Although I’m not familiar with Victor Contoski, I loved his chess story, “Von Goom’s Gambit.” Very clever and very memorable! I am familiar with Ron Goulart (who died on January 14, 2022 at the age of 89) and I had read his Max Kearny story, “Fill in the Blank” (my review is here). I’d also read several Russell Kirk stories, but not “Balgrummo’s Hell.” This excellent story made me want to drop everything and read more Russell Kirk stories! It’s a tale of a theft gone wrong…terribly wrong!
Fritz Leiber’s “The Inner Circles” should be better known along with Samuel R. Delany’s “Corona.” Loved the Gahan Wilson cartoons, too! Another solid anthology from Edward L. Ferman! GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 9 • Introduction (The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: 17) • (1968) • essay by Edward L. Ferman
- 13 • Cyprian’s Room • (1967) • novelette by Frances Oliver [as by Monica Sterba]
- 37 • Out of Time, Out of Place • (1967) • short story by George Collyn
- 53 • Von Goom’s Gambit • (1966) • short story by Victor Contoski
- 59 • Bumberboom • (1966) • novelette by Avram Davidson
- 97 • Fill in the Blank • [Max Kearny] • (1967) • short story by Ron Goulart
- 113 • Balgrummo’s Hell • (1967) • short story by Russell Kirk
- 133 • Corona • (1967) • short story by Samuel R. Delany
- 153 • The Inner Circles • (1967) • short story by Fritz Leiber (variant of The Winter Flies)
- 169 • Problems of Creativeness • (1967) • novelette by Thomas M. Disch
- 193 • Encounter in the Past • (1967) • short story by Robert Nathan
- 201 • The Sea Change • (1967) • short story by Arthur Jean Cox [as by Jean Cox]
- 219 • The Devil and Democracy • [Devil & Belphagor • 1] • (1966) • short story by Brian Cleeve
- 235 • Randy’s Syndrome • (1967) • novelette by Brian W. Aldiss
- [257] • Cartoon: “You can tell she’s thinking it over!” • (1967) • interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
- [258] • Cartoon: “Ding dong the witch is dead!” • (1967) • interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
- [259] • Cartoon: “It’s the one attack the country wasn’t prepared for, Mr. President!” • (1967) • interior artwork by Gahan Wilson
This looks like fun and I love faux Peter Max cover like so many books from this era had. I confess I have a big soft spot for pop culture circa 1966-69. Everything seemed so modern and cool then. Some familiar names here from my early days reading science fiction but a lot more I’m not familiar with. Surprised to see a story by Robert Nathan, a writer whose books I’ve been discovering these past few years. He was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s favorite author and very popular in the 30s and 40s although he’s largely forgotten now. A couple of his novels-PORTRAIT OF JENNIE and THE BISHOP’S WIFE- were made into wonderful movies. The Gahan Wilson cartoons are a real bonus.
The last time I was at John King books in Detroit they had a good chunk of this series for five or six dollars each. I would have grabbed a few had I not already had a two foot stack of books in my arms. I’ll definitely grab a few on my next visit and will keep my eyes open for this one.
Byron, I know well the feeling of having my arms full of books and not being able to scoop up more books! I was lax in my acquiring THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION series and didn’t fill in the gaps until James Wallace Harris motivated me to attempt this 2-year project of reviewing a volume in THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION monthly. I used to see the ACE paperback versions and the SF Book Club editions at used bookstores and Library Book Sales selling for pennies! Now, they’ve gone up in price. If you can get them for five or six dollars, that’s a bargain today!
Given inflation, a fin isn’t too steep a price for the F&SF best-ofs.
Inasmuch as Robert Nathan’s most famous work these years, and for that matter then, remains his fantasy PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, his appearance in F&SF is less than a jawdropper. Likewise, Ferman takes some care to mostly frontload the infrequent contributors to fantastica in this volume, though “George Collyn” did publish a small flurry of stories around then. Brian Cleeve would be a very occasional visitor as well. Contoski, like yourself, devoted the majority of his paying-work hours to professorship.
Russell Kirk was at least a partial mentor to Patti’s husband in his early career, iirc…his side career in horror fiction was relatively productive and over decades, and surprised Patti when she learned of it. The most amusing packaging of Kirk’s fiction to me was as a “supermarket gothic” (as opposed to the elder kind), but Popular Library particularly was leaving no cash on the table in the ’60s and ’70s. https://socialistjazz.blogspot.com/2015/08/its-gothic-if-we-say-its-gothic.html
I have an actual beef with Fritz Leiber’s agent, who refused to cite me a figure in 1994 for reprint of the three playlets for voices Leiber saw published in F&SF in the ’60s, which have Never (even since) been in one volume together, which is frankly stupid at this point (I was also asking after his 1963 F&SF vignette “Success”, which would not be reprinted at all, except in French in their F&SF correspondent FICTION in ’65, till a small press collection, happily one still available if only electronically new, first offered in 2002. “237 Talking Statues, Etc.”, “The Secret Songs” and this one, “The Winter Flies” (though Ferman apparently hated the title, hence its appearance in the magazine and here and probably nowhere else as “The Inner Circles”). All are largely autobiographical and verge on fantasy while each can be interpreted as psychodramas instead.
Glad you’re popping these in as you can…surprised you’ve gotten so few comments, comparatively…perhaps I can carve out the time and energy to finally do some FFB cataloging again.
Todd, I only have seven more anthologies in THE BEST FROM FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION to go. I have some other F&SF collections I’ll include, too. Some agents are notorious for being difficult to work with.