Editing Riverworld (section)

===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>