John Sladek’s short story collection, Maps: The Uncollected John Sladek, includes a story called The Lost Nose: A Programmed Book. Written in the late 1960s, it’s an early example of a choose-your-own-adventure type story. It centres around Fred, a character who has lost his nose, and the reader must guide him on a quest to find it. Originally the story took the form of a colourful scrapbook, and was a present for Sladek’s girlfriend Pamela.
Tonally it is very silly and reminded me a lot of my own work of silliness, Escape from the Crazy Place. So in 2016 I converted the story into a Twine game, and contacted Sladek’s publisher, David Langford, about the possibility of giving the game a public release.
Langford forwarded my email to Christopher Priest (yes, that Christopher Priest!) who was literary agent for John Sladek’s estate.
This was Mr. Priest’s reply:
I’ve had a think about your suggestion of putting The Lost Nose on Twine. I can see why you suggest this, and I assure you I am not trying to be a spoilsport by saying I can’t really see a way of letting it happen.
It’s not a question of money, nor even of copyright, although copyright is important and is a major hurdle. The Lost Nose was originally created for fun, with no thought of money. John made it for his then girlfriend Pamela, who later became his first wife. Although Pamela sold the physical object some years ago, I know she still has strong personal feelings about the past. We should have to give her the courtesy of telling her we intend to put it up on the internet. I don’t know what she would say. The copyright belongs to John’s estate, and we would need their formal permission to republish it. Permission was given for its use in Maps, but that was a print edition, not something made freely available to anyone who cares to look at it or download it.
As the years go by I see John’s work as increasingly great and important, and as far as possible I try to do what I and the estate believe is best for his reputation. Ideally, I should like to see a high-quality printed reproduction of The Lost Nose, perhaps from a niche publisher, and have already floated it with a couple of firms. If it was on the internet then I imagine no printed edition would ever appear.
Sorry!
Sadly, the high-quality printed version never saw the light of day, Christopher Priest has himself passed away and the Twine version still languishes on my hard drive. But I recommend reading Maps, if you can find a copy. Sladek is an underappreciated author, in my opinion.