STORIES FOR TOMORROW (1954) edited by William Sloane

I’ve got an interesting anthology in front of me at the moment. Actually, I’ve got two different editions of it. Firstly an original US 1st Edition hardback, which I bought from a dealer on Amazon. This is an ex-library copy, and came without a dustjacket, otherwise the book itself is in excellent condition. The other edition is the UK 1st Edition hardback, complete with dustjacket (pictured here), which has slightly different contents to the US Edition.

The US edition first…

TITLE: STORIES FOR TOMORROW
EDITED BY: William Sloane
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Anthology
FORMAT: Hardback, 628 pages
PUBLISHER: Funk & Wagnalls, US, 1954

CONTENTS LISTING:

About This Book by William Sloane

PART I: THE HUMAN HEART

• “The Wilderness” by Ray Bradbury (Today, April 6th 1952, revised for Fantasy & Science Fiction, November 1952)
• “Starbride” by Anthony Boucher (Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1951)
• “Second Childhood” by Clifford D. Simak (Galaxy, Feb 1951)
• “Homeland” by Mari Wolf (first published as “The Statue”, If Magazine, January 1953)
• “Let Nothing You Dismay” by William Sloane (written for this anthology)
• “A Scent of Sarsaparilla” by Ray Bradbury (Star Science Fiction Stories #1, February 1953

PART II: THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS

• “The Exile” by Alfred Coppel (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1952)
• “The Farthest Horizon” by Raymond F. Jones (Astounding Science
  Fiction, April 1952)
• “Noise Level” by Raymond F. Jones (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1952)
• “First Contact” by Murray Leinster (Astounding Science Fiction, May 1945)

PART III: SWEAT OF THE BROW

• “Franchise” by Kris Neville (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1951)
• “In Value Deceived” by H. B. Fyfe (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1950)
• “Okie” by James Blish (Astounding Science Fiction, April 1950)
• “Black Eyes and the Daily Grind” by Milton Lesser (If Magazine, March 1952)

PART IV: DIFFERENCE WITH DISTINCTION

• “Socrates” by John Christopher (Galaxy, March 1951)
• “In Hiding” by Wilmar H. Shiras (Astounding Science Fiction, November 1948)
• “Bettyann” by Kris Neville (reprinted from New Tales of Space & Time, edited by Raymond J. Healey, 1951)

PART V: THE TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE IS PEOPLE

• “The Ant and the Eye” by Chad Oliver (Astounding Science Fiction, April 1953)
• “Beep” by James Blish (Galaxy, February 1954)
• “And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank RussellAstounding Science Fiction, June 1951)
• “The Girls from Earth” by Frank M. Robinson (Galaxy, January 1952)

PART VI: VISITORS

• “Minister Without Portfolio” by Mildred Clingerman (Fantasy & Science Fiction, Feb 1952)
• “The Head-Hunters” by Ralph Williams (Astounding Science Fiction, October 1951)
• “Dune Roller” by Julian May (Astounding Science Fiction, December 1951)
• “Disguise” by Donald A. Wollheim (Other Worlds Science Stories, February 1953)
• “The Shed” by E. Everett Evans (Avon SF&F Reader, January 1953)

PART VII: THREE EPILOGS

• “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke (Star Science Fiction Stories #1, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1953)
• “The Forgotten Enemy” by Arthur C. Clarke (King’s College Review, December 1948)
• “The Answers” [also as “…And the Truth Shall Make You Free”] by Clifford D. Simak (Future, March 1953)

This is an ex-library copy, which came without a dustcover, when I bought it from a dealer on Amazon. Otherwise the book itself is in excellent condition.

There are a few stories here that I’m familiar with, either being old favourites of mine, or having vague but fond memories of them – all of the stories by Clarke, Bradbury, Simak, Russell, Leinster and Blish. The rest I’ve either not read at all or read so long ago that I can’t remember them. Personal favourites among these are Blish’s “Beep”, Leinster’s “First Contact”, Russell’s “And Then There Were None”, Simak’s “Second Childhood”, Bradbury’s “The Wilderness”, Robinson’s “The Girls from Earth”, and both of the Clarke stories.

As I’ve already said, the UK 1st edition is slightly different to the US edition:

TITLE: STORIES FOR TOMORROW
EDITED BY: William Sloane
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Anthology
FORMAT: Hardback, 476 pages
PUBLISHER: Eyre & Spottiswoode, London, 1955.

CONTENTS LISTING:

About This Book by William Sloane

PART I: THE HUMAN HEART

• “The Wilderness” by Ray Bradbury
• “Starbride” by Anthony Boucher
• “Homeland” by Mari Wolf
• “Let Nothing You Dismay” by William Sloane
• “A Scent of Sarsaparilla” by Ray Bradbury

PART II: THERE ARE NO EASY ANSWERS

• “Noise Level” by Raymond F. Jones
• “First Contact” by Murray Leinster

PART III: SWEAT OF THE BROW

• “Franchise” by Kris Neville
• “In Value Deceived” by H. B. Fyfe
• “Black Eyes and the Daily Grind” by Milton Lesser

PART IV: DIFFERENCE WITH DISTINCTION

• “Socrates” by John Christopher
• “In Hiding” by Wilmar H. Shiras
• “Bettyann” by Kris Neville

PART V: THE TROUBLE WITH PEOPLE IS PEOPLE

• “The Ant and the Eye” by Chad Oliver
• “Beep” by James Blish
• “And Then There Were None” by Eric Frank Russell
• “The Girls from Earth” by Frank M. Robinson

PART VI: VISITORS

• “Minister Without Portfolio” by Mildred Clingerman
• “The Head-Hunters” by Ralph Williams

PART VII: THREE EPILOGS

• “The Nine Billion Names of God” by Arthur C. Clarke
• “The Forgotten Enemy” by Arthur C. Clarke
• “The Answers” by Clifford D. Simak

As with many anthologies from that period, a number of the stories have been cut from the UK edition that were in the original US edition. There are seven fewer stories, and the UK edition is 152 pages shorter. My UK edition also has a nice dustjacket, although the one on my copy is a bit on the tatty side.

Overall, another very interesting anthology. I’m looking forward to working my way through this one.

SCIENCE FICTION edited by S. H. Burton

TITLE: SCIENCE FICTION
EDITED BY: S. H. Burton
CATEGORY: Short Fiction
SUB-CATEGORY: Anthology
FORMAT: Hardback, 245 pages
PUBLISHER: Longman, The Heritage of Literature Series, London, 1967.

CONTENTS:

• Introduction by S. H. Burton
• “Requiem” by Robert A. Heinlein (Astounding Science Fiction, January 1940)
• “A Present from Joe” by Eric Frank Russell (Astounding Science Fiction, February 1949)
• “Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed” by Ray Bradbury (Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1949, as “The Naming of Names”)
• “Protected Species” by H. B. Fyfe (Astounding Science Fiction, March 1951)
• “The New Wine” by John Christopher (Fantastic Story Magazine, Summer 1954)
• “Nightfall” by Isaac Asimov (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1941)
• “The Windows of Heaven” by John Brunner (New Worlds, May 1956, as “Two by Two”)
• “Youth” by Isaac Asimov (Space Science Fiction, May 1952)
• “The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke (Infinity Science Fiction, November 1955)

This is an unusual little book, a very small hardcover, only the size of a paperback. It’s also interesting in that it was published as part of Longmans’ prestige “The Heritage of Literature Series”, rather than as a commercial SF paperback or hardback. This series seems to be more of an academic line, covering not only science fiction, but detective fiction and general short fiction. Very interesting.

It’s a fairly short anthology, and there are a few classic, well-known stories by big name authors, which have seen publication previously in many anthologies and single-author collections – Heinlein’s “Requiem”, Bradbury’s “Dark They Were and Golden-Eyed”, Asimov’s “Nightfall” and Clarke’s “The Star”. It’s always nice to re-read these excellent stories, especially if you haven’t read them for a while.

There are also several stories, by familiar authors, which are not so well known – Asimov’s “Youth”, Russell’s “A Present from Joe”, Brunner’s “The Windows of Heaven” and Christopher’s “The New Wine”. And finally, there is also a story by an author with whom I’m totally unfamiliar, although I have seen his name in old magazine listings – H. B. Fyfe’s “Protected Species”. I haven’t read this one (or anything by this author) before.

I’ve started reading this anthology with the least familiar, so right now I’m part way through Fyfe’s “Protected Species”, which is quite a good story, at least so far. It’ll be interesting to see where it leads. After that, I’ll move onto the other stories that I haven’t read before, although the author’s ARE familiar to me – Russell, Brunner and Christopher. And I’ll finally finish off by re-reading the biggies from Clarke, Asimov, Heinlein and Bradbury.

As this anthology is short, it shouldn’t take me very long to finish it. I’m off to read the rest of “Protected Species”…