Cloudland Revisited: S J Perelman

[Pulpmeister]

Cloudland Revisited
S J Perelman

If you are a Perelman fan...

In the 40s and early 50s humourist S J Perelman did a series of items on books he had read and been impressed by in his youth. He rounded up copies of them, re-read them, and then had fun with them in his inimitable style. The resulting pieces were published under the heading "Cloudland Revisited". Most of them, if not all, have been reprinted in various Perelman collections such as "The Most of S J Perelman" and "Listen to the Mockingbird." The 12 below are the Cloudland Revisited pieces from the two books above, and I think they are the complete set. If there are any others, I don't know of them.

I have amused myself by tracking down as many of the original books as I could, to compare Perelman's take on them with my own.

Of the 12, eight are in the Life +70 publlic domain and are easily available in free digital editions. The remaining four are, so far as I can tell, available only in paper books. All are advertised as available on second-hand book sites.

1: Graustark, George Barr McCutcheon, 1901 (Ruritanian Romance)
2: Three Weeks, Elinor Glyn, 1907 (Overheated romance)
3: Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912 (Adventure)
4: The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu, Sax Rohmer 1913 ("Yellow Peril" thriller)
5: The Adventures of Jimmie Dale, Frank L Packard, 1917 (Gentleman burglar, crime)
6: The Sheikh, 1919 (Overheated romance)
7: Leonie of the Jungle, Joan Conquest, 1921 (India, Kali Worship)
8: Black Oxen, Gertrude Atherton, 1923 (Romance, Gland Therapy)

Not in the public domain in Life + 70 countries:

9: Flaming Youth, Warner Fabian, (Samuel Hopkins Adams), 1923 (Flappers)
Out of print, can't find a digital edition; 2nd hand copies available
10: Wife of the Centaur, Cyril Hume 1924 (Er, well...)
Out of print, can't find a digital edition; 2nd hand copies available
11: Replenishing Jessica, Maxwell Bodenheim, 1925 (Sex drama)
Out of print, can't find a digital edition (Public domain in Australia); 2nd
hand copies available
12: Madonna of the Sleeping Cars, Maurice Dekobra, 1927 (Spy Thriller)
Republished 2012, Melville House, 259 pp

(Dates of non-public domain authors:
Samuel Hopkins Adams 1871-1958
Cyril Hume 1900-1966
Maxwell Bodenheim: 1892-1954 (Public Domain in Australia)
Maurice Dekobra (French: Maurice Tessier) 1895-1973)

I haven't found any of numbers 9 to 12 in any second hand store, and I don't buy on-line, so I guess I'll pass on them. But given that I now know that Perelman's assessments of the ones I have read are both hilarious, and fair, perhaps I don't need to.

[hildea]

The genre "Overheatead romance" sounds intriguing

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Pulpmeister

Of the 12, eight are in the Life +70 publlic domain and are easily available in free digital editions. The remaining four are, so far as I can tell, available only in paper books. All are advertised as available on second-hand book sites.

1: Graustark, George Barr McCutcheon, 1901 (Ruritanian Romance)
2: Three Weeks, Elinor Glyn, 1907 (Overheated romance)
3: Tarzan of the Apes, Edgar Rice Burroughs, 1912 (Adventure)
4: The Mystery of Dr Fu Manchu, Sax Rohmer 1913 ("Yellow Peril" thriller)
5: The Adventures of Jimmie Dale, Frank L Packard, 1917 (Gentleman burglar, crime)
6: The Sheikh, 1919 (Overheated romance)
7: Leonie of the Jungle, Joan Conquest, 1921 (India, Kali Worship)
8: Black Oxen, Gertrude Atherton, 1923 (Romance, Gland Therapy)

I'm afraid that four of your eight books are not in the life+70 public domain.

E.M. Hull (author of "The Sheikh") died in 1947.
Gertrude Atherton died in 1948.
Edgar Rice Burroughs died in 1950.
Arthur Ward ("Sax Rohmer") died in 1959.

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'm afraid that none of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Sax Rohmer, E.M. Hull (author of "The Sheikh") and Gertrude Atherton are in the life+70 public domain. Burroughs died in 1950, Arthur Ward ("Sax Rohmer") in 1959, Atherton in 1948, and Hull in 1947.

Most* would very likely, however, be in the public domain in the U.S. (having been published before 1923). I realize the US is not a life+70 country, of course, but perhaps that's what the OP meant.

* I don't think the Gertrude Atherton title would qualify as PD even in the U.S.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

Most* would very likely, however, be in the public domain in the U.S. (having been published before 1923). I realize the US is not a life+70 country, of course, but perhaps that's what the OP meant.

* I don't think the Gertrude Atherton title would qualify as PD even in the U.S.

Yes, that's correct. They are (except for the Atherton book) in the US public domain, but not the life+70 public domain.

[DiapDealer]

Thanks, Harry. That's what I thought.

[Pulpmeister]

Thanks for clarifying, Harry: I was thinking the US 1923 thing subconsciously, and didn't clarify. Some of them are not PD in Australia, where authors who died up to 1955 are PD.

All very confusing. In Canada's Life + 50, all but Dekobra and I think Hume are PD.

Quite a few I had read before, and still had the paperbacks lurking around (esp ERB).