Editing Riverworld (section)

==Works==
===Original, unpublished manuscript===
''Riverworld'' began when Farmer wrote a 150,000-word novel, calling it ''Owe for the Flesh'', over six weeks in the fall of 1952<ref name="Introduction">Farmer, Philip Jose (1983), "Author's Introduction" to ''[[River of Eternity]]''; [[Huntington Woods, Michigan]]: [[Phantasia Press]], pp i-x.</ref> and submitted it at the last minute to the Shasta Science-Fiction Novel Prize Contest. He won the contest, with assurances of publication, but circumstances conspired to ensure that that would not happen for many years.<ref name="Life">[[Mary Turzillo|Turzillo, Mary]] (writing as Mary T. Brizzi), "Philip José Farmer: His Life," in ''Philip José Farmer'', Starmont Reader's Guide series, Starmont House, 1980, pp. 13-14.  {{ISBN|978-0916732059}}</ref> The complete manuscript, now believed lost, consisted of four "books":

*''Owe for the Flesh''
**"The Great Cry"
**"A State of Honesty"
**"The River of Eternity"
**"The Paddle Wheeled Comet"

In about 1981, and in the wake of the success of the Riverworld novels, Farmer issued a general request to anyone who might have the original manuscript. An 80,000-word document entitled "River of Eternity" was then discovered in a garage and returned to Farmer. This turned out to be, not the original, but a version produced in the mid-1950s by Farmer (who had entirely forgotten about it) from the third "book" at the request of the publisher [[Shasta Publishers|Melvin Korshak]]. This document was published unaltered in 1983 by [[Phantasia Press]] as ''[[River of Eternity]]'' and is generally considered to be of mostly academic interest.

===Magazine publications===
With no prospect of imminent publication, Farmer moved on to other projects. But in 1963 and '64, he rewrote the material into a second version and in late 1964 into a third, which he now called ''Owe for a River''. This version was submitted to Ballantine Books, but it was rejected as being too much of an adventure story without sufficient deeper philosophical implications. Undaunted, he sent the manuscript to [[Frederik Pohl]] who at that time edited a number of prominent science fiction magazines. Pohl suggested that Farmer break the novel into several novelettes for serial publication in his periodicals. Farmer agreed, and thus the fourth version of what started out as ''Owe for the Flesh'' 13 years before finally saw publication as five novelettes:<ref name="Introduction"/>

*"The Day of the Great Shout" (''[[Worlds of Tomorrow]]'', January 1965)
*"Riverworld" (''Worlds of Tomorrow'', January 1966)
*"The Suicide Express" (''Worlds of Tomorrow'', March 1966)
*"The Felled Star" (''[[Worlds of If]]'', July 1967, August 1967)
*"The Fabulous Riverboat" (''Worlds of If'', June 1971, August 1971)

Of these five novelettes, four — all but "Riverworld" — were expanded and combined into the first two Riverworld novels as published by [[Putnam Publishing Group]] in 1971. Thus the fifth, and final, version of the Riverworld sequence comprises the four "mainstream" (Farmer's term) novels (1971-80) listed below, plus the extra "sidestream" book, ''Gods of Riverworld'' (1983).

As to the novelette that remained a "standalone" — "Riverworld" — it underwent a slight expansion and was included in Farmer's collection ''Down in the Black Gang'' in 1971. After one more (final) expansion and polishing, it was included in the collection ''Riverworld and Other Stories'' in 1979.<ref>The 1966 magazine version was about 12,000 words. The final "definitive" version is about 33,750 words.  (See Farmer's "Forward" in ''Riverworld and Other Stories'' (1979); New York: Berkley Books, pp 3-5.) This story depicts the unhappy afterlife of a completely human [[Jesus Christ]].</ref>

===Published novels (and short stories)===
The five novels in the Riverworld series are as follows:
* ''[[To Your Scattered Bodies Go]]'' (1971) – Hugo Award winner, Locus Award nominee<ref name="WWE-1972">{{cite web
| url = http://www.worldswithoutend.com/books_year_index.asp?year=1972
| title = 1972 Award Winners & Nominees
| work = Worlds Without End
| access-date=2009-10-05
}}</ref>
* ''[[The Fabulous Riverboat]]'' (1971)
* ''[[The Dark Design]]'' (1977)
* ''[[The Magic Labyrinth]]'' (1980)
* ''[[Gods of Riverworld]]'' (1983; later published as ''The Gods of Riverworld'')

In the early 1990s, it was decided to turn Riverworld into a [[shared universe]] anthology series, with numerous authors being invited to participate. Two volumes were released:
* ''Tales of Riverworld'' (1992)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Publication: Tales of Riverworld |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?34352 |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=www.isfdb.org}}</ref> (includes one story written by Farmer: "Crossing the Dark River". A second story, "A Hole In Hell", was written by Farmer under the pseudonym Dane Helstrom)
* ''Quest to Riverworld'' (1993)<ref>{{Cite web |title=Publication: Quest to Riverworld |url=http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/pl.cgi?27188 |access-date=2022-06-26 |website=www.isfdb.org}}</ref> (includes two stories written by Farmer: "Up the Bright River" and "Coda")