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Hedgehog Mum
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Sylvanian Author
Hi, everyone. Does anyone know anything about the “Original Story of Sylvanian Families”?
I’ve been researching lately what the source of SF world. We already know that there was a Japanese lady called Kazuko Kobayashi who drew the very first SF characters’ sketches about 25 years ago collaborating with Epoch’s director. However, my point is “who created the original stories”.
There are also a very old series, “The Stories of Sylvanian families” existed in Japan. The seem to be translated because the author’s name is “Roger Lee Winston” sounding not very Japanese. Has anybody heard about him or read his books in original language?
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2/12/2008, 5:07 pm
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gpwsbeaver
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Re: Sylvanian Author
I have one of the Japanese books. Its called "The Bible of Sylvanian Families", and it does have the author is Roger Winstone. Copyright 1970. It also says that it is a Japanese translation, and that the rights to the book came from William Heinemann Books Press Inc., London.
I can't read the stoy, but from the pictures it looks like animals decide to leave their home because of war (or maybe just a bad fire, I can't tell) and travel by boat (yes, the captain is a seadog) across the sea to North America to start a new life.
The book really reminds me of the Green Forest Series, which was written by Thornton Burgess (US, I believe). I'm not sure when they were written, probably in the 1950s or earlier (my copy of Paddy the Beaver is from 1976, but its called a classic already). The characters in the illustrations are very similar in both books.
I'm guessing that the original Sylvanian books came on the heels of the success of book series like Winnie the Pooh and Peter Rabbit. They are all quite similar. Epoch came up with the idea for the toy, and since they happened to own the rights to the Sylvanian Families books, well, you know the rest.
If they happened of have bought the rights to Burgess's books, we might all be collecting Green Forest figures and looking all over for Sammy Jay and Jerry Muskrat.
---
The next Sylvanian Figure List comes out Saturday, March 6th! Visit http://www.sylvanian-families.net or e-mail wendy@sylvanian-families.net to sign up or get more information.
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2/12/2008, 6:26 pm
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TheRyusui
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Re: Sylvanian Author
Wow. Got any more information? Are you sure about the author's name, for instance?
I've confirmed the existence of the publisher, but I can't find anything about an author named Roger Winstone.
Scans of the book would also be nice. ^_^
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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2/12/2008, 11:49 pm
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TheRockie
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Re: Sylvanian Author
If I am not wrong , the books are green and/or yellow and show up on Rinkya once in a while.
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Sylvanianholics (:
http://www.freewebs.com/sylvanianholics
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2/13/2008, 4:08 am
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gpwsbeaver
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Re: Sylvanian Author
The original books are white with pencil illustrated drawings. They are a small hard bound novel with chapters (100 pages, give or take), with only a few pictures. Probably meant for readers around 7-9 years old.
Sorry, I don't have a scanner, I can try to take some photos if I have time.
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The next Sylvanian Figure List comes out Saturday, March 6th! Visit http://www.sylvanian-families.net or e-mail wendy@sylvanian-families.net to sign up or get more information.
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2/13/2008, 8:10 am
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TheRyusui
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Re: Sylvanian Author
Well, now I've confirmed the existence of the books as well. Three of 'em, as far as my research tells me.
Written by Roger Lee Winston (though that's only an assumption based on the romanization of the name), translated by a Takao Shibayama (at least that's how Babelfish and Google Translator give the name; I've always been rotten at reading Japanese names unless I'm familiar with them).
Oddly enough, this says they were first printed in April 1986, though that says nothing about the original text.
The annoying thing here is that I can't even verify the existence of a Roger Lee Winston(e) or a Roger L. Winston(e) or a R. Lee Winston(e) or even an R. L. Winston(e). Not one who wrote childrens' books, anyway. The "original", if indeed one exists, might be a phantom on the order of "The Depository", the mysterious original work that the Twilight Zone episode "Five Characters in Search of an Exit" claims to be based upon.
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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2/13/2008, 11:27 am
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Hedgehog Mum
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Re: Sylvanian Author
Thank you so much for all these information and opinions. True, I couldn’t find any about R.L. Winston(e), either. I even wrote to a publisher in U.K., which seemed to have a connection with the one of the Japanese translated book, but have had no reply so far. Question: Does/Did he really exist?
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2/13/2008, 6:58 pm
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TheRyusui
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Re: Sylvanian Author
Some things sink into oblivion, even on the Internet. I know someone who launched into a search not too long ago for information on an old edutainment title circa 1995 that he vaguely remembered from an ad in a magazine. All he learned from Google was that the game in question was called "The Curious Adventures of Rollie Ringtail", a title which brings up only five hits total, one being the page of an artist who did some of the game's animation.
It's possible the questions of who Roger Lee Winston was and whether or not there is in fact an English version of "Tales of the Sylvanian Families" might never be answered. Or the answers may be hiding just out of sight, separated from the common masses by the impenetrable veil of perception (what The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy calls the "Somebody Else's Problem Field": if you don't know what you're looking at, you won't see it at all).
All we can be sure of is this: if the answers are out there, they're buried deep. If any of you happens to have these books plus a scanner and some webspace, it might be helpful if I could get some scans of them...bibliographic data, definitely, but it'd be also nice if I could get scans of the text (good, clean scans...I might actually be able to translate these back into English ^_^).
--- In all your journeys, have you seen the land beyond the mountains green?
俺を誰だと思ってやがる？ |
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2/13/2008, 8:55 pm
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Hedgehog Mum
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Re: Sylvanian Author
thank you for your thoughts, Ryusui, but I don't have those books by my own. What I wrote here is all what I have heard of. Let us continue researching...
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2/14/2008, 4:47 pm
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TheRockie
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Re: Sylvanian Author
Book 1 is 104 pages , Book 2 has 120 and Book 3 , 112.
---
Sylvanianholics (:
http://www.freewebs.com/sylvanianholics
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2/17/2008, 1:55 am
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