The Big Time.
Fritz Leiber wrote The Big Time in late 1956 and early 1957, “in exactly a hundred days from first note to final typing finished,” he later recalled. He sent it to Horace Gold at Galaxy, who initially declined to publish it, thinking it too confusing for his readers. Gold later reconsidered, and the novel was printed in its entirety in Galaxy in March and April 1958. Though it won the 1958 Hugo Award on the basis of its inclusion in the magazine, the novel did not appear in book form until February 1961, when it was published by Ace Books in New York both as a separate paperback and as an “Ace Double,” with his thematically related collection The Mind Spider and Other Stories. Aside from some minor adjustments in layout and paragraphing, the text of the book editions is identical to the Galaxy text. Leiber wrote a new introduction to the novel for an edition published by Collier in New York in 1982, and he grouped it, with a number of other separately published works, as part of his “Change War” series, but he did not otherwise revise it. The text in the present volume has been taken from the first book edition of 1961. Leiber’s introduction is printed in the notes.
This volume presents the texts of the original printings chosen for inclusion here, but it does not attempt to reproduce nontextual features of their typographic design. The texts are reprinted without change, except for the correction of typographical errors. Spelling, punctuation, and capitalization are often expressive features and are not altered, even when inconsistent or irregular. The following is a list of typographical errors corrected, cited by page and line number: 12.13, Doc Scortia; 12.16, Scortia himself; 27.6, ‘Griil’; 47.31, have no; 54.38, Mitsubushi; 95.23, learned); 95.39, business! Then; 96.22, party; 96.25, party; 104.27, sides the; 121.27, stars; 132.20, imposter!; 158.25, citrous; 159.15, planets; 162.26, AS-128/127:006.; 165.29, your’s; 172.20, “Choose.”; 174.8, girl.”; 181.33, Not I rot; 185.34, Gillet,; 196.24–25, twenty-fourth; 204.27, salvagable.”; 209.37, No on; 213.9, become; 219.29, millenia; 220.3, girl,”; 225.12, “But; 227.8, threestory; 234.19, folly.; 247.38, Gully,”; 260.26, represion’s; 261.27, Fidelis.; 267.22, Pallos,; 269.39, you; 272.2, twenty-fourth; 279.11, ‘Vorga’,”; 282.8, ‘Vorga,’; 282.13, “But; 282.14, AS-128/127:006,; 285.29, then——; 289.27, wave lengths; 291.8, an pistol.’; 292.36, ‘Vorga’.”; 305.30, panic-stiken; 317.18, Michele (and passim); 332.28, Presteign,”; 334.4, It’s; 341.5, ‘Nomad’.”; 341.16, ‘Nomad’.”; 344.33, Jaunte Watch; 354.24, star-bubbles:; 364.14, choses; 369.33, Aldeberan; 370.1, Aldeberan; 384.9–10, van de Graaf; 387.18, Dali; 459.32, decades; 460.4, shelter (and passim); 474.9, slumps.); 496.33, thousand fold; 506.34, lhashin’.”); 510.22, know; 530.17, Tannhauser; 544.3, simultaniety; 548.36, 2047).; 551.3, earth,; 551.4, it [line space] did; 551.13, earth,; 552.32, appetite.); 553.14, Pleistocene.); 566.33, either— or; 582.13, “Damn it.”; 582.13, savagely,; 588.38, effected.; 590.31–32, everythng; 594.8, ino the; 595.15, seemd; 596.23, you.; 598.30, gas— fired; 601.19, It’ll; 602.17, over world; 602.33, voice,; 604.23, detroyed; 605.33, that wasn’t; 618.4, know; 628.27, doing.; 629.23, right, he; 629.25, up.”; 642.26, urgently,; 645.3, key.”; 645.25, DeFillipo; 657.11, Bridegton; 661.36, of hammer; 663.13, “twenty-one; 679.8, match-box; 687.25, “Don’t; 692.4, possible; 696.1, told to; 707.14, when,; 709.26, Leibchen:; 710.15, Leibchen,; 715.9, Merchant,; 719.2, soupcon; 720.11. —an; 722.15, and and; 722.17, the the; 723.16, “Heren; 723.40, to way; 724.39, us that; 726.27, before transferred; 730.24, Luan,; 731.17, instructor,; 739.7, year the; 739.22, Serpants,; 741.5, in Himmel,; 741.9, degress; 742.4, Gretta; 742.17, Intorversion’s; 743.19, saftey; 747.1, Fuhrerfashion.; 747.22, world; 754.29, Herzen in; 756.8, Besides; 756.23, “ “Ubivaytye; 767.5, was best; 768.31–32, smile locked; 770.35, ‘Thats; 776.1, fade ‘leave; 777.38, if her; 780.37, thought I; 781.12, Foster Now; 781.20, Spencer; 785.27, Dore; 785.31, secor; 786.8, Entainers; 787.6, know; 787.8, you skin; 787.24, unknow; 787.36, powered; 788.39, Martains; 789.32, mysef,; 796.22, trulland; 799.17, Undertand;”; 800.28, a a.
Notes
In the notes below, the reference numbers denote page and line of the present volume; the line count includes titles and headings but not blank lines. No note is made for material found in standard deskreference books. Quotations from the Bible are keyed to the King James Version. Quotations from Shakespeare are keyed to The Riverside Shakespeare, ed. G. Blakemore Evans (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1974). For additional information and references to other studies, see Hell’s Cartographers: Some Personal Histories of Science Fiction Writers, ed. Brian W. Aldiss and Harry Harrison (New York: Harper & Row, 1975); Mike Ashley, Transformations: The Story of Science Fiction Magazines from 1950 to 1970 (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2005); James Gifford, Robert A. Heinlein: A Reader’s Companion (Sacramento, CA: Nitrosyncretic Press, 2000); David Ketterer, Imprisoned in a Tesseract: The Life and Work of James Blish (Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1987); Barry N. Malzberg, Breakfast in the Ruins: Science Fiction in the Last Millennium (Riverdale, NY: Baen Publishing, 2007); William H. Patterson, Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Vol. 1 (New York: Tor, 2011); Robert Silverberg, Musings and Meditations: Reflections on Science Fiction, Science, and Other Matters (New York: Nonstop Press, 2011); Fritz Leiber: Critical Essays, ed. Benjamin Szumskyj (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, 2007); and Carolyn Wendell, Alfred Bester (Mercer Island, WA: Starmont House, 1982).
DOUBLE STAR
2.1 Henry and Catherine Kuttner] Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) and his wife Catherine (1911–1987) were both science fiction and fantasy writers, Catherine publishing mainly as C. L. Moore. After their marriage in 1940 they frequently collaborated.
3.12 Omar the Tentmaker] Colloquially, a maker of oversized clothes; originally a nickname for the Persian poet Omar Khayyám (1048–1131), and later the title of a novel (1899), a play (1914), and a movie (1922).
9.23 The Lambs Club] Club for theatrical professionals, established in New York City in 1874 after being founded in London in 1868 in honor of Charles and Mary Lamb.
12.13–16 Capek . . . Capek] Heinlein had originally named his character
819
“Doc Scortia,” after his friend Thomas N. Scortia, but later changed the name to Capek throughout the novel. He neglected to do so in these two instances, so the text of the first edition has been emended.
12.27 Burbage and Booth] Richard Burbage (1568–1619), English actor and associate of Shakespeare, and Edwin Booth (1833–1893), American Shakespearean actor.
14.23–24 true face . . . Alec Guinness.] Guinness (1914–2000) was known for altering his appearance for different roles, notably for the multiple roles in the film Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
15.10–11 Huey Long] Huey Pierce Long (1893–1935), governor of Louisiana from 1928 to 1932, was assassinated in 1935.
15.18 Factor’s #5 sallow] Max Factor (1872–1938) founded a cosmetics company known for its theatrical and film makeup, still in operation. 15.35 a punkin’ doin’s] A small rural fair or carnival.
23.35 Evangeline . . . Gabriel] Evangeline Bellefontaine and Gabriel Lajeunesse are tragically separated lovers in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s epic poem Evangeline, A Tale of Acadie (1847).
34.14 the lead in L’ Aiglon] Play (1900) by Edmond Rostand whose protagonist is Napoleon’s son.
34.17–18 how a man could go . . . in another man’s place] The reference is to Sydney Carton in Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities (1859). 39.26–27 giri and gimu] Japanese: duty and obligation.
39.33 Le Grand Guignol] Parisian theater, founded in 1897, specializing in realistically staged horror plays.
52.14 Goddard City] Likely named for American physicist and engineer Robert H. Goddard (1882–1945), a pioneer in early rocket design in the
1920s.
58.29–30 I. G. Farbenindustrie] German chemical and industrial conglomerate founded in 1925.
89.1–2 ‘Include me Out.’] The phrase is attributed to film producer Samuel Goldwyn (1879–1974), though he denied h
aving said it.
92.16 Farley] James A. Farley (1888–1976) was Franklin D. Roosevelt’s campaign manager in 1932 and 1936, and also served Roosevelt as postmaster general.
94.33 House of Orange] Royal family central to Netherlands history since its founding by Willem I, Prince of Orange (1533–1584); more precisely the House of Orange-Nassau.
97.19–21 ‘Government . . . words of Lincoln.] See the conclusion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address of November 19, 1863.
97.28 Uncle Remus] Storyteller invented by American journalist Joel Chandler Harris (1845–1908) for a popular series of tales from African American oral tradition, first collected in book form in 1881.
99.3–4 “Never give a sucker an even break”] Catchphrase of American comic actor W. C. Fields (1880–1946), who first used the line in the 1936 film Poppy and made it the title of his last major film in 1941.
105.15 “Kong Christian”] The Danish royal anthem, adopted in 1780.
105.23 “Ave, Imperator!”] Latin: Hail, emperor!
106.21–22 Habsburg lips and the Windsor nose] Thought to be identifying familial characteristics of the European House of Habsburg and the British House of Windsor.
114.12 “Weary Willie”] Sad-clown persona created by the circus performer Emmett Kelly (1898–1979).
114.26 the King’s Touch] The belief, in medieval England and France, that the king’s touch could cure scrofula (“the King’s Evil”).
129.30–31 “the cloud-capp’d . . . palaces,”] See Shakespeare, The Tempest, IV.i.152.
133.29 the Birkenhead Drill] H.M.S. Birkenhead, a British troopship, was wrecked off the coast of South Africa in 1852. The soldiers on board stood at attention as the ship sank, allowing women and children to board the lifeboats. The phrase “Birkenhead drill” was coined by Rudyard Kipling in his dialect poem “Soldier an’ Sailor Too” (1896).
137.26–27 wounded Lion of Lucerne] Sculpture in Lucerne, Switzerland, commemorating the Swiss Guards massacred at the Tuileries Palace during the French Revolution in 1792.
137.28 “The guard dies, but never surrenders.”] Phrase attributed to French general Pierre Cambronne (1770–1842), a commander of Napoleon’s Imperial Guard, at the battle of Waterloo. Cambronne denied saying it.
138.33 Cyrano] Cyrano de Bergerac, play (1897) by Edmond Rostand. 142.37 “Murder most foul”] See Shakespeare, Hamlet, I.v.27.
THE STARS MY DESTINATION
150.2 Truman M. Talley] Truman Macdonald Talley (b. 1925) was an editor at New American Library in New York during the 1950s, and would later publish books under his own imprint in association with St. Martin’s Press.
151.2–6 Tiger! Tiger! . . . Blake] See “The Tyger” in William Blake’s Songs of Experience (1794).
154.36 Charles Fort Jaunte] Charles Fort (1874–1932) was an American writer who compiled instances of anomalous phenomena in The Book of the Damned (1919) and other volumes.
156.15–16 Descartes . . . sum] René Descartes (1596–1650), French philosopher and mathematician, first proposed the formula “Je pense, donc je suis” (“I think, therefore I am”) in his Discourse on the Method (1637).
176.12–13 Etre entre . . . l’enclume.] French: Between the hammer and the anvil.
192.14 Louis Quinze] In the baroque style associated with the French King Louis XV (1710–1774).
192.30 Mencius] Meng Tzu, Confucian philosopher born in the fourth century bce, now commonly spelled Mengzi.
193.15 Shan-tung] A Chinese coastal province, now usually transliterated as Shandong.
196.24–25 twenty-fifth century] In both the British and American first editions of Bester’s novel, the text here reads “twenty-fourth century.” It has been emended to fit the date given elsewhere (on page 274 of the present volume) for Vorga’s encounter with Nomad, and other internal evidence.
199.26 Eumenides] Goddesses of vengeance in ancient Greek religion. 206.26 Gouffre Martel] Also known as Gouffre de Padirac; French cave in the department of Lot first explored by Édouard-Alfred Martel (1859–1938).
234.18–19 medieval ruin known as Fisher’s Folly.] Attempting to make Montauk the “Miami Beach of the North,” property developer Carl G. Fisher (1874–1939) constructed Montauk Manor (a Tudor-style resort hotel) and the Montauk Improvement Building (an office tower), beginning in 1926; the project went bankrupt in 1932.
251.2–10 With a heart . . . Tom-a-Bedlam] From “Tom o’Bedlam’s Song,” an anonymous poem originally preserved in a manuscript commonplace book (c. 1615) and later published with many variations; see, for instance, Westminster-drollery (1671–72). “Tom O’Bedlam” was a generic term for lunatic.
253.31 Mason & Dixon] Charles Mason (1728–1786) and Jeremiah Dixon (1733–1779), British surveyors best known for surveying a line that came to represent the demarcation between northern and southern states in the United States.
255.4 “Friends, Romans, Countrymen,”] Opening lines of Marc Antony’s funeral oration in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (c. 1599).
255.37 Le roi est mort] French: “The king is dead.”
256.19 Bloch’s “Das Sexual Leben”] Das Sexualleben unserer Zeit in seinen Beziehungen zur modernen Kultur (1906, translated as The Sexual Life of Our Time in Its Relations to Modern Civilization), an early cultural study of sexuality by German dermatologist Iwan Bloch (1872–1922).
261.31 bourgeois gentilhomme] Molière’s comedy Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (1670) concerns a prosperous merchant seeking social acceptance in aristocratic circles.
268.35 Toujours de l’audace!] Saying of French revolutionary leader Georges-Jacques Danton (1759–1794): “We need audacity, and yet more audacity, and always audacity!”
270.39–40 Rockne . . . Thorpe] Knute Rockne (1888–1931), football player and later coach at the University of Notre Dame; Jim Thorpe (1888–
1953), football player and later Olympic medalist.
272.2 twenty-fifth] See note 196.24–25.
273.27 Sinbad . . . Old Man of the Sea.] In the Thousand and One Nights, Sinbad on his fifth voyage is enslaved by the Old Man of the Sea, whom he must carry on his shoulders.
276.22–23 Dürer’s “Death and the Maiden”] Albrecht Dürer’s engraving “Young Woman Attacked by Death” (c. 1495) is one example of the “death and the maiden” motif in Renaissance art, but Dürer’s student Hans Baldung (1484–1545) produced several better-known examples, including the 1517 painting “Death and the Maiden.”
281.10–11 the view . . . Keats’s house] The poet John Keats (1795–1821), suffering from tuberculosis, moved into a villa beside the Spanish Steps in November 1820.
281.25–26 Cesare . . . Borgia] Cesare Borgia (c. 1476–1507) and Lucrezia Borgia (1480–1519) were scions of the powerful and notoriously corrupt house of Borgia.
354.24 star-bubbles.] In both the British and American first editions of Bester’s novel and probably also in Bester’s now-missing original typescript, “star-bubbles” is followed by a colon, prompting the expectation that Foyle’s exclamation will be presented as a typographic image. No such image appears, however, in any extant version of the text. In the present volume the colon has been replaced with a period.
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE
373.1 A CASE OF CONSCIENCE] Blish’s title refers to the casus conscientiae or “cases of conscience” found in classical textbooks of casuistry: case histories illustrating ethical issues, used in the education of confessors.
When his novel was published in England (London: Faber & Faber, 1959), Blish added the following foreword:
ances, sometimes) for being basically a merciful institution, I have assumed that by 2050 Extreme Unction will no longer be reserved.
This novel is not about Catholicism, but since its hero is a Catholic theologian it inevitably contains certain sticking points for those who subscribe to the doctrines of the Roman and to a lesser extent the Anglican churches. Readers who have no doctrinal preconceptions should not find these points even noticeable, let alone troublesome.
It was my assumption that the Roman Catholic Church of a century beyond our time will have undergone changes of custom and of doctrine, some minor and some major. The publication of this novel in America showed that Catholics were quite willing to allow me my Diet of Basra, my revival of the elegant argument from the navel to the geological record, and my jettisoning of the tonsure; but on two points they would not allow me to depart from what one may find in the Catholic Encyclopedia of 1945. (No scientist thus far has protested my jettisoning of special relativity in the year 2050.) These were:
(1) My assumption that by 2050 the rite of exorcism will be so thoroughly buried in the medieval past that even the Church will teach it to its priests only perfunctorily—so perfunctorily that even a Jesuit might overlook it in a situation which in any event hardly suggests that exorcism would be even minimally appropriate. Yet even today nonCatholics generally do not believe that exorcism survives in the Church; it seems even more primitive and outré than habits and tonsures, which were frozen into Church usage at about the same time, i.e. the thirteenth century. In that period, too, it was commonplace to ring blessed bells to dispel thunderstorms; that has not survived; I think it is reasonable to assume that exorcism will be, officially, only a vestige by 2050.
American Science Fiction Five Classic Novels 1956-58 Page 91