The Best Science Fiction of 1949

by Everett F. Bleiler

  The Best

  Science Fiction Stories: 1949

  Edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty

  Introduction by Melvin Korshak

  RAY BRADBURY • ISAAC ASIMOV•MURRAY LEINSTER • ERIK FENNEL•FREDRIC BROWN • HENRY KUTTNER•J. J. COUPLING • LEWIS PADGETT•POUL ANDERSON • MARTIN GARDNER•WILMAR H. SHIRAS

  Frederick Fell, Inc., Publisher

  THE BEST SCIENCE FICTION STORIES: 1949

  COPYRIGHT 1949 BY EVERETT F. BLEILER AND T. E. DIKTY

  All rights in this book are reserved. It may not be used for dramatic-, motion-, or talking-picture picture purposes without written authorization from the holder of these rights. Nor may the book or any pan thereof be reproduced in any manner whatever without permission in writing, except for brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, address: FREDERICK FELL, INC., 386 Fourth Avenue, New York 16, N. Y. Manufactured in the United States of America by H. Wolff, New York. Designed by Marshall Lee.

  PUBLISHED SIMULTANEOUSLY IN CANADA BY

  GEORGE J. MCLEOD, LTD., TORONTO

  FIRST PRINTING AUGUST 1949

  Acknowledgments

  The following acknowledgments are gratefully made for permission to reprint copyrighted material:

  MARS IS HEAVEN! by Ray Bradbury: copyright 1948, by Love Romances Publishing Co., Inc., for Planet Stories, Fall, 1948.

  EX MACHINA, by Lewis Padgett: copyright 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, April, 1948.

  THE STRANGE CASE OF JOHN KINGMAN, by Murray Leinster: copyright 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, May, 1948.

  DOUGHNUT JOCKEY, by Erik Fennel: copyright 1948, by McCall Corporation, for Blue Book Magazine, May, 1948.

  THANG, by Martin Gardner: reprinted from Comment, Fall, 1948, by permission of the author.

  PERIOD PIECE, by J. J. Coupling: copyright 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, November, 1948.

  KNOCK, by Fredric Brown: copyright 1948, by Standard Magazines, Inc., for Thrilling Wonder Stories, December, 1948.

  GENIUS, by Poul Anderson: copyright 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1948.

  AND THE MOON BE STILL AS BRIGHT, by Ray Bradbury: copyright 1948, by Standard Magazines, Inc., for Thrilling Wonder Stories, June, 1948.

  NO CONNECTION, by Isaac Asimov: copyright, 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, June, 1948.

  IN HIDING, by Wilmar H. Shiras: copyright 1948, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, November, 1948.

  HAPPY ENDING, by Henry Kuttner: copyright 1948, by Standard Magazines, Inc., for Thrilling Wonder Stories, August, 1948.

  TO

  the many people who have asked us what science-fiction is

  and to

  ALDOUS HUXLEY

  who has given the answer.

  Contents :

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction By Melvin Korshak

  Preface

  Mars Is Heaven! By Ray Bradbury

  Ex Machina By Lewis Padgett

  The Strange Case of John Kingman By Murray Leinster

  Doughnut Jockey By Erik Fennel

  Thang By Martin Gardner

  Period Piece By J. J. Coupling

  Knock By Fredric Brown

  Genius by Poul Anderson

  And the Moon Be Still As Bright By Ray Bradbury

  No Connection By Isaac Asimov

  In Hiding By Wilmar H Shiras

  Happy Ending By Henry Kuttner

  Introduction

  TRENDS IN MODERN SCIENCE-FICTION

  Melvin Korshak

  IN THE past there were several types of stories that were based on imaginative science, although they were not unified into any single body of literature. Of these, perhaps the most important were the utopias, which date back to Plato and Euhemerus. From the utopias science-fiction obtained several of its most important elements: settings in other times and places, superior science, and social change. And not too dissimilar from the utopia was the lost-race story, which is essentially an adventure story concerning a hidden land out of communication with the rest of the world, in which some well-known race of antiquity, usually Greeks or Egyptians or Mayas or Aztecs still survive. The great classical scholar Gilbert Murray wrote one such story, while H. Rider Haggard has probably been the greatest influence in its development. Also present were future-war stories, usually symbolizing a nation’s dread of being conquered, of which perhaps the most influential was George Chesney’s Battle of Dorking published in 1871, the Orson Welles program of its day, which set England in an uproar when it appeared at the time of the Franco-Prussian War. Nor can the interplanetary story be overlooked. In its earliest forms it is a religious expression of cosmic experience as old as Plutarch’s myth of Arideus, who undertook a cosmic voyage before visiting the land of the dead. Then there was the mad scientist, an iconoclastic offshoot of the Romantic period, with man in rebellion against society. There were other types of stories based on imaginative science too—stories of world destruction by cataclysmic forces; of incredible invasions by nature; of suspended animation—and other imaginative themes too numerous to mention here—all of these contributing to the general background of literature. The importance of these earlier usages of imaginative science in literature was not only that they pointed out new themes for the use of the writer of fiction, but also they proved that the reading public, for the sake of the story, would accept a fantastic premise in fiction. The famous critic Coleridge called this reader cooperation “a willing suspension of disbelief.”

  At the close of the 19th Century and during the early years of the 20th, the first two modern science-fiction authors and the first modern science-fiction publisher appeared upon the scene: Jules Verne, a Frenchman, H. G. Wells, an Englishman, and Hugo Gernsback, an American. To understand the roles of these men, and to appreciate their contribution to the science-fiction of today, the reader must bear in mind that science, by the time they lived, had to be pragmatic. With the advent of the 20th Century the science of the laboratories had become an acknowledged influence on the lives of many people. The Industrial Revolution and its far-reaching consequences, to say nothing of the tremendous currents of 19th Century thought, of socialism and sociology, of evolution and economic determinism, had left their positive mark.

  When Jules Verne began writing stories of imaginative science, he consolidated several of the older, specialized stories of the 19th Century. With modern, popularized science for his backgrounds he produced simple adventure yarns hinging mostly on man’s sense of wonder at the strange things that science could reveal—as in trips to the center of the earth, voyages to the moon, and journeys around the solar system. Thus, to understand Verne’s influence on the modern development it should be noted that Verne who wrote adventure stories with only side flashes of science would fall far left of center of an imaginary line, representing one of the possible poles of the modem science-fiction story.

  In complete contrast to Verne, and at the opposite pole, was Hugo Gernsback. Gernsback, although born in Luxembourg and educated in Germany, was an American publisher of popular science magazines—of “do it yourself” and “science made easy in the home” publications. His entire purpose was to sugar-coat science, and to make it palatable to the largest possible reader-base. In his early publication The Electrical Experimenter, and later in his Science and Invention, Gernsback served a diet of popularized science with occasional science-fiction to vary the fare. Su
ch stories as Clement Fezandie’s Dr. Hackensaw series, and Gernsback’s own novel Ralph 124C41±, which was about as close to a science text as anything ever disguised as fiction, appeared in these publications, and are excellent examples of the science-fiction story for science’s sake.

  Between these two poles, and approaching the well-balanced center, was H. G. Wells. The importance of Wells can he found not only in his personal background and orientation, different from Verne’s, and later from Gernsback’s, but also in his application of these factors to his stories. In his better, purely imaginative romances, Wells wrote less adventure stories with scientific backgrounds or science stories with adventure backgrounds, than stories built up around some scientific idea, often with a stress on social significance. For the strength of Wells’ stories, in the final analysis, is that they are written about sympathetic and understandable human beings and human values in his effort to determine the ‘status of man and the human spirit in the shifting currents of modern thought.

  Even with our short perspective in time H. G. Wells emerges as the greatest name in modern science-fiction. Wells not only brought together the isolated lumber of the earlier authors and constructed a framework, but also provided a house in which his successors lived. He anticipated most of the themes for the thirty or forty years following The Time Machine in 1896, and as a literary craftsman far exceeded his successors. A completely new generation of writers, with thirty or forty years advance in the sciences, was needed to develop new themes of any importance. He was thus both a great and a terrible moment in the history of science-fiction.

  When Wells stopped writing science-fiction as such, the scene of its modern development shifted from Europe to America where notably in the Munsey chain Bob Davis, the very capable editor, offered “different” stories—basically adventure yarns with either science or fantasy backgrounds to add to their appeal. Interestingly enough, some of the finest stories in imaginative literature appeared in this medium; much of it eventually gained the permanence of book publication.

  Outstanding during this period were such authors as Ray Cummings, a former assistant of Edison’s, who developed several of the most important modem themes such as the adventure into size and the pursuit through time; Edgar Rice Burroughs, the creator of Tarzan, who was a great influence in carrying on the chain of lost-race and Kipling-like adventure stories; A. Merritt, later the editor of Hearst’s American Weekly, who gave the lost-race story a depth, flavor, and literary quality it never before or since attained; George Allen England, a fervent socialist, whose Darkness and Dawn trilogy in the old Cavalier Magazine showed whatcan happen when our artificial civilization is dead and man has a chance to rebuild; Homer Eon Flint, with his first-rate adventure stories developing out of science; Austin Hall, who brought German transcendental philosophy into pulp adventure; and, represented in this volume, Murray Leinster, who has consistently led the field with new ideas and effective writing.

  Not until 1923 did the first all-fantasy magazine, Weird Tales, appear, specializing primarily in stories with weird and supernatural themes, but also carrying a small percentage of pure science-fiction. Weird Tales was important in the development of science-fiction for it showed that an all-fantasy magazine was commercially possible, and it provided a developing ground for many modem authors.

  In April 1926 the first all-science-fiction magazine was established in America, when Hugo Gemsback’s Amazing Stories came into being. Gernsback, as we have already seen, had pioneered with science-fiction in his earlier publications

  The Electrical Experimenter and Science and Invention. His policy was still one of emphasizing science in “scientifiction,” but during the first two years of publication he was forced to lean heavily on reprinting older material, until such time as he was able to develop new talent and authors able to write to his specifications. For this reason he was forced, during the first two years, to rely heavily on such established “name” authors as Edgar Allan Poe, Garrett P. Serviss, and Jules Verne. That Gernsback recognized Wells’ gigantic stature as an author is shown by the fact that he published one of Wells’ science-fiction stories in each of the first twenty-nine issues of Amazing, and sporadically after that.

  By 1928 Gernsback was able to get a greater proportion of stories from newer American writers, and with the use of considerable material translated from German writers, Gernsback continued his policy of science over fiction ( excepting in such notable cases as the stories of Dr. David H.

  Keller) when he left Amazing to found Air Wonder Stories and Science Wonder Stories in 1929.

  In 1930 Clayton Publishers released Astounding Stories of Super Science, and this magazine, in contrast to Gemsback, went back to the Verne extreme—restressing the adventure and fiction element in science-fiction. Then in 1933, under Street and Smith, F. Orlin Tremaine assumed the editorship of Astounding Stories and began to stress stories combining both science and adventure elements, a fusion which laid the basis for a new development of science-fiction under John W. Campbell, Jr. a few years later.

  Within the past few years the two extremes have, in optimal instances, been united with a certain amount of success within Astounding Science-Fiction, and somewhat later in Thrilling Wonder Stories and in Startling Stories, so that science-fiction has become a serious form of literature. The importance of these magazines is that they proved that there was a large reading public for stories of this nature, and in addition, provided a market for new and different stories.

  Among newer authors who have made contributions to modern science-fiction are Dr. Edward Elmer Smith, an outstanding research chemist, whose cosmic imagination created entire new universes for Promethean man to triumph in; Stanley G. Weinbaum, who before his untimely death instilled life and warmth from his own personality into his characters; H. P. Lovecraft, America’s foremost modem master of weird honor, who added a new depth to science-fiction by stressing man’s insignificance when faced with cosmic horror beyond his reason; L. Sprague de Camp, who brought sharply ironic humor to the otherwise forbidding world of test tubes and machines; Robert A. Heinlein, atomic mathematician, whose fresh interpretations of the problem of the individual during technological and social changes in his Future-History series have received wide acclaim; A. E. van Vogt, who in fictionalizing the non-Aristotelian logic of

  Korczybski’s semantics has added new thought-concepts together with breath-taking action; John

  W. Campbell, Jr., who as an author emphasized not merely scientific gadgets but characterization and mood, and who as an editor has been a pronounced influence in science-fiction for the past twelve years; and Henry Kuttner and Ray Bradbury, whose superior literary techniques and balanced humanistic views of life point the way toward newer and better developments within the genre.

  While science-fiction was developing in the specialist-magazines, a parallel movement was taking place in the world of books. In both America and England, to say nothing of many other countries, outstanding books using imaginative science were written and published when authors realized that fantasy of any sort gave them a freedom lacking in other types of stories. Indeed, a roll-call of these modern authors of science-fiction within hard covers sounds like a who’s who in modem literature. Some noteworthy examples are Herbert Read, famous British critic, whose Green Child is considered a masterpiece of English style; Professor Olaf Stapledon, who in Star Maker and Last and First Men has projected man into the vast panorama of the future to find God and himself; the irrepressible Philip Wylie, whose Gladiator and contributions to When and After Worlds Collide are milestones in modern science-fiction enjoyment; S. Fowler Wright, who is primarily concerned in such serious fiction as The New Gods Lead and The World Below with the problem of man struggling between the gods of formalized religion and the gods of science and civilization; John Collier, master of the fantasy short story, whose Tom’s A-Cold is a brilliant successor to Richard Jefferies’ After London; and Gerald (H. F.)

  Heard, whose v
ast erudition and mystical insight have combined to produce such thought-provoking works as Doppelgangers and The Great Fog. Most important of all, perhaps, is the brilliant Aldous Huxley, who in Brave New World and Ape and Essence has utilized the arguments of modern science to show its own fallacies, and has indicated a new and better path for man.

  Such books as these have the advantage of not only following the best trends of modern thought with their inquiry into metaphysical problems of modern man and the place of the human spirit in our complex and confused world, but also, by the use of science-fiction as a vehicle the writer has gained for his researches and inquiries freedom not so readily available in other literary forms. This same trend has appeared to advantage among the best modern writers for the magazines.

  It will be seen that the best modern science-fiction is a combination of two earlier extremes: a heavy science story and a pure adventure story; the first written to instruct, the second to entertain. Each of these two extremes produced little of value. It was only when both streams united, as in the optimal case of the most modem trends, that something of general interest occurred. Thus, today, we have occasional stories which rise above either extreme, and are valuable entertainment. Such are the stories that the editors have selected for this volume; such are the stories which this series is aimed to encourage.