Monthly Archives: January 2020

Katherine MacLean and “The Trouble with You Earth People”

Leave a reply

Today, January 22, is the birthday of Katheirne MacLean (1925-2019). She was most active during the 1950s, although she continued to publish occasionally up through the late 1990s.

What’s that, you say? You didn’t know women wrote science fiction back in those days? I thought I’d dealt with that myth already.

I’ve not read much of her work, just a few stories in anthologies,mostly in high school or undergrad. She specialized in anthropological science fiction. Let’s look at one of her stories. Continue reading →

Algis Budrys Isn’t Bothering Gus

Leave a reply

“Nobody Bothers Gus”
First published in Astounding, November 1955 as by Paul Janvier

Algis Budrys was born on this date, January 9, in 1931. He passed away in 2008.

Budrys was was a prolific short story writer in the 1950’s, with many of his stories appearing in Astounding.  So this post is doing double duty as a birthday post and an Astounding/Analog 90th anniversary post. Continue reading →

Astounding/Analog 90th Anniversary: F. Orlin Tremaine

2 Replies

Editor F. Orlin Tremaine was born on this date, January 7, 1899. He passed away at the age of 57 in 1956.  Tremaine worked at the Clayton pulp company, although he had no editorial duties with Astounding.  He left to pursue other publishing ventures which didn’t pan out and returned to Clayton in 1932. When Clayton went belly-up, Street and Smith bought the company. It was this time Tremaine was editing responsibilities for Astounding along with other titles. Tremaine edited Astounding from 1932 until late 1937, at which time he hired John W. Campbell, Jr to edit the magazine. Tremaine was promoted to Editorial Director.

Among the authors Tremaine published were H. P. Lovecraft (At the Mountains of Madness and The Shadow Out of Time), L. Sprague de Camp, Raymond Z. Gallun, Jack Williamson, Murray Leinster, and Eric Frank Russell. Oh, and some guy named Campbell.

Eric Frank Russell’s “Hobbyist”

2 Replies

This is another post that’s going to do double duty as a birthday post and an Astounding anniversary post.  It’s also going to be out of order in respect to the ToC.

Eric Frank Russell was born on this date, January 6, in 1905. He passed away in 1978. Russell was British, and although he was well-known in the US during his lifetime, he has sadly slipped into obscurity these days.  None of his short fiction is in print in electronic format in the US.  Only the NESFA collection Major Ingredients is in print.  His novels are doing a little better, with several being available in print and electronic formats. Continue reading →

“Nightfall” and Isaac Asimov’s Centennial

6 Replies

Today, January 2, marks the centennial of the birth of Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). I’m going to try to read/reread some of his major works this year. I read a lot of Asimov in middle school and high school, but I not much after I got my undergraduate degree.

Like him or hate him, there is no denying that Isaac Asimov was one of the most influential science fiction authors of the 20th Century.

I also am reading through The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology right now.   (See this post.) In addition to this being a birthday post, it will also be Part 2 of that read-through. Continue reading →

Seeing Things in 2020 Vision

Leave a reply

2020 Vision
Jerry Pournelle, ed.

This anthology was first published in 1974. That’s the original cover over there on the right. I found a copy of the 1980 edition (the cover isn’t nearly as good) at the Friends of the Library sale last month and thought it would be fun to see what science fiction writers in the 1970s thought this next year would be like.  In some ways, they missed the boat by a mile. In others, they almost nailed it.

The 1980 edition has a few additional editorial comments by Pournelle, but otherwise the two different editions are the same. Continue reading →