Category: Dell Books

Rather than having been released in 1968, as would have been expected after the publication of SF 11 in 1967, the 12th volume of Judith Merril’s SF anthology – specifically, SF12 – appeared in 1969.  Marking the end of the series, this last? (see SF: The Best of The Best) anthology marked a return to direct and representational space art, albeit of a diminutive form: Paul Lehr’s spacecraft-flying-above-a-moonscape occupies only a small portion of the cover.  But, the minimalism of the scene – the near-black and vaguely starlit background of space fading indistinguishably into the darkness of the rest of the cover – is appealing and very effective.  On first glance I assumed this was the earth and moon, but on second view this seems not so.

What about the content?  This last volume furthers a trend seem in earlier editions of the series, with emphasis:  A full twelve stories – over a third of the thirty items comprising the book’s content – were (I guess commissioned?) and written specifically for this book.  Alas, with the exception of Bob Shaw’s “Light of Other Days” – a genuinely moving and very well written story firmly rooted in an intersection between scientific speculation and the human nature – the content is not all that memorable. 

Still, here’s the book:

Lots and lots of stories ‘n stuff!

Introduction: Fish Out of Water, Man Beside Himself, Essay by Judith Merril

“The Cinemagicians”, by Tuli Kupferberg,
specifically for this volume

“In Seclusion”, by Harvey Jacobs,
from New Worlds, #179, February, 1968

“The Food Farm”, by Kit Reed,
from Orbit 2, June, 1967

“Gogol’s Wife”, by Tommaso Landolfi (trans. of La moglie di Gogol 1944),
from book Gogol’s Wife & Other Stories, 1963

“The Balloon”, by Donald Barthelme,
from The New Yorker, April 16, 1966

“The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D” (Vermilion Sands series), by J. G. Ballard,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December, 1967

“Luana”, by Gilbert Thomas,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1966

“W-a-v-e-r”, by Tuli Kupferberg,
specifically for this volume

“During the Jurassic”, by John Updike,
from Transatlantic Review, Summer, 1966

“The Fall of Frenchy Steiner”, by Hilary Bailey,
from New Worlds SF, July-August, 1964

“Light of Other Days” (Slow Glass series) by Bob Shaw,
from Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, August 1966

“Beyond the Weeds”, by Peter Tate,
specifically for this volume

“Crab-Apple Crisis”, by George MacBeth (variant of Crab Apple Crisis),
specifically for this volume

“The Primary Education of the Camiroi” (Camiroi series),
by R. A. Lafferty (variant of Primary Education of the Camiroi 1966),
specifically for this volume

“When I Was Miss Dow”, by Sonya Dorman,
from Galaxy Magazine, June, 1966

“A Vacation on Earth”, by Thomas M. Disch,
specifically for this volume

“Confluence”, by Brian W. Aldiss,
from Punch, August 30, 1967
Journal from Ellipsia (excerpt), by Hortense Calisher,
specifically for this volume

“An Ornament to His Profession” (Conrad Patrick series), by Charles L. Harness,
from Analog Science Fiction -> Science Fact, February 1966

“Narrow Valley”, by R. A. Lafferty,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1966

“They Do Not Always Remember”, by William S. Burroughs (as by William Burroughs),
from Argosy (UK), March, 1967

“The Winter Flies”, by Fritz Leiber,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1967”

“When I First Read …” (1966) by Dick Allen,
specifically for this volume

“You: Coma: Marilyn Monroe”, by J. G. Ballard,
from New Worlds, June, 1966

“And More Changes Still”, by Henri Michaux (trans. of Encore des changements 1929),
specifically for this volume

“The Other”, by Katherine MacLean,
from New Worlds SF, July, 1966

“Chicken Icarus”, by Carol Emshwiller (variant of A Dream of Flying),
specifically for this volume

“In the Egg”, by Günter Grass, (translation of Im Ei 1958),
specifically for this volume

“The Star-Pit”, by Samuel R. Delany (variant of The Star Pit),
from Worlds of Tomorrow, February, 1967

“Personal”, by Tuli Kupferberg,
specifically for this volume

 We come to a conclusion, sans confusion.

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This Book’s Contents

Published Variants of This Book (Four and no more, but not a bore!)

By the advent of the 9th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S-F, things had proceeded artlessly:  Similar to the cover of World’s Best Science Fiction 1968 (edited by Donald Wollheim and Terry Carr), rather than a painting, the cover illustration was a makeshift collage of ill-defined stuck-together objects photographed close-up.  I suppose the idea was to create a sense of weirdness and mystery, but the whole thing simply comes off looking odd: There’s a tiny little person (made of clay?) hanging out at the bottom of the cover; to his (hers?) left, some bent paper clips, chunky cobwebs, or clear plastic.  And that’s about it.  Oh well.  

Having read this volume, like the others in Merril’s series, a couple of years ago, the stories still outstanding in my memory are Alfred Bester’s “They Don’t Make Life Like They Used to”, Bernard Malamud’s “The Jewbird”, and Cordwainer Smith’s “Drunkboat”.  Unsurprisingly, prior to this volume I’d read all three stories in other collections.  Though technically well written, typical of Bester’s oeuvre, his story begins on an optimistic “last man and last women in the world” note, and ends rather disappointingly, and nihilistically, perhaps because having been written in the early 60s, he wanted to run counter to the sense of triumphant optimism previously associated with the genre.  Smith’s Drunkboat, is, like all (I mean all) of Smith’s body of work, an excellent choice.  (Then again, I’ve long thought that Smith (real name Paul M. Linebarger) is among the top ten (top five?!) science fiction writers of the twentieth century.  Ah, but what about Malamud’s “The Jewbird”?  Having previously read this tale (in a collection of that author’s stories published in the early 70s), I wondered (and wonder) why it was even chosen for inclusion in S-F.  It’s emphatically not science fiction by any stretch of interpretation.  (Really.)  Even to consider it a fantasy requires mental somersaults far beyond the ability of ordinary editors.  (Truly.)  I’d deem it a thinly veiled form of social allegory, or, social criticism, about internalized antisemitism.  Regardless of its merits as “a story”, its presence here indicates the way the content of this series veered away from science fiction to include a hodge-podge of items peripherally related to the genre.

I don’t plan to re-read this collection, but it was an interesting diversion.  

And inside?

“Bernie the Faust”, by William Tenn,
from Playboy, November, 1963

“Fortress Ship” (Berserker series), by Fred Saberhagen,
from If, January, 1963

“Mr. Waterman”, by Peter Redgrove,
from book The Nature of Cold Weather & Other Poems, 1961

“Mrs. Pigafetta Swims Well”, by Reginald Bretnor,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1963

“Tree Trunks” (cartoon), by John Gallagher,
specifically for this volume

“They Don’t Make Life Like They Used to”, by Alfred Bester,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1963

“The Great Nebraska Sea”, by Allan Danzig,
from Galaxy Magazine, August, 1963

“The Faces Outside”, by Bruce McAallister,
from If, July, 1963

“A Slight Case of Limbo”, by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.,
from Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, April 1963

“237 Talking Statues, Etc.”, by Fritz Leiber,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1963

“The Jazz Machine”, by Richard Matheson,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1963

“Mourning Song”, by Charles Beaumont,
from Gamma 1, July, 1963

“Dog Eat Dog” (cartoon), by Jules Feiffer,
specifically for this volume

“The Jewbird”, by Bernard Malamud,
specifically for this volume

“On the Fourth Planet”, by J.F. Bone,
from Galaxy Magazine, April, 1963

“Poppa Needs Shorts”, by Leigh Richmond and Walt Richmond,
specifically for this volume

“Double Standard”, by Fredric Brown,
from book The Bedside Playboy, 1963

“Interview”, by Frank A. Javor,
from Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, November, 1963

“Eight O’Clock in the Morning”, by Ray Nelson,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November, 1963

“Where Is Everybody?”, Essay by Ben Bova,
from Amazing Stories, May, 1963

“The Earth Dwellers” (variant of Book Fragments d’une histoire universelle / Fragments of Universal History, 1928),
from the book The Weigher of Souls & the Earth Dwellers, 1963

“The Nobel Prize Winners”, by W.J.J. Gordon,
from The Atlantic Monthly, November, 1963

“Hot Planet”, by Hal Clement,
from Galaxy Magazine, August, 1963

“IBM” (cartoon), by Mort Gerberg,
specifically for this volume

“Confessions of the First Number”, by Cliff Owsley,
specifically for this volume

“The Ming Vase”, by E.C. Tubb,
from Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, May 1963

“A Bargain with Cashel”, by Gerald Kersh,
from The Saturday Evening Post, April 27, 1963

“Drunkboat” (The Instrumentality of Mankind series), by Cordwainer Smith,
from Amazing Stories, October, 1963

Summation: SF, 1963, essay by Judith Merril, 1964

Books (The 9th Annual of the Year’s Best SF), essay by Anthony Boucher, 1964

Honorable Mentions (The 9th Annual of the Year’s Best SF), essay by Judith Merril, 1964

Still Life With Pixels

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This Book’s Contents

Published Variants of This Book (Just two!)

Not much to see here, folks.

Continuing the trend of volumes 6 and 7, the 8th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S-F bears cover art that’s best termed diminutive.  It shows an explosion – a meteorite? (or is it a gas nebula?), giving the cover a “spacey” air.  This time, the artist’s name isn’t listed; perhaps an employee of Dell?  As before, cover at is becoming less central and more perfunctory with each succeeding issue.  

Unlike prior volumes in the series, the content here is almost entirely short stories, with only three items specifically about science fiction – two by Judith Merril, and one by Anthony Boucher – appearing at the end of the book.  

Contents, contents, contents…

“The Unsafe Deposit Box”, by Gerald Kersh,
from The Saturday Evening Post, April 14, 1962

“Seven-Day Terror”, by R.A. Lafferty,
from If, March, 1962

“The Toy Shop”, by Harry Harrison, variant of “Toy Shop”,
from Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, April, 1962, specifically for this volume

“The Face in the Photo”, by Jack Finney,
from The Saturday Evening Post, October 13, 1962

“The Circuit Riders”, by R.C. Fitzpatrick,
from Analog Science Fact -> Science Fiction, April, 1962

“Such Stuff”, by John Brunner,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June, 1962

“The Man Who Made Friends with Electricity”, by Fritz Leiber,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1962

“Kings Who Die”, by Poul Anderson,
from If, March, 1962

“The Unfortunate Mr. Morky”, by Vance Aandahl,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1962

“Christmas Treason”, by James White,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January, 1962

“A Miracle of Rare Device”, by Ray Bradbury,
from Playboy, January, 1962

“All the Sounds of Fear”, by Harlan Ellison,
from the book Ellison Wonderland, June, 1962

“One of Those Days”, by William F. Nolan,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1962

“The Day Rembrandt Went Public”, by Arnold M. Auerbach,
from Harper’s Magazine, July, 1962

“Ms. Found in a Bus”, by Russell Baker,
specifically for this volume

“The Insane Ones”, by J.G. Ballard,
from Amazing Stories, January, 1962

“Leprechaun”, by William Sambrot,
from Escapade, October, 1962

“Change of Heart”, by George Whitley,
from New Worlds Science Fiction, #110, September, 1961

“Angela’s Satyr”, by Brian Cleeve,
from The Saturday Evening Post, November 3, 1962

“Puppet Show”, by Fredric Brown,
from Playboy, November, 1962

“Hang Head, Vandal!”, by Mark Clifton,
from Amazing Stories, April, 1962

“Earthlings Go Home!”, by Mack Reynolds,
from Rogue, August, 1962

“The Martian Star-Gazers”, by Frederik Pohl,
from Galaxy Magazine, February, 1962

“Planetary Effulgence”, by Bertrand Russell,
from New Statesman, September 5, 1959

“Deadly Game”, by Edward Wellen,
from If, May, 1962

“Subcommittee”, by Zenna Hederson,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July, 1962

“The Piebald Hippogriff”, by Karen Anderson,
from Fantastic Stories of Imagination, May, 1962

“Home from the Shore”, by Gordon R. Dickson,
from Galaxy Magazine, February, 1963

Summation: S-F, 1962, Essay by Judith Merril, December, 1963

Books (The 8th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F), Essay by Anthony Boucher, December, 1963

Honorable Mentions (The 8th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F), Essay by Judith Merril, December, 1963

And so?

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This Book’s Contents

Published Variants of This Book (Alive at five!)