As a young person - or to put it better a young reader, I devoured Philip Jose Farmer's Riverworld series. I loved loved those books. I can remember very well the day I got word that my inter library loan came through from Ohio to my local library of the final book in the series. Very visceral visual writing. I am really not a science fiction buff but the books that Philip Jose Farmer wrote are beyond genre they are just great great books. Rest in peace brother.
Philip Jose Farmer 1918-2009
Philip Jose Farmer, 1918-2009: Acclaimed science fiction writer inspired Robert Heinlein, others
Longtime Peoria resident wrote more than 75 novels, was known for dealing frankly with sexual matters in his work
Associated Press
February 27, 2009
Associated Press
PEORIA — Philip Jose Farmer, one of the most celebrated science fiction, fantasy and short story writers of the 1960s and '70s, died Wednesday. He was 91.
Mr. Farmer died "peacefully" in his sleep, according to a message posted on his official Web site.
The longtime Peoria resident wrote more than 75 novels, including the Riverworld and World of Tiers series. He won the Hugo Award three times and the Grand Master Award for Science Fiction in 2001.
Mr. Farmer was "one of the great ones," according to a statement on the Web site of Subterranean Press, which published his later novels.
"He was always a joy to work with, and we will dearly miss his intelligence and good nature," the statement said.
Mr. Farmer's first published story, "The Lovers," caught the attention of the science fiction world in 1952 with one of the genre's first serious treatments of sexuality. At the time, he was working full time at a Peoria steel mill and writing on the side.
"The Lovers" was based on a love affair between an Earth man and an alien woman, and Mr. Farmer rocked the science fiction community by dealing frankly with sex. The story inspired some of the greatest science fiction writers, including Robert Heinlein, whose classic "Stranger in a Strange Land" was dedicated to Mr. Farmer.
Mr. Farmer tried to survive as a full-time freelance writer, but finances forced him back to work as a technical writer in the defense industry in 1956. He bounced from New York to Arizona and California before finally moving back to Illinois in 1969 to concentrate all his energies on his science fiction writing.
Mr. Farmer's celebrity in the science fiction world did not translate to Peoria, where he grew up and attended college.
"I am obscure in Peoria," he said in 1988. "I guess they don't read much around here."
Mr. Farmer's last novel, "The City Beyond Play," was published in 2007.
He is survived by his wife, Bette, a son and a daughter, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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i read the series he edited called dungeon when i was about 12 or so and remember liking it a lot. each was written by someone else and i think farmer was responsible for keeping the continuity together and created the world it existed in.
from
http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/series/philip-jose-farmers-the-dungeon/black-tower.htm
:
"The return of a classic 'shared world' fantasy series created by Philip Jose Farmer, award-winning author of the RIVERWORLD saga. Plunging into a vast prison that spans a planet, Clive Foliott faces a fantastic world of dwarves, cyborgs and aliens unlike anything he has ever imagined. It is a multi-levelled collection of beings from the hidden folds of time and space. Trapped somewhere inside is Neville Foliott, Clive's twin brother and no creature in the Dungeon will stop Clive from finding him! "
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