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A unicorn fears she may be the last of her kind, and sets out to discover why.
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle was first published in 1968 and is generally considered one of the all-time best fantasy novels. The book was followed in 1982 by an animated film adaptation. Featuring the voices of Alan Arkin, Jeff Bridges and Mia Farrow, the film captured the hearts of a generation of fans.
After more than thirty years, enthusiasm for The Last Unicorn is still strong. I am particularly fond of this story, and so I jumped at the chance to help Peter with the upcoming screening tour.
Visit The Last Unicorn Screening Tour Website
The goal of the tour is to give as many people as possible a chance to meet Peter and see The Last Unicorn the way it was created to be seen — on a movie screen. There will be screenings all over America from now through the end of 2015, as well as several major cities in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Germany.
The first screening is in San Francisco on April 20th at the iconic Castro Theatre. This is more than just the premiere of the Last Unicorn Screening Tour. It’s also Peter’s 74th birthday! So from 6-8 PM the Cartoon Art Museum is going to celebrate The Last Unicorn and its creator by throwing a special VIP birthday blast for Peter with another raffle, a VIP auction, more book signing, a book singing — yes, you read that right — and Peter’s first public reading of a brand-new Schmendrick story.
This is Atomic Array’s seventh Special Episode, and seven was certainly a lucky number for me because preplanning this interview got me on the team as an Associate PR Director over at Conlan Press and for this screening tour. Kind of a dream come true. Kind of exactly like one.
Also mentioned:
* Standard Action Season 3 Kickstarter
* ENnies Publisher Karaoke Fundraiser
About that last item… The ENnie Awards are a celebration of quality RPG products. Not for profit, they try to raise money when and where they can, and often in inventively creative ways. This time, one of those ways is to have donations choose three acts to go onstage just before the ENnie Awards 2013 ceremonies begin at Gen Con this August. If my song is in the top three, I - with the help of some Star Trek cosplay models/dancers - will do a version of I Melt With You by Modern English, only I’ll sing I Meld With You and be done up as Spock facepalming wriggling Enterprise dames right and left onstage. Should be a fun time, and I’ll record it and upload it to YouTube. If you can spare a single dollar donation, it'd actually mean a lot to the ENnies. And you certainly don't have to pick my song.
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The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle was first published in 1968 and is generally considered one of the all-time best fantasy novels.
I first read this as an adult and I was blown away by how awesome it was.
If my song is in the top three, I - with the help of some Star Trek cosplay models/dancers - will do a version of I Melt With You by Modern English, only I’ll sing I Meld With You and be done up as Spock facepalming wriggling Enterprise dames right and left onstage. Should be a fun time, and I’ll record it and upload it to YouTube.
Ohmigod, I want to see this!
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle was first published in 1968 and is generally considered one of the all-time best fantasy novels.I first read this as an adult and I was blown away by how awesome it was.
If my song is in the top three, I - with the help of some Star Trek cosplay models/dancers - will do a version of I Melt With You by Modern English, only I’ll sing I Meld With You and be done up as Spock facepalming wriggling Enterprise dames right and left onstage. Should be a fun time, and I’ll record it and upload it to YouTube.Ohmigod, I want to see this!
After writing A Fine and Private Place at age 19 he then wrote a non fiction calledI See By My Outfit: Cross-Country by Scooter, an Adventure.
He was being taken quite seriously in literary circles, and then... and then he wrote The Last Unicorn. It was ahead of its time. Metafiction wasn't a word or even a thing when he first did it.
And as they say, "Never go first."
The Last Unicorn wrecked his reputation in said literary circles who considered it to be a frivolous work. It was his undoing until it became the foundation stone beneath legend. Not until the last decade was he even remotely aware that he actually had fans out there.
And Doodlebug... seeing me doing some Bowiesque Vulcan dance song and dance number? Oh, that's happening.
That's hard to believe--Unicorn was so awesome.
Also, a shout out to the film. The tree with boobs was quite intriguing to prepubescent Doodlebug.
The Last Unicorn is set in a fantasy world with magicians and unicorns and castles and things. How could it be serious literature?
I'm not all that fond of literary circles.
Big time muckety-muck writer on fantasy and A Song of Fire and Ice
Doodlebug, those were some large spruce gooses, weren't they?
thejeff, well those were the two heavy hitters, no doubt. The ones that left people deeply touched. I appreciate your take on literary circles.
Have you ever read Two Hearts... it's a short story that takes place in the world of the last unicorn, years later. It's a free read. Here's a LINK
Just recently, Peter submitted a story to a mystery story anthology... a genre for which he'd never written. Although many famous mystery writers asked in, Peter's story was considered by the editor to be the revelation. I have it around here somewhere. Suddenly I'm forced to realize the level of literary clutter around me. I could build play forts out of these books.
In the Atomic Array interview Peter talks about writing The Lord of The Rings for Raplh Bakshi in two weeks and under duress, and his manager explains how that started a chain of events that led to something much bigger.
Peter also talks about writing Sarek, an episode of Star Trek the Next Generation.
Back in the 60's he did a powerful piece about a Martin Luther King march, but Life magazine took an axe to it, adulterating its stoniness until it could pour from a sippy cup. That original version will be available to read soon, and it's very powerful stuff that is historically fascinating.
thejeff, sometimes I wonder about artists who only create a few things for us to see in their lifetime. Filmmakers such as David Lean, who only directed 18 feature length films in his lifetime but who ensured each effort really counted. I think Peter's one of those writers who suffers over the written word until the pain abates. He only has so much out there to read, but it's all so very heartfelt.
He continues to write, which is what I always wanted for myself... alive as a writer until the day I die.