Introduction to the Annotated Edition of Stefan Themerson

Stefan Themerson(1910-1988) is sometimes called a "writer's writer". He quotes freely from the vast literature he has read and assumes a deep knowledge of history and science; many of his characters are based on, or at least inspired by, historical persons. I believe that his somewhat generous estimate of his readers' background knowledge is partially to blame for the fact that his works are not as popular as I think they deserve to be.

To help alleviate this problem, I decided to create an annotated edition of (some of) his works.
The books that initially inspired me to start working on an annotated edition of some of the prose works of Stefan Themerson are Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice and Leslie S. Klinger's The new annotated Sherlock Holmes.

In annotating the works of Lewis Carroll and Arthur Conan Doyle, Gardner and Klinger have been able to profit from the enormous literature devoted to their subjects. Journals and scholarly societies have been established to discuss even the smallest point of detail in the canon. Although some reviews of Themerson's work have been published, there is nothing comparable to the erudite discussion devoted to Alice and Sherlock.

Nevertheless, with the help of many volunteers, I have now completed

Stefan Themerson Selected Prose.
Annotated by Nicolaas J.I. Mars
Marum, The Netherlands, 2008. ISBN 978-90-70648-03-9.

The works I included in the annotated edition are:
Bayamus
Wooff wooff
Professor Mmaa's lecture
Cardinal Pölätüo
factor T
General Piesc
Special branch

Enjoy.

Nicolaas Mars