Martians Go Home!

[p3aul]

Hi!
I'm new to this forum on Mobileread but am no stranger to Calibre forum. I am trying to find an ebook of the paper book Martians Go Home! by Fredric or Frederic Brown Written in the Fifties it was a whimsical treatment of a popular theme in Science Fiction in those days. I enjoyed reading it back then and would enjoy it now if I could find a copy converted into an ebook format, preferably unprotected, like EPUB. I've done a search on several popular websites but couldn't find anything. The plot was like this:

A down and out writer is on the verge of a nervous breakdown following estrangement from his wife and developing "Writers Block". A sudden noise in his ear and he starts seeing little green men all over the place! That would be bad enough but everyone else is seeing them too! He is convinced however that he alone is responsible for their appearance. They don't hurt anybody but are a real nuisance.

Could someone help me find this please?
Thanks,
Paul

[Dr. Drib]

Fredric Brown.

Don't forget the comma, and throw away the exclamation mark!

I love his work. You might want to check out his wonderful mysteries, too. He's a wonderfully entertaining writer.


Don

[p3aul]

Sorry I'm a science fiction fan. You forgot to give me a link.
Thanks,
Paul

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by p3aul

Sorry I'm a science fiction fan. You forgot to give me a link.
Thanks,
Paul

Actually, I just realized I didn't answer your question completely.

To the best of my knowledge, I don't believe this is available as a legal download. I've been unable to locate one, too.



Don

[ATDrake]

While they don't have the particular book you're looking for, probably the most likely place that Fredric Brown's stories will pop up in DRM-free ebook (or ebook at all!) is Fictionwise.

Both Wildside Press and Wonderbooks Audio LLC (despite the name, they also do ebooks of Golden Age/classic 60s-70s sf/fantasy) have been releasing some of Brown's short stories and even his mystery stuff. I got the collection Come and Go Mad when it came out just a couple of months ago. They'll probably get around to longer-length works at some point.

Here's the listing for his works available so far. There's currently a 50% discount coupon for Fictionwise, good for this weekend, posted right here in the Deals forum, if you're interested.

[Dr. Drib]

There appear to be a number of listings on Amazon, too, but not the title you asked about.



Don

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Fredric Brown.

Don't forget the comma, and throw away the exclamation mark!

I love his work. You might want to check out his wonderful mysteries, too. He's a wonderfully entertaining writer.


Don

He was a master of the 800 word short short.
(Including the shortest SF story yet: two sentences. It's a suspense story. )
My favorite is the silly little thing he wrote about the Planet Placet.

(And no, I haven't seen it in legal ebook form either.)

[bgalbrecht]

It's my impression that Wildside Press and Wonderbooks Audio LLC are only publishing public domain works, and "Martians, Go Home" is still under copyright. You might not see a legitimate copy of it for sale before 2051, depending on the status of his estate.

[ATDrake]

No, Wildside and Wonderbooks publish both PD reprints as well as still-under-copyright classic stuff (and Wildside also publishes new works like Lawrence Watt-Evans' Ethshar series and Brian Stableford's short story and essay collections).

But you do have to check against Project Gutenberg to sift some of the stories out (all their Andre Norton are PD reprints). Generally, the more cheaply a title is priced, the more likely it is to be a PD repackage (though not always).

[p3aul]

OK They did have the book at Amazon. I bought the paperback so when it gets here I will remove the spine and scan the book myself. This is perfectly legal since I will own the book. There is a wonderful free OCR program called, oddly enough, FreeOCR. It's the most wonderful program I'ver seen and HP created it it and placed it into the public domain about 10-15 years ago. It beats paid OCR programs hands down. You can find it here:
http://www.brothersoft.com/freeocr-59672.html

disregard the other junk and download freeOCR 3.0
Thanks,
Paul

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by p3aul

There is a wonderful free OCR program called, oddly enough, FreeOCR. It's the most wonderful program I'ver seen and HP created it it and placed it into the public domain about 10-15 years ago. It beats paid OCR programs hands down. You can find it here:
http://www.brothersoft.com/freeocr-59672.html

disregard the other junk and download freeOCR 3.0
Thanks,
Paul

Looks interesting, but I just couldn't find the download link among all the junk.

[daesdaemar]

Originally Posted by Pablo

Looks interesting, but I just couldn't find the download link among all the junk.

http://downloader.brothersoft.com/bd...e&name=FreeOCR

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by p3aul

Hi!
I'm new to this forum on Mobileread but am no stranger to Calibre forum. I am trying to find an ebook of the paper book Martians Go Home! by Fredric or Frederic Brown Written in the Fifties it was a whimsical treatment of a popular theme in Science Fiction in those days. I enjoyed reading it back then and would enjoy it now if I could find a copy converted into an ebook format, preferably unprotected, like EPUB. I've done a search on several popular websites but couldn't find anything.
<...>

Could someone help me find this please?
Thanks,
Paul

As far as I know, this one is still under copyright, and not available as an ebook. Some of Brown's mysteries are in the public domain these days, as well as some short fiction, but not most of the SF.

NESFA Press, the publishing arm of the Boston Based New England Science Fiction Society, has Brown's short SF and novels collected in two well produced hardcover editions. See http://www.nesfa.org/press/AvailableBooksByAuthor.html for details. (If NESFA has any plans to do ebooks, I haven't heard them, and I know most of the folks in NESFA.)
______
Dennis

[Pablo]

Originally Posted by daesdaemar

http://downloader.brothersoft.com/bd...e&name=FreeOCR

Thank you very much!!!

[JeremyR]

Originally Posted by bgalbrecht

It's my impression that Wildside Press and Wonderbooks Audio LLC are only publishing public domain works, and "Martians, Go Home" is still under copyright. You might not see a legitimate copy of it for sale before 2051, depending on the status of his estate.

Yup. That's the terrible thing about copyright (IMHO), for the vast majority of authors, even people who aren't hardly obscure, their copyrighted stuff just isn't available.

Who does that benefit? No one. But in order to placate a few cases where it does matter (Disney) copyright has turned into something that lasts forever...