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Publisher to re-release Brackett’s works in two new books
About the booKs
“The Book of Stark:” 740 pages, $50.
“The Leigh Brackett Centennial:” 500 pages, $25
Pre-orders or additional information: haffnerpress.com
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
Leigh Brackett would have turned 100 on Dec. 7 – just 11 days before the release of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”
To mark her centennial, a publishing company that specializes in science fiction and fantasy will re-release some of Brackett’s works in two new books.
Brackett was a Hollywood screen writer and science fiction novelist who spent her summers in Kinsman. She wrote the first draft of the screenplay for “The Empire Strikes Back,” the second “Star Wars” film, in 1977. Brackett died in 1978.
In March, Haffner Press of Royal Oak, Mich., will publish “The Book of Stark” and also a tribute book.
Both volumes will be a treat for Brackett fans, because each will include works by the author that have never been published.
Stephen Haffner is the sci-fi and fantasy buff – and huge Leigh Brackett fan – who runs Haffner Press.
He visited Kinsman last week to meet with members of the Kinsman Historical Society. The group gathered at the former Brackett-Hamilton home, which is now owned and occupied by Emily Love, a former Vindicator reporter and a friend of Brackett’s. There they put together mailings — hand-stamping the envelopes with a logo marking Brackett’s centennial – that will be sent out as part of a Kickstarter campaign to fund the publishing of the two new books.
“It’s cheesy cool that they were stamped in Brackett’s old home,” said Haffner in an interview last week. The home is nearly 200 years old.
The mailings will be sent from Kinsman so that they will have a Kinsman postmark.
Haffner described exactly what each book will comprise.
“Leigh’s most famous heroic character was Eric John Stark,” said Haffner. “‘The Book of Stark’ will collect four short stories and three novels about him, plus some newly discovered notes of a fourth Stark novel that Leigh began in 1977 but set aside when George Lucas contacted her” about writing ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.”
The “Stark” book will have 740 pages and retail for $50.
Material for the tribute book, to be titled “The Leigh Brackett Centennial,” is still being compiled.
“I am sorting through the contributions,” said Haffner. “It will start with an intro by a second cousin of [Brackett]. The first piece will be a story by Leigh written in the mid-1950s that had never been published. Then there will be a large section that collects most of the nonfiction she wrote ... interviews about movies, fandom and novel writing, and intros she wrote for her or others’ books. Plus her personal thoughts on working in film.
“There will also be a segment on how Brackett’s death in 1978 was covered by the sci-fi industry media. And the rest of the book will be contributions from other writers, reflecting on Brackett and her work and her place in the industry.”
The tribute book will be a paperback, 500 pages, and retail for $25.
Haffner began taking preorders for both books last week. “Sales have been fantastic,” he said. Go to haffnerpress.com for details.
While the Michigan publisher has made his company into a clearinghouse for collectible sci-fi and fantasy fiction compilations by many authors, he holds a special affinity for Brackett.
He connected with the author’s past – as well as folks who knew her – in a way that only a fan would attempt.
“In 1998, I made a pilgrimage to Kinsman,” said Haffner. “I went into the pharmacy to get directions to Leigh’s house and there I met Don Sutton, the co-owner, who knew Leigh and Ed Hamilton when he was a child. He regaled me with stories for an hour. Then Leigh’s attorney’s wife walked in, so we went out and met him — Richard Jones — and he took us to the cemetery to see her headstone, and drove us to her home and toured it. Then Emily Love came home and we talked for an hour.”
In 2009, Haffner and the Kinsman Historical Society, of which Love is an officer, partnered for Brackett-Hamilton Day, a fan gathering.
Pressed for his personal favorites among Brackett’s works, Haffner cited the 1961 film “Hatari!” for screenplay, “The Veil of Astellar” for short story, and a tie between “The Long Tomorrow” and “The Sword of Rhiannon” for novel.