This example of Richard Powers’ cover art bears the distinctive elements of his mid-1950s science-fiction illustrations.
A diminutive human figure – in the form of an astronaut (you can only tell he’s so because of his space helmet), stands atop a craggy alien pinnacle, facing the unknown. Situated in the lower right corner of the painting, he observes but is not the center of the scene before him.
A strange and spiked bio-mechanical (or is it mechanic-biological?) thingy – floats nearby. What’s its purpose? Where’s it going? What’s it doing?
A angular horizon – stands in the distance. Is it the silhouette of an alien city? The profile of a distant mountain range?
A curved, streamlined, boomerang-like shape – floats indifferently nearby. It seems to be a spacecraft, given the jet of yellow flame emanating – to the right – from the gray blister mounted on the lower part of the object, and the way in which the brownish-red craft is oriented – to the left. But, it’s far more sculpture than spacecraft; more form than function, given its lack of symmetry and the oddly shaped connections between its top and bottom.
A colorful sky – tan, to dark brown, to bright yellow, layered with different thicknesses of green strata. A limited rainbow with compliments all other elements in the composition.
But, what about the book’s contents?
Similar to Berkley’s 1959 The Other Side of the Moon, all eight stories listed below, as well as the other twenty-two tales in the original 1948 Crown Publishers hardback edition, are from the Golden Age of Science Fiction. Particularly memorable for me are “Juggernaut”, “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”, and above all, Jack Williamson’s superb “With Folded Hands”, which has particular relevance for the world of 2023.
And, it seems, beyond.
What’s Inside?
“Rescue Party”, by Arthur C. Clarke (from Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1946)
“Juggernaut”, by A.E. van Vogt (from Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1944)
“With Folded Hands“, by Jack Williamson (from Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1947)
“The Great Fog”, by H.F. Heard (from The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales, 1944)
“Mimsy Were the Borogoves”, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore) (from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1943)
“The Ethical Equations”, by Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins) (from Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1945)
“It’s Great to Be Back”, by Robert A. Heinlein (from The Saturday Evening Post, July 26, 1947)
“Loophole”, by Arthur C. (from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1946)
A closer look.
A reference or two…
A Treasury of Science Fiction, at…
… March, 1948 Hardback, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
… Berkley 1957 Paperback, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Groff Conklin, at…