He put the bottle to his lips and had a drink, and it seemed to him he’d never had a drink that tasted half so good. He handed back the bottle and picked up the sax and tootled on it with high spirit while the ghost of the Model T went on rambling down the moonlit road.
About the Author
CLIFFORD D. SIMAK, during his fifty-five-year career, produced some of the most iconic science fiction stories ever written. Born in 1904 on a farm in southwestern Wisconsin, Simak got a job at a small-town newspaper in 1929 and eventually became news editor of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, writing fiction in his spare time.
Simak was best known for the book City, a reaction to the horrors of World War II, and for his novel Way Station. In 1953 City was awarded the International Fantasy Award, and in following years, Simak won three Hugo Awards and a Nebula Award. In 1977 he became the third Grand Master of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, and before his death in 1988, he was named one of three inaugural winners of the Horror Writers Association’s Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement.
About the Editor
DAVID W. WIXON was a close friend of Clifford D. Simak’s. As Simak’s health declined, Wixon, already familiar with science fiction publishing, began more and more to handle such things as his friend’s business correspondence and contract matters. Named literary executor of the estate after Simak’s death, Wixon began a long-term project to secure the rights to all of Simak’s stories and find a way to make them available to readers who, given the fifty-five-year span of Simak’s writing career, might never have gotten the chance to enjoy all of his short fiction. Along the way, Wixon also read the author’s surviving journals and rejected manuscripts, which made him uniquely able to provide Simak’s readers with interesting and thought-provoking commentary that sheds new light on the work and thought of a great writer.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
“Leg. Forst.” © 1958 by Royal Publications, Inc. © 1986 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Infinity Science Fiction, v. 3, no. 4, April, 1958. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Physician to the Universe” © 1963 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Company. © 1991 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Fantastic Stories, v. 12, no. 3, March, 1963. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“No More Hides and Tallow” © 1945 by Real Adventures Publishing Co., Inc. © 1973 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Lariat Story Magazine, v. 14, no. 12, March, 1946. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Condition of Employment” © 1960 by Galaxy Publishing Corporation. © 1988 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Galaxy Magazine, v. 18, no. 4, April, 1960. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“City” © 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc. © 1972 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Astounding Science Fiction, v. 33, no. 3, May, 1944. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Mirage” © 1950 by Ziff-Davis Publishing Co. © 1978 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Amazing Stories, v. 24, no. 10, October, 1950, under title “Seven Came Back.” Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Autumn Land” © 1971 by Mercury Press, Inc. © 1999 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, v. 41, no. 4, October, 1971. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Founding Father” © 1957 by Galaxy Publishing Corp. © 1985 by Clifford D. Simak. Originally published in Galaxy Science Fiction, v. 14, no. 1, May, 1957. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“Byte Your Tongue!” © 1980 by Random House, Inc. Originally published in STELLAR SCIENCE FICTION STORIES #6, ed. by Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine Books. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Street That Wasn’t There” © 1941 by H-K Publications, Inc. Originally published in Comet, v. 1, no. 5, July, 1941. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
“The Ghost of a Model T” © by 1975 by Robert Silverberg and Roger Elwood. Originally published in EPOCH, edited by Robert Silverberg and Roger Elwood, Berkley Publishing Corp., 1975. Reprinted by permission of the Estate of Clifford D. Simak.
Copyright © 2015 by the Estate of Clifford D. Simak
Cover design by Jason Gabbert
978-1-5040-1284-3
Published in 2015 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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