Of course, everything on the various publishers’ “science-fiction category” lists comes in (including re-re-re-reprints of Edgar Rice Burroughs). Almost any other fiction has to be asked for specifically: for instance, Simon & Schuster publishes John Christopher, but not on their “science-fiction list,” for some reason; we had to ask for a copy of Sweeney’s Island, just as we did for Hersey’s White Lotus (Knopf, 1965) and Burroughs’ Nova Express (Grove, 1965)—and was glad I had asked, with Christopher and Burroughs. Hersey was sadly disappointing, after The Child Buyer the year before.
(Nova Express is the source for Quote #5; and I must admit I cheated slightly on this one, and changed Burroughs’ unmistakable punctuation to a more conventional system, to make it less obvious.)
We got Singer’s Short Friday (Farrar, 1964) and McConnell’s The Worm Returns (Prentice-Hall, 1965), but not Gironella’s Phantoms and Fugitives (Sheed and Ward, 1964), or Gary’s Hissing Tales, although Harper & Row did send Fred Hoyle and John Elliot’s Andromeda Breakthrough.
(#4, by the way, is from McConnell’s “Compulsory Preface” in The Worm Re-Turns.)
Holt sent Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (a non-SF novel, full of references to science fiction, by an author associated with the genre—and God bless Holt for publishing it!) but New Directions did not send their enlarged 1965 reissue of Jorge Luis Borges’ remarkable Labyrinths, nor did Viking send R. K. Narayan’s fine collection of Indian legends, Gods, Demons, and Others (1964).
Snobbishness or confusion? It is hard to say; but easy enough to see that someone, somewhere, needs to take a long, fresh look at this mixed-up business of literary “categories.”
In some ways, the nonfiction submissions are even more curious: we got Sullivan’s superb We Are Not Alone (McGraw-Hill, 1964), and Bonestell-Ley’s Beyond the Solar System (Viking, 1964), but not Arthur C. Clarke’s Man in Space (Life Library, 1964); we were sent Rosalind Heywood’s ESP: A Personal Memoir (Dutton, 1964)—one of the most sensible, as well as best-written, books on the subject I’ve ever seen— but not David Solomon’s fascinating anthology of articles, LSD, The Consciousness-Expanding Drug (Putnam, 1964).
(Alan Watts’ selection in LSD was the source for #8.)
If I seem to be saying that the situation is just as confused one place as another—why, it’s only because that is what I mean to say. With the final criterion of authorship slipping out from under them, publishers, general reviewers, and the poor book salesmen have no way to tell their friends from SF.
(And how much better did you do? The last three mix-matches: #6 is by Frederik Pohl, from “Intimations of Immortality,” in Playboy, June, 1964. #7 is by Philip Abelson, quoted in an article, “$30,000,-000,000 Trip to the Moon,” in Cosmopolitan, October, 1964. #9 is from Arthur C. Clarke’s “The Meddlers,” in Playboy, March, 1964.)
There is, however, still some small area of solid ground, and within its limits, some items of interest to mention; for instance—
SF Horizons, a new British periodical devoted to criticism, edited by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss. The first issue contained a particularly interesting taped discussion between C. S. Lewis, Kingsley Amis, and Aldiss.
Extrapolation, a science-fiction newsletter published by the Conference on Science-Fiction of the Modern Language Association—a fine, scholarly critical journal.
And Double : Bill. Those of you who saw the Ninth Annual will recall my discussion at some length of the survey conducted for this fan publication by Lloyd Biggie. I based my comments, and the list of participants, on two installments of the survey—and discovered too late that there was a third I had not yet received. There is little to add to the conclusions, but I should like to include now the names of the remainder of participating authors: Charles Beaumont, James Blish, Anthony Boucher, Leigh Brackett, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Reginald Bretnor, Terry Carr, Arthur C. Clarke, Hal Clement, Avram Davidson, Lester Del Rey, August Derleth, Horace Gold, Edmond Hamilton, Joe Hensley, Robert W. Lowndes, Richard Lupoff, Mack Reynolds, Eric Frank Russell, James H. Schmitz, Robert Silverberg, E. E. “Doc” Smith, George 0. Smith, William Temple, Theodore Thomas, Ted White, Kate Wilhelm, Jack Williamson and Robert F. Young.
Finally, I should like to express my thanks to some of the many people whose interest and assistance is necessary to make a volume of this sort at all possible. For suggestions of inclusions, and assistance in obtaining material, much thanks to Barbara Norville, Eva Mo-Kenna, Margaret Scoggins, Francesca van der Ling, Anthony Boucher, Ed Ferman, Dick Wilson, and the infinitely patient librarians at the Port Jervis, N.Y., Public Library. For clerical help, messenger service, and an assortment of literary bottle-washing jobs, my sincere gratitude to Karen Emden, Ann Pohl, Rick Raphael, and John Walter. For critical reactions, my thanks to Virginia Kidd Blish, Seymour Krim, Fritz Leiber, and the panel of Teen-Age Book Reviewers introduced to me by Miss Scoggins, who heads the Young Adult Services at the New York Public Library. And my most earnest appreciation to Bob Silverstein, for some of all the foregoing, but even more for a rare and admirable editorial restraint
Judith Merril
April, 1965
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Amz: Amazing Stories
Anaclass="underline" Analog Science Fact & Fiction
Fant: Fantastic
F&.SF: Fantasy and Science Fiction
Gaclass="underline" Galaxy
Gam: Gamma
Harp: Harper’s Magazine
If: If
KR: Kenyon Review
Knt: Knight
MQV: Michigan’s Quarterly Voices
NW: New Worlds (British)
Nug: Nugget
Plby: Playboy
Rog: Rogue