6 GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF SCIENCE FICTION (1954) edited by Groff Conklin

For this post, we have an anthology, this one from 1954. It's another from one of the old dependables and one of my own personal favourite anthologists, Groff Conklin.

This anthology is a paperback, published by Dell, one of their Dell First Edition range, number D9, to be precise. It's billed as "six short novels by six masters of imaginative storytelling". One of the six is a long novella (98 pages), and the other five are all short novellas, and one long novelette, spanning 49-58 pages in length, from shortest story to longest.

 

TITLE: 6 GREAT SHORT NOVELS OF SCIENCE FICTION
EDITED BY: Groff Conklin
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Anthology
FORMAT: Paperback, 384 pages
PUBLISHER: Dell First Edition, New York, 1954.

CONTENTS (6 Stories)

• Introduction by Groff Conklin
• "The Blast" by Stuart Cloete (novella, Collier's, April 1946)
• "Coventry" by Robert A. Heinlein (novella, Astounding Science Fiction, July 1940)
• "The Other World" by Murray Leinster (novella, Startling Stories, November 1949)
• "Barrier" by Anthony Boucher (novella, Astounding Science Fiction, September 1942)
• "Surface Tension" by James Blish (novelette, Galaxy, August 1952)
• "Maturity" by Theodore Sturgeon (novella, Astounding Science Fiction, February 1947)

The first story, "The Blast", is a bit of an oddity, as it's by a writer that I've never heard of, Stuart Cloete, and it didn't even appear in one of the science fiction magazines, but rather in an April 1946 edition of Collier's, one of the big mass market, general magazines, which was published in the US between 1888 and 1957.

The other five stories are all from science fiction magazines, Astounding, Galaxy and Startling Stories, and all spanning the years 1940-1952. I'm familiar with three of them (Leinster, Boucher and Blish), and they're old favourites of mine, although it's many years since I've read any of them. The titles of the Heinlein and Sturgeon stories vaguely ring a bell for me, so I may or may not have read them at some point in distant past, but I recall absolutely nothing about them.

Quite an interesting anthology of stories. Should be fun reading this one.

SCIENCE FICTION edited by S. H. Burton

TITLE: SCIENCE FICTION
EDITED BY: S. H. Burton
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Anthology
FORMAT: Hardback, 245 pages
PUBLISHER: Longman, The Heritage of Literature Series, London, 1967.

CONTENTS:

• Introduction by S. H. Burton
• "Requiem" by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science Fiction, January 1940)
• "A Present from Joe" by Eric Frank Russell (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1949)
• "Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed" by Ray Bradbury (Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1949, as "The Naming of Names")
• "Protected Species" by H. B. Fyfe (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951)
• "The New Wine" by John Christopher (Fantastic Story Magazine, Summer 1954)
• "Nightfall" by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1941)
• "The Windows of Heaven" by John Brunner (New Worlds, May 1956, as "Two by Two")
• "Youth" by Isaac Asimov (Space Science Fiction, May 1952)
• "The Star" by Arthur C. Clarke (Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955)

This is an unusual little book, a very small hardcover, only the size of a paperback. It's also interesting in that it was published as part of Longmans' prestige "The Heritage of Literature Series", rather than as a commercial SF paperback or hardback. This series seems to be more of an academic line, covering not only science fiction, but detective fiction and general short fiction. Very interesting.

It's a fairly short anthology, and there are a few classic, well-known stories by big name authors, which have seen publication previously in many anthologies and single-author collections - Heinlein's "Requiem", Bradbury's "Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed", Asimov's "Nightfall" and Clarke's "The Star". It's always nice to re-read these excellent stories, especially if you haven't read them for a while.

There are also several stories, by familiar authors, which are not so well known - Asimov's "Youth", Russell's "A Present from Joe", Brunner's "The Windows of Heaven" and Christopher's "The New Wine". And finally, there is also a story by an author with whom I'm totally unfamiliar, although I have seen his name in old magazine listings - H. B. Fyfe's "Protected Species". I haven't read this one (or anything by this author) before.

I've started reading this anthology with the least familiar, so right now I'm part way through Fyfe's "Protected Species", which is quite a good story, at least so far. It'll be interesting to see where it leads. After that, I'll move onto the other stories that I haven't read before, although the author's ARE familiar to me - Russell, Brunner and Christopher. And I'll finally finish off by re-reading the biggies from Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury.

As this anthology is short, it shouldn't take me very long to finish it. I'm off to read the rest of "Protected Species"...