I’m a great fan of John Crowley’s remarkable adult work of fantasy, Little, Big, and also follow his blog where he ruminates about all sorts of interesting things and provides updates on a project of love: The 25th Anniversary Edition of Little, Big. This publishing project (beautifully designed, illustrated, and typeset) is being funded in a very old-fashioned way — by subscriptions. And today, having seen a few sample pages, I subscribed.
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educating alice 
Hey, Monica! I’ve been a subscriber to the new edition of Little, Big almost from the beginning–it’s been a long wait.! But the sample chapter was so breathtaking that now I’m really eager for it to get finished and arrive.
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Melynda,
It took seeing those to finally get me to bite the bullet and subscribe. Il love the concept too (although will we get our names in the front as they did way back when with subscribed books?).
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Hello — I also love Little Big and reread it regularly. However, I received a subscription to Little Big 25 for my 50th birthday. I’m nearly 55 now and have seen nothing from the publisher but excuses and a dozen delayed pub-dates. Is this typical of subscription-books? I’ts sad to see someone of Mr. Crowley’s (and Bloom’s and Milton’s) reputation get caught up in something like this. I’ll probably stick it out but it’s been quite a disappoinment. Thanks in advance for any insight.
Ed Binkley
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Ed, I’m wondering the exact same thing. Sorry not to be of help.
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My wife bought me a copy for my 40th birthday. I’m now 42. I suspect that one day the book will be published but the whole thing has been dragging on so long that unfortunately when the book does arrive it’ll be greeted with exhausted recognition rather than excitement.
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To everyone above:
I can comiserate. My husband pre-purchased a copy for me around Christmas time in 2005 or 2006 (I’m not sure exactly which year). Over the years, we’ve read the updates, only to be disappointed as the years crawl by and no lovely illustrated special editions are ready to mail. But I’m glumly keeping the faith. It should be re-titled the 31st Anniversary Edition of Little, Big (assuming it gets printed in 2012).
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My wife bought me a copy in late 2007 and every so often I check the website for updates. We used to joke that I’ll get my copy for my 50th birthday. Well, it’s this May. Here’s hoping for a wonderful gift.
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To be fair to everyone involved with the 25th Anniversary Edition I do think the book will be worth waiting for. I suspect part of the problem is that John Crowley has taken the opportunity to go through all the text and make changes, and that’s slowed up the process.
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I grow old; I grow old…I have put my two copies into my last will and testament, just in case. Very cool to think a distant relative will someday receive them out of the blue. In the meantime, I recommend that subscribers get the lovely poster for sale on the anniversary edition site.
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Still no sign of the Little Big 25th anniversary edition. It feels like we have all been taken for suckers. Does anyone else think we should all just ask for our money back?
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I was just thinking about this. I was just figuring my money was gone.
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I’ve also been a subscriber to Little, Big 25 for almost 12 years, and I’ve been maintaining my faith all that time. I can’t believe that John Crowley would be part of a scam, and that the project is bona fide. Even so, I’m starting to feel very peeved at the edition’s non appearance and irritated by the endless excuses presented by the publisher as to the delay. Cross fingers we’ll see it next year, though I’m not holding my breath
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Ten years is an unreasonable amount of time to take to publish a book that is already written. It takes less time to write a great book. I have no doubt that Mr. Crowley went into the project in all innocence. I have my suspicions about what happened, but shall not impart them. At some point, perhaps already passed, the police should have been or should be involved. It has the odor of fraud. A decade! Come, now, hard questions need to be asked and answered.
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Here we are in 2021. As I mentioned before, my wife gave me this subscription for my 50th birthday — I’m now 65 and just retired, but I had requested and received a refund several years ago. I’m out. Good luck to those of you who still believe you might receive the promised product.
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