Like the series’ previous edition (6th), the 7th Annual Edition: The Year’s Best S-F has a relatively simple cover: On a black background, spinning-snake-like-wisps of yellow are embedded in an orange sphere, which floats in space above a network of colored squares: Is this a city? This delicate painting by Paul Brillhart has a deliberate air of ambiguity and wonder to it. Reminds me a little of Paul Klee’s birds…
I read the book. The singularly outstanding tale by far is Cordwainer Smith’s “A Planet Named Shayol”, which I’d originally read in an anthology of Smith’s stories; linked below. Otherwise, volume 7 of this series continues to represent the inclusion of non-fiction works, a cartoon, and various odds and ends, like prior volumes.
Contentz?
“Oneiromachia”, Poem by Conrad Aiken,
specifically for this volume
“A Passage from the Stars”, by Katie Hurlbut,
from The Saturday Evening Post, May 13, 1961
“Among the Dangs” (excerpt), by George P. Elliott,
specifically for this volume
“Immediately Yours”, by Robert Beverly Hale,
from Mademoiselle, November, 1961
“Parky”, by David Rome,
from Science Fantasy, August, 1961
“The Fastest Gun Dead” (Dr. Hiram Pertwee series), by Julian F. Grow,
from If, March, 1961
“All the Tea in China”, by Reginald Bretnor,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1961
“The Portobello Road”, by Muriel Spark,
from The Go-Away Bird and Other Stories (1958)
“Ottmar Balleau X 2”, by George Bamber,
from Rogue, March, 1961
“The Dandelion Girl”, by Robert F. Young,
from The Saturday Evening Post, April 1, 1961
“Nightmare in Time”, by Fredric Brown (Variant title of “The End”, from book Nightmares and Geezenstacks, July, 1961),
specifically for this volume
“Looking Backward” (cartoon), by Jules Feiffer,
specifically for this volume
“Three Prologues and an Epilogue”, Poem by John Dos Passos,
specifically for this volume
“It Becomes Necessary”, by Ward Moore,
specifically for this volume
“My Trial As a War Criminal”, by Leo Szilard,
(Composed in 1947, first published in University of Chicago Law Review, Fall 1949,
from book The Voice of the Dolphins, and Other Stories, 1961)
“A Prize for Edie”, by J.F. Bone (Jesse Franklin Bone),
from Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, April, 1961
“Freedom”, by Mack Reynolds,
from Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, February 1961
“High Barbary”, by Lawrence Durrell,
from Mademoiselle, September, 1961
“The Quaker Cannon”, by C.M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl,
from Analog Science Fact -> Fiction, August 1961
“Quake, Quake, Quake”, Interior art by Edward Gorey,
specifically for this volume
“Quake, Quake, Quake” (Excerpt), Poem by Paul Dehn,
specifically for this volume
“Judas Bomb”, by Kit Reed,
specifically for this volume
“A Small Miracle of Fishhooks and Straight Pins”, by David R. Bunch,
from Fantastic Stories of Imagination, June, 1961
“The Tunnel Ahead”, by Alice Glaser,
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November, 1961
“Extraterrestrial Trilogue on Terran Self-Destruction”, Poem by Sheri S. Tepper (as by Sheri S. Eberhart), from Galaxy Magazine, August, 1961
“The Countdown”, by John Haase,
from The New Yorker, October 7, 1961
“The Beat Cluster”, by Fritz Leiber,
from Galaxy Magazine, October, 1961
“In Tomorrow’s Little Black Bag”, by James Blish,
specifically for this volume
“The Ship Who Sang”, by Anne McCaffrey (The Ship Who … series),
from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1961
“A Planet Named Shayol” (The Instrumentality of Mankind series), by Cordwainer Smith (Paul M. Linebarger),
from Galaxy Magazine, October, 1961
“The Asteroids”, 2194 (Troons series), by John Wyndham,
from New Worlds Science Fiction #100, November, 1960
“The Long Night” (The Exploits of Argo series), by Ray Russell,
from book Sardonicus and Other Stories, 1961
“To an Astronaut Dying Young”, poem by Maxime W. Lumin,
from The Atlantic Monthly, December, 1961
Summation: S-F, 1961, Essay by Judith Merril,
specifically for this volume
Books (The 7th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F), Essay by Anthony Boucher,
specifically for this volume
Honorable Mentions (The 7th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F), Essay by Judith Merril,
specifically for this volume
And otherwise?
Still life with references
Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Published Variants of This Book (Three there are, but they go quite far)