The most famous story in The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Eleventh Series is “Alpha Ralpha Boulevard” by Cordwainer Smith (aka, Paul Linebarger) with the first appearance of C’mell who will play a much bigger role in a future Instrumentality story. Nearly as famous is Kurt Vonnegut’s “Harrison Bergeron” where equality is strictly enforced across society.
I’m a fan of Clifford D. Simak’s work and “Shotgun Cure” includes a doctor named Jason Kelly who encounters aliens who offer to cure humanity of all its diseases. Ah, but about what about side-effects…
The Best From Fantasy and Science Fiction, Eleventh Series presents a nice mix of “Name” SF writers like Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, and Gordon R. Dickson with writers on the rise like Evelyn E. Smith and Avram Davidson. All in all, an enjoyable anthology. GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 2 • When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer • (1865) • poem by Walt Whitman
- 2 • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Eleventh Series) • (1962) • essay by Robert P. Mills
- 7 • The Sources of the Nile • (1961) • novelette by Avram Davidson
- 40 • Somebody to Play With • (1961) • short story by Jay Williams
- 53 • Softly While You’re Sleeping • (1961) • short fiction by Evelyn E. Smith
- 71 • The Machine That Won the War • [Multivac] • (1961) • short story by Isaac Asimov
- 78 • Go for Baroque • (1961) • short story by Jody Scott
- 95 • Time Lag • (1961) • novelette by Poul Anderson
- 134 • George • (1961) • short story by John Anthony West
- 153 • Shotgun Cure • (1961) • short story by Clifford D. Simak
- 172 • The One Who Returns • (1961) • short story by John Berry
- 179 • The Captivity • (1961) • short story by Charles G. Finney
- 189 • Alpha Ralpha Boulevard • [The Instrumentality of Mankind] • (1961) • novelette by Cordwainer Smith
- 222 • Effigy • (1961) • poem by Rosser Reeves
- 224 • E=MC² • (1961) • poem by Rosser Reeves
- 225 • Harrison Bergeron • (1961) • short story by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- 233 • The Haunted Village • (1961) • novelette by Gordon R. Dickson
Good collection. My favorites are The Surces of the Nile by Avram Davidson and Alpha Ralpha Boulevard by Cordwainer Smith. Could do without the poems.
Steve, the poems by Rosser Reeves–a Big Name on Wall Street–are a curiosity.
Good collection. My favorites are The Surces of the Nile by Avram Davidson and Alpha Ralpha Boulevard by Cordwainer Smith. Could do without the poems.
Not a bad story in the bunch. The book gives one a good sense of F&SF under Mills’s reign. Like Steve, the Davidson and the Cordwainer Smith both hit my sweet spot.
Unlike Steve, I didn’t mind the poems.
Jerry, Rosser Reeves is famous in advertising circles. He insisted that an advertisement or commercial should show off the value or unique selling proposition of the product or service. Reeves’s Unique Selling Proposition (USP) still carries some weight in Advertising classes at colleges and universities.
I’ve gotta hand it to you, George. Only you would know that.
Michael, one of example of Rosser Reeves’s Unique Selling Proposition was the famous series of commercials for bug spray: RAID KILLS BUGS DEAD. The commercials sold a lot of RAID!
Yes, some campaigns Live Forever…in reading the 1990 SPECIAL REPORT: FICTION issue the other week, one of the full-page ads was not one of the first of the Energizer Bunny ads from Eveready…a campaign going on for longer than 30 years, maybe 40 by now.
Todd, I just watched an Everyday commercial for Christmas with the Energizer Bunny. Still goin’!
Other than Kurt Vonnegut-I’ve read a lot of him–I have not read any other.
Patti, Kurt Vonnegut never wanted to be referred to as a Science Fiction writer. He thought that label would hurt the sales of his books.
That, and he had some problems with the bulk of sf writers he knew, even though he knew he was writing sf when he was doing so.
So, Patti, you’ve probably read some sf short stories by Vonnegut, as well…”Harrison Bergeron” and a few others in CAT’S CRADLE, for example.
Vonnegut’s love-hate with the sf community (and with the more widely-read literary critics’ hostility to sf) has been echoed by Margaret Atwood (and, among fantasists, more goofily represented in Mark Helprin’s statements). I think it’s pretty much dying out these days, as the likes of Karen Russell (more a fantasist, but nonetheless) have no problem crediting their influences among fantastic fiction specialists.
Todd, writers like Vonnegut and Atwood saw Science Fiction as a genre ghetto that would reduce their sales. Now, SF is a booming part of publishing. I’m sure DUNE is selling well after the movie version came out a month ago!
That, and mostly because of snobbery on the part of the readers, publishers, and critics who were part of the audience and peers they already were working with or aspired to–and how that would affect their sales and careers generaly. Didn’t stop them from appearing in sf contexts…Vonnegut’s stories in F&SF (above) and IF in the early ’60s, for example, or his story in AGAIN, DANGEROUS VISIONS in ’71, or Atwood contributing to such sf anthologies as OTHER CANADAS in the ’70s.
Indeed, George, the Vonnegut story is his most widely-reprinted…it’s exposure to readers dwarfs that of anything by Linebarger/Smith. I had been looking into Reeves back when reading some of these poems before, and was amused to learn he was Another ad guy having a little avocational fun in SF and particularly with F&SF (Alfred Bester and Frederik Pohl might’ve been at least acquaintances). Also notable is the early–probably first, but I should Go Look–Jody Scott story. She had an unusual career as well, to say the least.
And, indeed, that is one of the most clangorous of Davidson’s early stories…though he already had his first Hugo, and first MWA attention for CRIMES AND CHAOS…it wasn’t out of desperation Joseph Ferman would offer editorship of F&SF to him as Mills was soon to step down.
Todd, I’m looking forward to reviewing the Avram Davidson volumes of THE BEST FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION series.
One of the best covers Doubleday would manage to slap on the BEST FROMs, and the Ace cover isn’t disgraceful!
Todd, I don’t own the hardcover edition of THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, ELEVENTH SERIES so I can’t tell you who the cover artist is…but I like it!
Cover: The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Eleventh Series (1962) • by Roger Zimmerman
Todd, thanks for the info. I’m not familiar with Roger Zimmerman, but I like his cover on the hardcover volume.
Todd, Rosser Reeves was one business man who wrote poetry. The most famous one was Wallace Stevens.
And Pohl and Bester, when they worked in or with the ad industry, used their sf and fantasy writing (among others) in part as a kind of an emotional safety valve…and there were others, along with Reeves, who did so as well…
Or, even, “its” exposure–the Vonnegut story has been any number of textbooks as well as sf and other short-story anthologies…
Todd, Vonnegut’s story addresses an on-going problem with equality. I’m sure it will still be read 100 years from now!
Or, at least, attempts to enforce conformity.
I wrote about this story among some others the other week:
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2021/09/kurt-vonnegut-robert-bloch-fritz-leiber.html
You know, sadly, Evelyn Smith’s career in fantastic fiction was almost over, after her freshet of stories in GALAXY and F&SF in the ’50s…
Todd, I’ve always liked Evelyn Smith’s work. Maybe the NESFA will collect her stories. I’d buy that volume!
Sorry I’m late to the party, George, but I find it interesting that some of these writers were real life Mad Men and couldn’t help but think of the character of Ken Cosgrove from that series who wrote science fiction on the side. I also like the art work of the hardcover edition which reminds me of so much early seventies graphic art (and pretty much every book I bought from the Science Fiction Book Club in junior high).
Byron, hardcover SF anthologies from that era seemed to have a similar style. Of course, I preferred the Richard Powers surreal covers!
Damned if I didn’t forget I did this volume some time back, along with a Margulies (and ghosted by Bensen?) WEIRD TALES antho of similar vintage…
https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2018/07/ffb-best-from-fantasy-and-science.html
Todd, and I commented on your wonderful review of THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, ELEVENTH SERIES and THE GHOUL KEEPERS. I forgot Jay Williams wrote all those Danny Dunn YA books!
Surprised me to be reminded of why that name seemed familiar, at the time, too!
1961 seems like an off-year. Only two stories are familiar – Vonnegut and Smith.
Jim, you’re right: 1961 was a weak year. I’m looking forward to reading and reviewing the first Avram Davidson volume for next month.