I mentioned recently that I’d picked up a couple of nice dust jackets. I thought I’d scan them and share. Both are first state jackets; I have the second states as well. Check out Close Up II for Men Against the Stars and the Close Up for Journey to Infinity for second state views. Click the images to go through to my Gnome Press Flickr site where you can enjoy big 3000 pixel wide images.
I picked up Coming Attractions last night, completing the fantastic Adventures in Science Fiction Series. I am very happy about this as though still to read Travelers of Space and Coming Attractions, it’s my favorite group of short story books and I’m very pleased to now have the set. Coming Attractions is perhaps a little apart from the others as it’s not really a collection of stories, but (as I understand it) of essays on the future.
I perhaps paid a little too much, despite it being signed by Martin Greenberg and in apparent Fine condition. But hey, I really wanted it.
Martin Greenberg, editor
1953
I first read this book way back about 9 months ago. For some reason I never got around to doing a Review, so I decided to read it again. The Close Up was done back then, you can view it here.
This is the fourth in the superb ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’ put together by Greenberg. Every time I do a review of one of these I am always in glowing admiration for Martin Greenberg’s concept, along with the construction and execution of these anthologies. I feel no different on this occasion. As I have done for all anthologies in this series I’ll reproduce the Foreword Mr Greenberg uses to outline the intent and structure of the book. Here it is:
The stories contained within the book are somewhat unusual. Mr Greenberg made some very interesting and eclectic choices to illustrate the history of the robot. Many of the tales are a little more cerebral than one might expect and as a whole The Robot and The Man is a surprisingly refreshing and thought provoking anthology and a superbly applied take on the history of the robot. I could even admit to being a little emotional at times.
On the critical front, the vision of the robot in the later stories is very ambitious. To the modern reader (a point of review I apply often and is actually worth discussing in it’s own post sometime) the portrayal of the more advanced robots seems a little naive. Especially as they are almost without exception described as having very human emotive ability – sadness, joy and so on. To have robot’s sighing, for example, does seem a little silly. Also, the physicality of these robots is invariably described as very… mechanical. Coils and pistons are quite strange components with which to fashion robots at a time thousands of years in the future. But personally I embrace these kinds things in stories penned in that Golden Age of Science Fiction. They serve to remind us of the romantic no-limits-to-contemporary-technology vision these writers had of times to come and part of what makes all these books extremely endearing and such a joy to read.
The anthology traces the evolution of the robot from it’s beginnings in artificial intelligence and powered prostheses, through self awareness, industrial and social integration, ultimately outliving humanity in the final poignant irony to take the role of God in the re-population of the Earth. My particular favorite was ‘Rust’ by Joseph E. Kelleam. A touching tale of three aged, lonely, frustrated and rapidly deteriorating killing machines contemplating their nature as agents of destruction and finally facing their mortality as the only sentient beings remaining on the Earth. Of course, unbeknown to them they aren’t the only ones as subsequent later and unrelated tales testify.
Just a comment about the title to finish with. The theme that develops throughout this anthology is that without Man there can be no Robot, but what finally hits home or ‘bears fruit’, is that despite at times being light years apart in time and space, our existences remain inextricably entwined and we are led to the inevitable conclusion that without the Robot there will be no Man.
Added as I just realized I didn’t include this with the Review of this book. Here it is for your enjoyment, and best read in conjunction with the Review.
Martin Greenberg, editor
1950
A little bit against my better judgment, I bought another copy of Men Against the Stars. The attractions were price, condition and second state jacket. The price was good – only $16, the condition of the book itself is NF and the jacket is VG (with a proviso), so I have both states of the jacket now. I’ll compare the two books briefly here. Click the pics to step through to larger images.
The newer copy is on the left. You can see it’s a bit brighter and has much less wear. That strange cracky/flaky wear I mentioned in the initial Close Up is evident on this jacket too, but to a much lesser extent. I’ve been thinking about that and I suspect it might be a result of such a black-ink-loaded jacket.
With the jacket off, we can really see a difference.
Apologies for the inconsistency, but the newer acquisition is on the right here now. It’s very obvious that the spine is much cleaner and it’s a little difficult to tell, but the boards are a lot sharper and in like new condition.
The other major area of interest is the second state of the jacket.
You just need to check out the vintage of the titles promoted on the back to determine which is which here. Interestingly, you can see Gnome Press relocated sometime between the printing of these jackets. Note that unusual wear on the older jacket.
Just a couple of other areas of interest on the more recent copy, a quick peek inside reveals that the pages and, more particularly, the free endpapers and paste-downs are very clean. No marking at all and only a little discoloration.
In the original Close Up I pointed out and commented on the spotting on the edges of the block. There is absolutely none here. Very nice. The last thing I want to look at is the tape on the inside of the jacket.
Someone has applied reinforcing tape to the wrap- around on the spine. This is invisible externally, but it does bug me that it’s there. I hope that over time it’s not detrimental. It could be special book tape. I would like to remove it and if anyone has some advice on that it would be appreciated.
All in all, I think it was worth getting this copy.
Martin Greenberg, editor
1950
My high expectations of Martin Greenberg’s ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’ continues to be met. Published in 1950, this is the very first in the six volume series, and the best of the four I have read so far. I haven’t reviewed the 1953 installment The Robot and the Man yet, but you can read the Reviews for 1951’s Journey to Infinity and All About the Future from ’55. I also have Travelers of Space sitting in the library waiting for me. I’ll get around to it. Come to think of it, I’m going to make a promise here in writing, I will read again and Review ‘Robot & Man’ before I get into ‘Travelers’. There. It’s been too long and I must do it.
As I have always done in the Reviews for these books, I mention the concept behind them, and because this book is the very first I’ll go into it in a little more depth. Gnome Press co-founder and editor of the series, Martin Greenberg, came up with the idea of a collection of short stories that reflected a certain set of ideas or progression of ideas. From the perspective of the modern SF reader, this is nothing new. It could even be considered ‘old hat’ with themed collections for everything imaginable, from SF crime to gay vampires. However, it was new 60 years ago and this particular book represents perhaps the very first published ‘theme anthology’ in SF history. This is a view reinforced by Eshbach:
Probably Marty’s [Martin Greenberg’s] greatest contribution to the SF field (other than Gnome Press itself) was his concept of theme anthologies which began with Men Against the Stars. So far as I have been able to determine, this and the others that followed were the first collections of this nature to appear, setting a pattern for future anthologists. These were the most successful of Gnome Press books, their sales figures only approached by Asimov’s Foundation stories.
Eshbach, p 210
I’ve reproduced here both the Foreword by Greenberg and the Introduction by science writer and space commentator Willy Ley. The Foreword sets the tone not only for this book but for it’s companions to follow, and is an excellent guide on how to read this collection – not just as a simple collection of stories, but in a broader sense as a progression of themes, ideas and issues that future spacefarers might have to consider, be challenged by and eventually surmount.
Ley gives us an excellent ‘in a nutshell’ history of the rocket and a glimpse into a possible future with regards to our first steps to the moon and beyond. It is really a fascinating piece. Here they are. Enjoy.
Well, it’s about time we get into the stories that make up this anthology. The title of this tome is of course ‘Men Against the Stars’ and it really is. Contained therein are stories of men. Men who face challenges from the first flight around the moon until the rejuvination of a stagnating Mother Earth by her children from the stars. Men who face problems ranging from public resistance, to mutiny, to economics, to politics, to time and even being locked out. All in the quest to push succeeding generations further from home. There are twelve tales, and I’m not going to address them all, I’ll just pull out three or four to talk about.
I’m not going to touch on the opening and closing stories, suffice to say they are well chosen and represent very suitable, natural ways to begin and end this collection. Nor will I mention the penultimate tale ‘Bridle and Saddle’ with which Foundation fans should be very familiar, and for which reason I didn’t read. A not-well-known fact about that story though; ‘Bridle and Saddle’ in this volume is the very first occasion an Asimov story was in published in book form.
The second and title story “Men Against the Stars’ by Manly Wade Wellman describes the courage, daring and mortal sacrifice of the men who rode the very unreliable rockets to Mars from their base on the moon. By taking chances with dodgy technology, the tale invokes the character of such long-haul aviation pioneers such as Lindbergh, Kingsford-Smith, Earhart and Batten. The principal action takes place on the moon, but the main thread of the story is punctuated by short vignettes of the crews that are making the Mars shot, often immediately before their spectacular demise in transit. As I mentioned, this is the title story and also provides the beating heart of this anthology.
A.E. van Vogt’s ‘Far Centaurus’ is a familiar tale along the lines of Starman’s Quest. Space travel is much safer now, and four men set out for the distant stars on a centuries-long journey in stasis only to be overtaken by technology long before arriving. Greeted at their destination, they discover a civilization that has passed them by. It’s an interesting situation to ponder…
Hal Clement is renowned for his hard science fiction. He performs up to his considerable reputation here with ‘Cold Front’. Men attempt to forge a trading relationship selling global climate control to a newly discovered alien civilization. They do this on a planet with extremely complex weather patterns that aren’t fully understood by the non-natives. Their poor grasp of the situation and subsequent embarrassment however, leads to another opportunity that is adroitly taken advantage of – testimony to the wiles of inter-species human traders. Clement is at his best – some extremely convincing (if somewhat dated) speculation on cause and effect in planetary and solar meteorology here.
Having not long completed Murray Leinster’s The Forgotten World, I was amused that his installment was about fugitives from piracy, crash-landing on a planet dominated by… flowers. ‘The Plants’ tells us of how three parties – fugitives, pirates and semi-sentient flowers – interact after an almost-bungled heist.
Some very, very famous names from early science fiction are represented here. Asimov, Clement, Leinster, Hubbard, van Vogt and Padgett make up about half of the contributors.
If you are a SF fan, especially of classic SF, this book should be in your collection. It’s not expensive, you could pick up a resonable copy (if you can find one) for much less than $50. I’m going to make a prediction: In the fullness of time, this book will become a real sought-after and valuable collectors item. I guess given enough time anything will be, but what I mean is though maybe not in the league of Gnome titles such as Asimov’s and Heinlein’s, it will certainly be elevated far above the obscurity it is in now. This book represents a genuine piece of SF publishing history. Aside from that, it is a fantastic collection. From Edd Cartier’s magnificent cover art to the full circle arrived at in the final story by L. Ron Hubbard, I can find very little negative to say, and that’s really saying something for a bunch of twelve very early SF tales.
If you appreciate SF, if you have an interest in SF history, you need this book.
Martin Greenberg, editor
1950
Fantastic cover. This is one of my favorites. It’s a shame it’s not in better condition, but nevertheless, it’s a pleasure to have a copy. There are numerous little issues with the book, which we will examine presently. The book does have significance as it is the first of the very successful ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’ which was the brainchild of Gnome Press co-founder and series editor Martin Greenberg, but I’ll talk a bit more about that in the Review. This volume was issued in two printings according to Eshbach. 5000 in the first run and 3000 in the second. I have reason to suspect that there are two states to this jacket. Though the fact that there were two printings is a strong indication anyway. I’m trying to get that confirmed, but I’m sure that the jacket on this is a first state. You will see why later. Right now, let’s take a closer look.
Beautiful. This was the sixth book from Gnome Press and definitely the best cover up to that time. The title of the compilation and the art combine so well. Actually, I would venture to suggest that artist Edd Cartier has elevated this up among the very best covers produced by Gnome Press, along with maybe Ric Binkley’s ‘Robots Have No Tails’, ‘The Survivors’ by Wally Wood and ‘I, Robot’ also by Cartier.
Fawning aside, we can see some issues very plainly. Numerous chips off the cover and cracking along all edges. There is a little rubbing to the cover too. We’ll have a closer look at the chipping soon. Once we remove the garments we can see that this book hasn’t been cared for in the past. Soiling of the cloth shelf back is evident with some wear staining which is clearly visible at the tail of the spine.
The boards are nice and clean though. There are a couple of nice details that deserve a closer look.
Nice impression of a couple of stars there, and at the bottom of the spine…
..you can see an impression of the men going up against them. Lovely. Unfortunately, the wear and soiling is also quite visible here. It looks more like dirt than anything, I wonder if this could be cleaned. Anyone have any ideas??
There is some dust-spotting on the edges of the block as you can see below.
Actually, I’m not sure whether it’s dust or foxing. In any event, it’s only evident on the edges of the paper, internally the pages are quite nice. No age browning at all. The spine sits nice and square despite being a bit on the loose side.
The head and tail of the spine show wear consistent with the overall impression of the dust jacket – general edge wear and a bit of splitting.
Which leads us to have a closer look at the worst instances of the chipping and splitting.
You can see a significant chip off the rear edge of the spine and what looks like flaking of the cover rather than wear. This is evident on all four edges of the dust jacket.
It seems to be a rather unusual type of wear. I wonder if it is brought about by a special set of circumstances. Anyway, the top front corner has a loose piece there.
Looks like a bit of moisture has gotten in at some point too. You can see the front paste-down is a bit mottled and darkened. This is true on the rear paste-down too, and both exhibit a bit of foxing.
A price is written on the front free end-paper. I wonder when… It’s the same price that the book originally cost. I mentioned earlier about this being a first state jacket. I’m pretty sure this is true as the GP books promoted for sale on the rear of the jacket all precede this one. The two that are advertised as ‘forthcoming’ are the two immediately after this.
As you can see, the back is quite clean though there is a bit of rubbing apparent in the area at the top right.
Year: 1950
Paid: $30
Art: Edd Cartier
Quantity: Two printings according to Eshbach – initially 5000, second printing 3000 copies.
Binding: Slate grey boards and purple cloth shelf back. Silver lettering to spine. Nice spaceship and stars imprinting on the cloth.
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition
Comments: I just love the cover. A significant book and well worth the $30 price for mine. Pity about the poor condition of the cloth spine though.
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Martin Greenberg, editor
1955
This is the third book of the ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’ that I’ve read. I haven’t gotten around to reviewing The Robot and the Man yet, but Journey to Infinity I have. I have to say I am really enjoying the books in this series and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands on the others. I’ll probably repeat this in all the reviews for these books, but Greenberg’s theme idea is a winner. Slightly different from the other two I have read – collections tracing the history of mankind and the history of the development of the robot – these stories are each a different take on the kinds of cultures we might see in the future.
I’ll touch on the stories in a moment, but first I just want to mention the Foreword and the Introduction. The foreword is written by editor Martin Greenberg in which he outlines the purpose of the collection and gives a brief intro to each story. This is a very important part of the book because it really focuses your mind on the themes and issues to take note of. It sets the book up nicely because without it, this would be too easy to read as just a collection of pretty good science fiction short stories. The introduction written by Robert Heinlein is special. Actually there are two intros, the other by Isaac Asimov. What I’m going to do here is reproduce the intro by Mr Heinlein for you to enjoy. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how the Great Man’s mind was working back then, how he used the present to think about a science fiction future, and how he saw the ‘real’ future from the perspective of 1955. He has a stab at predicting some things that will come to pass (prediction #4; The United States will never engage in a preventative war), and lists a few he thinks will probably never happen. It’s 11 pages, but this is a must-read for Heinlein fans, science fiction fans (particularly classic sf) and fans of ’50s nostalgia in general. So here it is, ‘Where To?’ by Robert Heinlein. Enjoy.
If you are a bit concerned about me breaking the back of this book over a scanner, don’t be. I held the book open carefully and photographed it. I have also made the assumption that reproducing this here isn’t a big problem. If I’m incorrect in that, someone advise me please.
Well, on to the stories. As I said, I’m not going to spend a lot of space analyzing every one, but I’ll let you know a little about each.
‘The Midas Plague’ by Frederick Pohl tells us about a society, that because of the excess of production, assigns ‘consumption quotas’ to citizens. One newly married individual hits on a brilliant but illegal and subversive idea to meet and exceed his consumption needs, reduce his quotas and move up the social scale.
The operations of an ultra-secret governmental security force is the subject of ‘Un-Man’ by Poul Anderson. Working to secure the position of a world government in the face of shadowy interests actively working against them, this organisation of clones is hard pressed to maintain stability.
Theodore Sturgeon’s ‘Granny Won’t Knit’ is an unusual tale of blossoming psi-powers in an very conservative and conformist society. Exposed skin is considered offensive in this male-dominance and rigidly structured civilisation.
‘Natural State’ describes the transformation of a city-dwelling media star into a ‘mudfoot’ – the technology-independent people living in the wasteland outside the walled cities. Written by Damon Knight, the story culminates in the eventual collapse of the city-states at the hands of their more naturalistic neighbors.
In ‘Hobo God’, Malcolm Jameson tells the tale of how an unwitting and unwilling astronaut becomes an unwitting and unwilling god to the native population after his mission fails on Mars.
Walter M. Miller Jr’s ‘Blood Bank’ is set it a far, far future where the current civilisation on Earth is a dark enigma to the rest of the galaxy. Disgraced because of a tragic encounter with a mercy ship of Terran origin, a former interstellar patrol commander is determined to unravel the mystery whatever the cost.
As I mentioned earlier, some ideas regarding society and civilisation permeates the book. Themes such as consumerism, world government and ultra-conservatism are commented on in the various stories, perhaps not directly but Martin Greenberg has constructed the book and chosen the tales well.
I enjoyed ‘Un-Man’ the most. It’s the longest in the collection and feels surprisingly contemporary, as if it was written recently and not 50-odd years ago. The others by comparison feel a little dated. This isn’t neccessarily a negative on their part, but rather testimony to the strength and style in Poul Anderson’s writing in this case. The others vary in quality for me, but in general a very enjoyable collection, especially in the light that Greenberg’s introduction throws upon it. I have to recommend this book if only for the introduction by Heinlein. Perhaps the editor and authors didn’t know all about the future back then, but when considered from our point of view today, I think they indeed knew more about the future than they were given credit for.
Martin Greenberg, editor
1955
Another in the ‘Adventures in Science Fiction Series’. This Close Up should be fairly straight forward as there is only two real points of contrary comment, we’ll get to those presently. The first thing we always look at is the cover, and that is the major source of coolness about this publication. Fantastic design and great images of science fiction from 1955. Cover artist Ed Emshwiller is renowned for his prolific and high quality work.
Lovely cover. However, the two small issues appears when we open the book. First, it has been price-clipped.
And second, there is some dealer’s scribblings on the front free end-paper.
Nothing I’m overly concerned about. The dust jacket is worn, especially at the corners.
As you can see it’s in darn good condition apart from that damned jacket. It’s a shame. If we whip the gear off we can appreciate the great condition on the book itself.
Just some very slight bumping at the top and the bottom of the spine, but absolutely no external markings. Nice.
That darned dust jacket again. You can see the quite obvious wear down the edge there.
I’ve just started reading it. One of the introductions (there are two) is by Robert Heinlein and makes for extremely interesting reading and well worth doing so. I wonder if anyone would have any objection to me reproducing it on this blog??
Year: 1955
Paid: $32
Art: Ed Emshwiller
Quantity: 5000 copies
Binding: Grey boards with orange cloth shelf back. Silver lettering to spine.
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition
Comments: Worn jacket, price-clipped and small dealers inscription mar this otherwise nice book.
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database
Martin Greenberg, editor
1951
We saw what it looked like on the inside, so to speak, now for what the external appearance amounts to. First, a bit of provenance. This copy I have was previously owned by Charles Miller (the ‘Miller’ in Underwood-Miller Publishing) apparently. I was told this by the chap I purchased it off, he actually bought it out of Miller’s library. The nice Art Deco-ish cover art is by Edd Cartier and represents well the structure of the book which I talked about in the review.
There is what looks like sunning down the spine, but I’m not entirely sure whether it is or not. Perhaps someone out there can confirm that. One of the features of this book is that it has been inscribed by the editor Martin Greenberg. Now, I don’t know about you, but I am very unsure if this is Mr Greenberg’s signature. It says “To Jack with much affection ??”
Admittedly it could be. I can stretch my imagination to that possibility with no effort at all, but it certainly doesn’t obviously say “Martin Greenberg”. Not to me at least anyway. Again, I would greatly appreciate any confirmation on this particular point.
The top and bottom of the book look great.
It’s nice and clean and sits square. No lean in the spine. Great. You can see on the bottom, however, that there has been a bit of chipping along the boards (I’ve highlighted the bottom front corner there).
Close up, the extremities of the spine look good. Dust jacket nice, Fine in fact. This is not a first state jacket though, on the back are listed books which appear subsequent to this.
This book was published in 1951 and you can see heading the list is The Robot and The Man, a 1953 publication. The rear of the jacket also looks great as you can see. If we take it off, we are able to see the nice binding with attractive silver lettering.
It’s the small touches that make the difference. Have a closer look at the lettering and the fabric on the front board:
See the symbol for infinity above the Gnome Press lettering and the man reaching for the stars?? Beautiful.
Year: 1951
Paid: $60
Art: Edd Cartier
Quantity: 5000 copies in the first printing, 2500 in the second according to Eshbach.
Binding: Olive boards with silver lettering on green cloth shelf back.
GP Edition Notes: 1st edition so stated on copyright page. I’m not sure which printing my copy is from, but it does have a second state dust jacket if that’s any indication. See the General Info page for more details.
Comments: Super. I was very tempted to go Fine, but that chipping on the bottom of the boards makes me think otherwise. Reluctantly, I think Near Fine is more appropriate. I would appreciate input from anyone who might have any insight into the sunning issue and especially the inscription: is it actually Greenberg’s signature and who is Jack??
Expand Upon: wikipedia.com, Internet Speculative Fiction Database
The Great Gnome Press Science Fiction Odyssey 