Road to Dune (30 page)

Vance: Past and future as “entities” are merely illusion; the only reality is the now-instant. (This tosses out all Time-travel stories.)

Anderson: Time is related purely to standards of measurement. (Very hard-headed on empirical science.)

Herbert: Time and life are related in a way that does not hold for Time and inanimate objects.

That oversimplifies, but pretty well summates points of view. There was more—much more. A good
Time
was had by all.

As I said, we missed you.

To fit
Analog
’s requirements, Frank Herbert prepared four synopses, which would appear with each of the planned four serializations of
Dune World,
around 85,000 words. Frank wrote: “The synopses, oddly enough, break the book into almost equal parts—four of them. This doubtless comes from lavish use of cliffhangers.” Subsequently, he had to modify this to three synopses, as Campbell changed his mind and decided to run the story in three parts.

All the while, Blassingame had been in contact with major publishers such as Doubleday & Co., trying to find one of them to publish the novel in book form. By the summer of 1963, word began to filter back to Frank Herbert that this would be no easy task, primarily because of the length of the book. Most science-fiction novels at the time were only around 50,000-75,000 words, and
Dune
(when the author included more material after the serialization) approached 200,000.

Because of such artificial attitudes, Frank Herbert did not always think highly of New York publishers. One letter attests to this: “As to Doubleday—if they take it, excellent. If not, there are other publishing houses. I can feel in my bones that the Dune trilogy [the three parts of the original novel now published as
Dune
] is going to be a money maker for whoever publishes it. I always remind myself that editors come and editors go, but writers outlast most of them. (Campbell is a delightful exception, but then he’s a writer, too.)”

A week later, Doubleday said they might offer a contract on
Dune World,
but only if it could be cut to 75,000 or 80,000 words. Frank Herbert made changes to the manuscript, but in August, Timothy Seldes of Doubleday withdrew his offer of a contract, saying he had too much trouble with the beginning of the novel: “In fact, I recommend to you the adding up of unfamiliar technology in the first ten pages. It is conceivably a reflection on the story as a whole that, at least to my mind, Mr. Herbert has so much trouble getting into it.”

Blassingame had sent the manuscript out to several publishers, and in late October of 1963 it was declined politely by Charles Scribner’s Sons. Shortly afterward, Frank Herbert completed Book II of
Dune
(“Muad’Dib”), and sent it off to his agent, with this comment: “I was unhappy to learn that Scribner’s rejected
Dune.
The editor’s comment that he may have been mistaken (in doing so)—let us hope that’s prophetic.”

On November 1,1963, Frank Herbert completed Book III of
Dune
(“The Prophet”) and sent it off to his agent with this note: “Here’s Book III of the trilogy, the one I think most successful of the series. Let’s hope some editors share this judgment.”

Blassingame liked the third part but wrote back: “One big obstacle is the division of material. Most trilogies have big time gaps between books or shift viewpoints. Your story is continuous. You really don’t have three novels; there is only one big novel. It may have to appear as a single volume.” In December, Doubleday asked for a second look at
Dune
, so the agent sent it to them again, cautioning the author: “Your chief trouble is length. Your novel is about twice as long as most other persons’ novels …”

Just before Christmas of 1963, John W. Campbell wrote to Blassingame that he liked the new Dune material for serialization in
Analog,
saying: “ … this is a gee-gorgeous hunk of stuff.” He went on to make suggestions about cutting back the prescient powers of Paul Atreides but did not make this a condition of publication. He said that “the major trouble you [have] with the Dune World series [is] getting Paul’s psi faculty into focus as a useful, profitable faculty, rather than something that just confused him and everything else.”

The new material—another 120,000 to 125,000 words—would require an additional five magazine installments to publish, but Campbell said it was exactly the sort of “swashbuckler” that he wanted for
Analog.

When Frank Herbert saw the cover art for the first “Dune” issue of
Analog,
he was tremendously impressed and wrote: “Frequently, I have to ask myself if the artist was actually illustrating the story his work accompanied. No so with John Schoenherr. His December cover caught with tremendous power and beauty the ‘Dune mood’ I struggled so hard to create. It’s one of the few such works of which I’d like to have the original.”

With equal enthusiasm, John W. Campbell wrote that the cover art was “ … Schoenherr’s sixth attempt, I believe. Getting the feeling of desolation, danger, dryness and action was not easy; the guy earned his pay on that one!”

Frank Herbert and John Campbell talked extensively by phone about the manuscript, and the author won the arguments over the prescient powers of Paul Atreides. Frank had a strong affinity for ESP and had been researching the subject for years, as he explained to his agent:

ESP is one of my interests to the extent that I have done considerable reading on it in what I would call the quasi-scientific end of the field. This includes Rene Sudre’s
Para-Psychology
and a considerable amount of J. B. Rhine—including
The Reach of the Mind
and
New World of the Mind.
I’ve also dabbled in Puharich, the “sacred mushroom” writer.

I’m what you might refer to as an agnostic where ESP is concerned—a “Doubting Thomas.” Some of the writers on this end of the field, such as Fodor and Tassi, are too kookie for my tastes, and I have strong doubts as to the mathematical basis for the statistics of Rhine’s tests.

Okay, I’m from Missouri. This does not, however, limit my enjoyment of a good ESP story or stay in my imagination in exploring the “what ifs” of possible mental powers.

In the interaction with Campbell, however, Frank Herbert did take one important suggestion. In the first version of the manuscript, Paul’s sister Alia was killed, but the editor talked him into reversing this decision and keeping her alive for future stories. This proved to be wise counsel, as she became one of the most interesting characters in the Dune universe.

(As an aside, Frank also decided to “revive” Duncan Idaho in later novels because the fans liked him so much. The Dune universe would be much poorer without Alia Atreides and the serial gholas of Duncan Idaho.)

In the various drafts of the book, Frank wrote additional chapters, which he eventually trimmed from the manuscript in an attempt to keep the length under control. These lost chapters are published later in
The Road to Dune.

In late January 1964, Timothy Seldes of Doubleday again declined the novel, writing: “Nobody can seem to get through the first 100 pages (of Book I) without being confused and irritated.” A few weeks later, Julian P. Muller of Harcourt, Brace & World also rejected the manuscript, citing “slow spots,” “wearying conversations,” “bursts of melodrama,” and the sheer size of the material. He also said: “It is just possible that we may be making the mistake of the decade in declining
Dune
by Frank Herbert.”

In the midst of such rejections, Frank wrote to his agent, insisting : “This is going to be a salable property.” More people were beginning to appreciate the story as well. A short while later, the 22nd World Science Fiction Convention (Pacificon II) notified him that
Dune World
(based upon the
Analog
serialization) had been nominated for the prestigious Hugo Award.

In response, Frank Herbert wrote back to the convention:

I really feel very deeply honored that “Dune World” has been nominated for the Hugo. It really is quite a surprise. As a rule, I don’t believe writers think about such things. We’re too busy writing “the story.”

Win, lose or draw, I’m looking forward to seeing you in September. Right now it’s back to the typewriter. I’m piled twenty feet deep in work … and I love it.

That summer, Blassingame reported continuing problems with placing the novel with a book publisher: “I hope the enormous length of
Dune
isn’t going to prevent a sale, but we are still being bothered by it.” Saying the novel was “old fashioned in presentation” and in need of cutting, New American Library rejected the manuscript a short while afterward.

At Pacificon II in Oakland, California,
Dune World
was up against
Here Gather the Stars
by Clifford D. Simak (book title
Way Station
),
Cat’s Cradle
by Kurt Vonnegut,
Glory Road
by Robert A. Heinlein, and
Witch World
by Andre Norton for the Hugo Award.
Dune World
did not win (
Way Station
did), but John Campbell’s
Analog
received a Hugo for best professional magazine. Frank Herbert went to the convention and appeared on Campbell’s behalf to pick up the award, which he then shipped to New York. In appreciation for Frank’s contribution, the editor wrote: “I want to thank you for helping us get the Hugo this year—in both ways! I told the Committee that either you or Poul Anderson would be the obvious proxies for
Analog,
both being West Coasters, and both being major reasons why the Hugo was coming this way.”

Campbell sent payment for the postage, but Frank Herbert wrote back: “It was my honor to pick up your hard-earned Hugo and forward it. The postage was such a small thing, you shouldn’t have bothered. However, it did arrive just as #2 Son (Bruce) asked for an advance on his allowance. You may take some satisfaction from the fact that you were there to provide that advance.”

Fan letters began to stream in from
Analog
readers, but so did rejection letters from major publishers. E. P. Dutton added their name to a list of turndowns that would eventually reach more than twenty, writing: “ … something of this size would require a perfectly incredible investment and a list price far in excess of that any science fiction book has ever had before.” Citing similar reasons for his rejection, Allen Klots Jr. of Dodd, Mead & Co. added: “It is the sort of writing that might attract a cult and go on forever, but we have not had much luck with science fiction and there is too much of a chance, in our opinion, that this would be lost of its own weight.”

Early in 1965, Frank Herbert received good news from a surprising source. Chilton Books, best known for publishing auto repair manuals, made an offer of $7,500 (plus future royalties) to publish the three Dune segments—“Dune World,” “Muad’Dib,” and “The Prophet”—in a single hardcover. Chilton’s farsighted editor Sterling Lanier had tracked the agent down after seeing the story in
Analog.
(Lanier was a science-fiction author himself, and wrote the novels
Hiero’s Journey
and
Menace Under Marswood.
)

Lanier wrote that he admired the work and he wanted to publish it in one book, and that he wanted the author to add even more material! He intended to name it all
Dune,
and said he would make contact with Campbell’s artist, John Schoenherr, for the cover art. The Chilton offer was quickly accepted. A short while later, Lanier reported: “I have bought Schoenherr’s cover of Jessica and Paul, crouching in the canyon, and I think it will make a magnificent and arresting sight.”

As
Dune
was being prepared for publication, Frank Herbert wrote to a friend, describing his own writing style:

For
Dune,
I also used what I call a “camera-position” method—playing back and forth (and in varied orders depending on the required pace) between long-shot, medium, close-up and so on. Much of the prose in
Dune
started out as Haiku and then was given minimal additional word padding to make it conform to normal English sentence structure. I often use a Jungian mandala in squaring off characters of a yarn against each other, assigning a dominant psychological role to each. The implications of color, position, word root and prosodic suggestion—all are taken into account when a scene has to have maximum impact. And what scene doesn’t if a book is tightly written?

Later, responding to a letter from a fan, Frank Herbert wrote:

My idea of a good story is to put people in a pressure environment. This happens in reality, but life’s dramas tend to lack the organization we require of the novel. I hit on the idea of a desert planet while researching a magazine article about efforts to control sand dunes. This led me to other research avenues too numerous to detail completely here, but involving some time in a desert (Sonora) and a re-examination of Islam.

Arrakis is hostile because hostility is an aspect of the environment which produces drama. Typhoons, fires, floods—what these do to people contains the essential elements of good story.

Long novel: it was an experiment in pacing. I’m not sure how successful the experiment, but certainly I realize it violates novel conventions. I did not, however, even consider the violation. I was too concerned with the internal rhythms of my story. Essentially, these rhythms are coital … slow, gentle beginning, increasing pace, etc. Also, I chose to end it in a non-Hollywood way, sending the reader skidding out of the story with bits of it still clinging to him. I did not want it neatly tied off, something you’d forget ten minutes after putting it down. Casualness is one of our modern hangups. I don’t write casually, and I should be sorry to hear that anyone read me casually. Lest this sound pretentious, let me say that I have no feelings of moral judgment about this way of writing. Good-bad-indifferent? It’s just the one I chose.