A sense of mystery. An air of uncertainty. A mood of peering into the unknown. An atmosphere of ambiguity: “Is that a machine? Is it a human being? Is it a strange, ill-defined combination of both?” A panorama of an alien landscape, where man appears only as a solitary, miniscule silhouette amidst floating metallic shapes. An astronaut whose space-suit has more akin with a bulbous suit of medieval armor than actual technology. And, all brightly colored.
All these, and more, are qualities of the science fiction cover illustrations of Richard M. Powers. But, one of his early works seems to have been of a much simpler nature! As listed in Powers’ artography at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database, The Science Fiction Galaxy, edited by Groff Conklin and published in 1950, is the second science-fiction book bearing his cover art, the first having been Doubleday’s three successive hardback editions (1950, 1951, and 1957) of Isaac Asimov’s Pebble In The Sky. (Based on The Art of Richard Powers, published in 2001.) The Science Fiction Galaxy, appearing before 1951’s Double In Space by Fletcher Pratt (for which Powers also created the cover art), is markedly different from Powers’ other works, having absolutely none of the above-mentioned hallmarks of Powers’ oeuvre. Just a simple black sketch on the cover’s yellow background (well, there is that emblematic solitary human figure…), perhaps in order to remain “under budget”?
As for the book itself, well, it is unusual.
On the smallish side even for a paperback (6 1/2″ x 4 1/4″ x 3/4″), it’s actually a hardback. A miniature hardback, but a hardback nonetheless. Otherwise, it’s like any other (well, most…) books: Title page, acknowledgements, table of contents, introduction (a pretty substantive introduction), each story with an introductory blurb (just like the Isaac Asimov Presents series…), with the final two pages listing sixty-two similar books, in all genres, also published by Permabooks.
I found this one some years ago in a small town in upstate New York (well, I think upstate New York…), going for perhaps 35 or 50 cents. Almost passed it by for it seemed so odd, but I thought for a second time, and bought it. Glad I changed my mind!
Contents
Introduction, by Groff Conklin
The Machine Stops, by E.M. Forster, from The Oxford and Cambridge Review, 1909
The Oxford and Cambridge Review, at HathiTrust
PDF (full text), at LeeAnnHunter
Commentary on the story, at Wired
“The Machine Stops: E.M. Forster Story Anticipated Our Lockdown Life”, by Adi Tantimedh, at BleedingCool
As Easy As A.B.C. [Aerial Board of Control], by Rudyard Kipling, from A Diversity of Creatures, April 17 and 27, 1917
Full text, at Archive.org
In The Science Fiction Stories of Rudyard Kipling (1994)
The Derelict, by William Hope Hodgson, from The Red Magazine, December 1, 1912
The Fires Within, by Arthur C. Clarke, from Fantasy No. 3, August, 1947
A Child Is Crying, by John D. MacDonald, from Thrilling Wonder Stories, December, 1948
Quis Custodiet….?, by Margaret St. Clair, from Startling Stories, July, 1948
The Life-Work of Professor Muntz, by Murray Leinster, from Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1949
The Appendix and the Spectacles, by Miles J., Breuer, M.D., from Amazing Stories, December, 1928
Death from the Stars (“The Avenging Ray Universe”), by A. Rowley Hiliard, from Wonder Stories, October, 1931
The Hurkle Is a Happy Beast, by Theodore Sturgeon, from The Magazine of Fantasy, October, 1949
King of the Gray Spaces (variant of “R Is for Rocket”), by Ray Bradbury, from Famous Fantastic Mysteries, December, 1943
The Living Galaxy, by Laurence Manning, from Wonder Stories, September, 1934
References
The Science Fiction Galaxy, at…
… Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Richard M. Powers’ Artography, at…
… Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Permabooks, at…