boyajian@akov68.DEC (05/02/84)
Did William Goldman actually write THE SILENT GONDOLIERS? The fact that S. Mor- genstern's classic, A PRINCESS BRIDE, was totally fabricated by Goldman seems to lead people to make the perhaps unwarranted assumption that he wrote TSG as Mor- genstern. I recall that 10 years ago, most people believed that Vonnegut was re- sponsible for VENUS IN THE HALFSHELL by "Kilgore Trout" when it was actually by Philip Jose Farmer. Likewise, a couple of years ago, my co-compiler and I, in our INDEX TO THE SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINES: 1977, mistakenly assumed that the pseudonym John Thames Rokesmith on the story "Writers of the Purple Page" (F&SF 5/77) was Farmer, when it was actually Arthur Jean Cox. I don't have any evidence either way about whether Goldman did or didn't write THE SILENT GONDOLIERS, but I do question the blind assumption that he did. Actually, there is something that suggests that he didn't. His latest book (the title escapes me -- ??COLOR OF THE THE SKY??) has a list of his previous works, fiction and non-fiction. THE SILENT GONDOLIERS does not appear anywhere in the list (n.b. TSG was published last fall, while the newest book just appeared last month). Does anyone actually know one way or the other? --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC Maynard) UUCP: (decvax!decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian) ARPA: (decwrl!rhea!akov68!boyajian@Shasta)