On November 22, 1963, I was reading Great Stories of Space Travel in my High School Library when the announcement of President Kennedy being shot resulted in classes being cancelled and we were all sent home.
Tempo Books was the paperback line of Grosset & Dunlap. Great Stories of Space Travel was the 39th book in the Tempo series. It was published July 1963 and I bought a copy during that summer but didn’t get around to reading it until November 1963.
Great Stories of Space Travel collects eleven novelettes and short stories by mostly Big Name science fiction authors with a general introduction by Groff Conklin and his brief introductions to each story. The SF stories were previously published from 1942-1955 in various science fiction and other magazines.
I’d read several Groff Conklin SF anthologies before reading Great Stories of Space Travel and enjoyed them all. My favorite stories in Great Stories of Space Travel are Jack Vance’s “I’ll Build Your Dream Castle” and Eric Frank Russell’s humorous “Allamagoosa.”
Sometimes a book captures a moment in Time and I will never forget what I was doing on November 22, 1963. What were you doing on that date? GRADE: B+
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- “Introduction” (Groff Conklin) — 7
- The Solar System
- “The Wings of Night” (Lester del Rey) — 11
- “The Holes Around Mars” (Jerome Bixby) — 33
- “Kaleidoscope” (Ray Bradbury) — 53
- “I’ll Build Your Dream Castle” (Jack Vance) — 65
- Beyond the Solar System
- “Far Centaurus” (A. E. van Vogt) — 87
- “Propagandist” (Murray Leinster) — 112
- “Cabin Boy” (Damon Knight) — 137
- “A Walk in the Dark” (Arthur C. Clarke) — 168
- “Blind Alley” (Isaac Asimov) — 180
- “The Helping Hand” (Poul Anderson) — 208
- “Allamagoosa” (Eric Frank Russell) — 240
I’ve probably read all these stories – but don’t remember them, seems my brain is getting old.
But I remember the day when I walked to university as usual and stopped at the newspaper display just before the university building to get the latest news as usual (couldn’t afford a newspaper) and there was a piece of paper put on the title page describing the case in headlines, nothing else.
Detailed info only got available the day after.
I was shocked because JFK was a sign of changing times from the christian fascist to the liberal.
In those days Germany was still ruled by the CDU, everything not agreeing with the bible and the catholic rules was forbidden: Homosexuality, abortion, sex before marriage and so on.
It took a very long time to change …
Wolf, it looks like the U.S. is heading into CDU territory…
About then, perhaps not long after, I was conceived. Since I was born 6 August 1964 CE.
Todd, I was 15 years old when you showed up in the Summer of 1964.
I was 6 years old and living in England. They announced the assassination the next day in assembly, but by then it had been on the news. Five years later, on November 22, 1968, my family and I were flying to the U.S. to begin our new life as immigrants. So today marks my 56th anniversary of arriving in the United States.
Deb, and we’re all glad you came to America! Happy 56th Anniversary of arriving in the U.S.!
I was in eighth grade, a routine Friday afternoon up to that moment, when the announcement was made over the PA system. I came down with the flu over the weekend and missed the news coverage of Oswald and Jack Ruby. On a happier note, that looks like a typically solid Conklin anthology.
Fred, I was glued to the TV coverage in the weeks after the Kennedy assassination. In retrospect, GREAT STORIES OF SPACE TRAVEL is still a special book because it was a paperback original. Most of the other Groff Conklin anthologies I’d read at that time were paperback reprints of hardcover anthologies.
As I emailed some of you, this was two days before my 15th birthday. I had skipped 8th grade so was a junior in high school. A guy who lived across the street from me told me in the hall at school about the shooting, then they announced it over the loudspeaker and sent us home. I was going to the New York Giants game at Yankee Stadium on Sunday (they lost to the St. Louis Cardinals), and just before I left my mother and I watched Jack Ruby shoot Oswald on live TV.
Happy Anniversary, Deb!
Jeff, you have a great memory!
Happy anniversary, Deb! England’s loss was our gain.
I plowed through that Conklin anthology when it first came out. An all-star line-up, with Bixby (“It’s a Good Life,” STAR TREK, FANTASTIC VOYAGE, plus editing several science fiction magazines) being perhaps the least-known today. A Tempo paperback, it went through a couple of editions, but was never reprinted beyond Tempo — a shame.
As for today’s anniversary, I was in an Advanced Biology class , when the shooting was announced. Our teacher, George Simonian, turned on the classroom television and we watched. some with horror (and some with the blase know-nothingness of sixteen-year-olds); I think all of us slowly came to realize that out world had suddenly changed forever. George, by the way, became a good friend. He’s still with us, active in his nineties,; he went on to become the high school principal, and is a mainstay in our high school alumni association and with his church where every single kid there calls him “Uncle George.” I credit George with providing needed stability during that bio class and after.
Jerry, I had some wonderful teachers in High School…but I couldn’t wait to get to College! No Dodge Ball there!
I have this collection and have read the Clarke and Bradbury stories but haven’t gotten to the rest yet. The book is in a stack of those to be finished this winter. I love the cover even if it’s nothing special because images of spiral galaxies seemed to dominate science fiction television imagery in the early sixties.
I was only three-years-old at the time of the assassination so my memories of it are vague. I mostly remember my parents being glued to the television at the time but the only distinct memory I have was Kennedy’s coffin being unloaded from a plane at the Washington D.C. airport. Anyone else remember how many homes (usually Catholic and/or Irish-American) had framed prints of JFK on their walls?
According to my mom Kennedy had campaigned in our city and his motorcade had driven right past our house. My parents stood along the sidewalk with the crowd and my mom said she held me up over her head as JFK drove by.
Byron, I was 14 years old when Kennedy came to Niagara Falls. A crowd, including my family, greeted Kennedy at the Niagara Falls Airport. We couldn’t get that close because of Security, but I did the same thing you did: held one of my sisters up over my head to see him!
I was a junior in high school and skipping school that day. I heard the news on TV sometime after I woke up and thought about running over to the school to alert everyone! My high school was literally next door, about 20 feet away as the crow flies but longer than that because I had to run up the driveway to get over there! A fence intervened! In the end I decided they’d find out soon enough and went back to watching TV!
Bob, you always have an interesting spin on your stories!