These are my thoughts as I'm reading through the various short stories in Famous Science Fiction stories: Adventures in Time and Space. These stories are interesting for three reasons: a) they are good stories, b) they reflect thinking about society and technology in the 1932-45 time frame, c) they shaped my teenage reading experience. I loved these stories. They deepened my love of science fiction and reading in general.
These were first assembled by John W. Campbell Jr. for Astounding Stories magazine. Many have subsequently appeared in many other anthologies and other publications, so if you read SF short stories, you've likely encountered at least few of them. Campbell himself has a couple of stories in this under the pseudonym of Don A. Stuart. Many of the other authors listed are also pen names. I've found Wikipedia articles on all of the authors and have pointed to them.
My original goal for this reading was to see if there were some styles of stories I haven't written up yet. I was looking for inspiration. But with time the fascinating insight into 1930's-40's thinking about society and science proved much more interesting. This was truly a time for writing a new style of story. It is called the Golden Age of science fiction for good reason.
It was the change in society's thinking about these issues that ended the Golden Age. The questions that fired speculation in the 1930's -- mysteries of what Mars and Venus were really like, what difference using rocket propulsion instead of cannon propulsion would make for space travel, speculation on the power of psychology to affect human behavior -- have mostly been answered in the subsequent fifty years. The science mysteries that have replaced them have not been as emotionally gripping, so readers have turned to fantasy for their imaginative thrills.
I have composed a short to medium length write-up on each story. The write-ups are not summaries. They are commenting on what the readers and writers of that Golden Era were thinking about that is different from today's thinking. Pick on those which interest you. Please note again, these are not summaries of the stories. These are my impressions of how these stories relate to story telling, explaining technology impact, and how people's lives are changed by introducing a new technology.
If I have written a story similar to the one I'm commenting on, at the beginning I list it as a...
Enjoy,
-- Roger
01 Robert A. Heinlein, "Requiem" (1940)
02 Don A. Stuart (pen-name of John W. Campbell, Jr.), "Forgetfulness" (1937)
03 Lester del Rey, "Nerves" (1942)
04 P. Schuyler Miller, "The Sands of Time" (1937)
05 Lewis Padgett (pen-name of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), "The Proud Robot" (1943)
06 A. E. van Vogt, "Black Destroyer" (1939)
07 Eric Frank Russell, "Symbiotica" (1943)
08 Raymond Z. Gallun, "Seeds of the Dusk" (1938)
09 Lee Gregor (pen-name of Milton A. Rothman) (co-written with Frederik Pohl[4]), "Heavy Planet" (1939)
10 Lewis Padgett (pen-name of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore), "Time Locker" (1943)
11 Cleve Cartmill, "The Link" (1942)
12 Maurice G. Hugi (possibly co-written by Eric Frank Russell[5]), "Mechanical Mice" (1941)
13 Willy Ley, "V-2: Rocket Cargo Ship" (essay) (1945)
14 Alfred Bester, "Adam and No Eve" (1941)
15 Isaac Asimov, "Nightfall" (1941)
16 Harry Bates, "A Matter of Size" (1934)
17 P. Schuyler Miller, "As Never Was" (1944)
18 Anthony Boucher, "Q. U. R." (1943)
19 Don A. Stuart, "Who Goes There?" (1938)
20 Robert A. Heinlein, "The Roads Must Roll" (1940)
21 A. E. van Vogt, "Asylum" (1942)
22 Ross Rocklynne, "Quietus" (1940)
23 Lewis Padgett, "The Twonky" (1942)
24 A. M. Phillips (Alexander M. Phillips), "Time-Travel Happens!" (essay about the Moberly-Jourdain incident) (1939)
25 Robert Moore Williams, "Robot's Return" (1938)
26 L. Sprague de Camp, "The Blue Giraffe" (1939)
27 Webb Marlowe (pen name of J. Francis McComas), "Flight Into Darkness" (1943)
28 A. E. van Vogt, "The Weapon Shop" (1942)
29 Harry Bates, "Farewell to the Master" (1940)
30 R. DeWitt Miller, "Within the Pyramid" (1937)
31 Henry Hasse, "He Who Shrank" (1936)
32 Anson MacDonald (pen-name of Robert A. Heinlein), "By His Bootstraps" (1941)
33 Fredric Brown, "The Star Mouse" (1942)
34 Raymond F. Jones, "Correspondence Course" (1945)
35 S. Fowler Wright, "Brain" (1932)