Continuing from the post about Volume I of The Best Of A.E. Van Vogt in Sphere Books’ The Best Of… science fiction series of the mid-1970s, here’s Volume II with six van Vogt stories spanning the late 1940s through the early 1970s.
Cover artist Peter Elson continued with the theme he established in Volume I: A massive spacecraft occupies the center of the painting. This time, its headed towards an asteroid modified for human (or robot?!) habitation – notice those antennae sticking out of it? – occupying the center of the image. The spaceship, viewed from the rear and with its four engines glowing, gives the impressions of force and power as it moves away from the viewer. A glow emanating from the center of the image, obscured by the asteroid, fills the center of the scene.
Is this an expedition to a newly formed star system?
The front cover…
…and simple back cover…
The stories in the anthology…
Contents
(This volume ISBN 0 7221 8727 0)
(First published in Great Britain by Sphere Books Ltd as part of a single volume, 1974; 0-7221-8774-2 (978-0-7221-8774-6))
“Dear Pen Pal”, The Arkham Sampler, Winter, 1949
“The Green Forest”, Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1949
“War of Nerves”, Other Worlds Science Stories, May, 1950
“The Expendables”, If, September, 1963
“Silkies in Space”, If, May, 1966
“The Proxy Intelligence”, 1968, published in The Proxy Intelligence and Other Mind Benders, 1971
Bibliography – The Science Fiction Books of A.E. van Vogt
This version of the entirety of the original image, which reveals its subtleties far better than a halftone print, can be viewed at Peter Elson’s gallery, where the original size is given as 378 x 544mm.
Another A.E. van Vogt themed painting by Peter Elson is The Universe Maker….
One of my favorite science-fiction authors is A.E. (Alfred Elton) van Vogt, whose most significant works were published from the late 1930s through the early to mid-1940s, though his literary oeuvre extended through the mid-1970s. Though the period of his greatest influence and productivity coincided – to an extent – with that of Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein, he never attained the continued and ongoing impact of those contemporaries, because of a significant, lengthy, and ironically deliberate gap (alas, alas!) in his literary career, the inevitability of changes in literary style and cultural fashion that parallel and challenge the career of any writer in any genre, and to be admitted, a diminution in the impact and power of his later works.
And still; yet still… The quality of his early body of work far exceeds that of anything written by Isaac Asimov (who’s vastly overrated anyway), and easily challenges if not altogether exceeds the writings of Robert Heinlein, in terms of the way his writing engenders feelings of wonder and astonishment. Certainly that’s what I felt when I first read “Asylum”, and, “The Weapon Shop”, both published in Astounding Science Fiction in 1942, in the early 1980s. Not in the original magazine, of course! Instead, I discovered them in Volume 4 (covering 1942) of Asimov and Greenberg’s Isaac Asimov Presents the The Great SF Stories. (Okay, yeah, this dates me!!)
And with that, as I’ve read and accumulated (where will I put them all??!) science fiction books and magazines over the years, I’ve come to wonder why Ballantine never issued a volume for the Classic Library of Science Fiction entitled Classic Science Fiction – The Best of A.E. van Vogt. (It would’ve been the 14th work in the series!, which was published between 1974 and 1995.) Well, DAW books published The Book of van Vogt (8 stories) in 1972, and, Pocket Books released The Best of A. E. van Vogt (12 stories), one of the 7 books in that publisher’s The Best of… series, the release of all of which was limited to 1976. Maybe the absence of an A.E. van Vogt anthology from Ballantine’s series was attributable to issues of copyright, the advice of van Vogt’s literary agent, or even a decision by the author himself.
However, the “second” Best of A.E. van Vogt – yet another “best of”! – appeared as two volumes published by Sphere Books, in England, in 1979, one of their seven science fiction anthologies under that heading released between 1974 and 1979. The van Vogt anthology, originally published by that company as a single volume in May of 1974, was divided into two paperbacks of roughly equal length (appropriately, Volumes I and II) five years later.
The cover art of both paperbacks is by the Peter Elson, both books sharing variations of the the same general theme: a massive spaceship (massive, because of the visual “feeling” imparted by the perspective from which the craft are viewed, or the miniscule size of features such as windows, ports, or antennae) in shades of gray, green, and blue, is set against a weirdly pinkish hued background, floating motionlessly, or moving at the most minimal speed. The strange thing is, somehow, the pinkish toned background really works.
Here’s the front cover of Volume I…
…and the simple back cover…
And, the stories in the anthology:
Contents
(This volume ISBN 0 7221 8726 2)
(First published in Great Britain by Sphere Books Ltd as part of a single volume, 1974; 0-7221-8774-2 (978-0-7221-8774-6))
“Vault of the Beast”, Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1940
…while this image is linked at the same page, under “wallpaper“, specifically because it’s – pretty big – !! – wallpaper. The image – a half-tone print – appearing at Sevagram reveals a significant vertical crease about one third the way “in” from the print’s left edge, suggesting that the original had been folded within a hardcover book. For the purpose of this post I did some digital editing to remove the fold and stray printing defects, to enable a fuller appreciation of Elson’s imagination and originality, let alone his aesthetic sense.
Hope you like it.
So. Could the anonymous ship be the “Space Beagle”, just prior to embarking on her mission of interplanetary exploration? This I do not know, since no title is associated with the painting in Volume I, or, at Sevagram. Regardless, the odd color combination – very dark green to medium green with wavy stripes of light green – actually works very well for the spaceship, especially and strangely when juxtaposed against this un-named world’s pale pink sky and coastal metropolis in many hues of violet. But, the most interesting aspect of the spacecraft is its bulbous, whale-like, almost rotund shape, lending it the appearance of a gigantic (and it truly is gigantic) sea creature. The nautical resemblance goes further from the four antennae along its body suggesting the masts of a sailing ship. The single best describing the thing: Massiveness.
If Peter Elson’s artistic inspiration arose from a nautical theme, it works: A gigantic craft now floating in an alien atmosphere will shortly rise, to float in, and through, space.
“Slan” was originally serialized in Astounding Science Fiction (September, October, November and December, 1940), with illustrations by Charles Schneeman. The above-mentioned issues are “view-able” through the astounding (pun intended) Luminist Archive. Reprinted in its entirety in Fantastic Story Magazine in 1952, the story was accompanied by three illustrations – shown below – created by Virgil Finlay.
Since creating this post back in January of 2020 (was it that long ago?!) I’ve been fortunate enough to acquire a copy of the Summer, 1952 issue of Fantastic Story in excellent condition, the cover of which – shown below – features Alex Schomburg’s art in all its colorful, streamlined, cloudless, undulating, stylistic glory.
This image replaces (!) the scan originally featured in this post, which I’ve now tossed to the bottom of this post.
As well as being evocative and powerful on levels both emotional and intellectual, these illustrations reveal an extraordinary level of intricacy and detail, typical and representative of Finlay’s work. It might strike one as odd, given the quality of Finlay’s work, that only one of his efforts ever appeared in (more accurately, “on”) Astounding Science Fiction, but the explanation for that sad absence can be found here.
All images presented here were obtained and adapted from Archive.org’s Pulp Magazine Archive, with the Summer 1952 issue of Fantastic Story Magazine being available here.
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Pages 10-11.
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Page 17
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Page 25
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Akin to my recently updated post showing depictions of C’Mell, in Cordwainer Smith’s The Ballad of Lost C’Mell, “this” post, from August of 2018 – showing illustrations for A.E. van Vogt’s Slan – has been updated to present illustrations for Slan from a different – Russian – angle.
The main impetus for the “original” post was to present Virgil Finlay’s wonderful visual interpretation of the story as seen in his three illustrations in the summer, 1952 issue of Fantastic Story magazine: Jommy Cross’ confrontation with slan girl Joanna Hillory; a symbolic portrait of Jommy juxtaposed against a collage of figures representing the persecution of slans by “normal” humans against slans (Jommy’s golden tendrisl prominently displayed); Jommy, at the thirtieth story of a building in Centropolis, witnessing the launch of a spacecraft operated by tendrilless slans.
Befitting Fantastic Story, Finlay’s images are themselves fantastic in detail, symbolism, and visual impact, examples of illustration that are not only stylistically but qualitatively unique in science-fiction – and not just science fiction – illustration.
Giving the significance of Van Vogt’s body of work, it’s unsurprising that it’s been translated into a variety of languages, among which – also unsurprisingly – is Russian. One title under which Van Vogt’s stories have appeared in the Russian language translation is “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды), or Hybrids, published by Kanon (Канон) publishers in Moscow in 1995, Gibrodiy being one of Kanon’s three compilations of Van Vogt’s works. A list of seven other Russian-language translations of Van Vogt’s works – 5 books and 2 other items – can be found at Electronic Bookshelves by Vadim Ershov and Company) where these works can be downloaded as zip files.
Hybrids comprises three stories:
1) “Voyna Protiv Rullov” (Война Против Руллов) – The War Against the Rull, translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов) 2) “Slen” (Слен) – Slan, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев)
3) “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids (main title), translated by V. Goryaev (В. Горяев)
1) “A Dom Stoit Sebe Srokoyno” (А Дом Стоит Себе Срокойно) – The House That Stood Still, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев) 2) “Tvorets Vselennoy” (Творец Вселенной) – The Universe Maker, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой) 3) “Zver” (Зверь) – The Beast (main title), translated by I. Boyko (И.Бойко)
“Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men, published 1995
Dvoyniki includes six stories:
1) “Deti Budushchego” (Дети Будущего) – Children of Tomorrow, translated by K. Prostovoy (К.Простовой) 2) “Vladiki Vremeni” (Владыки Времери) – Time Lords, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой) 3) “Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men (main title) translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов) 4) “Loobyashchie Androidi” (Любящие Андроиды) – All The Loving Androids, translated by Viktor Vyacheslavovich Antonov (Виктор Вячеславович Антонов) 5) “Neistrebimie” (Неистребимые) – The Replicators, translated by Yu. K. Semenychev (Ю.К. Семёнычев) 6) “Uskolznuvshee iz Ruk Chudo” (Ускользнувшее из Рук Чудо) – Secret Unattainable, translated by I. Shcherbakova (И. Щербаковой)
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Front Cover of “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids
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Front Cover of “Zver” (Зверь) – The Beast. Note the similarity of the building to the police headquarters in (the original) Blade Runner, as seen in this video – “Blade Runner spinner lift-off (’82 theatrical release version)” – from the YouTube channel of Damon Packard II.
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Front cover of “Dvoyniki” (Двойники) – The Reflected Men
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Aside from van Vogt’s original authorship, the one commonality among the three Russian translation is their illustrator: Ilya Evgenevich Voronin. His black and white sketches – in a style akin to that of Dan Adkins – appear as a single illustration in the title page of each work, while each of the stories within is headed by an illustration pertinent to that story.
In this, Слен is no exception, the lead image depicting Jommy Cross coming upon the departure of a tendrilless slan spacecraft from Centropolis, with Granny looking on…
Ilya Voronin’s illustration for Slan, on page 79 of “Gibroidy” (Гиброиды) – Hybrids.
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“He knew that by no logic could that gauntlet of corridor be considered safe. At any moment a door might open, or wisps of thought warn him of men coming around some bend. With abrupt decision, he slowed his headlong rush and tried several doors. The fourth door yielded to pressure, and Jommy crossed the threshold with a sense of triumph. On the far side of the room was a tall, broad window.
He pushed the window open and scrambled out onto the wide sill. Crouching low, he peered over the ledge. Light came dimly from the other windows of the building, and by its glow he could see what appeared to be a narrow driveway wedged between two precipices of brick wall.
For an instant he hesitated and then, like a human fly, started up the brick wall. The climbing was simple enough; enormously strong fingers searched with swift sureness for rough edges. The deepening darkness, as he climbed, was hampering, but with every upward step his confidence surged stronger within him. There were miles of roof here and, if he remembered rightly, the airport buildings connected on every side with other buildings. What chance had slans who could not read minds against a slan who could avoid their every trap?
The thirtieth, and top, story! With a sigh of relief, Jommy pulled himself erect and started along the flat roof. It was nearly dark now, but he could see the top of a neighboring building that almost touched the roof he was on. A leap of two yards at most, an easy jump. With a loud clang! the clock in a nearby tower began to intone the hour. One – two – five – ten! And on the stroke, a low, grinding noise struck Jommy’s ears, and suddenly, in the shadowy center of that expanse of roof opposite him yawned a wide, black hole. Startled, he flung himself flat, holding his breath.
And from that dark hole a dim torpedo-like shape leaped into the star-filled sky. Faster, faster it went; and then, at the uttermost limit of vision, a tiny, blazing light sprang from its rear. It flickered there for a moment, then was gone, like a star snuffed out.
Jommy lay very still, his eyes straining to follow the path of the strange craft. A spaceship. By all the heavens, a spaceship! Had these tendrilless slans realized the dream of the ages—to operate flights to the planets? If so, how had they kept it secret from human beings? And what were the true slans doing?” (pp. 30-31)
[This post, created on October 26, 2017 and updated October 31, 2019, is updated once more! (Again, you say?!) When created in October of 2017, it showed only the front and rear covers of the anthology The Worlds of A.E. van Vogt. In October, 2019 it was updated to show the cover art as a “full”, continuous image, via Photoshopification: Front cover, rear cover, and – spine! I’ve now updated the post to include an image of Bart Forbes’ original cover art, which image – without title, logo, or explanatory blurb on the back – naturally gives a much better visual “feel” for his composition, which seem to liquid-like flow from left to right.]
Bart Forbes’ 1974 cover for The Worlds of A.E. van Vogt has something of a Peter-Max-air to it … well, seems to me!
…Bart Forbes’ original art, from Heritage Auctions. The original is described as “watercolor on board,” 19 by 27 inches, signed lower right; from the Estate of Charles Martignette”.
Contents
“The Replicators”, from if – Worlds of Science Fiction, February, 1965
“The First Martian”, from Marvel Science Fiction, August, 1951
“The Purpose”, from Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1945
“The Earth Killers”, from Super Science Stories, April, 1949
“The Cataaaaa”, from Fantasy Book, Volume 1, Number 1, July, 1947
“Automaton”, from Other Worlds Science Stories, September, 1950
“Itself!”, from Gamma 1, July, 1963
“Process”, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December, 1950
“Not The First”, from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1941
“Fulfillment”, from New Tales of Space and Time, November, 1951
“Ship of Darkness”, from Fantasy Book, Volume 1, Number 2, February, 1948
“The Ultra Man“, from Worlds of Tomorrow, May, 1966
“The Storm”, from Astounding Science Fiction, October, 1943
“The Expendables”, from if – Worlds of Science Fiction, September, 1963
“The Reflected Men”, from Galaxy Science Fiction, February, 197
The United States had been engaged in the Second World War for some four months – and other Allied nations notably longer – by the time A.E. van Vogt’s “Recruiting Station” appeared in the March, 1942 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. In light of the United States’ efforts to mobilize American manpower for the war effort, van Vogt’s title – which would have an immediate resonance with the cultural zeitgeist of the America of 1942 – was aptly chosen. The significant difference being, that the military enlistees in van Vogt’s story – elements and aspects of which perhaps drew upon his earlier experience as a writer of romances – would unwittingly be fighting for the alien race known as the Calonians.
Unlike van Vogt’s brilliantly-done story “Asylum“, from the May, 1942 issue of Astounding, visualized by Charles Schneeman, both the cover art and black & white interior illustrations for “Recruiting Station” were created by Hubert Rogers. While most of the story’s interior art is not particularly dramatic or compelling, simply nominally depicting the story, the image on page 20 is nonetheless intriguing and well-conceived.
As for the images you’re actually viewing in this post, the cover image and close-up of the cover art were scanned from my own copy of the March ’42 issue of the magazine. However, due to the fragility of my copy (I didn’t want to break the delicate, now-brittle binding!), all the interior images (including the table of contents) were instead created from the PDF version of the magazine which was downloaded from Archive.org, with illustrations having been enhanced and edited via Photoshop.
“Asylum”, which is anthologized in Isaac Asimov PresentsThe Great SF Stories 4 (1942) (published in 1980) (one of three stories by A.E. van Vogt appearing in that volume), has qualities typical of van Vogt’s writing: Transitions between events and settings that are sometimes dreamlike – abrupt – in nature; an air of calibrated grandiosity in terms of theme and plot; a writing style generally placing vastly less emphasis on “hard science” than on the mental states and thoughts of characters.
“Asylum” artfully, powerfully, and very effectively combines such disparate themes and concepts as super-normal (if not transcendent) intelligence, multiple identities / personalities (prefiguring a central theme of the late Philip K. Dick), and, the vampire myth.
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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 8)
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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 14)
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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 19)
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Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “Asylum” (p. 28)
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 55)
Technology of the present; technology of an imagined future: A juxtaposition of a Colt M1911 .45 pistol and a futuristic pistol, the latter distinguished by its somewhat streamlined shape and two sets of “fins” – purely ornamental? – for cooling? – along the body and barrel.
Of artistic interest, note Hubert Rogers’ stylized initials – comprised of an “H” and R”, with the year below – in the right center of the image.
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 60)
This illustration is representative of Hubert Rogers’ depiction of architecture of the future, in a style typical of the illustrations he did for Astounding: The cityscape is characterized by buildings whose exteriors appear as sets of concentric parabolas, emphasizing curves rather than straight lines and angles.
Roger’s most highly developed depiction of this architectural style appears on the cover of the March, 1947 issue of Astounding, in an image representing Jack Williamson’s story “The Equalizer”. Here, Rogers balanced the simple curves and streamlined functionality of a silver-gray spacecraft with a city whose “curved” buildings appear in varied shades of yellow, orange, and red. The backdrop of both spacecraft and city is a sky that softly glows in pale greenish-gray.
The flying car / spacecraft (I haven’t yet read Heinlein’s story!) is also interesting. (Note Rogers’ initials on the door!) The vehicle combines the streamlined shape of a rocket with retractable landing gear reminiscent of an aircraft. Something about this craft is reminiscent of Bell Aircraft’s YFM-1 Aircuda of the late 30s – early 40s….
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for Robert A. Heinlein’s (as Anson MacDonald) story “Beyond This Horizon -” (p. 80)
Illustration by Charles Schneeman, for “The Seesaw”, by A.E. van Vogt (p 61).
“The Seesaw” was the first part of what would eventually be developed, through both short stories and books, into A.E. van Vogt’s “Weapon Shop” stories.
“The Seesaw,” together with “The Weapon Shop” (Astounding Science Fiction, December, 1942) and “The Weapon Shops of Isher” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February, 1949) would in time become the basis of van Vogt’s full novel – also entitled “The Weapon Shops of Isher” – in 1951, as well as his companion novel The Weapon Makers.
In that context, Charles Schneeman’s art depicts the initial encounter between reporter C.J. (Chris) McAllister of the Gazette-Bulletin, and Lystra, the daughter of a Weapon Shop Owner. The pair are viewing the Imperial City of Isher from the Weapon Shop of Lystra’s father.
Curiously, though time travel is not the focus of the story, merely being a plot element, it is noteworthy that the tale implies parallel time streams, simultaneously commencing upon June 11, 1941, and, “June”, in year 84 of the “4,700th year of the Imperial House of Isher”.
Illustration by Paul Orban, for Isaac Asimov’s story “The Evitable Conflict” (p. 49)
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Illustration by Paul Orban, for Isaac Asimov’s story “The Evitable Conflict” (p. 56)
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Illustration by Paul Orban, for Isaac Asimov’s story “The Evitable Conflict” (p. 63)
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “The Wizard of Linn” (Part II) (p. 103)
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “The Wizard of Linn” (Part II) (p. 111)
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “The Wizard of Linn” (Part II) (p. 126) This is the “original” art as published in Astounding, in which Rogers has rendered the image in “inverted” tones.
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The same image as above, with black & white tones “inverted” (a la Photoshop…) to “positive” tones.
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Illustration by Hubert Rogers, for A.E. van Vogt’s story “The Wizard of Linn” (Part II) (p. 143)
