A New Book

[jack]

A new book by Mr. Roger Goodman about claims of Mr. George Markstein creating The Prisoner has been released. Here is a link to another perspective on the matter from Moor Larkin.

http://numbersixwasinnocent.blogspot.com/search?updated-min=2009-01-01T00:00:00Z&updated-max=2010-01-01T00:00:00Z&max-results=20

In that in a 1965 interview by Mr.Patrick McGoohan, written by Ian Sproat, Mr. McGoohan states the basic premise of The Prisoner, about a future in which people have no names and only numbers, the claim of Mr. Markstein's creation of The Prisoner seems rather dubious.

Jack

[Jill Mills]

Do you mean this book?

http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/georgemarksteinbookpr.htm

Have you read it, then?

Roger Goodman is the editor, not the author. There are several contributors.
The reviews are very impressive. :-)

Jill

[jack]

Hello Jill

Yes, that is the new book and it is indeed edited by Mr. Goodman who brought many Mr. Markstein' s claims to having been the creator of The Prisoner to the fore.

Mr. Markstein in his video interview claims No. 6 was John Drake but McGoohan had ruled that out in print in July of 1966 and at even earlier dates such as April of 1966, before any scripts were written.

Markstein's entire premise is based on the Drake must equal No.6 in order for any of his claims to have any merit at all. That and the fact McGoohan had outlined the premise of The Prisoner in 1965 as a film he would like to make seem to rule out any claims Markstein may have had as a a creator of the series.

Perhaps Markstein had hopes for the series direction but as a mere employee of Everyman Films and Mr. McGoohan it was not his position to make such a call.

Yes, the book has been perused, have you read Moor Larkin's blog? :-)

Congratulations are in order to Markstein on his much later career as an author of spy novels.

Jack

[jack]

One observation about the book is that one of the contributors seems to deny that Georg Gustav Markstein Herschdorfer and ( under the pen name) George Markstein are without doubt one and the same person. This is rather sad as it denies Mr. Markstein his natural heritage of his mother, his adoptive father, his wife and childern all who have used their rightful name of Markstein-Herschdorfer . The very named used by each one of them on birth certificates, marriage liscence and is the very basis for George Gustav Markstein-Herschdorfer's claim to UK naturalization citizenship.

Further it denies Mr. Markstein his natural rich biographical heritage of his owm mother Grete Markstein-Herschdorfer's rich and colorful theater, story telling, and unusual life event of impersonating the famous scientist Albert Einstein's daughter in which, as a youth, Mr. Markstein played an active role by impersonating Einstein' grandson. Why there would be a denial of the such interesting details of Mr. Markstein's background while fully acknowledging his similar impersonation of an American journalist seems confusing at best.

The book also attributes to Mr. Markstein the claim of sole origin of all script concepts with the exception of those scripted by Mr. McGoohan although this is contradicted by interviews by The Prisoner series writer's who claim to have originated their own ideas for scripts.

Again Georg Gustav Markstein- Herschdorfer is to be congratulated on his later literary and film career under his anglicized pen name George Markstein.

Jack

[jack]

Here is the content of one of the contributors of the book expressing a perspective concerning the contributions of Mr. Markstein-Herschdorfer and Mr. McGoohan to The Prisoner.

http://www.match-cut.de/tho/tallyho55.htm

Jack

[jack]

The content of the book contains an interesting interview and letters to Mr. Roger Goodman in which Herschdorfer-Markstein under his pen name George Markstein claims to be the exclusive originator of The Prisoner TV series, that all scripts were based on his concepts ( although each writer as a matter of record contradicts this) to just mention a few. He further claims that the location of Portmeirion was chosen by him but one contributor states McGoohan was the likely source for the series location, an obvious concession given the well known travel of McGoohan to that location.

Herschdorfer-Markstein's insistence the No.6 is John Drake is represented as part of his claim to have originated the series even though the public records of 1966 show this is not the case.

Two critical claims of the script editor to originating the series seem to to easily dismissable, the claim he chose Portmeirion as the location for the series and that No.6 was John Drake.

Here is an interview with Herschdorfer-Markstein of a similar nature of that in the book.

http://www.the-prisoner-6.freeserve.co.uk/markstein.htm

Jack

[jack]

Other content of the book contains the odd claim by James Follett that he and Markstein-Herschdorfer concocted a claimed alternative ending to The Prisoner where No.6 as John Drake had designed The Village ( McGoohan had stated in June 1966 that No.6 was not Drake).

In one version of events Follett says he badgered Markstein- Herschdorfer into the reveal but contradicts himself in a different version it is he, Follett, that volunteers the ending after a challenge from his mentor Markstein-Herschdorfer.

These internal contradictions are also on display in Markstein-Herschdorfer's claims to have originated the series, that all the scripts excepting those of McGoohan were based on his ideas, that he alone rescued the film crew etc.

Based on the above one is better off to review the materials at the Moor Larkin blog to have a balanced perspective. In the book Markstein-Herschdorfer spends more time saying how he can not answer questions than he does offering any further insights than can be found in his youtube displayed interview and the materials covered in the Larkin blog, some of it lifted without proper credit and placed as 'new' research in the book.

Jack

[THOMAS CARNACKI]

Interesting to think about that in terms of Marstein's legacy.