The
Wold Newton family is a literary concept derived from a form of crossover fiction developed by the
science fictionScience fiction is a genre of fiction. It differs from fantasy in that, within the context of the story, its imaginary elements are largely possible within scientifically-established or scientifically-postulated laws of nature...
writer
Philip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
. Farmer suggested in two fictional "biographies" of fictional characters (
Tarzan Alive and
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic LifeDoc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is a fictional biography by Philip José Farmer about pulp fiction hero Doc Savage.The book is written with the assumption that Doc Savage was a real person. Kenneth Robeson, the author of the Doc Savage novels, is portrayed as writing fictionalized memoirs of the...
), that the (real)
meteoriteThe Wold Cottage meteorite fell at 3 p.m. on December 13 1795 a few miles away from the hamlet of Wold Newton in Yorkshire, England. The meteorite fell two fields away from a large house, the Wold Cottage, owned by Edward Topham...
which fell in
Wold NewtonWold Newton is a small Yorkshire Wolds village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately south of Scarborough and north west of Bridlington. The hamlet of Fordon is also part of the civil parish of Wold Newton...
,
YorkshireYorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the British Isles. Because of its great size, functions were increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have been subject to periodic reform. Throughout these changes, Yorkshire has continued to be recognised as...
,
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, on December 13, 1795, was radioactive and caused
geneA gene is the basic unit of heredity in a living organism. All living things depend on genes. Genes hold the information to build and maintain their cells and pass genetic traits to offspring...
tic
mutationIn biology, a mutation is a randomly derived change to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism.Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic material during cell division, or by exposure to mutagens , or can be induced by the organism itself, by cellular processes...
s in the occupants of a passing coach. Many of their descendants were thus endowed with extremely high intelligence and strength, as well as an exceptional capacity and drive to perform good, or, as the case may be, evil deeds. The progeny of these travellers were purported to have been the real-life originals of fictionalised characters, both heroic and villainous, over the last few hundred years, such as
Sherlock HolmesSherlock Holmes is a fictional character of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries who first appeared in publication in 1887. He is the creation of British author and physician Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
,
TarzanTarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungle by fictional great apes, who later returns to civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...
,
Doc SavageDoc Savage is a fictional character originally published in American pulp magazines during the 1930s and 1940s. He was created by publisher Henry W. Ralston and editor John L...
, and Lord Peter Wimsey.
Other popular characters that Philip José Farmer concluded were members of the Wold Newton mutant family include:
Solomon KaneSolomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. A 16th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms...
;
Captain BloodCaptain Blood may mean:* Thomas Blood, an Irish Colonel and rogue prevalent in 17th century Britain and Ireland* Captain Blood , by Rafael Sabatini inspired in part by Thomas Blood* Any of three films based on the novel by Sabatini:...
;
The Scarlet PimpernelThe Scarlet Pimpernel is a classic play and adventure novel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy, set during the Reign of Terror following the start of the French Revolution. The story is a precursor to the "disguised superhero" tales such as Zorro or Batman....
; Sherlock Holmes's nemesis
Professor MoriartyProfessor James Moriarty is a fictional character and the archenemy of the detective Sherlock Holmes in the fiction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Widely considered to be the first true example of a supervillain, Moriarty is a criminal mastermind, described by Holmes as the "Napoleon of Crime" and he...
;
Phileas FoggPhileas Fogg is the main fictional character in the 1873 Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. In some adaptations of the Jules Verne novel, he is known as Phineas Fogg, not Phileas Fogg.-Around the World in Eighty Days:...
; The Time Traveller (main character of
The Time MachineThe Time Machine is a novella by H. G. Wells, first published in 1895 and later directly adapted into at least two feature films of the same name, as well as two television versions, and a large number of comic book adaptations. It indirectly inspired many more works of fiction in all media...
by
H. G. WellsHerbert George Wells was an English author, best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary....
);
Allan QuatermainAllan Quatermain is the protagonist of H. Rider Haggard's 1885 novel King Solomon's Mines and its various prequels and sequels. Allan Quatermain was also the title of a book in this sequence.- History :...
; A.J. Raffles;
Professor ChallengerGeorge Edward Challenger, better known as Professor Challenger, is a fictional character in a series of science fiction stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle...
;
Richard HannayMajor-General Sir Richard Hannay, KCB, OBE, DSO, Legion of Honour, is the fictional secret agent created by Scottish novelist John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir...
;
Bulldog DrummondBulldog Drummond is a British fictional character created by "Sapper," a pseudonym of Herman Cyril McNeile ,an influence on the hard boiled noir-style detectives appearing in contemporary American fiction.- Description :...
; the evil
Fu ManchuDr. Fu Manchu is a fictional character first featured in a series of novels by English author Sax Rohmer during the first half of the 20th century...
and his adversary, Sir Denis Nayland Smith;
G-8G-8 was an heroic aviator and spy during World War I in pulp fiction. He starred in his own title G-8 and His Battle Aces, published by Popular Publications. All stories were written by Robert J. Hogan, under his own name. The title lasted 110 issues, from October 1933 to June 1944. Several of the...
;
The ShadowThe Shadow is a collection of serialized dramas, originally on 1930s radio and then in a wide variety of media, that follow the exploits of fictional vigilante The Shadow. One of the most famous pulp heroes of the 20th century, The Shadow has been featured in comic books, comic strips, television,...
;
Sam SpadeSam Spade is a fictional character who is the protagonist of Dashiell Hammett's novel The Maltese Falcon and the various films and adaptations based on it, as well as in three lesser known books by Hammett....
; Doc Savage's cousin
Patricia SavagePatricia "Pat" Savage is the cousin of the fictional 1930s and 1940s pulp hero Doc Savage, whose adventures in the Street and Smith publication of the same name ran for 181 issues....
, and one of his five assistants, Monk Mayfair;
The SpiderThe Spider was one of the major pulp magazine heroes of the 1930s and 1940s.- Background :The Spider was created by Harry Steeger at Popular Publications in 1933 as competition to Street and Smith Publications' vigilante hero, The Shadow...
;
Nero WolfeNero Wolfe is a fictional detective, created by the American mystery writer Rex Stout, who made his debut in 1934. Wolfe's confidential assistant Archie Goodwin recorded the cases of the detective genius in 33 novels and 39 short stories from the 1930s to the 1970s, with most of them set in New...
;
Mr. MotoMr. Moto is a fictional Japanese secret agent created by the American author John P. Marquand. He appeared in six novels by Marquand published between 1935 and 1957. Marquand initially created the character for the Saturday Evening Post, which was seeking stories with an Asian hero after the death...
;
The AvengerThe Avenger is a fictional character whose original adventures appeared between September 1939 and September 1942 in the pulp magazine The Avenger, published by Street and Smith Publications. Five additional short stories were published in Clues Detective magazine , and a sixth novelette in The...
;
Philip MarlowePhilip Marlowe is a fictional character created by Raymond Chandler in a series of novels including The Big Sleep and The Long Goodbye. Marlowe first appeared, under that name, in The Big Sleep, published in 1939...
;
James BondJames Bond 007 is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. The character has also been used in the longest running and most financially successful English language film franchise to date, starting in 1962 with Dr...
;
Lew ArcherLew Archer is a fictional character created by Ross Macdonald. Archer is a private detective working in Southern California.-Profile:Initially, Lew Archer was similar to Philip Marlowe. However, he eventually broke from that mold, though some similarities remain...
;
Travis McGeeTravis McGee is a fictional character and detective created by prolific American mystery writer John D. MacDonald. Unlike almost all other detectives from crime fiction, McGee is neither a police officer nor a licensed private investigator; rather, he's a self-described "salvage consultant" who...
;
Monsieur LecoqMonsieur Lecoq is the creation of Émile Gaboriau, a 19th century French writer and journalist. Monsieur Lecoq is a fictional detective employed by the French Sûreté...
; and
Arsène LupinArsène Lupin is a fictional character who appears in a book series of detective fiction / crime fiction novels written by French writer Maurice Leblanc, as well as a number of non-canonical sequels and numerous film, television, stage play and comic book adaptations.- Overview :A contemporary of...
.
The Wold Newton Universe
The Wold Newton Universe (or WNU) is a term coined by
Win Scott EckertWin Scott Eckert is an author and editor, best known for his work on the literary-crossover Wold Newton Universe, created by author Philip José Farmer, but much expanded-upon subsequently by Eckert and others. He holds a B.A...
to denote an expansion of
Philip José FarmerPhilip José Farmer was an American author, principally known for his award-winning science fiction and fantasy novels and short stories....
's original Wold Newton Family concept (introduced in the "fictional biography"
Tarzan Alive (1972)). Eckert introduced the term in 1997 on his website, An Expansion of Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe
http://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Pulp2.htm. Eckert uses Farmer's concept of the Wold Newton Family as a unifying device, and expands the universe the Wold Newton Family inhabits by documenting crossovers between fictional characters appearing in various media and genres. Not all characters linked into the WNU are necessarily blood relatives, descendants, or ancestors of those present at the 1795 Wold Newton meteor strike, but they all exist in the same shared fictional universe. Farmer himself penned a number of crossover fiction stories and novels set in what is now termed the Wold Newton Universe; not all characters in Farmer's Wold Newton fiction are core members of the Wold Newton Family, but all are linked into the larger WNU via connections with Farmer's primary Wold Newton Family works,
Tarzan Alive and
Doc Savage: His Apocalyptic LifeDoc Savage: His Apocalyptic Life is a fictional biography by Philip José Farmer about pulp fiction hero Doc Savage.The book is written with the assumption that Doc Savage was a real person. Kenneth Robeson, the author of the Doc Savage novels, is portrayed as writing fictionalized memoirs of the...
.
Eckert and other "post-Farmerian" writers (denoting authors working with or in a similar vein as Eckert, who are admirers of Farmer's Wold Newton biographies and fiction) have – through crossovers documented in Eckert's massive online
Crossover Chronologyhttp://www.pjfarmer.com/woldnewton/Chron.htm (due to be published in book form by Black Coat Press in two volumes in 2009-2010 as
Crossovers: A Secret Chronology of the World), and through parascholarly articles such as those appearing on the various WNU-themed websites online;
Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer's Wold Newton Universe (edited by Win Scott Eckert, MonkeyBrain Books, 2005, a 2007 Locus Award finalist
http://www.locusmag.com/2007/04_LocusFinalists.html) and in various issues of the pro-zine dedicated to and authorized by Farmer,
Farmerphile: The Magazine of Philip José Farmerhttp://www.pjfarmer.com/farmerphile.htm(published by Michael Croteau, webmaster of the Official Philip José Farmer Home Page
http://www.pjfarmer.com/) – brought numerous further fictional characters into the WNU. These characters have appeared in literary fiction – including
penny dreadfulA penny dreadful was a type of British fiction publication in the nineteenth century that usually featured lurid serial stories appearing in parts over a number of weeks, each part costing a penny...
s,
pulp comicsPulp magazines were inexpensive fiction magazines. They were widely published from 1896 through the 1950s. The term pulp fiction can also refer to mass market paperbacks since the 1950s....
,
VictorianVictorian literature is the literature produced during the reign of Queen Victoria and corresponds to the Victorian era. It forms a link and transition between the writers of the romantic period and the very different literature of the 20th century.The 19th century saw the novel become the...
,
RomanticismRomanticism is a complex artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in the second half of the 18th century in Western Europe, and gained strength during the Industrial Revolution...
and
Renaissance literatureRenaissance Literature refers to the period in European literature, which began in Italy during the 15th century and spread around Europe through the 17th century...
,
steampunkSteampunk is a sub-genre of fantasy and speculative fiction that came into prominence in the 1980s and early 1990s. The term denotes works set in an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century, and often Victorian era England—but with prominent elements of either...
, Gothic novels,
fairy taleA fairy tale is a fictional story that may feature folkloric characters such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, giants, gnomes, and talking animals, and usually enchantments, often involving a far-fetched sequence of events...
s,
mythologyMythology is the study of myths and or of a body of myths. For example, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece. The term "myth" is often used colloquially to refer to a false story;...
and
folkloreFolklore is the body of expressive culture, including stories, music, dance, legends, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, customs, and so forth within a particular population comprising the traditions of that culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which...
– as well as in film, television programs, comic book series and graphic novels, radio shows, and even video games.
Many post-Farmerian "parascholars" have attempted to expand the WNU to include characters of their liking into the WNU, and often into the Wold Newton family proper. These attempts have included efforts to fit in comic book superheroes and supervillains, whose published exploits, by their very nature, often prove difficult to reconcile with Farmer's original framework. Therefore, in order for aspects of larger fictional universes to adhere to certain conditions of the overall continuity and even believability of the WNU (whose root conceit has always been that characters the world knows as fictional actually lived, or are yet living, and that their adventures are based on true events embroidered by the genre authors who serve as their "biographers"), certain accounts of the characters' lives that overly strain suspension of disbelief are often labeled as "distortion" of actual events, or dismissed as complete fabrication.
Family vs. Universe
Although the two terms are used almost interchangeably, there is an important distinction: Wold Newton Family members - those who are descended from or otherwise related to the individuals exposed to the meteor strike; and Wold Newton Universe members, unrelated to the family, who have met one or more family members in crossovers. Examples of this can be found in the works of Farmer that created the concept: several family members were present at the death of King Kong, thus firmly placing Kong in the universe, but Kong cannot be a family member as he is not human.
Similar creations
An earlier proponent of this sort of fiction was
William S. Baring-GouldWilliam Stuart Baring-Gould was a noted Sherlock Holmes scholar, best known as the author of the influential 1962 fictional biography, Sherlock Holmes of Baker Street: A life of the world's first consulting detective.-Biography:...
, who wrote a fictional biography of Sherlock Holmes. In 1977 C. W. Scott-Giles, an expert in heraldry, published a history of Lord Peter Wimsey's family, going back to 1066 (but describing the loss of the family tree going back to
Adam and EveAdam and Eve were, according to the Book of Genesis of the Bible, the first man and woman created by God...
); the book is based on material from his correspondence with
Dorothy L. SayersDorothy Leigh Sayers was a renowned English crime writer, poet, playwright, essayist, translator and Christian humanist...
, who wrote at least two of the family anecdotes in the book, one of them in the
French languageFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
of the
Middle AgesThe Middle Ages of European history is a period of European history covering roughly a millennium in the 5th century through 16th centuries. More specific starting and ending points are sometimes adopted by scholars to suit their respective specializations or current focus...
.
For details, see
Duke of DenverThe fictitious title of Duke of Denver was created by Dorothy Sayers for the family of Lord Peter Wimsey. Lord Peter is the second of the three children of Mortimer Wimsey, 15th Duke of Denver...
.
Warren EllisWarren Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, well known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...
's comic book series
PlanetaryPlanetary was an American comic book series created by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday , published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics. Planetary also refers to the group portrayed in the series....
has a similar premise of fitting many different
superheroA superhero is "a fictional character of unprecedented powers dedicated to acts of derring-do in the public interest"...
, science fiction, and
fantasyFantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting. Many works within the genre take place on fictional planes or planets where magic is common...
elements into the same universe. (Though for the most part, constrained by the needs of the story and copyright, Ellis does not use the originals but rather his own re-interpretations of the archetypes). Author
Kim NewmanKim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...
has stated that his
Anno Dracula seriesThe Anno Dracula series by Kim Newman—named after Anno Dracula , the series' first novel—is a work of fantasy depicting an alternate history in which the heroes of Bram Stoker's novel Dracula fail to stop Count Dracula's conquest of Great Britain, resulting in a world where vampires are common and...
was partially inspired by the Wold Newton family.
The anthology series
Tales of the ShadowmenTales of the Shadowmen is an annual anthology of short stories edited by Jean-Marc Lofficier and Randy Lofficier, published by . As of 2009, five volumes have been released, with a six one slated for 2010...
edited by
Jean-Marc LofficierJean-Marc Lofficier is a French author of books about films and television programs, as well as numerous comic books and translations of a number of animation screenplays. He usually collaborates with his wife, Randy Lofficier .-Biography:Jean-Marc Lofficier was born in Toulon, France in 1954...
is also based on the Wold Newton concept and includes characters from French literature.
Alan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer known for work in comics, including the acclaimed comic book series Watchmen, V for Vendetta and From Hell...
used a similar technique in his comic book series
The League of Extraordinary GentlemenThe League of Extraordinary Gentlemen is a comic book series written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O'Neill, published beginning in 1999. The series spans two six-issue limited series and a graphic novel from the America's Best Comics imprint of Wildstorm/DC, and a third miniseries...
, which teams several Victorian-era pulp characters together. However, Moore's team is not descended from a single family, it is merely a combination of historical literary figures from a certain timeframe. Moore calls the Wold Newton stories "a seminal influence upon the League"
External links