The intention was to get some feedback prior to publication…it’s all explained in the short blurb below from The Thurian Chronicles of Kull the Conqueror #2 (1971). The only information I’ve been able to dig up is in those same pages, so I can only assume that these preview copies of CTB #1 went to the likes of John Jakes, Mike Resnick, Harold Preece, E. Hoffman Price, and perhaps other famous fantasy writers such as Fritz Leiber, Michael Moorcock, and Lin Carter .
E. Hoffman Price describes the “package” in question (which may in fact have been the Kull pre-release) as containing “Xeroxes”, so perhaps that’s exactly what they were. Nonetheless, it sounds like there were very few of these pre-releases made available, and they would surely be that much more valuable if they were, for example, copies of the proofs or uncolored pages and/or were still in the envelope that they were shipped in, which would have likely been addressed to one of the famous names and fantasy literary giants mentioned above.
Some healthy speculation on my part above – here are the two pages I’m sourcing this from so you can draw your own conclusions:
My google-fu hasn’t produced any other shreds of evidence as to the existence of these packages, so I’ve got more questions than answers…namely:
- Has anybody seen anything like this, either in person or on the mighty interwebs?
- Any idea of how many packages were shipped, and to whom?
- Have you ever seen a price-tag associated with one of these packages?
A hearty thanks to Crom! reader Dave for the information, and thanks in advance to anyone who can answer one or more of these difficult questions!
