It is usually difficult to point to one book and say definitively, “That book changed me.” It is usually a gradual process with many books for me. Dune by Frank Herbert, The Hobbit by J. R. R. Tolkien (followed by several attempts to read The Lord of the Rings all the way through) are some obvious singles that affected me.
In the more diffused world of anthologies, it gets even harder to see a specific volume of importance. But there is one collection that I can positively mark as turning point for me. That book was Isaac Asimov’s Before the Golden Age (1974). This rather self-indulgent look back at all the old Science Fiction stories that inspired Asimov’s massive output introduced me to several authors who have since become my favorites: Edmond Hamilton, Jack Williamson and Neil R. Jones. The contents of this blog has been profoundly shaped by my finding these early writers and championing them over later “Golden Age” authors . (Which was probably not Asimov’s goal, but there it is…)
I used to own a lovely hard cover version of this giant book that was great for traveling. I occasionally re-read stories in it, something I admit I rarely do. The one weakness of the volume was a lack of illustrations for each story, a feat that was more difficult in Asimov’s time but no longer. Here are the illustrations of the stories that Ike selected. And why not? If he could be self-indulgent, why can’t I? (Damon Knight’s Science Fiction of the 1930s didn’t have this problem. He had illos!)
So sit back and imagine a young Ike Asimov, all teeth and ears, reading Pulps in his father’s candy store, careful not to marr the Pulps that he could not buy but only read quickly before customers purchased them…
“The Evolved Man” by Edmond Hamilton
“The Jameson Satellite” by Neil R. Jones
“Submicroscopic” by S. P. Meek
“Awlo of Ulm” by S. P. Meek
“Tetrahedron of Space” by P. Schuyler Miller
“The World of the Red Sun” by Clifford D. Simak
“Tumithak of the Corridors” by Charles R. Tanner
“The Moon Era” by Jack Williamson
“The Man Who Woke” by Lawrence Manning
“Tumithak in Shawm” by Charles R. Tanner
“Collosus” by Donald Wandrei
“Born of the Sun” by Jack Williamson
“Sidewise in Time” by Murray Leinster
“Old Faithful” by Raymond Z. Gallun
“The Parasite Planet” by Stanley G. Weinbaum
“Proxima Centaura” by Murray Leinster
“The Accursed Galaxy” by Edmond Hamilton
“He Who Shrank” by Henry Hasse
“The Human Pets of Mars” by Leslie Frances Stone
“The Brain-Stealers of Mars” by John W. Campbell
“Devolution” by Edmond Hamilton
“Other Eyes Watching” by John W. Campbell
“Minus Planet” by John D. Clark
“Past, Present, and Future” by Nat Schachner
“The Men and the Mirror” by Ross Rocklynne
https://edquitssmoking.blogspot.com/2020/03/before-golden-age-1-1931-32.html
Another great collection. Thanks!
Haha, I had the same idea a couple months ago!
https://edquitssmoking.blogspot.com/2020/03/before-golden-age-1-1931-32.html
Isn’t the Internet Archive great? 🙂
I wish I had known. I would have done some other anthology.
I first read the book nigh on forty years ago. I had to look up what tetrahedral meant. Then I found a really nice hardback copy in a charity shop a couple of years back, in the glamorous London suburb of Balham, Or Gateway to the South as it is known to Peter Sellers fans. Still have it on my bookshelf. Nice to see the illos from the original magazines. It is a really good collection.