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Fiction
Theodore R. Cogswell
(custom book cover)
Jerry eBooks
About Theodore Rose Cogswell
“Introducing the Author”
Bibliography
Short Fiction Bibliography: chronological
Short Fiction Bibliography: alphabetical
Short Fiction Series
1952
THE SPECTER GENERAL
THE CABBAGE PATCH
1953
THE SHORT COUNT
THE OTHER CHEEK
MINIMUM SENTENCE
EMERGENCY RATIONS
THE WALL AROUND THE WORLD
1954
WOLFIE
LOVER BOY
LIMITING FACTOR
THE MASTERS
BARRIER
THE BIG STINK
DISASSEMBLY LINE
CONTACT POINT
INVASION REPORT
CONVENTIONAL ENDING
MR HOSKIN’S BLASTING ROD
1955
TEST AREA
TRAINING DEVICE
NO GUN TO THE VICTOR
MEDDLER’S WORLD
1956
THREESIE
IMPACT WITH THE DEVIL
1957
YOU KNOW WILLIE
ACES LOADED
1958
PAIN REACTION
A SPUDGET FOR THWILBERT
THIMGS
ONE TO A CUSTOMER
1960
THE BURNING
1961
MACHINE RECORD
RADIATION BLUES
BLOWUP BLUES
1962
PRISONER OF LOVE
THE MAN WHO KNEW GRODNIK
THE ROPER
1973
PARADISE REGAINED
EARLY BIRD
PROBABILITY ZERO!: THE POPULATION IMPLOSION
1975
PLAYERS AT NULL-G
GRANDFATHER CLAUSE
1981
DEAL WITH THE D.E.V.I.L
Theodore Rose Cogswell was born on March 10, 1918 in Coatesville, Pennsylvania was an university English professor who began publishing science fiction in 1950s.
During the Spanish Civil War, as a teenager, served as an ambulance driver for the Republicans as part of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade.
His first published short story, “The Spectre General” in the magazine June 1952 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, was a humorous tale in which a long-forgotten maintenance brigade of the Imperial Space Marines has the potential of reinvigorating a declining Galactic empire.
Theodore Cogswell wrote over 40 science fiction stories, most of them humorous, and was co-author of Spock, Messiah!; a novel of the Star Trek franchise.
In 1959, he founded and edited a Fanzine for professional writers called Publications of the Institute of Twenty-First Century Studies but universally pronounced PITFCS; it ran to the end of 1962, though with a final number in 1979 (mostly containing material from 1962); it became quickly famed for the informative frankness of its contributors’ discussions of their own and others’ work, its most frequent contributors including Brian W Aldiss, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, James Blish, Anthony Boucher, Reginald Bretnor, Algis Budrys, John W Campbell Jr, Arthur C Clarke, Avram Davidson, Gordon R Dickson, Horace L Gold, Robert A Heinlein, Damon Knight, Fritz Leiber, Dean McLaughlin, Judith Merril, Frederik Pohl, Eric Frank Russell, Theodore Sturgeon and Donald W Wollheim. Its niche as a forum for uninhibited semi-private discussion was arguably filled by the internal Forum of Science Fiction Writers of America, founded in 1965. The entire contents of the journal—except for one issue dealing with a particularly ugly controversy involving Walter M Miller—were eventually assembled in a single huge volume as PITFCS: Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies.
Theodore Cogswell died on February 3, 1987 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Introducing the AUTHOR
«
Theodore R. Cogswell
«
THE birthing was normal, so were the next ten years. I came along in the last year of the last war before the war before last in that pre-atomic era when the only mutational agents around were old-fashioned cosmic rays. As a result there was almost a complete dearth of telepaths and espers in the various Pennsylvania, Minnesota, New York and Ohio neighborhoods I successively inhabited. There were, of course, Tarzan and John Carter, but there weren’t enough accounts around of the exploits of either to offer a major distraction. On the whole I conducted myself in a manner calculated to reflect credit on American Boyhood. Until it happened, that is.
I don’t remember whether it was an AIR WONDER or a SCIENCE WONDER, but by the time I reached page eighteen I was hooked. After that I went through the usual stages of addiction, just a poor innocent kid who didn’t realize what was happening to him. By the time Campbell’s ASTOUNDING came arcing over the horizon I was already a confirmed main liner.
Shortly after I got out of high school, I took off for Europe and knocked around there for a year and a half. When I finally came wandering home I found that the science fiction habit—and the depression—was still with me. The next few years found me in and out of the University of Colorado. the quantative relationship between the out and in being best indicated by two dates—I started my undergraduate work in 1939; I finally got my B.A. in English in 1948. Part of the out time was spent on the usual string of odd, short term, and low paying jobs that the flesh of writers seems particularly heir to, the rest was spent with the Air Force in the CBI as a statistical control officer.
I got into writing the same way that I did into teaching, by a series of happy accidents, acquiring one wife, two children, and three motorcycles along the way. Shortly after I took a job as an instructor at the University of Minnesota (an excellent institution except for one thing—there was really no place in the English curriculum for a specialist in 21st Century Lit.) I met Poul Anderson and Gordon Dickson.
“I have a wonderful idea for a story!” I said (For years I’d been having wonderful ideas for stories. The problem, of course, was to find somebody to handle the minor chore of writing them down.) After letting me buy several more rounds they came up with a brilliant suggestion, “Go write it,” they said. So I did. Somebody bought it. So I wrote another. Somebody bought that too. So I kept on. And that’s how I become a pusher.
At the moment I have a pleasant job in a pleasant barely-southern university which is surrounded on three sides by horse farms and on the fourth by basketball players. Life is ideal.
—Theodore R. Cogswell
Originally appeared in Imagination Science Fiction, October 1955
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Novels
Spock, Messiah! (1976) with Charles A. Spano, Jr.
Magazine-published Novels
The Other Cheek, Science Fiction Adventures, May 1953
Meddler’s World, Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1955
Collections
The Wall Around the World (1962)
The Third Eye (1968)
The First Theodore R. Cogswell Megapack (2014)
Nonfiction
PITFCS: Proceedings of the Institute for Twenty-First Century Studies (1992)
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
CHRONOLOGICAL
1949
Dark Renascence, Astra’s Tower #3, July 1949
1952
The Specter General, Astounding Science Fiction, June 1952
The Cabbage Patch, Perspe
ctive, Fall 1952
1953
The Short Count, Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, January 1953
The Other Cheek, Science Fiction Adventures, May 1953
Minimum Sentence, Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953
Emergency Rations, Imagination, September 1953
The Wall Around the World, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, September 1953
1954
Wolfie, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, January 1954
Lover Boy, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, March 1954
Limiting Factor, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1954
The Masters, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Summer, June 1954
Barrier, Science Fiction Stories #2, June 1954
The Big Stink, If, July 1954
Disassembly Line, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, July 1954
Contact Point, If, August 1954
Invasion Report, Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1954
Conventional Ending, Future Science Fiction, October 1954
Mr. Hoskin’s Blasting Rod, Fantastic Universe, November 1954
1955
Test Area, Fantastic Universe, February 1955
Training Device, Imagination, March 1955
No Gun to the Victor, Imagination, October 1955
Meddler’s World, Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1955
1956
Threesie, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1956
Impact with the Devil, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1956
1957
You Know Willie, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1957
Aces Loaded, Venture Science Fiction, July 1957
1958
Pain Reaction, Super-Science Fiction, April 1958
A Spudget for Thwilbert, Fantastic Universe, April 1958
Thimgs, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1958
One to a Customer, Super-Science Fiction, June 1958
1959
Anniversary Present, The Saint Mystery Magazine, December 1959
1960
[limerick], Amra #9 1960
The Golden People, Rogue, June 1960
The Burning, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1960
1961
Machine Record, Science Fiction Adventures, No. 20, May 1961
Radiation Blues, The 6th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, October 1961
Blowup Blues, The 6th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, October 1961
1962
Prisoner of Love, The Wall Around the World, February 1962
The Man Who Knew Grodnik, Science Fantasy #53, June 1962
The Roper, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1962
1973
Faex Delenda Est, The Year’s Best Science Fiction No. 6, 1973
Paradise Regained, Saving Worlds, July 1973
Early Bird, Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, November 1973
Probability Zero! The Population Implosion, Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, November 1973
1975
Players at Null-G, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1975
Grandfather Clause, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1975
1981
Deal with the D.E.V.I.L., Fantasy Book, December 1981
1983
Warning, Fantasy Book, May 1983
1989
The Friggin Falcon, Heads to the Storm, November 1989
SHORT FICTION BIBLIOGRAPHY
ALPHABETICAL
#
[limerick], Amra #9 1960
A
A Spudget for Thwilbert, Fantastic Universe, April 1958
Aces Loaded, Venture Science Fiction, July 1957
Anniversary Present, The Saint Mystery Magazine, December 1959
B
Barrier, Science Fiction Stories #2, June 1954
The Big Stink, If, July 1954
Blowup Blues, The 6th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, October 1961
The Burning, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1960
The Cabbage Patch, Perspective, Fall 1952
C
Contact Point, If, August 1954
Conventional Ending, Future Science Fiction, October 1954
D
Dark Renascence, Astra’s Tower #3, July 1949
Deal with the D.E.V.I.L., Fantasy Book, December 1981
Disassembly Line, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, July 1954
E
Early Bird, Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, November 1973
Emergency Rations, Imagination, September 1953
F
Faex Delenda Est, The Year’s Best Science Fiction No. 6, 1973
The Friggin Falcon, Heads to the Storm, November 1989
G
The Golden People, Rogue, June 1960
Grandfather Clause, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, September 1975
I
Impact with the Devil, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1956
Invasion Report, Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1954
L
Limiting Factor, Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1954
Lover Boy, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, March 1954
M
Machine Record, Science Fiction Adventures, No. 20, May 1961
The Man Who Knew Grodnik, Science Fantasy #53, June 1962
The Masters, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Summer, June 1954
Meddler’s World, Science Fiction Quarterly, November 1955
Minimum Sentence, Galaxy Science Fiction, August 1953
Mr. Hoskin’s Blasting Rod, Fantastic Universe, November 1954
N
No Gun to the Victor, Imagination, October 1955
O
One to a Customer, Super-Science Fiction, June 1958
The Other Cheek, Science Fiction Adventures, May 1953
P
Pain Reaction, Super-Science Fiction, April 1958
Paradise Regained, Saving Worlds, July 1973
Players at Null-G, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, July 1975
Prisoner of Love, The Wall Around the World, February 1962
Probability Zero! The Population Implosion, Astounding: John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology, November 1973
R
Radiation Blues, The 6th Annual of the Year’s Best S-F, October 1961
The Roper, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1962
S
The Short Count, Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, January 1953
The Specter General, Astounding Science Fiction, June 1952
T
Test Area, Fantastic Universe, February 1955
Thimgs, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1958
Threesie, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1956
Training Device, Imagination, March 1955
W
The Wall Around the World, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, September 1953
Warning, Fantasy Book, May 1983
Wolfie, Beyond Fantasy Fiction, January 1954
Y
You Know Willie, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, May 1957
SHORT FICTION SERIES
Kurt Dixon
The Specter General
Early Bird
1952
THE SPECTER GENERAL
Normally, a colony is a fairly balanced miniature of its civilization, and acts pretty much like the civilization. But some most peculiar results can come from an isolated military base!
I.
“Sergeant Dixon!”
Kurt stiffened. He knew that voice. Dropping the handles of the wooden plow, he gave a quick “rest” to the private and a polite “by your leave, sir” to the lieutenant who were yoked together in double harness. They both sank gratefully to the ground as Kurt advanced to meet the approaching officer.
Marc
us Harris, the commander of the 427th Light Maintenance Battalion of the Imperial Space Marines, was an imposing figure. The three silver eagle feathers of a full colonel rose proudly from his war bonnet and the bright red of the flaming comet insignia of the Space Marines that was painted on his chest stood out sharply against his sun-blackened, leathery skin. As Kurt snapped to attention before him and saluted, the colonel surveyed the fresh turned earth with an experienced eye.
“You plow a straight furrow, soldier!” His voice was hard and metallic but it seemed to Kurt that there was a concealed glimmer of approval in his flinty eyes. Dixon flushed with pleasure and drew his broad shoulders back a little farther.
The commander’s eyes flicked down to the battle-ax that rested snugly in its leather holster at Kurt’s side. “You keep a clean sidearm, too.”
Kurt uttered a silent prayer of thanksgiving that he had worked over his weapon before reveille that morning until there was a satin gloss to its redwood handle and the sheen of black glass to its obsidian head.
“In fact,” said Colonel Harris, “you’d be officer material if—” His voice trailed off.
“If what?” asked Kurt eagerly.
“If,” said the colonel with a note of paternal fondness in his voice that sent cold chills dancing down Kurt’s spine, “you weren’t the most completely unmanageable, undisciplined, over-muscled and under-brained knucklehead I’ve ever had the misfortune to have in my command. This last little unauthorized jaunt of yours indicates to me that you have as much right to sergeant’s stripes as I have to have kittens. Report to me at ten tomorrow! I personally guarantee that when I’m through with you—if you live that long—you’ll have a bare forehead!”
Colonel Harris spun on one heel and stalked back across the dusty plateau toward the walled garrison that stood at one end. Kurt stared after him for a moment and then turned and let his eyes slip across the wide belt of lush green jungle that surrounded the high plateau. To the north rose a great range of snowcapped mountains and his heart filled with longing as he thought of the strange and beautiful thing he had found behind them. Finally he plodded slowly back to the plow, his shoulders stooped and his head sagging. With an effort he recalled himself to the business at hand.
“Up on your dying feet, soldier!” he barked to the reclining private.
Collected Fiction Page 1