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Default New Member with a Question - 03-03-2009, 22:40

All the biog's and biblio's I have seen on TP's writings state that his first published work was 'The Hades Business', firstly in his school magazine 'Technical Cygnet', and then in 'Science Fantasy Magazine'. A colleague of mine, who attended the same school in High Wycombe has an original copy of the school magazine, dated December 1962, and Terry's article is entitled 'Business Rivals'. I have not read the complete 'Sci-Fi magazine' story but have seen an excert from it on a forum which is definitely not in the school magazine story. Could it be that the school only published part of the story or that it was added to and retitled before being sold ? - Does anyone know?

although my colleague does not want to sell his copy of the magazine, after all he has kept it for over 46 years!, he would like to know if it is of any value?
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Default 03-03-2009, 23:36

Hi hespian, I haven't a clue but it's an interesting subject.
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Default 03-04-2009, 00:00

I recall reading somewhere that the story was reworked for later publication. I am sure that plenty of Pratchett fans would pay a lot of money for the original magazine!

Edited to add: Welcome to the boards!


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Default 03-05-2009, 10:41

Welcome hespian.
The story you mention appears quite popular and has appeared in several other collections of Terry's short stories in a variety of languages including a German CD.
Referenced from Colin Smythe's site Terry Pratchett Short Fiction and Verse

Terry himself answers the question thus...
Quote:
Tell us about "The Hades Business"—your first published story. What was that story about? Was that your very first acceptance, or were there any others before it?
Pratchett: Wrote it as a class project*, the kids liked it, sold it to John Carnell at New Worlds Science Fiction, one of the three fully-pro mags we had in those days (early '60s). First story, first sale. I've always been a bit embarrassed about that. I'm sitting here on a stack of money in a big house so I can't really complain that I did things wrong, but I sometimes wish I'd done more between then and 1982 than write a novel every five years. On the other hand, I suppose I was absorbing stuff! Oh, and getting a life and running a career ....
* It looks like Business Rivals may have been an earlier submission to the school magazine. This would account for the differences you've already spotted.
Taken from Science Fiction Weekly interviews at Science Fiction Weekly Interview

As for the value, it's difficult to tell how things could go. Maybe your enquiry thread on eBay will provide a better answer.


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