Win Scott Eckert
Encyclopedia
Win Scott Eckert is an author
and editor
, best known for his work on the literary-crossover Wold Newton
Universe, created by author Philip José Farmer
, but much expanded-upon subsequently by Eckert and others. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology
and a Juris Doctorate.
's "fictional biography" Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
, and become hooked by the concept of the Wold Newton family
. In 1997, he coined the term "Wold Newton Universe" on his website, An Expansion of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe.
Farmer's original concept of the Wold Newton family was of a literary merging between novels, a crossover between multiple works, linking standout fictional characters into a deliberate family and coherent chronology. Farmer's two fictional "biographies" of the fictional characters Tarzan
(Tarzan Alive)(Right) and Clark Savage, Jr.
(Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
) proposed that actual meteorite
which landed in Wold Newton
, Yorkshire
, England
, on December 13, 1795 caused a genetic mutation in the occupants of a passing coach.
Their (fictional) descendants, therefore, became the stalwarts of fantastic fiction. Farmer's initial family trees include such luminaries (and their ancestors and descendants) as Sherlock Holmes
, Lord Greystoke
, A.J. Raffles, (Conan Doyle's) Professor Challenger
, Sir Percy Blakeney
, (Poe's
) C. Auguste Dupin, Lord Peter Wimsey, Bulldog Drummond
and Nero Wolfe
; James Bond
, Mr Moto, Philip Marlowe
, Kilgore Trout
, Sam Spade
, Professor Moriarty
(A.K.A. Captain Nemo
), Phileas Fogg
, Wells'
Time Traveller and Fu Manchu
.
Eckert and others expanded upon Farmer's concept of the Wold Newton Family, using the family trees as a central device to expand the fictional universe that the family inhabits, by documenting crossovers between said fictional characters in various media. Thus, the original core, related Wold Newton Family became a Universe, no longer tied to being the relatives, descendants and ancestors of those present at the 1795 Wold Newton meteor strike. (Eckert also expanded the 'main' family tree in 2002.
The presumption from the family trees was that most - if not all - fictional characters could be said to share the same universe. Farmer himself penned a number of crossover fiction stories and novels set in what is now termed the Wold Newton Universe, largely based around the three central pillars of Tarzan, Holmes and Savage, but also incorporating (among others) Lovecraft's Cthulhu
mythos into the universe. Subsequently, the early history of the WNU has been expanded forwards and backwards in time to incorporate the very early history of Conan the Barbarian
(through the works of Robert E. Howard
, L. Sprague de Camp
, Roy Thomas
and others), right through to the far-future exploits of the many characters in the Star Trek
universe.
Eckert (and others)'s work in bringing together diverse articles and references by, and from works by, such individuals as Alan Moore
, William S. Baring-Gould
, Michael Moorcock
, Kim Newman
, John Pearson
and Jess Nevins
have expanded the idea. With the blessing and approval of P.J. Farmer, the primary Wold Newton
website features details on various fictional biographies (including those of Biggles
and John Steed
); details on Farmer's own contributions to the WNU and a comprehensive chronology of the WNU from "Prehistory" to the future.
and Kevin O'Neill
's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
, and an earlier screenplay entitled Cast of Characters. (Famously, this lawsuit proved to be another nail in the coffin of Alan Moore's disillusionment with the film industry - not least since many of the similarities between the two screenplays were not present in Moore's original work, and yet part of the allegation was directed squarely at him.)
Eckert is editor of - and contributor to - the 2005 MonkeyBrain
-published work Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (originally titled: Creative Mythography: An Expansion of Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe), collecting Farmer's little-seen stories and essays which expand upon the Wold Newtonian concept, alongside "contributions from Farmer’s successors—scholars, writers, and pop-culture historians—who bring even more fictional characters into the fold".
Myths for the Modern Age was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for best non-fiction work.
He has written pulp tales for a yearly anthology of Wold-Newtonish stories edited by Jean Marc
and Randy Lofficier, Tales of the Shadowmen volumes 1-5 (Black Coat Press, 2005–2009), mostly centered on the adventures of Doc Ardan, a French version of Doc Savage. He has also written stories for Lance Star - Sky Ranger (Wild Cat Books, 2006) and The Avenger Chronicles (Moonstone Books
, 2008). He is a regular contributor of Wold Newton essays and stories to the pro-zine dedicated to and authorized by Farmer, Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer
.
In 2006, he wrote the forward to Bison Books' new edition of Philip José Farmer's original Wold Newtonian work Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (Bison Books, 2006).
Eckert's "Crossover Chronology" of the WNU, detailing in large part the full history of the Wold Newton Universe, largely (although not entirely) through the use of literary/film/TV crossovers between members of the core Wold Newton family and other fictional individuals was published in book form, greatly expanded, by Black Coat Press in 2010 as the two-volume Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
, best known for his work on the literary-crossover Wold Newton
Wold Newton family
The Wold Newton family is a literary concept derived from a form of crossover fiction developed by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer...
Universe, created by author Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
, but much expanded-upon subsequently by Eckert and others. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
and a Juris Doctorate.
Creation of the "Wold Newton Universe"
Win Scott Eckert first read Philip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer
Philip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's "fictional biography" Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is a fictional biography by Philip José Farmer about pulp fiction hero Doc Savage.The book is written with the assumption that Doc Savage was a real person. Kenneth Robeson, the author of the Doc Savage novels, is portrayed as writing fictionalized memoirs of the...
, and become hooked by the concept of the Wold Newton family
Wold Newton family
The Wold Newton family is a literary concept derived from a form of crossover fiction developed by the science fiction writer Philip José Farmer...
. In 1997, he coined the term "Wold Newton Universe" on his website, An Expansion of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe.
Farmer's original concept of the Wold Newton family was of a literary merging between novels, a crossover between multiple works, linking standout fictional characters into a deliberate family and coherent chronology. Farmer's two fictional "biographies" of the fictional characters Tarzan
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
(Tarzan Alive)(Right) and Clark Savage, Jr.
Doc Savage
Doc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
(Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is a fictional biography by Philip José Farmer about pulp fiction hero Doc Savage.The book is written with the assumption that Doc Savage was a real person. Kenneth Robeson, the author of the Doc Savage novels, is portrayed as writing fictionalized memoirs of the...
) proposed that actual meteorite
Wold Newton meteorite
The Wold Cottage meteorite fell at 3 p.m. on 13 December 1795 a few miles away from the hamlet of Wold Newton in Yorkshire, England. The meteorite fell two fields away from a large house, the Wold Cottage, owned by Edward Topham...
which landed in Wold Newton
Wold Newton, East Riding of Yorkshire
Wold Newton is a small Yorkshire Wolds village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south of Scarborough and north west of Bridlington. The hamlet of Fordon is also part of the civil parish of Wold Newton...
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, on December 13, 1795 caused a genetic mutation in the occupants of a passing coach.
Their (fictional) descendants, therefore, became the stalwarts of fantastic fiction. Farmer's initial family trees include such luminaries (and their ancestors and descendants) as Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Sherlock Holmes is a fictional detective created by Scottish author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The fantastic London-based "consulting detective", Holmes is famous for his astute logical reasoning, his ability to take almost any disguise, and his use of forensic science skills to solve...
, Lord Greystoke
Tarzan
Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
, A.J. Raffles, (Conan Doyle's) Professor Challenger
Professor Challenger
George Edward Challenger, better known as Professor Challenger, is a fictional character in a series of science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
, Sir Percy Blakeney
The Scarlet Pimpernel
The Scarlet Pimpernel is a play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro and Batman....
, (Poe's
Edgar Allan Poe
Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
) C. Auguste Dupin, Lord Peter Wimsey, Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond
Bulldog Drummond is a British fictional character, created by "Sapper", a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile , and the hero of a series of novels published from 1920 to 1954.- Drummond :...
and Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe
Nero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created in 1934 by the American mystery writer Rex Stout. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin narrates the cases of the detective genius. Stout wrote 33 novels and 39 short stories from 1934 to 1974, with most of them set in New York City. Wolfe's...
; James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
, Mr Moto, Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe
Philip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared under that name in The Big Sleep published in 1939...
, Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout
Kilgore Trout is a fictional character created by author Kurt Vonnegut. He was originally created as a fictionalized version of author Theodore Sturgeon , although Trout's consistent presence in Vonnegut's works has also led critics to view him as the author's own alter ego...
, Sam Spade
Sam Spade
Sam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's 1930 novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known short stories by Hammett....
, Professor Moriarty
Professor Moriarty
Professor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime". Doyle lifted the phrase from a real Scotland Yard inspector who was...
(A.K.A. Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo
Captain Nemo, also known as Prince Dakkar, is a fictional character featured in Jules Verne's novels Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island ....
), Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg
Phileas Fogg is the main fictional character in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days.Fogg attempts to circumnavigate the late Victorian world in eighty days, or less, for a wager of £20,000 with members of London's Reform Club. He takes the wager and leaves with Passepartout,...
, Wells'
H. G. Wells
Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
Time Traveller and Fu Manchu
Fu Manchu
Dr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character introduced in a series of novels by British author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
.
Eckert and others expanded upon Farmer's concept of the Wold Newton Family, using the family trees as a central device to expand the fictional universe that the family inhabits, by documenting crossovers between said fictional characters in various media. Thus, the original core, related Wold Newton Family became a Universe, no longer tied to being the relatives, descendants and ancestors of those present at the 1795 Wold Newton meteor strike. (Eckert also expanded the 'main' family tree in 2002.
The presumption from the family trees was that most - if not all - fictional characters could be said to share the same universe. Farmer himself penned a number of crossover fiction stories and novels set in what is now termed the Wold Newton Universe, largely based around the three central pillars of Tarzan, Holmes and Savage, but also incorporating (among others) Lovecraft's Cthulhu
Cthulhu
Cthulhu is a fictional character that first appeared in the short story "The Call of Cthulhu", published in the pulp magazine Weird Tales in 1928. The character was created by writer H. P...
mythos into the universe. Subsequently, the early history of the WNU has been expanded forwards and backwards in time to incorporate the very early history of Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Barbarian is a fictional sword and sorcery hero that originated in pulp fiction magazines and has since been adapted to books, comics, several films , television programs, video games, roleplaying games and other media...
(through the works of Robert E. Howard
Robert E. Howard
Robert Ervin Howard was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. Best known for his character Conan the Barbarian, he is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre....
, L. Sprague de Camp
L. Sprague de Camp
Lyon Sprague de Camp was an American author of science fiction and fantasy books, non-fiction and biography. In a writing career spanning 60 years, he wrote over 100 books, including novels and notable works of non-fiction, including biographies of other important fantasy authors...
, Roy Thomas
Roy Thomas
Roy William Thomas, Jr. is an American comic book writer and editor, and Stan Lee's first successor as editor-in-chief of Marvel Comics. He is possibly best known for introducing the pulp magazine hero Conan the Barbarian to American comics, with a series that added to the storyline of Robert E...
and others), right through to the far-future exploits of the many characters in the Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
universe.
Eckert (and others)'s work in bringing together diverse articles and references by, and from works by, such individuals as Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, William S. Baring-Gould
William S. Baring-Gould
William Stuart Baring-Gould was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar, best known as the author of the influential 1962 fictional biography, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A life of the world's first consulting detective.-Biography:...
, Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
, Kim Newman
Kim Newman
Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
, John Pearson
John Pearson
John Pearson may refer to:* John A. Pearson , Canadian architect* John Pearson , English master-craftsman* John Pearson , British author...
and Jess Nevins
Jess Nevins
John J. Nevins, MA/MS, is an American author and librarian, born 30 July 1966 and raised in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of the World Fantasy Award-nominated Encyclopedia of Fantastic Victoriana , and other works on Victoriana and pulp fiction...
have expanded the idea. With the blessing and approval of P.J. Farmer, the primary Wold Newton
Wold Newton
Wold Newton may refer to:*Wold Newton, East Riding of Yorkshire, village in the Yorkshire Wolds, England**the Wold Cottage , also known as the Wold Newton meteorite, which was found there...
website features details on various fictional biographies (including those of Biggles
Biggles
"Biggles" , a pilot and adventurer, is the title character and main hero of the Biggles series of youth-oriented adventure books written by W. E. Johns....
and John Steed
John Steed
John Steed is a fictional character and the central protagonist on the popular British series The Avengers and The New Avengers, played by Patrick Macnee and Ralph Fiennes in the movie....
); details on Farmer's own contributions to the WNU and a comprehensive chronology of the WNU from "Prehistory" to the future.
The "LXG" lawsuit
Eckert served as an expert consultant on "crossovers involving characters from pulp fiction and Victorian literature" for the lawsuit brought against Twentieth Century Fox over their similarities between their adaptation of Alan MooreAlan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
and Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
's comic The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen
The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, publication of which began in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
, and an earlier screenplay entitled Cast of Characters. (Famously, this lawsuit proved to be another nail in the coffin of Alan Moore's disillusionment with the film industry - not least since many of the similarities between the two screenplays were not present in Moore's original work, and yet part of the allegation was directed squarely at him.)
Books
MonkeyBrain Books
MonkeyBrain Books is an independent American publishing house based in Austin, Texas, specialising in books comprising both new content and reprinting online, international or out-of-print content, which show "an academic interest," but which "reach a popular audience as well."-A brief history of...
-published work Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (originally titled: Creative Mythography: An Expansion of Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe), collecting Farmer's little-seen stories and essays which expand upon the Wold Newtonian concept, alongside "contributions from Farmer’s successors—scholars, writers, and pop-culture historians—who bring even more fictional characters into the fold".
Myths for the Modern Age was a 2007 Locus Award finalist for best non-fiction work.
He has written pulp tales for a yearly anthology of Wold-Newtonish stories edited by Jean Marc
Jean-Marc Lofficier
Jean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier .-Biography:Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954...
and Randy Lofficier, Tales of the Shadowmen volumes 1-5 (Black Coat Press, 2005–2009), mostly centered on the adventures of Doc Ardan, a French version of Doc Savage. He has also written stories for Lance Star - Sky Ranger (Wild Cat Books, 2006) and The Avenger Chronicles (Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books
Moonstone Books is an American comic book, graphic novel, and prose fiction publisher based in Chicago focused on pulp fiction comic books and prose anthologies as well as horror and western tales....
, 2008). He is a regular contributor of Wold Newton essays and stories to the pro-zine dedicated to and authorized by Farmer, Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer
Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer
Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmer was a quarterly digest-sized magazine which published fiction and non-fiction by and about science fiction and fantasy author Philip José Farmer. Over its first ten issues, the magazine serialized the first-time publication of Farmer's novel Up from...
.
In 2006, he wrote the forward to Bison Books' new edition of Philip José Farmer's original Wold Newtonian work Tarzan Alive: A Definitive Biography of Lord Greystoke (Bison Books, 2006).
Eckert's "Crossover Chronology" of the WNU, detailing in large part the full history of the Wold Newton Universe, largely (although not entirely) through the use of literary/film/TV crossovers between members of the core Wold Newton family and other fictional individuals was published in book form, greatly expanded, by Black Coat Press in 2010 as the two-volume Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World.
External links
- Win Scott Eckert's homepage
- A Starlog Magazine article on PJF and Win Scott Eckert
- Authorized book: - Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (ISBN 1-932265-14-7)