The Journey of 1000 Miles Begins with the Turn of a Page

Began The Blue Star by Fletcher Pratt this morning. This was the first title published in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy Series under the editorship of Lin Carter and carrying the distinctive Unicorn Head logo. The book was published with a date of May 1969, but actually hit newsstands in April. Of course Ballantine had already established a line of adult fantasy reprints beginning with the authorized paperback publication of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings trilogy in 1965. This authorized edition was published in "response" to Ace Books unauthorized, yet legal, reprint that exploited a loophole in US copyright law which actually put Tolkien's trilogy in the public domain. Ballantine followed the growing success of its Tolkien titles in 1967 with reprints of The Worm Ouroboros by E. R. Eddison and it's several related titles (not exactly sequels), the Gormenghast trilogy by Mervyn Peake, A Voyage to Arcturus by David Lindsey and works by Peter S. Beagle, The Last Unicorn and A Fine and Private Place. These last two actually carried the designation "A Ballantine Adult Fantasy" on the cover, but lacked the Unicorn Head logo. Several of these titles were later reprinted with the Unicorn Head.

So, closely related as these titles are to the BAF, the series proper is considered to start with The Blue Star. In Imaginary Worlds Lin Carter lists the BAF titles starting with Pratt's book and it is the first to have an introduction by Carter. So that's where I'm starting and why.

But why read them in the order of publication? Isn't that sort of arbitrary? Well, consider the alternatives. I could read them in alphabetical order by author, but isn't the alphabet just as arbitrary, and then you run into what I call the William Morris problem. Delightful and entertaining as the books in the BAF are some do carry certain issues of archaic style and readability that can make them tough going. William Morris is an important part of the series and indeed according to Carter the founder of the Imaginary world fantasy tradition. A huge influence on Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other. But the pseudo-medieval style reminiscent of Thomas Malory's Le Morte D'Arthur is heavy going for the modern reader. Particularly this modern reader. I have not read all of the titles in the BAF. I'd guess I've read a quarter to a third mostly back in the 70's and 80's. I did read all of The Wood Beyond the World and the first half of The Well at the World's End. The story and imagery of these books remains surprisingly vivid in my mind, but I also remember struggling to read them and eventually bailing on The Well. If I tackled the series alphabetically and had to plow through four consecutive Morris titles I'm afraid my momentum would flag and I would risk a massive brain cramp in the bargain.

Obviously the Chronological approach is more logical, and has some apparent advantages, in offering an interesting historical perspective, but ultimately the Morris Problem rears it ugly head again. And, since several of the BAF titles are anthologies or omnibus volumes, the chronological approach would seem to entail a great deal of skipping around if you wanted to strictly adhere to it.

So, I opt to read the books in the order they were originally presented to the readers. Relying on Lin Carter to lay out the feast in a tasty and inviting manner, and with only one William Morris per year.

A quick glance at the list shows you that the series is heavily front loaded with James Branch Cabell. Three of the first twelve titles are by Cabell, and that may seem like an imbalance, but I have much affection for Cabell, and although his style is definitely ornamental and artificial it is much easier going than Morris, far earthier and full of sophistication, wit, and irony. So, I say bring of the JBC!

This may seem like over-thinking the whole enterprise, but I assure you all of this flashed through my mind in a second, and only in retrospect did bother parsing it all out. After all I have a whole year of this. I have to talk about something.