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)
______________________________
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)
______________________________
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…
______________________________
My “original” of 2017…
A. Reference.
The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fifth Series, at…
… Internet Speculative Fiction Database
126 6/19/17