Just by chance, I stumbled upon David Suart Davies’s monumental The Collector’s Book of Science Fiction (aka, Wordsworth Book of Science Fiction) presents over a 1000 pages of classic 19th and early 20th Century SF. I own a 100 SF anthologies, but The Collector’s Book of Science Fiction contains a massive amount of material unavailable elsewhere.
Cast your eyes down the Table of Contents and prepare to be amazed at the breath of writers represented. Yes, Jules Verne, A. Conan Doyle, and Jack London are here, but Milne, Stockton, Allen show up, too.
After reading The Collector’s Book of Science Fiction, I developed a whole different sense of what was happening in early SF with little known writers like Weinbaum, Mitchell, White, and Griffith making substantial progress in the genre.
If you’re a devotee of early Science Fiction The Collector’s Book of Science Fiction is a must-read. I bought my copy of The Collector’s Book of Science Fiction for less than $10–a bargain for a book of this size and importance! GRADE: A
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- 7 • Introduction (The Wordsworth Collection of Science Fiction) • essay by David Stuart Davies
- 1 • From the Earth to the Moon • [Baltimore Gun Club • 1] • (2011) • novel by Jules Verne (trans. of De la Terre à la Lune 1865)
- 155 • Into the Sun • [Into the Sun • 1] • (1882) • short story by Robert Duncan Milne
- 171 • A Tale of Negative Gravity • (1884) • novelette by Frank R. Stockton
- 189 • To Whom This May Come • (1889) • short story by Edward Bellamy
- 203 • The Scarlet Plague • (1912) • novella by Jack London
- 245 • A Thousand Deaths • (1899) • short story by Jack London
- 255 • The Great Keinplatz Experiment • (1885) • short story by Arthur Conan Doyle
- 269 • The Thames Valley Catastrophe • (1897) • short story by Grant Allen
- 285 • A Martian Odyssey • [Tweel • 1] • (1934) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 307 • Valley of Dreams • [Tweel • 2] • (1934) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 329 • The Adaptive Ultimate • (1935) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 351 • Parasite Planet • [Ham Hammond] • (1935) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 377 • Pygmalion’s Spectacles • (1935) • short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 395 • Shifting Seas • (1937) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 417 • The Worlds of If • [Professor Manderpootz] • (1935) • short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 431 • The Mad Moon • (1935) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 451 • Redemption Cairn • (1936) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 479 • The Ideal • [Professor Manderpootz] • (1935) • short story by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 497 • The Lotus Eaters • [Ham Hammond] • (1935) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 523 • Proteus Island • (1936) • novelette by Stanley G. Weinbaum
- 553 • The Purple Death • (1895) • short story by W. L. Alden
- 565 • Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions • [Flatland • 1] • (1884) • novel by Edwin A. Abbott
- 645 • The Last Stand of the Decapods • (1901) • short story by Frank T. Bullen
- 661 • Three Go Back • (1932) • novel by J. Leslie Mitchell
- 829 • The Crystal Man • (1881) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 841 • The Balloon Tree • (1883) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 849 • The Ablest Man in the World • (1879) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 865 • The Tachypomp • (1874) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 879 • The Man Without a Body • (1877) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 887 • The Clock That Went Backward • (1881) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 899 • The Senator’s Daughter • (1879) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 915 • Old Squids and Little Speller • (1885) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 927 • The Facts in the Ratcliff Case • (1879) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 935 • The Story of the Deluge • (1875) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 943 • The Professor’s Experiment • (1880) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 955 • The Soul Spectroscope • (1875) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 961 • The Inside of the Earth • (1876) • short story by Edward Page Mitchell
- 971 • A Visit to the Moon • [Stories of Other Worlds • 1] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 989 • The World of the War God • [Stories of Other Worlds • 2] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 1009 • A Glimpse of the Sinless Star • [Stories of Other Worlds • 3] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 1027 • The World of the Crystal Cities • [Stories of Other Worlds • 4] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 1045 • In Saturn’s Realm • [Stories of Other Worlds • 5] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 1063 • Homeward Bound • [Stories of Other Worlds • 6] • (1900) • short story by George Griffith
- 1073 • The Dust of Death • [The Doom of London] • (1903) • short story by Fred M. White
- 1089 • The Four Days’ Night • [The Doom of London] • (1903) • short story by Fred M. White
- 1107 • The Invisible Force • [The Doom of London] • (1903) • short story by Fred M. White
- 1125 • The Purple Terror • (1899) • short story by Fred M. White
- 1139 • Around the Moon • [Baltimore Gun Club • 2] • (2011) • novel by Jules Verne (trans. of Autour de la Lune 1870)
Well this looks right up my alley. I’ll see if there are any copies floating around ebay. That cover though just hurts my eyes. It’s not only incongruous with the content but is so godawful it almost makes me a little less uncomfortable at the notion of some people losing their jobs to AI.
Thanks for the tip!
Byron, the contents of THE COLLECTOR’S BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION supersedes the garish cover. You will love this book!
I’ve read many of the stories here, most of which — at the very least — deserve not to be forgotten. However, I fear that many of today’s readers will find them too slow and stodgy for their tastes.
Jerry, you’re right. The style and pacing of Nineteenth Century and early 20th Century fiction requires reader adjustment.
I haven’t seen this one, but Half Price Books used to carry Wordsworth volumes on the remainder table, mostly PD single-author horror collections. Affordable ($5) books of hard to find works. I imagine Jerry is right, slow go for today’s readers, on average, but maybe some will be amused to see where today’s genre evolved from.
Fred, I’ve seen those Wordsworth volumes, too. But I missed this 1000+ page tome. But I’m glad I bought and read it!
Fred, Davies (who passed away a year ago this month) was also the editor of many of those Wordsworth volumes. I found all of those edited by him to be worthwhile. He was also a noted Sherlockian and a mainstay of Britain’s Crime Writers’ Association.
Jerry, I’ve been impressed by Davies’ Sherlock Holmes pastiches. I didn’t know he also edited many of the Wordsworth volumes.
And not every Weinbaum story is on par with “The Adaptive Ultimate”, much less “A Martian Odyssey”, which, even down to somewhat clunky dialogue jokes, nonetheless deservedly floored readers upon first publication (and is the initial story in the 1969 THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME, V. 1, selected largely by a poll of SF Writers of America (as it was known then) members, with light policing by Robert Silverberg.
I admit to being an insufficiently thorough scholar of works which interest me greatly, but while this is an interesting project, it’s definitely not the one I’d turn to first (but should look at it soon)…and FLATLAND and its sequel were never intended to be sf the way that Weinbaum’s Martian stories were, so much as an amusing way of combining social satire with geometry…
The SF HOF V. 1 was put together in 1969…but was published in 1970. So there’s that!
Todd, as David Stuart Davies remarks in his INTRODUCTION, the stories in THE COLLECTOR’S BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION show that many of the IDEAS that became central to SF appeared in many of these stories for the First Time.
I can believe that–or the approximations…and certainly nudges to later writers’ thoughts.