The story allowed me to draw on my own Shakespearean experiences and (once planned—it began as a modern tale of an agoraphobic young woman who literally lived in a dressing room, no Change War or science fantasy at all as first conceived) was remarkably quick in being written—ten days as I recall.
I’m still trying to write the sequel to that one—and still hope to do so one day; at least it’s one of my penultimate projects.
703.2–6 When shall we three . . . Macbeth] See Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.i.1–4.
703.13 immortal film star] Greta Garbo (1905–1990).
707.15 Gott sei Dank?] German: Thank God?
707.20 Weibischer Engländer!] German: Sissy Englishman!
707.22 Schlange!] German: Snake!
712.5 Oberst] German military rank equivalent to Colonel.
713.10–11 Diaghilev . . . Ballet Russe] Sergei Diaghilev (1872–1929), known as Serge, founded the Ballets Russes in 1909.
713.14–16 Last week in Babylon . . . Hodgson] From the poem “Time, you Old Gipsy Man” in Ralph Hodgson’s 1917 Poems.
717.35 Nichevo] Russian: “Nothing,” or “it can’t be helped.”
719.14 Passchendaele in ’17] Campaign fought in July–November 1917 near Ypres, Belgium, between Allied and German forces and ending with the capture of the village of Passchendaele.
720.2 Halt’s Maul] German: Shut up.
722.13–20 Hell is the place . . . Aucassin] From the anonymous medieval romance Aucassin and Nicolette (c. late twelfth or early thirteenth century).
723.5 “Omnia mutantur . . . illis,”] A version of the Latin adage Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis, meaning, “Times change, and we change with them,” first published in the anthology Delitiæ Poetarum Germanorum (1612) by Matthias Borbonius (1566–1629), who presents it as a saying of Emperor Lothair I.
726.11–12 ungeheuerlich] German: monstrous.
728.2–5 De Bailhache . . . Eliot] See T. S. Eliot, “Gerontion” (1920), lines 67–69.
729.36 petsofa] In the manner of Minoan figurines (c. 2700–1450 bce) from the Petsofas or Petsofa hill sanctuary in eastern Crete.
732.25–29 When I take up a newspaper . . . Ibsen] From act 2 of the play Ghosts (1881), by Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906).
733.11 Muskrat Ramble] Jazz composition (1926) by Edward “Kid” Ory (1886–1973).
734.36–37 Svengali to her Trilby] Characters from novel Trilby (1894) by George du Maurier (1834–1896).
735.2 Reichswehr] German national defense force, 1919–35. In 1935 it was renamed the Wehrmacht.
735.4 hetaera] Courtesan.
735.13 Panther Rag] Jazz composition (1928) by Earl “Fatha” Hines (1903–1983).
736.2–6 Maiden, Nymph, and Mother . . . Graves] See Robert Graves’s novel The Golden Fleece (1944), published in the United States as Hercules, My Shipmate (1945).
740.2–10 After about 0.1 millisecond . . . Los Alamos] From A Program for the Nonmilitary Defense of the United States, published by the National Planning Association in 1955.
741.33 meretrix] Latin: prostitute.
747.22–23 Give me a place . . . Archimedes] Archimedes’s comment on the lever, as quoted by Pappus of Alexandria in Synagoge, book VIII (c. 340 ce).
749.11 Greek fire] An incendiary substance used in Byzantine naval battles.
749.30–31 the Summa . . . Process and Reality] The Summa Theologica (c. 1265–74) of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274); the Einstein field equations (1915) describing the curvature of spacetime; and Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology (1929), by English mathematician and philosopher Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947).
752.33 Um Gottes willen] German: For heaven’s sake.
754.29–30 zwei Herzen im dreivierteltakt] “Zwei Herzen im Dreiviertel Takt” (“Two Hearts in Three-Quarter Time”) was a song in the 1930 German screen operetta of the same name; Géza von Bolváry (1897–1961) directed the film, and Robert Stolz (1880–1975) wrote the music.
754.37 maricón] Spanish: homosexual (pejorative).
757.8–15 “We examined the moss . . . Poe] See “The Purloined Letter” (1844), by Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849).
763.10–14 My thought . . . Macbeth] See Shakespeare, Macbeth, I.iii. 139–142.
768.20–26 The barrage roars . . . Sassoon] From the poem “Attack,” in Counter-Attack and Other Poems (1918), by Siegfried Sassoon (1886–1967). 773.25 W.C.T.U.] Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
773.31–35 Now is a bearable burden . . . Anonymous] A quotation probably of Leiber’s invention.
776.1–2 ‘leave not a rack behind.’] See Shakespeare, The Tempest, IV.i.156.
776.12 ‘Come, my friends . . . world’] See Alfred Tennyson, “Ulysses” (1833), lines 56–57.
778.27 Götterdämmerung] Opera (1876) by Richard Wagner, the last of the four operas in the Ring cycle.
779.2 Kinder, Kirche, Küche] German: Children, Church, Kitchen. A late nineteenth-century slogan defining the limits of women’s social roles. 779.35 “Loki!”] Norse trickster deity described in the thirteenth-century Poetic Edda, sometimes termed the Elder Edda.
780.9 “Omnia vincit amor.”] Latin: Love conquers all. See Virgil, Eclogues, X.69 (c. 39–38 bce).
781.16–19 But whence he was . . . Spenser] See Edmund Spenser’s epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590–96), IV.7.7.
785.28 Doré illustration of the Inferno] Gustave Doré (1832–1883) published his engraved illustrations of Dante’s Inferno in 1857. The Purgatorio and Paradiso followed in 1867.
786.4–5 Like diamonds . . . Webster] From John Webster’s play The Duchess of Malfi (1613), V.v.87.
790.22–23 black legged spiders . . . Marquis] From the poem “archy declares war,” in archy and mehitabel (1927), by Don Marquis (1878–1937).
793.32 Burbage] See note 12.27.
796.27–30 “Familiar with infinite universe . . . Heinlein] From Robert A. Heinlein’s novel Between Planets (1951).
798.35 Nell Gwyn] Eleanor Gwyn (1650–1687), English actress and mistress of Charles II.
798.38 “Tonight’s the Night”] Rock ’n’ roll song recorded by Bill Haley & His Comets in 1956.
799.14–17 Rupert Brooke . . . Men who Understand;”] See lines
74–77 of Rupert Brooke’s poem “The Old Vicarage, Grantchester,” written in
1912.
800.17 “Omnia mutantur, nihil interit.”] See Ovid’s Metamorphoses, book XV (8 ce).
801.16–23 four orders of life . . . possibility-binders] In his Manhood of Humanity: The Science and Art of Human Engineering (1921), Polish-American philosopher Alfred Korzybski (1879–1950) describes the first three of these orders; the fourth is Leiber’s invention.
802.40–803.1 “Limehouse Blues”] Popular song (1922) by Douglas Furber (1885–1961) and Philip Braham (1881–1934).
Table of Contents
American Science Fiction FIVE CLASSIC NOVELS 1956–1958
Contents
Online Companion
DOUBLE STAR
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
THE STARS MY DESTINATION
Part 1
Prologue
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Part 2
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
A CASE OF CONSCIENCE
Pronunciation Key
book one
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
book two
X
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
APPENDIX
WHO?
Chapter One
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
1.
2.
Chapter Four
1.
2.
Chapter Five
1.
2.
3.
4.
Chapter Six
1.
2.
Chapter Seven
1.
2.
3.
Chapter Eight
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Chapter Nine
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
1.
2.
3.
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
1.
2.
THE BIG TIME
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
Biographical Notes
Note on the Texts
Notes
American Science Fiction Five Classic Novels 1956-58 Page 93