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You're All Alone

Fritz Leiber

First published 1950
Type Novel

According to "Author's Afterword" in the October 1980 Pocket edition, Leiber began writing this, his third, novel in January 1943. He expected that it would be about 40,000 word long and that it would be sold to John W. Campbell Jr. for publication in "Unknown". However, when he sent the first 4 chapters to Campbell, Campbell informed him that "Unknown" was to be discontinued shortly. Since there was no other viable market for novel length pulp fantasy at the time, Leiber stopped working on the novel.

After WWII, William Sloan Associates began publishing novel length fantasy in book form and Leiber resumed work on the novel, hoping to sell it to them. However, by the time he expanded it to 75,000 words 4 years later, William Sloan Associates had discontinued publishing fantasy due to poor sales.

Leiber sent the finished novel to the editors of "Fantastic Adventures", who agreed to buy it if Leiber could cut it to 40,000 words. Instead Leiber set the 75,000 word manuscript aside, went back to his original 1943 plan for a 40,000 word short novel and recreated it as a parallel text. It was published by "Fantastic Adventures" in July 1950 as "You're All Alone".

The 75,000 word version was eventually purchased by Universal Publishers and Distributors in 1953 for publication as one half of a paperback double. Because of the way the contract was worded, the publisher could make any changes it wanted without Leiber's consent. The result was that the text was slightly changed and the title was changed to "The Sinful Ones". In addition, the publisher added "sexed up" chapter titles like "The Strip Tease" and "Bleached Prostitute" and "sexed up" a few love scenes in the book.

In 1972, Ace reprinted the 40,000 word version and two other novelettes in a collection also titled "You're All Alone".

In the late 1970s, Leiber repurchased the rights to the 75,000 word version and it was reprinted by Pocket in October 1980. Leiber left the 1953 titles, but restored the mangled text from memory since the original manuscript had been lost. He also rewrote the sex scenes to bring the language up to date. The Gregg Press edition, which came out in December 1980, reprinted the Pocket version.
It is highly probable that the 2010 Armchair Fiction edition reprints the 1950 Fantastic Adventures magazine version.

Date Publication Publisher Type Page
1950 Cover Fantastic Adventures Quarterly, Winter 1950 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company MAGAZINE 8
July 1950 Cover Fantastic Adventures, July 1950 Ziff-Davis Publishing Company MAGAZINE 8
1953 Cover The Sinful Ones / Bulls, Blood and Passion Universal (US) Omnibus
August 1953 Cover Fantastic Adventures, No. 21 Hermitage Publications MAGAZINE 9
November 1966 Cover Fantastic, November 1966 Ultimate Publishing Co., Inc. MAGAZINE 32
May 1972 Cover You're All Alone Ace Books Collection 7
September 1978 Cover La grande machine Casterman Collection 9
October 1980 Cover The Sinful Ones Pocket Books Novel 5
October 1980 Cover The Sinful Ones Pocket Books Novel 5
October 1980 Cover The Sinful Ones Pocket Books Novel
December 1980 Cover The Sinful Ones Gregg Press Novel 3
1982 Cover Die Sündhaften Hohenheim Novel 5
January 1986 Cover The Sinful Ones Baen Books Novel
January 1986 The Sinful Ones Baen Books Novel
February 1986 Cover Urania #1015 Mondadori MAGAZINE 3
October 1990 Cover You're All Alone Carroll & Graf Collection 7
March 1992 Cover Scacco al tempo Mondadori Novel 13
February 2008 Cover The Sinful Ones Wildside Press Novel
February 2008 Cover The Sinful Ones Wildside Press Novel
December 2010 Cover You're All Alone / The Liquid Man Armchair Fiction Omnibus