Consider the Consequences!

Consider the Consequences![lower-alpha 1] (published 1930) is a romantic novel in the form of an interactive novel or gamebook[lower-alpha 2] by the American writing partnership[lower-alpha 3] of Doris Webster (1885-1967[3]) and Mary Alden Hopkins (1876-1960[4]).[1] It is the earliest known gamebook, and has 43 different endings.[1][5]

Consider the Consequences!
Features a drawing of a woman standing on a giant chessboard; the five playing pieces depict two different men (one standing, one kneeling to propose marriage), children, a house and a bag of money.
dust jacket of the original hardback edition
Author
CountryUnited States
GenreRomance
PublisherThe Century Company
Publication date
1930 (1930)

Publication

The 146-page hardback was published by The Century Company in the United States, priced $1.50.[2][5]

The book's central characters are Helen Rogers and her two male suitors, Jed Harringdale and Saunders Mead.[2] The reader's first decision is which of the three characters' viewpoints to adopt.[5]

The book was favorably reviewed, among others, in The Tampa Times,[6] the Santa Ana Register (who called it "a freak book"),[7] the Detroit Free Press,[8] The San Francisco Examiner,[9] and The Salt Lake Tribune.[10]

Legacy

On July 6, 2018 the book was read on air on KZSC radio in Santa Cruz, USA, by James Ryan, who has researched the book and its authors, and his wife Nina, with choices made by the station's listeners.[11][12]

A copy was made available on the Internet Archive in August 2023.[13][14]

In October 2023, the game was ported to TWINE and made available for online play at itch.io[15]

Notes
  1. The title page has Consider the Consequences!, with an exclamation mark, but its original dust jacket (pictured) has none.[1][2]
  2. A gamebook, or "choose your own adventure", is a story in which readers choose which of various alternate paths the plot should follow.
  3. For a list of their collaborative works see Mary Alden Hopkins § With Doris Webster.

References
  1. "Rubenstein Library". Duke University. September 22, 2017.
  2. Doris Webster; Mary Alden Hopkins (1930), Consider the Consequences!, The Century Company, p. dustjacket, Wikidata Q108393767
  3. "Uncle James' Shoes". Library of Congress. Retrieved September 4, 2021.
  4. "13329101". viaf.org. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  5. Katz, Demian. "Item - Consider the Consequences - Demian's Gamebook Web Page". gamebooks.org. Retrieved September 3, 2021.
  6. "Consider the Consequences". The Tampa Times. October 10, 1930. p. 2.
  7. "Consider the Consequences". Santa Ana Register. November 28, 1930. p. 41.
  8. "Interesting books". Detroit Free Press. October 3, 1930. p. 15.
  9. "Tale Can End as Reader Wants It". The San Francisco Examiner. September 21, 1930. p. 54.
  10. "Webster-Hopkins Combine Takes Prize for Originality". The Salt Lake Tribune. October 19, 1930. p. 58.
  11. Bennett Williamson, James Ryan and Nina Ryan (July 6, 2018). Audience Adventure Radio Hour - Consider the Consequences (2018.7.6) (radio). KZSC Santa Cruz 88.1FM. Archived from the original on September 7, 2018.
  12. Ryan, James [@xfoml] (July 6, 2018). "tonight at 7pm Pacific, my wife & I will be reading from "Consider the Consequences" (1930) on @bennett4senate's Choose Your Own Adventure Radio Hour—it's a @kzsc interactive radio show where listeners decide how to traverse a branching story" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  13. jjsonick (August 28, 2023). "1930's Consider the Consequences!, the First Book to Offer a Choice-Based Branching Narrative". The Interactive Fiction Community Forum. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  14. "Consider The Consequences 1930". Internet Archive. 1930. Retrieved September 4, 2023.
  15. "Consider the Consequences by geetheriot". itch.io. Retrieved October 12, 2023.

Further reading
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