverse authors. He then effectively quit ordinary science fiction/fantasy during the late 1970s, becoming a prolific writer of Christian-based novels during the 1990s, with more than thirty novels published during that decade.

Elwood's biography on the Fantastic Fiction website omits mention of his work concerning ordinary science fiction/fantasy and identifies him as a Writer-in-Residence (or occasionally a "professor of literature") at a Bible college in the mid-western USA. The biography also claims that "12 of his novels have won Excellence in Media awards for best book of the year", although the Silver Angels award website includes only a general "Print" category, and does not list Elwood's name.

Criticisms

Elwood's work as a genre anthology editor during the mid 1970s is not without its detractors, whose criticisms range from professional to ad hominem; James Nicoll has noted that Elwood's "capacity to produce anthologies at high speed was not, alas, matched with an ability to produce interesting anthologies", as well as the possibility that "readers, having read a few unremarkable Elwood anthologies, were reluctant to buy more".

A review of Elwood's 1976 anthology Six Science Fiction Plays in the Star Trek fan magazine Enterprise Incidents remarked that except for the inclusion of the original teleplay of the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" by Harlan Ellison, the book was "another excursion into mediocrity by Roger Elwood."

Quality

Amongst other criticisms, which she suggests "are more conjectural, but not easily dismissed", Nielsen Hayden nominates "the quality of the books themselves". She describes Elwood's theme anthologies as "carelessly edited" and "low-grade", although she allows that "some of Elwood's collections were quite decent," and that "all of them featured some good writers and good stories."

The following are examples of peer recognition accorded to some of the stories printed in Elwood's anthologies (source: the Internet Speculative Fiction Database):

  • The short story "Forever and Amen" by Robert Bloch, from Elwood's 1972 anthology And Walk Now Gently Through The Fire and Other Science Fiction Stories was chosen by Forrest J. Ackerman for inclusion in his Best Science Fiction for 1973 compilation.
  • The 1973 anthology Future City included "The World as Will and Wallpaper" by R. A. Lafferty, which was reprinted by Terry Carr in The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3 (1974), "The Undercity" by Dean Koontz, which has been re-anthologized twice (in 1977 by Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander in Criminal Justice Through Science Fiction, and in 1997 by Ric Alexander in Cyber-Killers), and "Getting Across" by Robert Silverberg which has also been re-anthologized twice (in 1986 by Greenberg et al. in Computer Crimes and Capers and in 1997 by Waugh and Greenberg in Sci-Fi Private Eye). The Future City anthology itself was reprinted in the United Kingdom by Sphere Books in 1976.
  • Robert Silverberg's "The Wind and the Rain", from Elwood's 1973 anthology Saving Worlds, was reprinted by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss in their Best SF: 1973 anthology.
  • "After King Kong Fell" by Philip José Farmer, from Elwood's 1973 anthology Omega, was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1974, and reprinted by Harrison and Aldiss in Best SF: 1974.
  • Elwood's 1973 anthology Showcase contains Silverberg's novelette Breckenridge and the Continuum, which was chosen by Terry Carr for The Best Science Fiction of the Year #3 (1974), as well as "The Childhood of the Human Hero" by Carol Emshwiller, which was included in Nebula Award Stories 9, edited by Kate Wilhelm.
  • Thomas F. Monteleone's short story "Breath's a Ware That Will Not Keep", from Elwood's 1975 anthology Dystopian Visions, was nominated for a Nebula award in 1976.
  • No less than twenty of the stories chosen by Barry N. Malzberg for inclusion in his collection The Best of Barry N. Malzberg (1976) were first published in one or other of Elwood's original anthologies.

Professionalism

Elwood is reported to have underpaid authors. Additionally, Teresa Nielsen Hayden discusses speculation about the financial details of some of Elwood's projects "that by all indications should have had generous budgets" but were "peculiarly long on authors who had slight or nonexistent publishing credentials outside of Roger Elwood projects."

Elwood's eight-volume young adult hardcover Lerner SF Library (1974), with three or four stories per volume, includes stories from three authors whose only recorded sale, according to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, was to that book; two more authors who only ever sold stories to Roger Elwood; and one whose only first sale was to Roger Elwood, but who had the story republished elsewhere.

SF hardcovers were relatively uncommon during the 1970s and the stories were supposedly original commissions, so Nielsen Hayden believes it is reasonable to assume that this was a well-funded project. Normally the entire advance for an anthology is paid to the anthologist, who then purchases story rights out of his or her own pocket, retaining any unspent advance money.

Given the availability of experienced short fiction writers at the time, Elwood's choice of inexperienced authors aroused suspicions.

The Lerner SF Library also contains two stories by Earl and Otto Binder, and a third story by Otto alone. Given that Earl and Otto Binder ceased to co-author stories in 1955, and that Earl died in 1965 and Otto in 1974, it seems unlikely any of these stories was a commissioned work.

Effect on the industry

Nielsen Hayden reports that, prior to Elwood's involvement with the market, anthologies and collections were very popular with readers, and were considered by the publishing industry to be "a surer bet than novels". She accuses Elwood of "singlehandedly breaking the story collection/anthology market". By "wreck the readers' faith in collections" she says, Elwood "squandered industry credibility accumulated over decades by better anthologists". Anthologies and story collections, she suggests, became "a hard sell".

The idea that Elwood's effect has been a long-term one, as Nielsen Hayden maintains, is difficult to maintain considering the continuing high numbers of anthologies published annually.

Publishers

Publishing houses which published Roger Elwood's anthologies:

Bibliography

Short work

Elwood's Fantastic Fiction biography claims that he has sold "a thousand articles and a few short stories" to publications including Ladies Home Companion, Mike Shayne's Mystery Magazine, Edgar Wallace Mystery Magazine, Photoplay, Grit and Weekly Reader.

As editor

Anthologies

  • Alien Worlds (1964)
  • Invasion of the Robots (1965)
  • Strange Signposts (1966) (with Sam Moskowitz)
  • The Time Curve (1968) (with Sam Moskowitz)
  • Alien Earth: And Other Stories (1969)
  • The Little Monsters (1969) (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • Other Worlds, Other Times (1969) (with Sam Moskowitz)
  • Horror Hunters (1971) (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • And Walk Now Gently Through The Fire: And Other Science Fiction Stories (1972)
  • Young Demons (1972) (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • Beware the Beasts (1973) (with Vic Ghidalia)
  • Demon Kind (1973)
  • Future Quest (1973)
  • Way Out (1973)
  • The Berserkers (1973)
  • Future City (1973)
  • The Other Side Of Tomorrow (1973)
  • Monster Tales: Vampires Werewolves And Things (1973)
  • Children of Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers (1973)
  • Androids, Time Machines, and Blue Giraffes: A Panorama of Science Fiction (1973)
  • Flame Tree Planet: And Other Stories (1973)
  • Saving Worlds (1973) (with Virginia Kidd)
  • Showcase (1973)
  • Ten Tomorrows (1973)
  • Omega (1974)
  • Crisis: Ten Original Stories of Science Fiction (1974)
  • Chronicles of a Comer: And Other Religious Science Fiction Stories (1974)
  • The Killer Plants: And Other Stories (1974)
  • Night of the Sphinx: and Other Stories (1974)
  • Strange Gods (1974)
  • Survival from Infinity: Original Science Fiction Stories for Young Readers (1974)
  • The Far Side of Time (1974)
  • Future Kin: Eight Science Fiction Stories (1974)
  • Horror Tales: Spirits, Spells and the Unknown (1974)
  • The Learning Maze: and Other Science Fiction (1974)
  • The Wounded Planet (1974)
  • Dystopian Visions (1975)
  • Future Corruption (1975)
  • The Gifts Of Asti: And Other Stories of Science Fiction (1975)
  • Tomorrow: New Worlds of Science Fiction (1975)
  • Epoch (1975)
  • Six Science Fiction Plays (1975)
  • The Fifty-meter Monsters: And Other Horrors (1976)
  • Visions of Tomorrow (1976)
  • Futurelove (1977)
  • Science Fiction Tales (1978)
  • Spine-Chillers: Unforgettable Tales of Terror (1978) (with Howard Goldsmith)
  • More Science Fiction Tales (1978)

Anthology series

Frontiers:

  • Frontiers 1: Tomorrow's Alternatives (1973)
  • Frontiers 2: The New Mind (1973)

Continuum: Each Continuum volume contained eight short stories: seven comprising four-episode series by the authors Poul Anderson, Philip José Farmer, Anne McCaffrey, Chad Oliver, Edgar Pangborn, Thomas N. Scortia, and Gene Wolfe. (The stories by Pangborn are based in the world of his novel Davy, but at different times within that world's fictional history.) The eighth story in each volume is part of a rotating author series started by Dean R. Koontz.

  • Continuum 1 (1974)
  • Continuum 2 (1974)
  • Continuum 3 (1974)
  • Continuum 4 (1975)

As author

Novel series

Angelwalk:

  1. Angelwalk (1988)
  2. Fallen Angel (1990)
  3. Steadfast Guardian Angel (1992)
  • Darien: Guardian Angel Of Jesus (1994)
  • The Angelwalk Trilogy: Angelwalk / Fallen Angel / Stedfast (omnibus) (1995)
  • Darien's Angelwalk for Children (1995)
  • Angels in Atlantic City (1998)
  • Wendy's Phoenix (1999)
  • Where Angels Dare (1999)
  • On Holy Ground (2001)

Bartlett Brothers:

  • Sudden Fear (1991)
  • Terror Cruise (1991)
  • Forbidden River (1991)
  • The Frankenstein Project (1991)
  • Disaster Island (1992)
  • Nightmare at Skull Junction (1992)

Oss Chronicles:

  1. Wolf's Lair (1993)
  2. Deadly Sanction (1993)
  3. Code Name Bloody Winter (1993)

Without The Dawn:

  1. How Soon The Serpent (1997)
  2. Valley of the Shadow (1997)
  3. The Judas Factor (1997)
  4. Bright Phoenix (1997)

Novels

  • Long Night Of Waiting (1974)
  • Remnant (1989)
  • The Christening (1989)
  • The Wandering (1990)
  • Children of the Furor (1990)
  • Dwellers (1990)
  • Sorcerers of Sodom (1991)
  • Dark Knight (1991)
  • Wise One (1991)
  • Soaring : An Odyssey of the Soul (1992)
  • Maggie's Song (1993)
  • Circle of Deception (1993)
  • The Road to Masada (1994)
  • Shawn Hawk: A Novel of the 21st Century (1995)
  • Act of Sacrifice: Vol. 3 (1997)
  • Ashes of Paradise (1997) (which explains how to reconcile Confederate slaveholding and Christian ideals)
  • Stephen the Martyr (1998)

Other

See also

  • Sam Moskowitz
  • Vic Ghidalia
  • The book Science Fiction and Market Realities, proceedings of the conference from an Eaton Conference, edited by George Slusser, Gary Westfahl, and Eric S. Rabkin, Athens : University of Georgia Press, c1996, ISBN 0-8203-1726-8, has one or more essays that discuss the effect of Elwood on the science fiction market in some detail.

References

  1. Angel Awards website Archived 2009-02-10 at the Wayback Machine; search for Elwood's name.
  2. I Don't Know Where I'll Go: The Other Side of Tomorrow — Roger Elwood, reviewed by James Nicoll, at James Nicoll Reviews; published August 21, 2018; retrieved August 30, 2018
  3. Comment on Teresa Nielsen Haynden's blog Making Light
  4. Roger Elwood and the Anthology Market and More on Elwood by Jonathan Strahan

External links

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