Henry Kuttner’s wacky scientist, Galloway Gallegher, is an average technician when sober. But once he’s drunk, his subconscious genius takes over and creates incredible inventions. Yes, this is not a politically correct approach today, but Kuttner wrote these stories over 60 years ago so you have to cut him some slack. The formula of these stories is that Gallegher wakes up and finds a strange device in his lab. He hasn’t a clue about its purpose or operation. Clients show up demanding results for the money they’ve paid Gallegher to solve their problems. The rest of the story follows a mystery story format where Gallegher investigates both his half-remembered clients and the strange machines he’s created. The word that best captures the sense of these stories is whimsical. If you like P. G. Wodehouse, you’ll like Henry Kuttner’s Gallegher stories. Planet Stories is to be commended on returning these classic stories back to print.
I’ve been going through the Wodehouse collections lately, so I’ll have to try these.
These Henry Kuttner stories are cleverly done. You’ll like them, Jeff.
Kuttner was one of the greats.
I think it’s great that Planet Stories is reprinting Kuttner so a new generation of readers can enjoy his work. He was a giant, indeed.
You have a great website, George. I never miss it. And it gets even better when you talk about Henry Kuttner. For me he was one of the best writers to come out of the pulps–ever.
Thanks for the kind words! You’re right, Ed. Henry Kuttner was one of the great pulp writers. Tragically, he died young.
I’m waiting on a copy of Elak of Atlantis just now.
BTW, George, when did drinking become non ;politically correct? Is there nothing (except reading) left we can enjoy ?
Kuttner’s scientist gets plastered so his genius unconscious could take over, Rick. I don’t have a problem with Kuttner’s character conceit, but some people might be offended by the binge drinking and the use of alcohol as “fuel” for ideas. We know how that worked out for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Sinclair Lewis, and dozens of other great writers who crashed and burned because of alcohol.
Yes, but these stories are sharp examples of using the standard materials of drunken humor at the time (Thorne Smith, and Shakespeare, were similarly guilty).
Pity that Planet Stories chose to use the ridiculous (bad way) title that Gnome Press slapped on thier first collection of Kuttner’s Gallagher stories.
Todd, Todd, calm down. ROBOTS HAVE NO TAILS is Kuttner’s title and Gnome Press ran with it. I agree with you it’s a weak title, but I don’t have a big problem with it. You’re quite right about drunken humor in Shakespeare and Thorne Smith. Nick and Nora liked to get wasted, too, and no one thought much about it at the time.
Then again, since Planet chose to ID Kuttner as “the author of THE LAST MIMZY,” I guess they like really stupid titles and vaguely misleading citations.
Todd, I direct you to Erik Mona’s response.
I’d like to do something more than fall asleep after I drink. Must be nice.
After 10 PM I start to fall asleep, drink or no drink, Patti. My son, on the other hand, is just waking up. I’m starting to suspect he’s part vampire.
Thanks for the hat tip, George! I really appreciate you pointing people in the direction of our new edition of this title (but you might want to consider swapping out the actual cover from paizo.com/planetstories, since that mock-up is pretty dreadful).
Always great to hear from other Kuttner fans. Thanks too to Ed Gorman, who posted above, and who has posted many helpful blog entries about Planet Stories and our authors.
I can understand why Todd Mason doesn’t care for the Gnome Press title, but according to C. L. Moore’s introduction to the Lancer edition, the title came from Hank himself. I didn’t think it was appropriate to change based on that, and the other title under which the stories have appeared, “The Proud Robot,” isn’t too much better.
Incidentally, we put “Author of the Last Mimzy” on our two previous Kuttner books (Elak of Atlantis and The Dark World) because it’s really the only touchstone most modern readers have to his work. Even “The Best of Henry Kuttner” was recently republished as “The Last Mimzy and Other Stories” to tie into the movie.
When it comes to selling 60-year-old material to book chains that often have buyers in their 30s and 40s, and customers who are often even younger than that, it pays to give them something they might understand, some access point that makes them go “oh, yeah!” I suppose I could have just as easily said “From the author of FURY” or (heh) “From the author who probably wrote the novelization of DR. CYCLOPS,” but I don’t think most modern, non-pulpster readers would know what I was talking about.
That said, we recently completely redesigned the cover treatment for all of our books starting with Robots, and the “Author of The Last Mimzy” line disappeared completely.
–Erik Mona
Publisher
Paizo Publishing, LLC
Thank you for the wonderful posting, Erik! As you may have noticed, I’ve praised several of your books on this blog: Leigh Brackett, C. L. Moore, and Henry Kuttner. I’ll make the cover switch. Thanks for the suggestion! Keep up the good work in reprinting great pulp fiction from the past!
I grant you, I can definitely see why one could use a touchstone for the casual modern reader for Kuttner, but THE LAST MIMZY having been such a travesty of the story and of Kuttner’s title, lifted of course from Carroll, made it an almost no-win (particularly when considering the commercial failure of the film). I had not come across Moore’s attribution of the title to Kuttner, and THE PROUD ROBOT is pretty bland, but at least isn’t actually irrelevant. Mona’s gracious explanation augments his game efforts with the Planet line…I’ll go looking for those redesigned editions.
“The Proud Robot” might be the funniest story in ROBOTS HAVE NO TAILS. Hope you like the actual cover the Planet Stories site provided.
I’ve never actually owned a copy of the collection, having read “The Proud Robot” and others piecemeal in ADVENTURES IN TIME AND SPACE and elsewhere. They are utterly charming, as I recall. It’s been years.
Then it’s a good time to get reacquainted with these wonderful stories by picking up a copy of the new PLANET STORIES edition. I had fun rereading Kuttner’s deft writing.
George, this second cover you put up, is much better than the first.
The first cover was from AMAZON, Drongo. When Erik said I could use the updated cover on the PLANET STORIES web site, I made the switch. I like the second cover better, too.
I agree, better cover.
I’m currently reading the collected Northwest Smith stories from Planet. Wow! The first one is scary as hell. And Elak is on the way, and now I’ll HAVE to order this one. Maybe I should just find out of Planet has a subscriber discount…
The subscription route is the way to go, Rick.
They do. I’m signed up. Yay! I also ordered this book and 4 others.
George, I told my wife this is all your fault.
I love to spend other people’s money. Just tell your wife you’re stimulating the economy by buying those PLANET STORIES books.