In the comments of this year’s Henry Kuttner birthday post, Sara mentioned the story “Design for Dreaming”, published in the February 1942 issue of Unknown Worlds.  I thought I had read that story.  I hadn’t, as it turned out.  I was thinking about a different story.  “Design for Dreaming” has never been reprinted.

Fortunately, about 19 years or so ago, I bought a ten issue run on Unknown/Unknown Worlds in a single, library-bound volume.  One of the best investments I’ve ever made.

That issue is included in the run.  So I read “Design for Dreaming”.

It’s pretty darn good story. 

The plot concerns one Timothy Macklin, screenwriter.   Macklin is completely burned out and in need of an extended vacation.  A tip from a gossip columnist friend sends him to a sorcerer up in the Hollywood hills.  She, the gossip columnist, assures him that this sorcerer is all the rage.

And that’s when Macklin’s troubles really begin.  The sorcerer promises to send Macklin to the Elysian fields for a month.  The problem is that the sorcerer is more interested in money than anything else, including getting the spell right.  Instead of the Elysian Fields, Macklin ends up in an office with a leprechaun and a merman.  He’s been sent to the place where dreams are scripted.  And not just for people on Earth, either, but anywhere in the galaxy.

Macklin only thought working for a studio was tough.

The rest of the story concerns how Macklin goes about returning to Earth and getting revenge on the sorcerer who put him there.

This is a perfectly good story.  Some of Kuttner’s early work is rough around the edges.  “Design for Dreaming” is not one of those.  The biting humor is there. The only reason I can guess that this story has never been reprinted is due to its length.  I’m guessing it missed being included in The Watcher at the Door, The Early Kuttner Volume 2 because that volume went through 1940, and this story was published in 1942.

As an aside, I wish Haffner Press would publish another volume of Kuttner’s work from the early 1940s.  There’s more than enough to fill another volume.  The page for TWatD above says there’s a third volume planned.  Hopefully soon…

Unfortunately “Design for Dreaming” isn’t available in any reproductions that I’ve been able to find.  If I find one, I’ll post the link.