A Rediscovery of Clifford D. Simak - A Reading Challenge

Does anyone have a Delorme's Atlas for Wisconsin with topographic maps, with an image that could be scanned of the Simak farm area? Note: I'm not sure, but I think the current format of Delorme's books may have dropped the topographic format for some reason. Or maybe someone has a U. S. Geological Survey topo map -- ?
 
Extollager said:
None of those covers, Hugh, look at all like what I think I remember from a hardcover copy of The Goblin Reservation from the Coos Bay, Oregon, public library. My memory may be at fault. What I seem to remember is a very dark cover design. I'm wondering now if this memory is tangling with a memory from about the same time of L. P. Davies' Psychogeist.
md11563104665.jpg
Click to expand...

That's a pity.

I've come to realise that my memory is not altogether reliable, however certain things seem.
 
Extollager said:
None of those covers, Hugh, look at all like what I think I remember from a hardcover copy of The Goblin Reservation from the Coos Bay, Oregon, public library. My memory may be at fault. What I seem to remember is a very dark cover design. I'm wondering now if this memory is tangling with a memory from about the same time of L. P. Davies' Psychogeist.
md11563104665.jpg
Click to expand...
I dug out my copy of the first ed. of WEREWOLF PRINCIPLE, and it does have the Powers artwork, but is not very dark at all... (I've taken a pic of it with my cell phone, and am trying to figure out how to move or copy that to this thread...)(I'm a technological troglodyte...)
 
whoops! I tried to upload the pic of the Werewolf Principle cover from my cell phone, but it says the file was too large...
Any advice?
 
If Ralf doesn't have it, it probably doesn't exist. :) And none of these look right to me but, still, another source to try is the ISFDB's cover gallery. And, of course the image search thing of a certain search engine.
 
Hugh said:
Mastery indeed!

Edit: this should include one of those emoticons denoting being impressed.
Click to expand...
No flattery at this point, please -- I still haven't figured out why it came out sideways, or how I could have given it the proper orientation!
(Well, I've been learning, at least...)
 
J-Sun said:
If Ralf doesn't have it, it probably doesn't exist. :) And none of these look right to me but, still, another source to try is the ISFDB's cover gallery. And, of course the image search thing of a certain search engine.
Click to expand...
Yes, you're right, Ralf has just about everything...but since I had the real thing down in the basement somewhere, I went for that.
 
Thanks for that Goblin Reservation cover image, which is nothing like the one I thought I remembered from when I was a youngster. I'm thinking it really is possible that I mixed it up with the Davies cover mentioned above. That was another library book that caught my attention but that I'm quite sure I didn't read at the time; but I think I will soon.
 
Hi Extollager,

I have the books so not really all at home. But I've been collecting the cover art for years, and it would be very unlikely that a US original is missing.
The picture that Dave posted is also the one I know.

All covers of "Goblin Reservation" in English language can be found here:
Clifford D. Simak - The International Bibliography - Releases of The Goblin Reservation in English

In the ISFDB there are no others:
ISFDB - All covers for The Goblin Reservation

The cover you sent looks a bit like some of the British book club editions of other Simak books:

allflesh_uk_hc_sfbc1967.jpg
whycall_uk_hc_sfbc1968.jpg
werewolf_uk_hc_uksfbc1969.jpg


In the US books, I know only a few dark covers:

timeagain_us_hc_simon&schuster1951.jpg
timesimple_us_hc_doubleday-sfbc1961.jpg
werewolf_us_hc_putnam1967.jpg


Maybe you've actually confused the book.
 
Hugh said:
On an allied subject:

Can someone please help me with the location of Simak's grandfather's farm. It's been a while since I checked it out.

At one time I really enjoyed looking at the territory around there on Google Earth, but I'm trying to find it now and I just get lost. I'd thought there was a bridge across the river not far from Millville and that the road leading to the farm was fairly easy to recognise. Clearly I'm mistaken. I'm having problems with yahoo and so cannot access the simak-fan group for the details.
Click to expand...

Hello Hugh,

It's been a long time since - it was probably in 2008 - when the Yahoo Fan Group discussed the location of the Simak farm.
The thread is here:
Visit to Simak's youth places

Bill Sharp had written an essay "FROM THE BLUFF: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak". There was also a map with the presumed location of the Simak farm. The direct link to the PDF is here:
From the Bluff: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak (on Yahoo)

If you can not open it, I have uploaded it to my web space:
From the Bluff: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak (on International Bibliography)

I've tried to locate the location exactly and have created a Google Maps:
Clifford Simak's youth places

If you have Google Earth, enter these coordinates:
42.997158, -91.011825

- You'll land exactly on the place, which Bill has marked as "Simak Farm".

I hope I could help.
 
Ralf, it is possible that I confused the art on some other Simak book with that for The Goblin Reservation. If so, the most likely candidate is that I was thinking of The Werewolf Principle, I suppose. At this point I may have to be content with uncertainty. The book in question would have been one that I saw in the adult section of the Coos Bay library, which I'd begun prowling only around 1967 at the earliest -- and we moved in mid-1969. But it is very unlikely that the book in question was a British edition; almost certainly the Simak I recall was a Science Fiction Book Club offering from Doubleday.

Oh well! Thanks.
 
And, Ralf, big thanks for the geographical links!

I raised the topic of maybe moving to Wisconsin to my wife today and ... she was getting pretty interested. : )
 
Ralf 58 said:
Hello Hugh,

It's been a long time since - it was probably in 2008 - when the Yahoo Fan Group discussed the location of the Simak farm.
The thread is here:
Visit to Simak's youth places

Bill Sharp had written an essay "FROM THE BLUFF: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak". There was also a map with the presumed location of the Simak farm. The direct link to the PDF is here:
From the Bluff: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak (on Yahoo)

If you can not open it, I have uploaded it to my web space:
From the Bluff: A Philosophy of Clifford D. Simak (on International Bibliography)

I've tried to locate the location exactly and have created a Google Maps:
Clifford Simak's youth places

If you have Google Earth, enter these coordinates:
42.997158, -91.011825

- You'll land exactly on the place, which Bill has marked as "Simak Farm".

I hope I could help.
Click to expand...


Many thanks indeed Ralf, and Dave too for your earlier directions.

I'm out today, but will be checking these out and enjoying them in due course. As I said earlier my laptop and yahoo are not working well together, which has meant access to the yahoo group resource is very limited.
 
Dohhh! I was looking on the wrong side of the river. I was so convinced there was a bridge just near Millville and that the farm was the other side from there.

Well I really enjoyed looking round. Many thanks Ralf. It's great to have this easily accessible.
 
Just finished They Walked Like Men. It would have been easy for Simak to lose me as I tend to resist "zany" science fiction. But I enjoyed this novel. There was a little of the B-movie ambience of the 1950s-early 1960s that I like (though more free with profanity than a god ol' RKO gem would be) -- I relished the McCandless Building in Chapter 9, for example. There was more than one car chase that could remind you of those things. The alien threat was bizarre and I suppose Simak had his tongue in cheek. The resolution of the threat was audacious. But the book basically hit me right.

There really is a McCandless Building, but it seems to be in Hawaii (?!).
artholoholo2.jpg


We had a longer posting in this novel from Bick a while back:

A Rediscovery of Clifford D. Simak - A Reading Challenge
 
Last edited:
Extollager said:
Just finished They Walked Like Men. It would have been easy for Simak to lose me as I tend to resist "zany" science fiction. But I enjoyed this novel. There was a little of the B-movie ambience of the 1950s-early 1960s that I like (though more free with profanity than a god ol' RKO gem would be) -- I relished the McCandless Building in Chapter 9, for example. There was more than one car chase that could remind you of those things. The alien threat was bizarre and I suppose Simak had his tongue in cheek. The resolution of the threat was audacious. But the book basically hit me right.

There really is a McCandless Building, but it seems to be in Hawaii (?!).
artholoholo2.jpg


We had a longer posting in this novel from Bick a while back:

A Rediscovery of Clifford D. Simak - A Reading Challenge
Click to expand...


I'm sure I'm not the first to say: it may not be his best, but it's still Simak.

I like the skunks. Reminds me of a story I thought a lot of fun:"Operation Stinky".
 
Hello Extollager,

if you compare your map with Google Maps, you can really see where the Simak farm should be.
I highlighted the Campell Ridge Road and the Munz Lane in both maps. Then you can see that the buildings of the Simak Farm are outside of your map. The farmland (green area) and Simak's vantage point (Simak's Bluff) are still within your map, at the bottom edge of the sheet.

Simakfarm_destination.jpg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
Bick Poll: Favourite Clifford D. Simak Novel Classic SF&F 7
T (Found) ID short story - rediscovery of arithmetic Book Search 3
Brian G Turner The Guns of Ivrea - Clifford Beal Book Discussion 3
S Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award presented Book Discussion 0
J Rediscovery Science & Nature 5

Similar threads


Back
Top