The Complete Patchin Review

The Complete Patchin ReviewThe Patchin Review ran for seven issues from 1981 to 1985 and generated much controversy in the SF community with its no holds barred criticism, satire, examination of dubious publishing practices, exuberant Gabby Snitch gossip column and numerous polemics both signed and pseudonymous. As its title indicates, this paperback contains the complete run plus a new introduction and four bonus articles by Charles Platt that appeared elsewhere. 158,000

The Patchin Review ran for seven issues from 1981 to 1985 and generated much controversy in the SF community with its no-holds-barred criticism, satire, examination of dubious publishing practices, exuberant ÒGabby SnitchÓ gossip column and numerous polemics Ð both signed and pseudonymous. As its title indicates, this paperback contains the complete run Ð plus a new introduction and four bonus articles by Charles Platt that appeared elsewhere. 158,000 words.

Charles Platt has written a new introduction for this ebook reissue, excerpted below:

ÒIncreasingly, I saw that editors were afraid to publish serious or experimental science fiction. A writer such as Philip K. Dick had broken into the field in the early 1960s writing short novels, each of which appeared as half of an Ace Double. A few years later, a writer such as Thomas M. Disch had imagined he could make a living writing serious literature such as Camp Concentration. I didnÕt think that either Disch or Dick would have been able to find a publisher if they had begun writing in 1980.

ÒBecause I lived in New York City, and knew all the editors, and also knew most of the writers in the United States and Britain, I felt I was in a position to publish a small magazine of commentary that would be frank about the changes that were occurring and could agitate against some of them. That was my intention in The Patchin Review. I also decided to have some fun by publishing a self-satirical gossip column. I hoped that people would buy the magazine for the gossip and then read the more serious features.Ó

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