Tag: Groff Conklin

Big Book of Science Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin – April, 1957 [Richard M. Powers]

One of the over forty science fiction anthologies compiled by Groff Conklin, the Big Book of Science Fiction, while diminutive in physical size like other Berkley 50s paperbacks, features cover art by Richard Powers that’s arresting, entrancing, and positively l u m i n o u s. 

Here it is:

Powers’ composition has qualities inherent to and epitomizing much of his work from that decade:  A strange object of indefinite nature – metallic or organic? … machine or creature? – (creature!) … floats above an alien landscape, observing the scene beyond in perhaps detached amusement.  A jagged horizon is set within the foreground, while in the far distance stand vaguely defined towers, perhaps rising from an alien metropolis hidden below.  To the right, an immense spacecraft resembling an aircraft carrier is suspended in the background, with a spaceship about to blast from its deck.  And above (you have to look closely) bursts of violet are scattered through the sky.  They look like fireworks, but could they be missiles?    

I really like this cover.  Most of all, I like the way it’s backlit:  Powers painted the sky shades of yellow, with wispy cirrus clouds scattered through, while having shadows in the foreground.  It has a “feel” of impending twilight; of dusk; of arriving at a new world after an interminable journey, just as the planet’s sun is setting, to embark upon adventures yet unknown.

(For covers in a similar style, check out Crossroads in Time, Science Fiction Omnibus, and especially, A Treasury of Science Fiction, while for the inspiration behind the floating ship, take a look at A Suspension of Belief.)

For the purpose of this post, I thought I’d take this cover “One Step Beyond”.  (Pun intended!)  With that, I’ve edited the (halftone) image via Photoshop Elements, to remove chips, creases, dings, and tiny-yet-obviously out of place blobs of ink. 

Here’s the resulting effort, which allows a greater appreciation of Powers’ work.

Remarkably, Powers’ original painting has survived!  I found a great scan of it at Comic Art Fans, where it’s part of the John Davis & Kim Saxon Collection, which includes 45 works by Powers.  Done in acrylics, it’s not that big: just 12 x 16 inches.  

Here it is:

So, here’s the back cover, the text of which is representative of the current of techno-optimism inherent to – yet even by then waning from – science-fiction of the 1950s.    

 PREVIEW OF THE FUTURE AND ALL ITS WONDERS

In reading this book you will be transported into the far distant future, to the times inhabited by your remote descendants.  You will visit worlds of super civilizations, travel between the stars, experience atomic power, see strange and marvelous inventions, witness the curious aliens from far-off planets.

Above all your imagination will soar above the petty anxieties of everyday life into the vast reaches of time and the universe where man and his problems are but a brief candle flame against the dark background of eternal night.

So, what’s in the book?

I’ve read five of the ten stories listed below: “Mewhu’s Jet”, “The Wings of Night”, “Arena”, “The Miniature”, and “The Only Thing We Learn”.  Of the four, I would have to, and would easily, rank “Arena” as the best, regardless of having been penned typed eighty years ago.  The plot is simple but very solid, the “world-building” – though very narrow – is very clear, while the pacing and tempo are maintained without letup throughout the entire story.  “The Wings of Night”, while entirely passe in terms of scientific knowledge about the moon and extraterrestrial life, is a fine tale in a purely literary sense, and can still be appreciated in terms of its underlying social message.  As for “The Only Thing We Learn”, while Cyril Kornbluth has been one of my favorite science fiction writers, well…  The telling is fine, but the tale itself?  Ho-hum.  

“Desertion” (City series), by Clifford D. Simak, Astounding Science Fiction, November, 1944
“Mewhu’s Jet”, by Theodore Sturgeon, Astounding Science Fiction, November, 1946
“Nobody Saw the Ship”, by Murray Leinster, Future combined with Science Fiction Stories, May/June, 1950
“The Wings of Night”, by Lester del Rey, Astounding Science Fiction, March, 1942
“Arena”, by Fredric Brown, Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1944
“The Roger Bacon Formula”, by Fletcher Pratt, Amazing Stories, January, 1929
“Forever and the Earth”, by Ray Bradbury, Planet Stories, Spring, 1950
“The Miniature”, by John D. MacDonald, Super Science Stories, September, 1949
“Sanity”, by Fritz Leiber [as by Fritz Leiber, Jr.], Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1944
“The Only Thing We Learn”, by C. M. Kornbluth, Startling Stories, July, 1949

(Data from Internet Speculative Fiction Database)

And otherwise…

Groff Conklin, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

… Wikipedia

Crossroads in Time, edited by Groff Conklin – November, 1953 [Richard M. Powers]

Richard Powers science fiction oeuvre commenced in 1950 with a cover illustration for Doubleday’s publication of Isaac Asimov’s Pebble in The Sky.  By the end of 1953, he’d completed cover illustrations for nearly forty books and magazines.  Among these paintings was the cover of Groff Conklin’s eleventh anthology, the 1953 Crossroads in Time.

Powers’ cover for this collection was comprised of four science-fictionty elements that would appear in different combinations, colors, shapes, and sizes in his other works:  A spinning yellow sun, a spaceship, a weirdly asymmetric trapeze-like elevated city (so very unlike the Jetson family’s residence at the Skypad Apartments of Orbit City!), upon a star and planet-filled indigo-to-black star-filled background, all broken up by lanes of red.  And, a robot.  (Playing hide-and-seek from the upper right corner.) 

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Here’s a closer view of “the robot”.  Is it my imagination, or is there a familial resemblance to Frank The Robot, who appeared on the cover of the October, 1953 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, and moonlights as the opening act for Queen + Adam Lambert?

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Contents

Introduction (Crossroads in Time), by Groff Conklin

“Assumption Unjustified” (Astounding Science Fiction, October, 1946), by Hal Clement

“The Eagles Gather” (Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1942), by Joseph E. Kelleam

“The Queen’s Astrologer” (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October, 1949), by Murray Leinster

““Derm Fool”“ (Unknown Fantasy Fiction, March, 1940), by Theodore Sturgeon (variant of “Derm Fool”)

“Courtesy” (Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1951), by Clifford D. Simak (Broadcast on NBC’s X Minus One on August 18, 1955)

“Secret” (Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1953), by Lee Cahn

“Thirsty God” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March, 1953), by Margaret St. Clair

“The Mutant’s Brother” (Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1943), by Fritz Leiber

“Student Body” (Galaxy Science Fiction, March, 1953), by F.L. Wallace (Floyd Lee Wallace)

“Made in U.S.A.” (Galaxy Science Fiction, April, 1953), by J.T. McIntosh (James Murdoch MacGregor)

“Technical Advisor” (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, February, 1953), by Chad Oliver

“Feedback” (Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1951), by Katherine MacLean

“The Cave” (Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1943), by P. Schuyler Miller

“Vocation” (Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1945) by George O. Smith

“The Time Decelerator” (Astounding Stories, July, 1936), by A. Macfadyen, Jr.

“Zen” (Galaxy Science Fiction, October, 1952), by Jerome Bixby

“Let There Be Light” (if, November, 1952), by H.B. Fyfe (as by Horace B. Fyfe)

“The Brain” (Crossroads in Time), by Norbert Wiener (as by W. Norbert)

References and What-Not

Crossroads in Time, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Groff Conklin, at Wikipedia

Groff Conklin, at at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Science Fiction Omnibus, edited by Groff Conklin – August, 1956 (1952) [Richard M. Powers]

Like A Treasury of Science Fiction, The Other Side of the Moon, and Worlds of Tomorrow, Berkley Book’s 1956 Science Fiction Omnibus is a diminutive paperback  derived from an earlier hardback of the same – in this case, similar – name.

And, it similarly features distinctive cover art by Richard Powers. 

In this case, make that v e r y distinctive, because of these four books, the cover of the Omnibus – while not as boldly colorful as that of the Treasury – distinctly presents objects (for lack of a better word!) that make the covert art immediately recognizable as a Powers composition.  Like the scene shown below: It shows an asymmetrical, weirdly bulging platform or space station, with flames sprouting from three odd rockets at the bottom.  It’s got a metallic sort of color.  And, like the floating thingy at the top of the page, it’s got a trapeze of wires attached to it. 

Other, similar, weirdly elongated, uneven, indefinable things with a metallic sheen are present elsewhere in the painting.  But, there’s no explanation as to what they are.  They just float through space, asking for your own explanation.

And, there’s a final emblematic touch: The only things that are clearly recognizable from “our” world are as diminutive as they are innocuous.  First, a tiny rocket stands on the floating platform.  Second, two human figures are nearby, but they’re so tiny as to be near-invisible.  Here, like in some of his other 50s paintings, Powers makes man negligible in the face of the unknown.

Take a look:

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Otherwise, like the other Berkley anthologies, the Omnibus contains a limited number – eleven of forty-three – of the stories in the (originally titled) Omnibus of Science Fiction.    

For the sake of completeness, here’s the rear cover.  Notice that the endorsements are from newspapers, rather than science-fiction or fantasy magazines?  I guess the idea is that praise from mainstream publications would have more cachet for a general audience than from pulp magazines.  

Of the stories in this volume, I’ve only read (or at least, I remember having read!) “A Subway Named Mobius” and “Kaleidescope”, while I’ve listened to two or three radio dramatizations of “The Color Out of Space”.  The first of the three is a well-written, entertaining, and light-but-not-necessarily-too-impactful tale typical of Astounding’s early 1950s content.  The second inspired the closing scene of Dan O’Bannon’s 1974 Dark Star, specifically here:

As for “The Color Out of Space”, well, what can one say?  Like much (all?) of Lovecraft’s work, crafting personalities and engaging in character development is largely irrelevant to Lovecraft’s purpose in creating mood and atmosphere; dread and wonder, in which the story, like “At The Mountains of Madness” (and so many other Lovecraft tales) is entirely successful.  

What’s in the book?

“A Subway Named Mobius“, by A.J. Deutsch (from Astounding Science Fiction, December, 1950)

“The Color Out of Space”, by H.P. Lovecraft (from Best Supernatural Stories of H. P. Lovecraft, April, 1945; originally published in Amazing Stories, September, 1927)

“The Star Dummy”, by Anthony Boucher (from Fantastic, Fall, 1952)

“Homo Sol”, by Isaac Asimov (from Astounding Science Fiction, September, 1940

“Kaleidoscope“, by Rat Bradbury (from Thrilling Wonder Stories, October, 1949)

“Plague”, by Murray Leinster (from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1944)

“Test Piece”, by Eric Frank Russell (from Other Worlds Science Stories, March, 1951)

“Spectator Sport”, by John D. MacDonald (from Thrilling Wonder Stories, February, 1950)

“The Weapon”, by Frederic Brown (from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1951)

“History Lesson”, by Arthur C. Clarke (from Startling Stories, May, 1949)

“Instinct”, by Lester del Rey (from Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1952)

A reference or two…

Science Fiction Omnibus (August, 1956), at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Omnibus of Science Fiction (1952), at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Groff Conklin, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

… Wikipedia

A Treasury of Science Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin – July, 1957 (1948) [Richard M. Powers]

This example of Richard Powers’ cover art bears the distinctive elements of his mid-1950s science-fiction illustrations. 

A diminutive human figure – in the form of an astronaut (you can only tell he’s so because of his space helmet), stands atop a craggy alien pinnacle, facing the unknown.  Situated in the lower right corner of the painting, he observes but is not the center of the scene before him.

A strange and spiked bio-mechanical (or is it mechanic-biological?) thingy – floats nearby.  What’s its purpose?  Where’s it going?  What’s it doing?  

A angular horizon – stands in the distance.  Is it the silhouette of an alien city?  The profile of a distant mountain range? 

A curved, streamlined, boomerang-like shape – floats indifferently nearby.  It seems to be a spacecraft, given the jet of yellow flame emanating – to the right – from the gray blister mounted on the lower part of the object, and the way in which the brownish-red craft is oriented – to the left.  But, it’s far more sculpture than spacecraft; more form than function, given its lack of symmetry and the oddly shaped connections between its top and bottom.

A colorful sky – tan, to dark brown, to bright yellow, layered with different thicknesses of green strata.  A limited rainbow with compliments all other elements in the composition.  

But, what about the book’s contents? 

Similar to Berkley’s 1959 The Other Side of the Moon, all eight stories listed below, as well as the other twenty-two tales in the original 1948 Crown Publishers hardback edition, are from the Golden Age of Science Fiction.  Particularly memorable for me are “Juggernaut”, “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”, and above all, Jack Williamson’s superb “With Folded Hands”, which has particular relevance for the world of 2023. 

And, it seems, beyond.  

What’s Inside?

“Rescue Party”, by Arthur C. Clarke (from Astounding Science Fiction, May, 1946)

“Juggernaut”, by A.E. van Vogt (from Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1944)

“With Folded Hands“, by Jack Williamson (from Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1947)

“The Great Fog”, by H.F. Heard (from The Great Fog and Other Weird Tales, 1944)

“Mimsy Were the Borogoves”, by Lewis Padgett (Henry Kuttner and Catherine L. Moore) (from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1943)

“The Ethical Equations”, by Murray Leinster (William Fitzgerald Jenkins) (from Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1945)

“It’s Great to Be Back”, by Robert A. Heinlein (from The Saturday Evening Post, July 26, 1947)

“Loophole”, by Arthur C. (from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1946)

A closer look.

A reference or two…

A Treasury of Science Fiction, at…

… March, 1948 Hardback, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

… Berkley 1957 Paperback, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

Groff Conklin, at…

… Internet Speculative Fiction Database

… Wikipedia

The Second Powers: The Science Fiction Galaxy, Edited by Groff Conklin – 1950 [Richard M. Powers]

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…

… Wikipedia

6 Great Short Novels of Science Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin – 1954 [Richard M. Powers]

A very nice example of Richard Powers’ work from the mid-1950s.  Like the covers of Star Science Fiction Number One and Number Two but even more stylized than those illustrations, the book depicts a jagged alien landscape which actually “wraps” around all four sides of the cover.  It seems as if the cover was deliberately designed – both front and back – to allow “empty” areas for the presentation of the title, editor’s name, authors’ names, and a short blurb about each of the six stories.

This time, however, there is no space-suited explorer.  Rather, the symbolic figure of a man holds a ringed-planet.

An interesting aspect of this book is that the title of each story includes an illustration by artist David Stone, all of which are original to this book.  (I’d like show scans of these images, but I don’t want to risk breaking the binding in my scanner!)

As for the stories themselves, I read “Surface Tension” some years ago, and found the premise to be quite innovative, though the “science” behind the story is another question!

Contents

“The Blast”, by Stuart Cloete, from Colliers, April, 1946

“Coventry”, by Robert A. Heinlein, from Astounding Science Fiction, July, 1940

“The Other World”, by Murray Leinster, from Startling Stories, November, 1949

“Barrier”, by Anthony Boucher, from Astounding Science Fiction, September, 1942

“Surface Tension”, by James Blish, from Galaxy Science Fiction, August, 1952

“Maturity”, by Theodore Sturgeon, from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1947

Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels, edited by Groff Conklin – November, 1960 [Richard M. Powers]

This colorful cover to a Groff Conklin 1960 anthology (one of his many anthologies) is a nice representation of Richard Powers’ work.  The layout of his cover design was probably designed to allow for open space for the names of Simak, MacLean, Merril, Asimov, Knight, and Budrys.  

On the cover?  The figure of an astronaut, set against an alien sky in hues of blue, green, and violet, with a few busy red stars in the background, occupies the center of the page.  Like many of the human figures featured in Powers’ science-fiction covers, on close inspection, the astronaut – carrying a long-something-or-other, actually resembles a medieval knight far more than a space explorer. 

The remainder of the cover is simpler:  There are three swirls of red, orange, and yellow (they look like they were done in water-color), while one of Powers’ trademark organic-looking metalloids floats in the upper left corner, perhaps examining the “DELL First Edition” logo.      

Notably, Katherine MacLean’s “Incommunicado” in the June, 1950, Astounding Science Fiction, was the subject of spectacular cover art by Ron Miller.

Contents

Introduction, by Groff Conklin

“Galley Slave”, by Isaac Asimov, from Galaxy Science Fiction, December, 1957

“Project Nursemaid”, by Judith Merril, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October, 1955

“Final Gentleman”, by Clifford D. Simak, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January, 1960

“Chain Reaction”, by Algis Budrys, from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1957

“Rule Golden”, by Damon Knight, from Science Fiction, Adventures, May, 1954

“Incommunicado”, by Katherine MacLean, from Astounding Science Fiction, June, 1950

Reference

Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels, at Internet Speculative Fiction Database

13 Great Stories of Science-Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin – 1960 [Richard M. Powers]

Contents

The War Is Over, by Algis Burdys, from Astounding Science Fiction, February, 1957

The Light, by Poul Anderson, from Galaxy Science Fiction, March, 1957

Compassion Circuit, by John Wyndham, from Fantastic Universe, December, 1954

Volpla, by Wyman Guin, from Galaxy Science Fiction, May, 1956

Silence, Please!, by Arthur C. Clarke, from Science Fantasy Magazine, Winter, 1950

Allegory, by William T. Powers, from Astounding Science Fiction, April, 1953

Soap Opera, by Alan Nelson, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, April, 1953

Shipping Clerk, by William Morrison, from Galaxy Science Fiction, June, 1952

Technological Retreat, by G.C. Edmondson, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May, 1956

The Analogues, by Damon Knight, from Astounding Science Fiction, January, 1952

The Available Data on The Worp Reaction, by Lion Miller, from The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September, 1953

The Skills of Xanadu, by Theodore Sturgeon, from Galaxy Science Fiction, July, 1958

The Machine, by Richard Gehman, from Collier’s, December, 14, 1946