This summer, I got to be in the same room with Peter S. Beagle.
It was WorldCon, and we were celebrating The Last Unicorn, which will soon be reissued, with Beagle’s notes.
I love both the book and the movie (Angela Lansbury as a hag? Yes, please!). Not only did I watch the hell out of my VHS copy when I was young, but I’m sure I damaged it by spending a whole afternoon pausing, rewinding, and re-playing each song so I could write out the song lyrics by hand.
Here are a few things Beagle let us in on at WorldCon:
Christopher Lee, when agreeing to be the aging King in the film, said he wanted to do it because it was the closest he would get to playing Lear.
The butterfly’s ramblings contain a reference to Six Who Pass While the Lentils Boil by Stuart Walker.
The butterfly is Beagle’s “self portrait.”
Molly and Schmendrick weren’t in the first draft at all, which Beagle says is especially surprising since “Molly is the heart of the book.”
I’m looking forward to learning more when the special edition comes out.
Until then, I’m just gonna keep watching this cover of theme song by Ninja Sex Party.
