Product Description
This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Old Science Fiction is best
Not only are the stories interesting, but they're a slice of past attitudes.I must admit that I haven't read this book in so long, the only story I remember is the one where the characters are surprised that when they got back to Earth, everyone they knew was long dead.I guess the relativity of time was a new idea in the 30s.I do remember that these stories are a charming combination of naivete and incredible insights.It's always a surprise to me when the characters in a story light up in a spaceship, smart women are presented as anomolies, and all alien planets have breathable air.But then, an old Science Fiction story will accurately predict a future technology and how it will change society.I heartily recommend these stories.I recommend all old Science Fiction, especially the ones where their future is now our past (1984, 2001).Did what they predicted come true?Why not?

List of Stories and Authors
OUT AROUND RIGEL by Robert H. Wilson
THE FIFTH-DIMENSION CATAPULT by Murray Leinster
INTO THE METEORITE ORBIT by Frank K. Kelly
THE BATTERY OF HATE by John W. Campbell
THE WALL; and THE OTHER by Howard W. Graham, Ph.D.
THE LOST LANGUAGE by David H. Keller, M.D.
THE LAST MEN by Frank Belknap Long, Jr.
THE MAD MOON by Stanley G. Weinbaum
DAVEY JONES' AMBASSADOR by Raymond Z. Gallum
ALAS, ALL THINKING by Harry Bates
THE TIME DECELERATOR by A Macfadyen, Jr.
THE COUNCIL OF DRONES by W.K. Sonnemann
SEEKER OF TOMORROW by Eric Frank Russell and Leslie T. Johnson
HYPERPILOSITY; and THE MERMAN by L. Sprague de Camp
PITHECANTHROPUS REJECTUS by Manly W. Wellman
THE DAY IS DONE by Lester del Rey

Not Really a Labor of Love
During the early 1970s, there was a resurgence of interest in science fiction of the 1920s and the 1930s. There was Isaac Asimov's wonderful anthology-autobiography, _Before the Golden Age_ (1973), Jaques Sadoul's _Les Meilliers Recits de Astounding Stories_ (1972), Jack Williamson's _The Early Williamson_ (1975), and _The Best of Stanley Weinbaum_ (1974). Damon Knight's _Science Fiction of the 30s_ (1975) was also part of this revival. I don't wish that the book had never been published, but it's a bit of a dissapointment when compared with other works in this movement.

Part of the problem lies within Knight himself. He is an editor of taste and discrimination, but (unlike Sam Moskowitz or Isaac Asimov) he doesn't really have a fondness for the writing of the time. He believes-- quite rightly-- that most of it was pretty dreadful stuff. But an editor of an anthology of this sort, it seems to me, must have a certain affection for the bad.

The anthology includes three historical surveys covering three slices of time ("The Begining," "The Middle," and "The End"); but he does not give a detailed introduction, and there are no introductions to individual stories. Five of the authors represented in this collection are virtual unknowns: Robert H. Wilson, Frank K. Kelly, Howard W. Graham, A. Macfadyen, and W.K. Sonnemann. Who were they? What stories did they write? For what magazines? This information is not given. (Though I was able to find some of it elsewhere.) And many young whippersnappers with their tentacles still green might like to know something about more famous authors like David H. Keller, Raymond Z. Gallun, and Stanley Weinbaum.

Five of the eighteen stories come from the early days of John Campbell's
_Astounding_ and are really crude anticipations of the Golden Age of the 40s. The other thirteen stories are more representative of the 30s, and they contain five passable pieces: Murray Leinster's "The Fifth-Dimensional Catapult," John Campbell's "The Battery of Hate," Stanley Weinbaum's "The Mad Moon," Raymond Z. Gallun's "Davey Jones' Ambassador," and Harry Bates' "Alas, All Thinking". The remaining eight stories are all pretty dreadful. To be sure, one must expect a certain percentage of clunkers in an anthology covering this period. But were there no pieces available by Jack Williamson, Nelson S. Bond, Edmond Hamilton, or even Stanton Coblentz? William Grey Beyer, now unknown, wrote a charming space opera in the 30s called "Let 'em Eat Space" that has (to my Knowledge) only been reprinted in magazines. And L. Taylor Hanson wrote a good novelette, "The Prince of Liars," that has been anthologized only once. Surely Knight could have found a better selection of stories than this. ... Read more

Product Description
General Books publication date: 2009Original publication date: 1811Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text.When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free.Excerpt: OCCASIONAL ELEGY,CONCLUDING THE PRECEDING V A U K i T 1 v LI He scene of death is clos'd, the mournful strains Dissolve in dying languor on the ear ; Yet Pitv weeps, yet Sympathy complains,And dumb Suspense awaits o'erwhelm'd with fear.But the sad Muses, with prophetic eye, At once the future and the past explore. Their harps Oblivion's influence can defy, And waft the Spirit to th' eternal shore. Then, O Palemon ! if thy shade can bearThe voice of Friendship still lament thy doom.Yet to the sad Oblations bend thine ear, That rise in vocal incense o'er thy Tomb. OCCASIONAL ELEGY.In vain, alas ! the geWle Maid shall weep, While secret Anguish nips her vital bloom ; O'er her soft frame shall stern Diseases creep, And give the lovely victim to the tomb. Relentless Frenzy shall the Father sting, Untaught in Virtue's school Distress to bear; Severe Remorse his tortur'd Soul shall wring, 'Tis his to groan and perish in Despair. Ye lost Companions of distress, adieu !Your Toils and Pains and Dangers are no more ! The Tempest now shall howl unheard by you,While Ocean smites in vain the trembling shore.On you the Blast, surcharg'd with rain and snow, In winter's dismal nights no more shall beat:Unfelt by you the vertic Sun may glow,And M. oi li the panting earth with baneful heat.No more the joyful Maid, with sprightly strain, Shall wake the dance to give you welcome home ;Nor hopeless Love impart undying pain,When far from Scenes of social joy you roam.No more on yon wide watery Wraste you strar, While Hunger and Disease your life consume,While ... ... Read more

Product Description
The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars.
The Age of Enlightenment profoundly enriched religious and philosophical understanding and continues to influence present-day thinking. Works collected here include masterpieces by David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, as well as religious sermons and moral debates on the issues of the day, such as the slave trade. The Age of Reason saw conflict between Protestantism and Catholicism transformed into one between faith and logic -- a debate that continues in the twenty-first century.
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The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification:
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British Library

T097506

'A letter to the Reverend Mr. Peers, ..' by the same author as published under the pseudonym of "clergy-man".

London : printed for J. Morphew: and sold by the booksellers of London and Westminster, 1717. 31,[1]p. ; 8° ... Read more

Customer Reviews (14)

IF YOUR A LOVER OF SCI FI
This is for you. An excellent anthology. Quality writing unsurpassed even today. I rate He who Shrank AAAA1111!

Kindle please!
Excellent, classic anthology. Irreplaceable, I already own two paper copies, one in HB, one in PB.

Needs to be on Kindle.

A truly wonderful anthology - and memoir - of an era long gone
I can't say for certain anymore, but I believe that this massive 1974 anthology was one of my very first purchases from the Science Fiction Book Club, around 1977 or 1978; of all those early buys it is certainly the one I have returned to most often and it's left an indelible mark on my taste, contributing especially to a love of the pulp and earlier eras in genre fiction that has never left me.

Editor Isaac Asimov interweaves his own biographical details with warmth, much humor and even occasional pathos into a survey and history of American science fiction magazines from their beginnings in the late 1920s through his own first appearance as a science fiction writer a decade later, which marked the beginning of the "official" Golden Age of science fiction, but the end of his own personal one.The stories presented date from 1931-38; the editor only includes examples that he has personal memories of reading at the time, so certain better-known stories from the period are excluded (and generally available in other anthologies, anyway).He is often critical of the stories themselves - the racism and prejudice in particular, but also the often ludicrous science - but he's also willing to give his younger self, and his peers of the time, a little leeway, and not hold too closely to the more enlightened values of a half-century later.It's a book, then, with much worthwhile critical and historical analysis mixed in with the nearly always entertaining and often wonderful relics of a more innocent and adventurous era in the genre.

Here's a rundown of the stories - I'll * my own personal few favorites, though truthfully I like almost all of them and have re-read most more than once over the past 30+ years.The Meek and Tanner stories are I think the most creative, most "typical" of their era, and are probably my picks for the very best.

1931
"The Man Who Evolved" (Edmond Hamilton) ***
"The Jameson Satellite" (Neil R. Jones)
"Submicroscopic" (S.P. Meek) ***
"Awlo of Ulm" (S.P. Meek) ***
"Tetrahedra of Space" (P. Schuyler Miller) ***
"The World of the Red Sun" (Clifford D. Simak)

1932
"Tumithak of the Corridors" (Charles R. Tanner) ***
"The Moon Era" (Jack Williamson)

1933
"The Man Who Awoke" (Lawrence Manning) ***
"Tumithak in Shawm (Charles R. Tanner) ***

1934
"Colossus" (Donald R. Wandrei)
"Born of the Sun" (Jack Williamson)
"Sidewise in Time" (Murray Leinster) ***
"Old Faithful" (Raymond Z. Gallun)

1935
"The Parasite Planet" (Stanley G. Weinbaum) ***
"Proxima Centauri" (Murray Leinster)
"The Accursed Galaxy" (Edmond Hamilton)

1936
"He Who Shrank" (Henry Hasse) ***
"The Human Pets of Mars" (Leslie Frances Stone)
"The Brain Stealers of Mars" (John W. Campbell Jr)
"Devolution" (Edmond Hamilton)
(1941) "Big Game" (Isaac Asimov)

1937
"Other Eyes Watching (John W. Campbell Jr)
"Minus Planet" (John D. Clark)
"Past, Present and Future" (Nat Schachner)

1938
"The Men in the Mirror" (Ross Rocklynne) ***

He Who Shrank
To me the key piece is the 1930's novella "He Who Shrank" by Henry Hasse. To my knowledge this Fawcett paperback is the only place to obtain it. A scientist's apprentice absorbs a serum and grows smaller, ever smaller - the story really begins where 1956's "The Incredible Shrinking Man" ends as the apprentice falls into the fabric of the world. It's adventure, introspective and ultimately self-reflective in a way that's very rare for its time. It knocked off Asimov's socks when he read it, and mine too, 50 years later.

Isaac Asimov chose and edited this stellar collection. I enjoy his often-autobiographical general introduction and his separate short intros to each of the stories. Many of the pieces here find some way of taking the reader's mind and spinning it - a pretty good accomplishment for pre-war pulp.

These stories were lightning bolts to Asimov. Robert Silverberg, writing in Science Fiction 101 talks of the overwhelming impact of grand, mind expanding science fiction, of "a distinct excitement, a certain metabolic quickness at the mere thought of handling them, let alone reading them... you lurch and stagger, awed and shaken into a bewildering new world of images and ideas, which is exactly the place you've been hoping to find all your life."The stories in this anthology and its two sisters provided that electricity to Asimov. They still stand tall and will give you a kick too.

Pulp Science Fiction At It's Best
There has never been a book more worthwhile to read then this anthology edited by Isaac Asimov. While the writers betray the bigotries of their time, if you can over look these you'll find gems of literature that you'll not see again unless the publishers decide to re-release this wonderful anthology (with original jacket art, please). Until then, keep your eye out for this wonderful anthology. When you find one, pick it up before someone else does. You won't regret it. ... Read more