“The Well of the Worlds” by Henry Kuttner – Literary Art and Illustration

The March, 1952 issue of Startling Stories includes four illustrations by Virgil Finlay, of his typically masterful quality. Three are for “The Well of the Worlds”, while the fourth – show below – is for “Things of Distinction”. As for Early Bergey’s cover art? Well, the table of contents has no actual mention of Bergey, and, I don’t think the cover has any relation to any story carried within the magazine. It’s simply a nicely representative example of Bergeyology!

As for “Things of Distinction” itself? It seems to be an example of science-fiction humor, a sub-genre which to me is a literary oxymoron that falls flatter than flat. The story itself was only anthologized once; that in The Bodley Head’s 1954 Future Tense. Regardless, Virgil Finlay’s lead illustration – taking full advantage of the horizontal format available by virtue of the magazine’s size – is imaginative and playful. Even that is outdone by his three illustrations for Henry Kuttner’s never (really) anthologized “The Well of the Worlds“, which, like many Finlay compositions, seem to emanate from a world of unrecorded myth.