Modern Masterpieces of Science Fiction
Edited and with an Introduction by
Sam Moskowitz
THE WORLD PUBLISHING COMPANY
1965
Contents
Introduction Sam Moskowitz
The Vortex Blasters by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
Night by John W. Campbell
A Logic Named Joe by Murray Leinster
Requiem by Edmond Hamilton
With Folded Hands by Jack Williamson
Adaptation by John Wyndham
The Witness by Eric Frank Russell
The Command by L. Sprague de Camp
Kindness by Lester del Rey
"...We Also Walk Dogs" by Robert A. Heinlein
The Enchanted Village by A. E. van Vogt
Liar! by Isaac Asimov
Microcosmic God by Theodore Sturgeon
Huddling Place by Clifford D. Simak
Coming Attraction by Fritz Leiber
Doorway Into Time by C. L. Moore
We Guard the Black Planet! by Henry Kuttner
The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton by Robert Bloch
Wake for the Living by Ray Bradbury
Before Eden by Arthur C. Clarke
Mother by Philip Jose Farmer
INTRODUCTION
MODERN science fiction, among the insiders in the field, is a phrase that refers to a readily identifiable change in the format of the science fiction story, which was begun in 1938 and was readily apparent by the middle of 1939. The revolutionary was John W. Campbell, who not only for-cibly moved this branch of fiction in the direction in which he wanted it to go but under the name of Don A. Stuart had previously written prototypes of the kind of stories he had in mind.
Campbell's "Modern" (When "modern" is used in quotes at certain places in the text it is not intended to denigrate, but to recognize that "modem" science fiction is more than a quarter of a century old.) science fiction laid special em-phasis on certain things:
The way stories were written. He demanded a much higher degree of sophistication in the average story he pub-lished than had generally been true of science fiction. This applied not only to the stylistic proficiency but also to the manner in which ideas were introduced. Indirection became a characteristic of the literary method of modern science fiction. It has been said, with some justice, that what science fiction called "good writing" merely followed the main-stream vogue of the thirties and that even today, 26 years later, "modern" science fiction reads more like the SATUR-DAY EVENING POST and COSMOPOLITAN of the depression era that avant garde fiction.
Greater emphasis on the psychological. How would the people of tomorrow's world be affected by the inevitable technological and social changes? What would their everyday behavior be like under such radically changed circumstances? What situations would provide drama in the innumerable fabricated futures to come?
The importance of philosophy on cultural action. Every civilization lives according to a certain firm or diffuse philosophy. Evaluation was to be given not only to the future phi-losophies of man, but to the bizarre and infinite hypothetical philosophies of alien creatures.
The exploration of the possibility of strange powers in various members of the human race. Most directly involved were humans who were a physical or mental mutation, but comprehensively telepathy, levitation, teleportation, telekin-esis were embraced as well as the entire gamut of what have become known as Fortean phenomena—the catalogue of inexplicable happenings which Charles Fort believed diso-beyed the "laws" of science.
A broadening of the policies of science fiction to include not only social protest of politics, business, war and Western civilization's mores (to which it had always been recep-tive) but protest and criticism of religion, which had been, like sex, carefully sidestepped. Modern science fiction later extended its scope to cover sex, but not through Campbell, who did not care to run stories on that subject in the pages of his magazine.
This did not rule out the exploration of future technology, particularly atomic power, but such themes proved to be in the distinct minority. Science fiction became less interested in illuminating the road of science than in circling like a trapped moth around the hypnotic lure of literary pretension.
All these elements had been present in science fiction pre-viously, but their appearance was haphazard. Campbell knew what goals he had in mind and the circumstances made it possible for him to get authors to conform to his desires.
Though there were many markets opening up for science fiction writers in 1939, as new titles multiplied, the country was still very much in a state of financial depression and an editor could command many willing typewriters. ASTOUND-ING SCIENCE FICTION was the leading magazine in sales and prestige when Campbell took over. It consistently paid top rates (which was one cent a word and slightly up). While other science fiction magazines also listed one cent a word as their rate in WRITERS DIGEST, it often was less for the longer lengths, particularly novels, and payment was not always on acceptance.
Campbell tirelessly fed writers ideas, not only for plots, but for unique approaches to a theme. He demanded and got elaborate rewrites. He also represented the largest monthly market for wordage, purchasing between ASTOUND-ING SCIENCE-FICTION and a fantasy-oriented companion magazine, UNKNOWN, nearly 200,000 words. Pleasing Campbell was good business.
Campbell also had the good fortune to assume editorship at the very onset of a new wave of popularity for science fiction. The profitable sales of a magazine titled MARVEL. SCIENCE STORIES, whose first issue, dated August, 1938, I it appeared on the newsstands May 9, 1938) caused the pulp companies, who by and large were convinced that science fiction was not properly commercial, to take special notice. When AMAZING STORIES, the field's first magazine, beginning publication with its issue dated April, 1926, was sold to Ziff-Davis (June, 1938 issue), and quickly be-gan to climb in circulation, the rush got underway.
All these factors made it possible for one man to shape the nature of the stories the science fiction writers would produce and thereby command the direction of the field. He gathered round him in only two years, a cadre of crack talent that a quarter of a century later would still be dominating the world of science fiction.
His loudest gun, however, was still the old-time favorite Edward E. Smith, Ph. D., who had created a sensation with The Skylark of Space in 1928, a story which moved science fiction out of the confines of the solar system, and whose Grey Lensman for ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION in 1939 presented a thrilling picture of an entire galaxy patrolled by a very special type of police.
The adaptable Jack Williamson, who had initially gained popularity imitating A. Merritt, proved he also belonged in the forefront of changing science fiction, but other than these veterans, the early phase of the science fiction revolution was predominantly the work of new recruits.
Campbell had been hired as editor of ASTOUNDING STO RIES by F. Orlin Tremaine in 1937. Tremaine had taken control of the virtually defunct title in late 1933 and, in a brilliant drive, had made it the indisputable field leader by 1935. However, through 1936 and 1937 the average quality of the material not only declined, but frequently verged on dullness, though three authors discovered in 1937 and 1938—Eric Frank Russell, L. Sprague de Camp and Lester del Rey—were to play an important part in the revival of science fiction. In 1939 Campbell discovered
A. E. van Vogt, Robert A. Heinlein and Theodore Sturgeon, and took Isaac Asimov under his wing. These were to prove the real sluggers in his literary batting lineup.
While an occasional work by these men appeared else. where, Campbell generally got first look at everything and to all practical purposes had
exclusive use of their talents. This scarcely disturbed the competition who had the' bulk of previous favorites to draw upon. If Campbell wanted to hold his fledglings to his bosom that was his affair. Other direc-tions in science fiction were proving at least as profitable for them without all the effort Campbell was expending.
Leading contemporary science fiction magazines included AMAZING STORIES, now under the editorship of Raymond A. Palmer, hewing to a policy of elementary science fiction, simply told, with virtually no attempt at sophistication or a high order of originality. There was a market for such a magazine and it pushed ahead of ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION in circulation.
When taunted by this fact, as a counter to the wisdom of his editorial stance, Campbell, instead of becoming dis-turbed, asserted that he was highly pleased. His claim was that ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION was tailored for a more mature audience. It no longer published the elementary type of science fiction that could attract the youngsters. It was therefore essential that such magazines as AMAZING STORIES existed and prospered, he contended, because they would graduate readers to ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION.
Just as medical specialists needed general practitioners to refer patients to them, ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION needed publications featuring elementary stories with wide appeal to recruit new readership.
If Campbell's theory was correct, the science fiction field was ideally set up for him, because while AMAZING printed the most basic science fiction, Standard Publications, with THRILLING WONDER STORIES, STARTLING STORIES and CAPTAIN FUTURE, provided a stepladder effect by appealing to the teenagers. Their mainstays were the big names of the thirties: Eando Binder, Manly Wade Wellman, John Russell Fearn, Frank Belknap Long, Jack Williamson and Edmond Hamilton. STARTLING STORIES ran a complete novel each issue as well as a hall-of-fame reprint, and on an action level was an excellent value for fifteen cents. CAPTAIN FUTURE was a character magazine, doing for science fiction what THE SHADOW did for the detective story, and was pegged for average ages of 14 and below.
There was also a sense of nostalgia and a collecting instinct among science fiction readers that had not been generally catered to until Munsey issued a magazine of reprints titled Famous FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, devoted at fait to famous fantasies from the old ARGOSY, ALL-STORY and CAVALIER. Big name authors of an era preceding the first science fiction magazine in 1926 paraded across the contents pages of its issues: A. Merritt, George Allan England, Austin Hall, Charles
B. Stilson, Victor Rousseau, Homer Eon Flint and Ray Cummings. Their style and their plots were in the Edgar Rice Burroughs tradition of the scien-tific romance. They represented pure escape, with adventures on other worlds, in lost valleys and unknown dimensions with rich and colorful thrills and a strange but lovely princess frequently the reward of heroic exertions. This magazine also found a solid audience.
As titles proliferated within the science fiction field, spe-cialization became further evident. One of the most in-teresting such magazines was PLANET STORIES, a quarterly experiment of the Fiction House pulp chain, made up en-tirely of interplanetary stories. The quality was very uneven, but the magazine began to take a direction completely dif-ferent than the others. It wanted action, but it also wanted the romance and wonder of the spaceways. It began to develop a type of science that had the feel of the old ARGOSY-ALL-STORY scientific romances featured by FA-MOUS FANTASTIC MYSTERIES, but was written in a faster style and with more scientific window dressing. Its editor, Malcolm Reiss, also proved receptive to the off-trail science fiction and frequently printed stories that were not only unique, but of exceptional literary quality.
The only new magazines that to any degree followed Campbell's policy were two edited by Frederik Pohl for Popular Publications titled ASTONISHING STORIES and SUPER SCIENCE STORIES. ASTONISHING STORIES had the distinction of being the first science fiction magazine to sell for as little as ten cents. SUPER SCIENCE STORIES published short novels com-plete, and competed with STARTLING STORIES. The only prob-lem here was that Pohl could pay only a half-cent a word. He got the other magazines' rejects, and of these he found Campbell's authors most acceptable. Practically from the first issues, Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein, L. Sprague de Camp, Clifford D. Simak, as well as lesser lights from Campbell's coterie, appeared in his publication.
When the editorship of Pohl's publications was assumed by Alden H. Norton in the summer of 1941 the policy was continued with the addition of scientific fantasies similar to those found in PLANET STORIES. It was openmindedness to stories of this type that led Norton to discover Ray Bradbury, buy-ing his first story Pendulum written in collaboration with Henry Hasse for the Nov., 1941 SUPER SCIENCE STORIES. In common with PLANET STORIES and the Standard Magazines group, he shared the swashbuckling literary talents of Leigh Brackett and the Merritt-like fantastes of Henry Kuttner.
Many other titles came and went, but the foregoing comprised the most influential and represented the types of science fiction most popular at the time the United States entered World War II. The effect of the draft and special in-dustrial assignments of the specially qualified affected Campbell severely. His mainstays were predominantly of draft age, and certain of them such as Heinlein, de Camp, Asimov, had occupational specialties which war industry needed.
The other magazines had a far higher percentage of older and draft-exempt authors, who continued to write, and all, throughout the war years, had publishing frequency and wordage requirements far less demanding than ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. One new outstanding author, Fritz Leiber, was added to the roster by Campbell during the war years and Clifford D. Simak came into his own during this period, contributing the stories that made up his justifiably famous book, City. Murray Leinster, a veritable patriarch among writers, also helped fill the war gap nobly. Henry Kuttner, under the pen name of Lewis Padgett, was recruited to write for Campbell a series of remarkable stories in the vein of John Collier, while his wife, C. L. Moore, cloaked in the alias of Lawrence O'Donnell, was hailed as an extraordinary discovery by the gullible readership. Jack Williamson for a brief time played the role of the promising young writer, Will Stewart, writing heavy-science stories about anti-matter until the lure of adventure found him enlisting in the armed services and getting more than he bargained for in the Pacific air war.
Just as the Jews for centuries sustained themselves with the slogan "Tomorrow in Israel," John W. Campbell sus-tained his readers with a blinding vision of what they
might expect when "the boys come marching home."
The appearance of the first post-war major science fic-tion anthology, The Best of Science Fiction, edited by Groff Conklin in 1946 proved a triumph for John W. Campbell. The book became a best seller in the true meaning of the term and the bulk of the wordage in the volume was modern science fiction from Campbell's magazine. In a preface written by Campbell, the basic differences between "modem" and pre-vious forms of science fiction were spelled out.
First, the writing method:
In older science fiction—H. G. Wells and nearly all stories written before 1935—the author took time out to bring the reader up to date as to what had happened before his story opened. The best modern writers of science fiction have worked out some truly remarkable techniques for presenting a great deal of background and associated material without intruding into the flow of the story. That is no small feat, when a complete new world must be established at the same time a story is being presented.
Secondly, the content:
But the modern science-fiction writer doesn't merely say, "In about ten years we will have atomic weapons." He goes further; his primary interest is in what these weapons will do to political, economic and cultural structures of human society.
A few months after the issuance of The Best of Science Fiction, an even more impressive monument to Campbell's brand of science fiction collected as Adventure in Time and Space and sub-titled "An Anthology of Modern Science-Fic-tion Stories," edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas, rocketed to equal
ly impressive sales figures. Of the 35 stories in the book, all but three were from Campbell's magazines, and of the 32 from his magazine, only four had not been purchased under his editorship and one of these was his own novelette Forgetfulness!
Such science fiction magazine publishers who were not im-pressed by the sales reports were properly impressed by the reviews. Both anthologies received widespread praise in the most respected newspapers and magazines. Previously, ser-ious literary consideration of the products of the pulp science fiction magazines had been disappointingly infrequent. This current attention was certainly heady wine. Perhaps there was more to the Campbell brand of science fiction than it had been given credit for, it was conjectured. All those sales and glory, too!
Slowly the masters of modern science fiction returned from the wars, but not necessarily into Campbell's open embrace. Not too long after the appearance of the two major science fiction anthologies, L. Sprague de Camp, Theodore Sturgeon and Robert A. Heinlein showed up in AMAZING WONDER STORIES. Soon A. E. van Vogt was in the enemy camp, as were a number of other writers who generally had been considered Campbell exclusives such as L. Ron Hubbard, Cleve Cartmill, George O. Smith and Raymond F. Jones.
More science fiction anthologies appeared, with heavy rep-resentations by "modern" science fiction authors from ASTOUNDING SCIENCE-FICTION. Specialty book companies were formed, issuing famous novels and short stories of science fiction in hard cover. A disproportionate percentage of these also came from Campbell's magazines, and when the books were reviewed, those with the "modern" stories always seemed to get preferential treatment.
When the post-war paper shortage began to ease towards the end of 1948, the long-delayed spate of new science fic-tion magazines arrived. The first was the revival of SUPER SCIENCE STORIES under the editorship of Alden H. Norton, dated January, 1949. It was obvious that the previous policy of using stories both of Campbell's modern science fiction, and action adventure fantasy would be continued.
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