A couple weeks ago I reviewed The 13 Crimes of Science Fiction. You can read that review here. Steve mentioned the earlier anthology with the same theme: Miriam Allen deFord’s Space, Time & Crime from 1964. I liked the Solar Pons story by Derleth and Reynolds. And I enjoyed the James McKimmey story, too. Problably the most famous story in this anthology is Fritz Leiber’s “Try and Change the Past.” It’s one of his Change War stories that I’ve always admired. If you’re in the mood for a mashup of SF and crime, you’ll enjoy Space, Time & Crime.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
7 • Introduction (Space, Time & Crime) • (1964) • essay by Miriam Allen deFord
11 • Crisis, 1999 • (1949) • short story by Fredric Brown
27 • Criminal Negligence • (1955) • short story by J. Francis McComas
43 • The Talking Stone • [Wendell Urth] • (1955) • short story by Isaac Asimov
61 • The Past and Its Dead People • (1956) • novelette by Reginald Bretnor [as by R. Bretnor ]
81 • The Adventure of the Snitch in Time • [Solar Pons] • (1953) • short story by August Derleth and Mack Reynolds
89 • The Eyes Have It • (1953) • short story by James McKimmey, Jr. [as by James McKimmey ]
97 • Public Eye • (1952) • short story by Anthony Boucher
111 • The Innocent Arrival • novelette by Poul Anderson and Karen Anderson (variant of Innocent at Large 1958)
129 • Third Offense • (1958) • short story by Frederik Pohl
137 • The Recurrent Suitor • [Plumrose] • (1963) • short story by Ron Goulart
149 • Try and Change the Past • [Change War] • (1958) • short story by Fritz Leiber
157 • Rope’s End • (1960) • short story by Miriam Allen deFord
167 • Or the Grasses Grow • (1958) • short story by Avram Davidson
This is one of the anthologies I also bought many years ago – since I’m in Hungary right now and far from my library (sob …) I can’t say whether it was in London or NYC …
I also got XENOGENESIS and there’s one by Mrs deFord which I don’t have: ELSEWHEN, ELSEWHERE, ELSEHOW
Those were the days!
Asimov, Davidson, Goulart, Leiber – they don’t come like them any more …
Wolf, I loved the cover on SPACE, TIME & CRIME so I’m guessing that was the reason I bought this book back in 1964.
This sounds like another winner to me – thanks George, now off to scour the inter web!
Sergio, you’ll find inexpensive copies of SPACE, TIME & CRIME online. Well worth reading!
Looks like it is easy to get online. Definitely one I should look for.
Jeff, I’m surprised that such a nice paperback like SPACE, TIME & CRIME can be bought online for a pittance! Love the Internet!
I enjoyed this one a lot, George.
Jerry, I’m a fan of SF stories and novels with criminal elements.
I liked this one too, and wish I could figure out what happened to my copy. I have the Pons story in a Pons collection. One minor thing: in your table of contents listing, I don’t think short story should be all one word.
Rick, oops! I’ll fix it. Thanks for giving me the heads up!
That’s an odd quirk of ISFDB, and pasting from them…one guesses the Database used by the Speculative Fiction gang could only handle so many characters in one field, and they never bothered to fix that later.
Todd, I agree.
Leiber’s “Try and Change the Past” in its dozen or so pages brilliantly lays out the basic premise King recycles in 11/22/63 at tree-martyring bloviation length.
Todd, you are so right! Leiber was the master of conciseness!
deFord definitely underappreciated. Pity this is her only anthology, iirc.
Todd, Miriam Allen deFord is largely forgotten today. I wanted to bring some attention her way with this review.
Todd, maybe you didn’t see my comment:
I also got XENOGENESIS by Mrs deFord and there’s also ELSEWHEN, ELSEWHERE, ELSEHOW
wiki has a lot of interesting info on her:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_Allen_deFord