And Now the News (56 page)

In an Afterword in I, Libertine, Sturgeon (as Ewing) wrote, In short, this is a fable, written by and for the dilettante of the fabulous. It was extraordinarily easy and pleasant to write and it is hoped that it will be correspondingly easy and pleasant to read. He acknowledges T. H. White's book The Age of Scandal as a primary source, and goes on to say: Theodore Sturgeon assisted nobly with the research. Mr. Jean Shepherd pushed and pushed at the author until he was, in the world of books, born; and last mentioned but first of all, the Night People whose battle-cry is Excelsior, and whose humor and forbearance are really responsible for the work
.

The back cover of the paperback (the book was simultaneously published
in hardcover as well) includes a fictitious biography of the author, Ewing, and a photograph of Jean Shepherd doing his best to look like a retired commander of the Royal Navy who finished the novel while stationed in Rhodesia as a civil servant.
Newsweek
reports that 180,000 copies of the hastily-published book were distributed in late August 1956. The novel was also issued by a Canadian publisher and went through two printings in a British edition.

Among Sturgeon's papers is a carbon of a letter to Shepherd on 8/30/56 expressing annoyance at Jean being quoted in
Life
and the
New York Journal-American
claiming that he, Shepherd, actually wrote the novel.