(no subject)

Yesterday, for no good reason apart from my own pleasure, I wrote to Alexei Panshin.
Now, we haven't been introduced, so this was something in the way of a fan letter. To put this into some context, yesterday

softside   posted the question: what are you all reading at the moment? to which my response was along the lines of: I've been re-reading Panshin's Anthony Villiers novels (of which there are three: which is at least one too few).

Today, I found that Mr Panshin had replied, most courteously.

Gobsmacked doesn't come into it.

I'm going to have to start a proper campaign. Not enough folk know of Starwell, The Thurb Revolution, and Masque World; and they haven't been reprinted since 1978.

I know I spend most of my time wittering on about Shakespeare, Eliot, and Christopher Logue's Homer.
Sometimes I may even mention Wodehouse, Willie Donaldson, and Kyril Bonfiglioli.
Now by Mr Panshin's own admission, he's been blacklisted by some of the publishing world.
The time for this to come to an end, I deem.

Read him, he's brilliant. And the Nebula Jury in 1968 thought so too. They gave their award for best novel to 'Rite of Passage'.