INTRODUCTION
Frank Herbert will forever be known as the “author of Dune,” the science fiction masterpiece that made his career and made his name. But he was an exceptionally diverse author who wrote in numerous genres, especially early in his career.
His first published novel was The Dragon in the Sea (Doubleday, 1955), a tense science fiction tale about the crew aboard a futuristic submarine in a pressure-cooker existence as they move behind enemy lines. The Dragon in the Sea proved to be a success, even resulting in film interest, and Frank Herbert wrote another novel, and another, and another—thrillers, mysteries, science fiction, mainstream (including the SF dystopia High-Opp, released by WordFire Press in 2012). His agent, Lurton Blassingame, couldn’t find a publisher for any of them.
Herbert doggedly kept writing, never giving up, until finally seven years later he was able to sell Dune, which also garnered its share of rejections—and has now become the best-selling science fiction novel of all time.
Angels’ Fall (originally titled We Are the Hounds) is one of those novels written after Dragon in the Sea and before Dune, a jungle survival adventure that features Frank Herbert’s characteristic microcosm of people under intense stress. The following is how he described the book to his agent when he’d completed it:
December 18, 1957
Dear Lurton:
Here’s the new novel. (Bev says it takes two people to write a novel: one to write it, and one to hit the writer over the head when it’s finished. She borrowed my shillelagh for the occasion.)
From this distance (which somewhat garbles information) I get the impression of Doubleday that they’re kind of the Ford Motor Co. in book publishing. You can’t tell one novel from another without the license plates. Admittedly, this is over-simplification. But I’d hate to have this piece get lost on somebody’s assembly line, and painted blue instead of red.
That’s why I’m suggesting (a suggestion you may take only if you agree) that we try Hounds on a smaller publishing house, or one with a reputation for putting a heavy concentration of effort on a book they think will go (Scribners?). I can’t be certain from here. But I do believe that this novel will run away if it’s given any kind of push at the beginning.
(This is not to say that Doubleday didn’t get all the mileage there was out of Dragon.)
The book selling business is booming out here. A friend’s store is some 60% ahead of last year. (We helped him somewhat with his motivational research methods applied to his promotion.)
Season’s greetings and all that.
Best regards
Frank
Five years later, with many rejections and no further novels published, Frank Herbert had parted ways with Lurton Blassingame, revised the manuscript substantially, and changed the title from We Are the Hounds to Angels’ Fall. Then he went in search of another agent.
April 30, 1962
Dear Mr. Halsey:
Here is the opus we discussed over the telephone.
An earlier version of this went to my previous agent, Lurton Blassingame, in New York almost three years ago. [Note: it was actually five years.—ed] I asked for his comments and suggestions. Instead, he showed it to several readers, and returned it. Blassingame and I are no longer associated. The attached is a very different story from what he saw.
This one is written with a low-budget movie version in mind—minimal number of sets, four sustaining characters … and you’ll see what I mean.
Best regards
Frank Herbert
Unfortunately, Angels’ Fall found neither a film studio nor a publisher. This lost work is now being published for the first time anywhere.
***