Richard Powers science fiction oeuvre commenced in 1950 with a cover illustration for Doubleday’s publication of Isaac Asimov’s Pebble in The Sky. By the end of 1953, he’d completed cover illustrations for nearly forty books and magazines. Among these paintings was the cover of Groff Conklin’s eleventh anthology, the 1953 Crossroads in Time.
Powers’ cover for this collection was comprised of four science-fictionty elements that would appear in different combinations, colors, shapes, and sizes in his other works: A spinning yellow sun, a spaceship, a weirdly asymmetric trapeze-like elevated city (so very unlike the Jetson family’s residence at the Skypad Apartments of Orbit City!), upon a star and planet-filled indigo-to-black star-filled background, all broken up by lanes of red. And, a robot. (Playing hide-and-seek from the upper right corner.)
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Here’s a closer view of “the robot”. Is it my imagination, or is there a familial resemblance to Frank The Robot, who appeared on the cover of the October, 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and moonlights as the opening act for Queen + Adam Lambert?
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Contents
Introduction (Crossroads in Time), by Groff Conklin
“Assumption Unjustified” (Astounding Science Fiction, October, 1946), by Hal Clement
“The Eagles Gather” (Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1942), by Joseph E. Kelleam
“The Queen’s Astrologer” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October, 1949), by Murray Leinster
““Derm Fool”“ (Unknown Fantasy Fiction, March, 1940), by Theodore Sturgeon (variant of “Derm Fool”)
“Courtesy” (Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1951), by Clifford D. Simak (Broadcast on NBC’s X Minus One on August 18, 1955)
“Secret” (Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1953), by Lee Cahn
“Thirsty God” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1953), by Margaret St. Clair
“The Mutant’s Brother” (Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1943), by Fritz Leiber
“Student Body” (Galaxy Science Fiction, March, 1953), by F.L. Wallace (Floyd Lee Wallace)
“Made in U.S.A.” (Galaxy Science Fiction, April, 1953), by J.T. McIntosh (James Murdoch MacGregor)
“Technical Advisor” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1953), by Chad Oliver
“Feedback” (Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1951), by Katherine MacLean
“The Cave” (Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1943), by P. Schuyler Miller
“Vocation” (Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1945) by George O. Smith
“The Time Decelerator” (Astounding Stories, July, 1936), by A. Macfadyen, Jr.
“Zen” (Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1952), by Jerome Bixby
“Let There Be Light” (if, November, 1952), by H.B. Fyfe (as by Horace B. Fyfe)
“The Brain” (Crossroads in Time), by Norbert Wiener (as by W. Norbert)
References and What-Not
Crossroads in Time, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Groff Conklin, at Wikipedia
Groff Conklin, at at Internet Speculative Fiction Database