A Mile Beyond the Moon, by Cyril M. Kornbluth – 1958 [Abraham Remy Charlip]; January, 1962 (1958) [Richard Powers]

Doubleday’s 1958 A Mile Beyond The Moon was the last of three collections of Cyril M. Kornbluth stories to have been published before his death on May 21, 1958.  The anthology comprises fifteen stories, of which all but two (“Kazam Collects” and “The Word of Guru”) date from the 1950s.

Though all the stories are emblematic of Kornbluth’s tight, direct, focused writing style, the most memorable are “The Little Black Bag”, “The Words of Guru”, and “Shark Ship”.

Of all the stories within the volume, my favorite is easily “The Little Black Bag”, which – accompanied by Edward Cartier’s great illustrations – first appeared in the July, 1950, issue of Astounding Science Fiction, albeit I first read the story in Volume I of the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame.  The story succeeds due to Kornbluth’s clear and uncomplicated plot, adept use of science fiction tropes (time travel and advanced technology), steady and skilled pacing, and crisp – albeit not too deep – character development and individuation, which in combination lead to a conclusion with a jarring and fitting “punch”.  Over all, the story reflects the inexorable nature and reach of justice – cosmic justice – regardless of the fact that theology plays no direct role in the tale.  This parallels some of Kornbluth’s other works, such as the superb Two Dooms (his much under-appreciated variation on the theme of The Man In The High Castle), and the much shorter Friend To Man.

Fittingly, the story has been adapted for television. 

Triply fittingly, it’s been adapted thrice.

Written for broadcast by Kornbluth and Mann Rubin, starring Joseph Anthony as Doctor Arthur Fulbright and Vicki Cummings as “Angie”, it was broadcast on Tales of Tomorrow on May 30, 1952.  You can view the program here, at Bobby Jamieson’s YouTube Channel.

Next adapted for the BBC’s science-fiction series Out Of The Unknown (1965-1971), it was broadcast in February of 1969.  Though you can read a review of the episode at Archive Television Musings, I don’t believe that it’s available on the Internet.  However, perusing the few available stills of the episode suggests that it’s likely the most version most faithful to Kornbluth’s original story.

Later, Rod Serling adapted the story for Night Gallery.  Starring the superbly talented Burgess Meredith as Doctor Fulbright, the story was the second of three segments comprising the season’s second episode, broadcast on December 23, 1970.

You can view Night Gallery version (with Spanish subtitles) in three segments (first, second, and third) via Metatube.

Though I’ve not fully viewed the Tales and Tomorrow and Night Gallery versions of the story, it seems clear that – along with character changes – the story in those two productions was substantially softened from the disconcerting (shall we say…?!) “events” in the original tale in Astounding.

Well, he never flinched with words.

And so, the book’s cover…

(Hardback – “Hard Landing!”)

Abraham R. Charlip’s cover fits the title perfectly:  A symbolic moonscape with a strangely greenish hue, filled with meteor craters, is viewed from directly above – from a mile above? – albeit the height of the crater walls is greatly exaggerated!  Unusually for science fiction art of this era, neither astronauts nor spacecraft nor aliens are part of the picture.

Here’s the blurb from the anthology’s rear cover, which – along with the rocket, and emblem in the lower right corner – was a regular feature on the covers of hardbound science fiction published by Doubleday during the 1950s.  (You can view a similar example on the cover of A.E. Van Vogt’s Triad.)  Thus, the blurb: 

TODAY’S FICTION –
TOMORROW’S FACTS

LIFE Magazine says there are more than TWO MILLION science fiction fans in this country.  From all corners of the nation comes the resounding proof that science fiction has established itself as an exciting and imaginative NEW FORM OF LITERATURE that is attracting literally tens of thousands of new readers every year!

     Why?  Because no other form of fiction can provide you with such thrilling and unprecedented adventures!  No other form of fiction can take you on an eerie trip to Mars … amaze you with a journey into the year 3000 A.D. … or sweep you into the fabulous realms of unexplored Space!  Yes, it’s no wonder that this exciting new form of imaginative literature has captivated the largest group of fascinated new readers in the United States today!

Note the lack of reference to the book’s content, let alone other works of science fiction published by Doubleday.  Instead, the cover blurb does something very different:  It validates the cultural and literary legitimacy of science fiction as a form of literature, and indirectly (hint-hint, wink-wink, nod-nod!) praises – albeit tangentially – those readers who have an interest in the genre.  Though you’d never see such verbiage today – some sixty years later – in the 1950s this would actually have made sense, in terms of culturally validating a form of literature long steeped in negative stereotypes.  

And so, the anthology’s includes are listed below.  I’ve included illustrations for the June, 1941 issue of Stirring Science Stories, and the May, 1953, issue of Space Science Fiction, which has a stunning and imaginative cover by Alex Ebel, and interior art by Frank Kelly Freas. 

Contents

Make Mine Mars, from Science Fiction Adventures, November, 1952

The Meddlers, from Science Fiction Adventures, September, 1953

The Events Leading Down to the Tragedy, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January, 1958

The Little Black Bag, from Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1950

Everybody Knows Joe, from Fantastic Universe, October-November, 1953

Time Bum, from Fantastic, January-February, 1953

Passion Pills, from A Mile Beyond the Moon (this volume)

Virginia, from Venture Science Fiction, March, 1958

The Slave, from Science Fiction Adventures, September, 1957

Kazam Collects, from Stirring Science Stories, June, 1941 (as S.D. Gottesman) (Cover by Hannes Bok)

The Last Man Left in the Bar, from Infinity Science Fiction, October, 1957

The Adventurer, from Space Science Fiction, May, 1953 (Cover by Alex Ebel)

Interior illustration (p. 45) by Frank Kelly Freas

The Words of Guru, from Stirring Science Stories, June, 1941 (as Kenneth Falconer)

Shark Ship, from A Mile Beyond the Moon (this volume; variant of “Reap the Dark Tide”, from Vanguard Science Fiction, June, 1958 (First issue, last issue, only issue! – alas!)

Two Dooms, from Venture Science Fiction, July, 1958

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Also in Stirring Science Stories, June, 1941 but not included in this anthology:

Forgotten Tongue (as Walter C. Davies)

Mr. Packer Goes to Hell (as Cecil Corwin), related to “Thirteen O’Clock”, in Stirring Science Stories, February, 1941

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(Paperback – “Soft Landing!”)

The anthology was republished in 1962 by Macfadden Books, the paperback imprint of the Macfadden-Bartell Corporation, itself a subsidiary of the Bartell Media Corporation. 

Cover painting?  Though not specifically listed, the ISFDB indicates that the work was by Richard Powers.  If so (okay, it has some elements of Powers’ style!) – alas – this was one of Powers’ weaker (dare I say weakest?) efforts within his otherwise magnificent oeuvre.  Well, neither sculptor nor painter nor writer can bat three hundred every time!

Here’s the anthology’s cover blurb, which unlike the Doubleday edition is both entirely relevant to the book’s contents and at the same time perceptive of Kornbluth’s work.  One senses that Macfadden’s compiler or editor actually read Kornbluth’s work, to begin with!

DEFT AND FUNNY, WICKED AND WISE…

     Here is science fiction at its peak.

     C.M. Kornbluth was one of the great masters of the form: gathered here are his best short stories.

     This posthumous collection takes you on wild excursions past unexplored boundaries of time and space, society, morals, customs and science.  Here are the dilemmas – comic or tragic, ironic or fantastic – that confront the individual when technology advances relentlessly past humanity’s capacity to absorb it.

     These stories are never horse-operas with Martian settings.  They are sensitive, superbly written, humanity-conscious tales of people struggling in a world they might have made – but never mastered.

I wonder how Kornbluth would have treated smartphones (oxymoron…), Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and all the chaotic melange that comprises “social media”…

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For your further enjoyment, enlightenment, and distraction…

Internet Speculative Fiction Database, for A Mile Beyond the Moon

Abraham Remy Charlip, at Wikipedia

Cyril M. Kornbluth, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Night Gallery – The Little Black Bag, with Spanish Subtitles (part 1), at Metatube

Night Gallery – The Little Black Bag, with Spanish Subtitles (part 2), at Metatube

Night Gallery – The Little Black Bag, with Spanish Subtitles (part 3), at Metatube

Night Gallery, at Wikipedia

Night Gallery – List of Episodes, at Wikipedia

Tales of Tomorrow, at Internet Movie Database

Tales of Tomorrow – Little Black Bag, at Bobby Jamieson’s YouTube Channel

The Explorers, by Cyril M. Kornbluth – August, 1954 [Jack Faragasso]

A nice selection of Cyril Kornbluth’s stories can be found in Ballantine Books’ 1954 paperback The Explorers.

The cover is straightforward and simple in subject matter, yet highly effective:  A rocket rises from a launch pad, mountainous terrain behind, with a view of the moon’s looming crater-pocked surface as the background. 

The rocket’s shape is interesting:  It’s kind of German WW II V-2-ish in general configuration, but its Coke-bottle profile is reminiscent of the fuselage of America’s F-106 Delta Dart interceptor fighter of the Cold War, the aircraft having been designed in accordance with the aerodynamic design known as the area rule.  This is readily apparent in the vertical (top-down) view of the aircraft, as seen below. 

The rocket appears once more on the rear cover, as a sketch derived from the painting.  For this, artist Jack Faragasso has added a few details to the spacecraft’s body.

Interestingly and happily, while creating this post I discovered that Mr. Faragasso – also a writer and photographer – continues to be active some sixty-six years after the creation of his illustration for Kornbluth’s book.  You can view examples of his science-fiction / fantasy illustrations here, purchase some of his books (of poetry and on art instruction) here, and likewise purchase samples of his art, here.  Intriguingly, his body of work also includes an album of early photographs of Bettie Page

From the rear cover…

C.M. Kornbluth

…has produced some of the most satisfying suspense and the keenest satire to be found in science fiction.

THE SPACE MERCHANTS, the novel of a huckster’s utopia on which he collaborated with Frederik Pohl, was hailed by the New York Times as “a book so rewarding that it should henceforth show up on all lists of science-fiction classics.”

His solo flights – from the memorable TAKE-OFF to his most recent novel, THE SYNDIC – have been no less successful and have firmly established the name of C.M. Kornbluth among the brightest lights in this field.

The present collection – the first ever published of his shorter fiction – includes both one of his earliest stories (“Thirteen O’Clock”) and a brand-new novelette, “Gomez,” which appears here in print for the first time.  Told with excitement and power, these stories display the delightfully ironic imagination of a writer who is master of his craft.

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A list of the book’s contents appears below.  For three stories (“The Mindworm“, “The Rocket of 1955“, and “Thirteen O’Clock“) I’ve added images of the cover art of the magazine in which these stories originally appeared.  (Alas, found on the Internet; not part of my collection!)  I particularly liked the originality of “The Mindworm”, a very clever variation on the theme of vampires. 

Contents

Gomez, from this volume

The Mindworm, from Worlds Beyond, December, 1950 (Cover by Paul Callé)

The Rocket of 1955, from Stirring Science Stories, April, 1941 (as Cecil Corwin) (Cover by Hannes Bok)

The Altar at Midnight, from Galaxy Science Fiction, November, 1952

Thirteen O’Clock, later as “Mr. Packer Goes to Hell”, from Stirring Science Stories, February, 1941 (author as “Cecil Corwin”) (Cover by Leo Morey)

The Goodly Creatures, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December, 1952

Friend to Man, from 10 Story Fantasy, Spring, 1951

With These Hands, from Galaxy Science Fiction, December, 1951

That Share of Glory, from Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1952

About C.M. Kornbluth, essay by C.M. Kornbluth, from this volume

References

Internet Speculative Fiction Database, for The Explorers

Jack Faragasso – His Own Website!

10 Story Fantasy – Spring, 1951 (Featuring “The Sentinel,” by Arthur C. Clarke) [Unknown Artist]

Avon Publishing’s 10 Story Fantasy appeared in Spring of 1951 and survived only through – and as – its first edition.

Ironically – well, the world of wiring is characterized by irony – that single issue included a story, the theme of which would become – over a decade later – a plot element of one of the most significant motion pictures ever made: Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, being incorporated in parallel into Clarke’s novel of the same name.

In 10 Story Fantasy, Clarke’s tale is accompanied by an uncredited illustration showing the un-named protagonist as he discovers an alien artifact on the moon’s surface, within the lunar mare Mare Crisium (the “Sea of Crises”), the location of which was changed to Tycho Crater in Clarke’s novel and Kubrick’s film.

That illustration appears below, accompanied with art by Kierale and (possibly) Hannes Bok, for “Friend to Man” and The “Woodworker”, respectively.  All three are adapted and modified from 10 Story Fantasy at Archive.org, contributed by Gerard Arthus.  Unfortunately, the cover artist is unknown, though there is something Earle Bergey-ish going on here!

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Illustration by H.W. Kierale, for “Friend To Man”, by Cyril M. Kornbluth, p. 27.

A superb writer, thematically and stylistically very distinctive, Kornbluth’s “Friend to Man” has characteristics that, while ostensibly in opposition, are vividly manifested in his work:  An atmosphere of cynicism, ultimately alleviated by the inevitability of cosmic justice.  These qualities are best exemplified in “The Mindworm,” “Two Dooms,” “The Marching Morons,” ‘The Little Black Bag,” and “The Only Thing We Learn”. 

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Illustration by unknown artist, for “The Sentinel”, by Arthur C. Clarke, p. 41.

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Illustration – possibly by Hannes Bok (Wayne F. Woodward) – for “The Woodworker”, by Gene A. Davidson, p. 99.

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“Sentinel of Eternity” was published three years later, in the April 1954 issue of New Worlds (cover by J. Kinnear), under the title “The Sentinel”.  The story appears on pages 47 through 55 (well, it is a short story, after all!), and lacks any illustrations.  Curiously, in the same way that Cyril Kornbluth’s “Friend to Man” accompanied Clarke’s tale in 10 Story Fantasy, so New Worlds featured another Kornbluth story: “Takeoff”, serialized in three parts.  The image below is from the Luminist Archives.

References

Ash, Brian, The Visual Encyclopedia of Science Fiction, Harmony Books, New York, N.Y., 1977

Szczesuil, Timothy P. (editor), His Share of Glory: The Complete Short Science Fiction of C.M. Kornbluth, The NESFA Press, Framingham, Ma., 1997

“The Sentinel” (description of story, and relationship to film 2001: A Space Odyssey), at Wikipedia

“The Sentinel” (Radio Program, at JR Todd YouTube Channel)

His Share of Glory – The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M. Kornbluth, Edited by Timothy P. Szczesuil – 1997 [Richard Powers] (Revised post with added detail)

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Detail from cover

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Detail from cover

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Cyril M. Kornbluth, 1939 (Photo by Robert A. Madle)

Astounding Science Fiction – March, 1952 (Featuring “Gunner Cade”, by Cyril Judd (Cyril M. Kornbluth and Judith Merril) [G. Pawelka]

Illustration by G. Pawelka, for “Gunner Cade”, by Cyril Judd (Cyril M. Kornbluth and Judith Merril), p. 19.

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Illustration by G. Pawelka, for “Gunner Cade”, by Cyril Judd (Cyril M. Kornbluth and Judith Merril), p. 37.

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Illustration by Paul Lehr, for Dell Publishing Company 1969 edition of “Gunner Cade”

Galaxy Science Fiction – June, 1952 (Featuring “Gravy Planet” (also known as “The Space Merchants”) by Cyril M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl) [Edmund A. Emshwiller]

 

Astounding Science Fiction – July, 1950 [Featuring an essay on the filming of “Destination Moon”, by Robert A. Heinlein]

Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Frank McCormack’s story “Skin Deep” (p. 79)

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Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Frank McCormack’s story “Skin Deep” (p. 87)

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Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Eric Frank Russell’s story “Exposure” (p. 107)

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Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Eric Frank Russell’s story “Exposure” (p. 120)

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Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Cyril M. Kornbluth’s story “The Little Black Bag” (p. 132)

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Illustration by Edward Cartier, for Cyril M. Kornbluth’s story “The Little Black Bag” (p. 147)

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Venture Science Fiction – July, 1958 (Featuring “Two Dooms”, by Cyril M. Kornbluth) [Edmund A. Emshwiller]

Illustration by John Giunta or Hurwitz, for “Lady of Space”, by Lester Del Rey (p. 116).