Gene Wolfe Interviewed by Chris Merrick for the American Audio Prose Library 1984
Channel: ubikcan
Date: 2023-05-11

This interview was conducted in 1984 by Chris Merrick and published by the American Audio Prose Library (Columbia, MO) as a 2-sided cassette tape. Catalog listing: https://worldcat.org/title/15625514
The original AAPL website is archived here: https://web.archive.org/web/20060713162113/http://www.americanaudioprose.org/catalog.html, but their website is no longer functioning.

The interview is approximately 60 minutes in length and concentrates on Wolfe's then-recently concluded 4-volume Book of the New Sun (ie prior to Urth of the New Sun). Wolfe also discusses Fifth Head of Cerberus, and current works in progress.

The tape was purchased by myself from the AAPL shortly after publication, and has been digitized in 2023.

There is a companion cassette tape featuring a reading by Wolfe of The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories" and "Solar Labyrinth" (48 mins). I also own a copy of this.

~~Content listing by Mantis (Michael Andre-Driussi of Sirius Fiction https://siriusfiction.com/) using tape counter rather than clock time.
Side A
000-063: Intro, biographical notes
065: GW “I discovered pulp...”
090: Intro Chris Merrick. Basic questions.
214: Characters in BOTNS. Baldanders [baldANders] as a “self-made man.” Dorcas. The green man.
335: Considerable evidence for . . . very small, Caucasian race in Europe during the dark ages . . .
385: Previous predictions of the future
405: Human extinction or more humane
430: BOTNS, genesis thereof.
518: Now working on a fifth book
526: About mythology in BOTNS. Byzantine influence.
560: CM “From the point of view of a Christian, Severian begins his life...”
602: About The Fifth Head of Cerberus (5HC)
 
Side B
036: 5HC
127: CM “TBOTNS is more . . . a Creationist point of view [compared with 5HC]”
242: About Peace
288: Mention of Bibliomen, work in progress
382: CM “Clarity versus ambiguity”
419: CM “When did you begin writing?” [Wolfe's “for furniture” story.]
521: The Castle of the Otter
561: Four current projects are Free Live Free; The Urth of the New Sun; Soldier of the Mist; an opera based on “The Death of Doctor Island,” set to music by Somtow Sucharitkul.
582: In BOTNS, the Book of Gold. [GW says for him it was probably an Oz book, but not the first one.]