Science Fiction Books – The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Eleventh Series, Edited by Robert P. Mills – 1960 (1961, 1962) [Bob Schinella] […updated post…]

This is an olde post. Olde in Internet terms, that is: June of 2017. I’ve now updated it to include an image of Bob Schinella’s cover art for The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Eleventh Series, which is far better than the dinged-up and slightly chipped original formerly featured in the post, now visible at the “bottom”.

The book offers a selection of the outstanding stories then typical and representative of the content of MF&SF; in this case, from the year 1961, albeit naturally and inevitably varying greatly in literary style, plot, and theme from author to author. Particularly outstanding are Poul Anderson’s “Time Lag”, Cordwainer Smith’s “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”, and Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron“, the impact of the latter extending far beyond the genre of science fiction to become culturally, if not politically, significant.

As far as the former two stories, central to the plot of Anderson’s tale are the impact and implications of time dilation – from space travel at relativistic speeds – in an interstellar war of conquest by a barbarian empire, viewed through the experiences of the novel’s main – female – protagonist. The story explores questions of politics, political intrigue, family and civilizational loyalty, and concepts of courage and honor, in a fast-moving and compelling way, typical of much of Anderson’s work.

“Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”? Well, what can one say? Smith was a wonderfully imaginative “world-builder”, and this story takes place in our world some ten to fifteen thousand years from now, in (or at?!) “Earthport”, an immensely tall facility in which is situated the Instrumentality of Mankind, which is the setting of Smith’s “The Ballad of Lost C’Mell”, which was published in Galaxy about a decade earlier. Any further explanation “here” would diminish the reader’s enjoyment and appreciation of the story’s sheer novelty…!

“The Sources of The Nile”, by Avram Davidson, January, 1961

“Somebody To Play With”, by Jay Williams, May, 1961

“Softly While You’re Sleeping”, by Evelyn E. Smith, April, 1961

“The Machine That Won The War”, by Isaac Asimov, October, 1961

“Go For Baroque”, by Jody Scott, June, 1961

“Time Lag”, by Poul Anderson, January, 1961

“George”, by John Anthony West, June, 1961

“Shotgun Cure”, by Clifford D. Simak, January, 1961

“The One Who Returns”, by John Berry, March, 1961

“The Captivity”, by Charles G. Finney, October, 1961

“Alpha Ralpha Boulevard”, by Cordwainer Smith, June, 1961

“Effigy”, by Rosser Reeves, August, 1961

“E=MC_2″, by Rosser Reeves, September, 1961

“Harrison Bergeron”, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., October, 1961

“The Haunted Village”, by Gordon R. Dickson, August, 1961

My former blog post image…

A. Reference…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

June 19, 2017 – 158

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Seventh Series, Edited by Anthony Boucher – 1956 (1957, 1958) [Unknown Artist] […updated post…]

Dating back to June of 2017 (oh my!), I’ve now updated this post to show a much (much) better copy of the Anthony-Boucher-edited The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction -Seventh Series. The image of my “original” copy, with the previous unknown owner’s home-made label on the spine, is displayed at the bottom of the post.

Having read this volume several years ago, by this point in time (late 2024) I cannot recall each story in detail, but it’ll suffice to say that this volume, truly like others in the series (well, at least through the late 1960s) continued the high quality of previous books in the series. The stories that stand out in my memory at this point are Ward Moore’s “Adjustment”, Robert F. Young’s “Goddess in Granite”, and, Fritz Leiber’s “The Big Trek”.

The few stories by Young that I’ve read have been excellent. Highly original in plot and setting, there’s nothing extraneous to his text, and his characters – while like most science fiction protagonists not entirely “three dimensional” in personality and background – are nevertheless distinct and individuated, manifesting change in belief, attitude, and self-understanding by a given story’s conclusion. One thing I’ve noticed – albeit I’ve not read either of the two collections of his stories! – is that a central element of his tales seems (seems…) to be the nature of relationships … relationships in all their complex aspects … between men and women. And, women and men. Certainly this is true for “Goddess in Granite”, which is a deeply disturbing and ironic tale of the evolution of one man’s attitudes towards and relationships with women, in senses both abstract and very (very; emphatically so) physically real. While not necessarily a likeable chap, the development and maturation of the protagonist’s character is intriguing; the story heavily (very; again emphatically!) laden with symbolism. In a contemporary, early twenty-first-century parlance, “Goddess in Granite” might well be deemed a “blue pill to red pill” (to black pill?) conversion story. But, its meaning goes deeper.

Meanwhile, Fritz Leiber’s “The Big Trek” is a light, brief, and charming tale, typical of the level of imagination inherent to Leiber’s oeuvre. It merited colorful cover art by Edmund Emshwiller which perfectly mirrored the setting and central event of the story.

“The Wines of Earth”, by Idris Seabright, September, 1957

“Adjustment“, by Ward Moore, May, 1957

“The Cage”, by Bertram Chandler, June, 1957

“Mr. Stilwell’s Stage”, by Avram Davidson, September, 1957

“Venture to the Moon”, by Arthur C. Clarke, from Fiction #49, December, 1957

“Expedition”, by Frederic Brown, February, 1957

“Rescue”, by G.C. Edmondson, June, 1957

“Between The Thunder and The Sea”, by Chad Oliver, May, 1957

“A Loint of Paw”, by Isaac Asimov, August, 1957

“The Wild Wood”, by Mildred Clingerman, January, 1957

“Dodger Fan”, by Will Stanton, June, 1957

“Goddess in Granite”, by Robert F. Young, September, 1957

“Ms. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie”, by Cyril M. Kornbluth, July, 1957

“Journey’s End”, by Poul Anderson, for this volume

“The Big Trek”, by Fritz Leiber, October, 1957

“In Memoriam: Fletcher Pratt”, poem by James Blish, October, 1957

“Yes, but”…”, poem by Anthony Brode, September, 1957

“The Horror Story Shorter by One Letter Than the Shortest Horror Story Ever Written”, by Ron Smith, July, 1957

“Lyric for Atom Splitters”, poem by Doris Pitkin Buck, for this volume

Referentially Speaking…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

6/19/17 154

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Fourth Series, Edited by Anthony Boucher – 1953 (1954, 1955) [Edmund A. Emshwiller] (Revised post…)

Created way back in 2017-land, I’ve updated this post to display a newly acquired copy of the fourth series of The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction. The book originally featured as the leading image of this post, which I bought in 1982 (seriously – 42 years ago! – is it possible? – it is!), no longer here occupies pride of place, and now takes its position near the “end” of the post. Given that I like to display the best available example of a book’s cover in my posts, I’ve long sought a pristine copy of this Ace edition that would replace my battle-scarred, torn-at-the-top, original book.

I found one and it’s here.

In the original post, I surmised that the cover painting was by Edmund Emshwiller, in light of its clarity, boldness of color, and style. A quick trip to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database confirmed that: Emsh’s signature – “EMSH” – diminutive and barely visible, can be seen all the way in the lower right corner.

So, what’s in the book?

“Fondly Fahrenheit”, by Alfred Bester, August, 1954

“I Never Ast No Favors”, by Cyril M. Kornbluth, April, 1954

“Heirs Apparent”, by Herbert Abernathy, June, 1954

“$1.98”, by Arthur Porges, May, 1954

“The Immortal Game”, by Poul Anderson, February, 1954

“All Summer In a Day”, by Ray Bradbury, March, 1954

“The Accountant”, by Robert Sheckley, July, 1954

“Brave New World”, by J. Francis McComas, September, 1954

“My Boy Friend’s Name Is Jello”, by Avram Davidson, July, 1954

“The Test”, by Richard Matheson, November, 1954

“Carless Love”, by Albert Compton Friborg, January, 1955

“Bulletin”, by Shirley Jackson, March, 1954

“Sanctuary”, by Daniel F. Galouye, February, 1954

“Misadventure”, by Lord Dunsany, October, 1954

“The Little Black Train”, by Many Wade Wellman, August, 1954

“The Foundation of Science Fiction Success”, by Isaac Asimov, January, 1955

Original image; original book:

Referentially Speaking…

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Fourth Series, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

6/19/17 – 177

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Fifth Series, Edited by Anthony Boucher – 1954 (1955, 1956) [Artist unknown!] [Updated post…]

I purchased this one – in rather bedraggled shape – some time (a few decades) ago, at a small-town flea market, probably my first acquisition in my collection of Ace’s The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction series. In a perhaps symbolic way, it featured in the creation of this – one-of-my-first- blog posts, which was created in June of 2017, a near-infinity ago in Internet terms.

I’ve now acquired a copy in vastly better condition than my original, which displays the cover art to much better and intact effect than my “original”, which is visible at the very “bottom” of this post. Interestingly, the artist is unknown: The cover illustration bears neither signature nor initials, and the Internet Speculative Fiction Database is absent of information about the man’s (or woman’s) identity. While the composition has elements of the works of both Richard Powers and Edmund Emshwiller, the latter having created five mid-50s covers for this Ace series, it’s not actually the work of either.

On a more important level, what about the book’s content?

Though I have read every story in this anthology, the writings that specifically stand out in memory are those by Zenna Henderson (a wonderfully skilled writer; I’ve never read a story by her that I’ve not appreciated and been moved by), Shirley Jackson (author of “The Lottery” … had to read that one as a freshman in college, though I’d read it previously!), and inevitably, Walter M. Miller, Jr., for “A Canticle for Leibowitz”.

So, enjoy this (qualifiedly) “new arrival”!

So, what’s in the book?

You’re Another, by Damon Knight (June, 1955)

The Earth of Majesty, by Arthur C. Clarke (July, 1955)

Birds Can’t Count, by Mildred Clingerman (February, 1955)

The Golem, by Avram Davidson (March, 1955)

Pottage, by Zenna Henderson (September, 1955)

The Vanishing American, by Charles Beaumont (August, 1955)

Created He Them, by Alison Eleanor Jones (June, 1955)

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Four Vignettes

Too Far, by Frederic Brown (September, 1955)

A Matter of Energy, by James Blish (…from this volume…)

Nelithu, by Anthony Boucher (August, 1955)

Dreamworld, by Isaac Asimov (November, 1955)

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One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts, by Shirley Jackson (January, 1955)

The Short Ones, by Raymond E. Banks (March, 1955)

The Last Prophet, by Mildred Clingerman (August, 1955)

Botany Bay, by P.M. Hubbard (February, 1955)

A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (April, 1955)

Lament by a Maker, by L. Sprague de Camp (January, 1955)

Pattern For Survival, by Richard Matheson (May, 1955)

The Singing Bell, by Isaac Asimov (January, 1955)

The Last Word, by Chad Oliver and Charles Beaumont (April, 1955)

Simple, simple rear cover…

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My “original” of 2017…

A. Reference.

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fifth Series, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

126 6/19/17

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Twelfth Series, Edited by Avram Davidson – 1961 (1962, 1963) [Unknown Artist] [Revised post…]

The cover of the Twelfth Series anthology of The Best From (The Magazine of) Fantasy & Science Fiction is certainly “science-fictiony” in terms of a rocket, an alien landscape, and a portrait of a pointy-eared, red-eyed generic “alien”, but is otherwise rather bland. The name of the artist – perhaps someone in Ace’s art department? – is unknown.

Jack Gaughan’s interior, title-page illustration is much more compelling.

(The main image originally at this post – at bottom – was of a sticker-damaged copy of the book, which just demanded the replacement shown below!)

Test, by Theodore L. Thomas

Please Stand By, by Ron Goulart

Who’s In Charge Here, by James Blish

Three For The Stars, by Joseph Dickinson

When Lilacs Last in The Dooryard Bloomed, by Vance Aandahl

Landscape With Sphinxes, by Karen Anderson

My Dear Emily, by Joanna Russ

The Gumdrop King, by Will Stanton

The Golden Horn, by Edgar Pangborn

The Singular Events Which Occurred in the Hovel on The Alley Off of Eye Street, by Avram Davidson

A Kind of Artistry, by Brian W. Aldiss

Two’s A Crowd, by Sasha Gilien

The Man Without A Planet, by Kate Wilhelm

The Garden of Time, by J.G. Ballard

Hop-Friend, by Terry Carr

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June 19, 2017 – 139

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Ninth Series, Edited by Robert P. Mills – 1958 (1959) [Edmund A. Emshwiller] [Revised post…]

Great cover art by Emsh (Edmund Emshwiller) from 1959: Colorful, directly representational, complex, and dynamic. Not tied to any specific story in the anthology, the art seems (?) to imply a kind of progression: from chimpanzee, to man-in-gray-flannel-suit (Don Draper in an off moment?), to an astronaut, to a kind of fearsome, glowing, lightningy, greenish-blue energy-dragon looking thing.

The astronaut especially stands out: In his left hand he’s carrying some kind of weapon, as if arrayed for battle, or, an ambiguously sciencey probe. If you look closely at the blue and red buttoned-box on his chest, you’ll notice the letters EMSH – as individual letters on the box – which represents Emshwiller’s logo. This was typical of Emshwiller, for he cleverly and unobtrusively incorporated this abbreviation into all his compositions, in lieu of an actual signature at bottom.

Like other Ace science-fiction anthologies, the title page includes a composition – this one by Jack Gaughan.

(The cover scan in this post is an update from the original, which appeared in June of 2017 and featured a rather worn and creased cover. You can see the original image at the bottom of the post.)

Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes

A Different Purpose, by Kim Bennett

Ralph Wollstonecraft Hedge: A Memoir, by Ron Goulart

“All You Zombies- ”, by Robert A. Heinlein

Casey Agonisties, by R.M. McKenna

Eastward Ho!, by William Tenn

Soul Mate, by Lee Sutton

What Rough Beast, by Damon Knight

Far From Home, by Walter S. Tevis

Invasion of the Planet of Love, by George P. Elliott

Dagon, by Avram Davidson

Fact, by Winston P. Sanders

No Matter Where You Go, by Joel Townsley Rogers

The Willow Tree, by Jane Rice

The Pi Man, by Alfred Bester

The Man Who Lost the Sea, by Theodore Sturgeon

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June 19, 2017 – 134

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Sixth Series, Edited by Anthony Boucher – 1955 (1956, 1957) [Unknown Artist – Edmund A. Emshwiller]

Rather than presenting a general “science-fictiony” scene, the cover presents an illustration inspired by Poul Anderson’s “The Man Who Came Early” from appeared in the June, 1956 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, and anthologized in this sixth series of stories from the magazine.

Like the great majority of Anderson’s work – at least, what I’ve read of Anderson! – The Man Who Came Early is excellently written, and of greater import, tackles with profound social, psychological, and philosophical questions, all the more impressive in that these are manifested in the form of a short story, rather than a book or novelette. Though ostensibly a tale of science-fiction, themes of technology and science, whether real or conjectural are not really the tale’s focus – this is emphatically not “hard” science fiction! – and only serve as a brief and opening springboard to set the plot in motion. An air of inevitability emerges as the story progresses, and it concludes on a note of pathos, which perhaps makes it all the more effective, and, memorable.

(The copy originally serving as this post’s image – see at bottom; rather bent and worn; I purchased it at a flea market in the 1970s! – has now been supplanted by a scan of a copy in far better condition.)

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The Cosmic Expense Account, by Cyril M. Kornbluth

Mr. Sakrison’s Halt, by Mildred Clingerman

The Asa Rule, by Jay Williams

King’s End, by Avram Davidson

The Census Takers, by Frederik Pohl

The Man Who Came Early, by Poul Anderson

Final Clearance, by Rachel Maddux

The Silk and The Song, by Charles L. Fontenay

The Shoddy Lands, by C.S. Lewis

The Last Present, by Will Stanton

No Man Pursueth, by Ward Moore

I Don’t Mind, by Ron Smith

The Barbarian, by Poul Anderson

And Now The News…, by Theodore Sturgeon

Icarus Montgolfier Wright, by Ray Bradbury

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6/19

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Third Series, Edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas- 1952 (1953, 1954) [Edmund A. Emshwiller] [Updated post…] – Ace D-422 / G-712

Dating from June of 2017 (gadzooks!), this was one the earliest posts at WordsEnvisioned: The cover of the third volume (or, third series, as it were) of stories published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction during 1953.

The post originally showing a rather bedraggled copy of the book, which I purchased at a flea market some decades ago. (See image at bottom.) It’s now been updated with a pristine copy, which presents Edmund Emshwiller’s cover art in its complete imagination and intricacy. In this case, for Kay Rogers’ tale “Experiment”.

This is also a great example of how “Emsh” sort of “hid” his nickname in his illustrations: In this case, “EMSH” appears in tiny blue letters in the center of the aquatic space-alien’s chest. Uh, assuming the space-alien has a chest…

“Attitudes”, by Philip Jose Farmer, October, 1953

“Maybe Just a Little One”, by Reginald Bretnor, February, 1953

“The Star Gypsies”, by William Lindsay Graham, July, 1953

“The Untimely Toper”, by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, July, 1953

“Vandy, Vandy”, by Manly Wade Wellman, March, 1953

“Experiment, by Kay Rogers, February, 1953

“Lot”, by Ward Moore, May, 1953

“Manuscript Found in a Vacuum”, by Philip Maitland Hubbard, August, 1953

“The Maladjusted Classroom”, by Homer Czar Nearing, Jr., June, 1953

“Child by Chronos”, by Charles L. Harness, June, 1953

“New Ritual”, by Idris Seabright, January, 1953

“Devlin”, by William Bernard Ready, April, 1953

“Captive Audience”, by Anne Warren Griffith, August, 1953

“Snulbug”, by Anthony Boucher, May, 1953 (originally in Unknown Worlds, December, 1941)

“Shepherd’s Boy”, by Richard Middleton, March, 1953 (originally in The Ghost Ship & Other Stories, May, 1912)

“Star Light, Star Bright”, by Alfred Bester, July, 1953

Reference

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Third Series, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

6/19/17

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Seventeenth Series, Edited by Edward L. Ferman – 1966 (1967, 1968) [Davis Meltzer]

Cyprian’s Room, by Monica Sterba

Out Of Time, Out of Place, by George Callyn

Vom Goom’s Gambit, by Victor Contoski

Bumberboom, by Avram Davidson

Fill In The Blank, by Ron Goulart

Balgrummo’s Hell, by Russell Kirk

Corona, by Samuel R. Delaney

The Inner Circles, by Fritz Leiber

Problems of Creativeness, by Thomas M. Disch

Encounter In The Past, by Robert Nathan

The Sea Change, by Jean Cox

The Devil and Democracy, by Brian Cleeve

Randy’s Syndrome, by Brian W. Aldiss

The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction – Eighteenth Series, Edited by Edward L. Ferman – 1972 (1970, 1971) [Unknown Artist]

The Cloud-Sculptors of Coral D, by J.G. Ballard

The People Trap, by Robert Sheckley

In His Own Image, by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.

Ogre!, by Ed Jesby

Lunatic Assignment, by Sonya Dorman

Gifts From the Universe, by Leonard Tushnet

Sundown, by David Redd

Beyond the Game, by Vance Aandahl

Sea Home, by William M. Lee

That High-Up Blue Day That Saw the Black Sky-Train Come Spinning, by David R. Bunch

Muscadine, by Ron Goulart

Final War, by K.M. O’Donnell

I Have My Vigil, by Harry Harrison

The Egg of The Glak, by Harvey Jacobs