My Best Science Fiction Story (1949) was an SF anthology by Leo Marguiles and Oscar J. Friend. The way the editors open the book it sounds like there are hundreds of anthologies of SF but this isn’t really true. Healy & McComus’s Adventures in Time & Space, the first big collection, appeared only three years earlier. Still, they felt that an anthology not based on a thematic idea would be intriguing:
This book is different. Here is a volume with exactly twelve’ editorial slants—one for each of the stories. For the authors themselves are the selectors of the material and the only restriction we, the editors, imposed was that the stories should be outstanding science fiction. Thus, each author has chosen from his own files the story he believes to be the best he has written. He has offered it along with a brief explanation of why. Furthermore, although this selection was made a few years ago, and though the various authors have spent their time since in successful production of more science fiction, almost all of them still believe the tale they picked for this anthology remains their best. At least, it remains their favorite.
The authors are arranged alphabetically, not chronologically.
Isaac Asimov
“Robot AL 76 Goes Astray” by Isaac Asimov (Amazing Stories, February 1942)
…the reason I choose “Robot AL 76 Goes Astray” from among the rest of the robot yarns for inclusion here is that it’s the light-hearted one. In a sense, it’s a self-satire. Of course, it’s a great day for an author when he becomes important enough to be satirized, and if I waited for a spontaneous gesture on the part of others, I could wait decades, centuries, if I lived long enough. So I took care of the satire myself and did it gently. This represents an ideal combination.
Asimov would change his mind about this story, which isn’t surprising. He wrote for three more decades. His later pick was “The Last Question” from 1956. “Robot AL 76 Goes Astray” would not even appear in I, Robot but later in The Rest of the Robots. One wonders why Ike didn’t pick “Nightfall”.
Otto Binder
“The Teacher From Mars” by Eando Binder (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1941)
For one thing, I thought the idea of presenting a story in the first person, as told by a Martian, helped make it unique, certainly, not run of the mill. So many Martian stories had been written but none, as far as I knew, giving the “inside story” of the thoughts and feelings of an alien being from another world. How would he think and feel and react, coming to our world? This alone gave the story a certain fire of inspiration.
First off, we have to be clear that this is actually Otto Binder who wrote the story and provided the pick. His brother Earl had left SF writing for agent work. This story got a comic book adaption by EC Comics in Weird Science-Fantasy #24 (June 1954). The idea of writing the story in the first person was a Binder gimmick he had used for “I, Robot” (Amazing Stories, January 1939). I guess it worked for Martians too.
Robert Bloch
“Almost Human” by Robert Bloch (Fantastic Adventures, June 1943)
In the face of all this, why did I select a robot story for this anthology? Because “Almost Human” falls into none of the categories mentioned above. It is primarily a story of personality, human and non-human. In writing it, I attempted to ignore the routine science fiction treatments cited above and chose instead to model the tale on the plan of that perennial best-seller I mentioned a few italics back. A close study of this work discloses that the Author spent almost no time explaining how He created a creature. in His own image, but concentrated rather on the story of just what happened to His creation, On a much more modest scale, I have attempted to tell what happened to mine.
Taking a leaf from Binder’s book, Robert Bloch writes about a robot as a person rather than a machine. Bloch’s status as a Science Fiction writer began in 1938, though he is still best remembered for horror fiction.
John W. Campbell
“Blindness” by John W. Campbell (Astounding Stories, March 1935)
This has always been one of my favorites because it is not a story about a colossal super-invention, but rather about a bubble-burster. It was written in 1935—and frankly there has been a minor alteration to suit the events of 1940-45, better known as the Manhattan Project—but the primary point of the story holds, and is somewhat more important than we sometimes think.
Campbell’s early stuff is largely forgotten in the wake of his editorship of Astounding Science-Fiction. His Penton and Blake stories are still read and, of course, “Who Goes There?” Again, as with Asimov, not the obvious classic has been chosen.
Edmond Hamilton
“The Inn Outside the World” by Edmond Hamilton (Weird Tales, July 1945)
“The Inn Outside the World” seems to me the best science fiction story I have done in the shorter length, for several reasons. One reason is that it is of the type I like most, a story of wonder. By “wonder,” I mean the emotional glamour that still attaches to the prodigies of the ARABIAN NIGHTS, to the old Celtic legends of enchanted islands, to the Spanish dreams of El Dorado. It has always been my belief that this element is a basic necessity in science fiction.
A Weird Tales story pick makes me happy. All too often the Science Fiction of “The Unique Magazine” is forgotten. Edmond Hamilton was the top guy in that respect. His selection is one of his favorite themes: the army taken out of time.
Henry Kuttner
“Don’t Look Now” by Henry Kuttner (Startling Stories, March 1948)
Why I selected “Don’t Look Now” as my favorite science fiction story is because it has the technical accuracy of Jules Verne, the realism of H. G. Wells, the social implications of Tolstoi (Leo—the Count, I mean), the freedom of Laurence Sterne, and the terseness of the Bible (the King James translation, of course). Moreover, I can honestly say it is my favorite story because I have reread all my others, on publication, and they disgusted me...But luckily I have not reread “Don’t Look Now” since it was written, so I can very fairly say it’s my favorite yarn. Anyway, my wife wrote it.
Wow, it is obvious from that statement that Hank Kuttner was a perfectionist. Hating the finished work for the next as-yet-unwritten one would make it hard to be nostalgic about any story. I love that he credits his wife, C. L, Moore, with the writing of the story. Most likely they both did. After 1940 it gets hard to know which stories they worked on.
Murray Leinster
“The Lost Race” by Murray Leinster (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1949) Leinster points out some of his favorite hobby horses in the story include spaceship fuel, dealing with boredom on a long trip and precognition.
Most of all, though, I enjoyed working around to the very last sentence of the story. One finds a craftsmanlike satisfaction in having the last word of all wrap everything up in a neat package. This whole yarn leads up to the last sentence, and the point of the entire story is missing until the very last word. I like that. It isn’t too often that I manage it.
Leinster started writing SF back in1918 for Argosy and other soft weeklies, so he had a large pool to choose from. Despite this he picks a fairly recent piece. I wonder if he isn’t a bit like Kuttner, looking ahead rather than back. This particular story has been forgotten among a catalogue of tales, both in and out of SF.
Fletcher Pratt
“Doctor Grimshaw’s Sanitarium” by Fletcher Pratt (Amazing Stories, May 1934)
To begin with, 1 don’t think it’s a particularly brilliant story. It’s better now than when first published (because I have revised it) but still not out of the top drawer. The reason I select it is that for originality of theme and for logical interweaving of all the parts, it is the best one I have written within the restrictions of length the editors have laid down. The reason I find it something less than perfect is that it was written back in the prehistoric days of science fiction, when there was only one magazine in the field; and because science fiction as a whole has gone a long way since then.
This story is the oldest in the collection. It isn’t particularly special either. I am glad to see Pratt acknowledge the “prehistoric days” because there were many wonderful stories that are largely ignored after Campbell’s Golden Age.
John Taine
“The Ultimate Catalyst” by John Taine (Thrilling Wonder Stories, June 1939)
…Suppose you had only one child. Would not that child be your favorite? So here; this is the only short story I have ever written. All my other s-f works have been full booklength novels. But in addition to this irrefutable logic, I like the story because its weird pure s-f chemistry shocked my friends among the professional chemists to the soles of their boots. Being an academic man myself, nothing gives me greater pleasure than to take some of the excelsior out of overstuffed shirts. I did this chemical story deliberately with malice aforethought. It worked.
I have to admit I find Taine dull and unreadable. Because this story is short (for him) I agree it is his best. My prejudice, I know…
A. E. van Vogt
“Project Spaceship” by A. E. van Vogt (Thrilling Wonder Stories, August 1949)
Obtaining even a part of the same effect in the present day or near future is an undertaking of a different order. It is, oh, much harder to convince your reader, or yourself, that the main character is a key figure. In the present we have a way of measuring heroes against difficulties we know about. If he is engaged on too great an enterprise, he tends to be unbelievable, a mere puppet operating against a background of adventure.
Here is another author with a massive back-log of classics to choose from, many of which appeared in Astounding Science-Fiction. But AE doesn’t go for the Space Beagle, The Weapon Shops, Slan or even something from Unknown like “Asylum”.
Manly Wade Wellman
“Space Station 1” by Manly Wade Wellman (Argosy, October 10, 1936) (Reprinted in Famous Fantastic Mysteries, September 1939)
Such life wouldn’t always glitter or delight. I thought a great deal about the commonplaces and drudgeries, and several times I wrote about them, space station no. 1, I thought then and still think, came out fairly well in the drab colors of an undesirable job in a corner of space’s nowhere…of the Martians I have written about so often that I have almost convinced myself and a number of readers that they are what Martians truly are. This time, more than ever before or since, my Martian surprised and deceived everyone, including me, his chronicler. He is the real central character in “Space Station 1”.
I was pleased to see Manly Wade Wellman here as well. All too often he is remembered for more recent stuff like the Silver John stories from Fantasy & Science Fiction, but he wrote so many different kinds of things including Science Fiction. That he chose to focus on ordinary and oppressed people isn’t surprising at all.
Jack Williamson
“Star Bright” by Jack Williamson (Argosy, November 25, 1939)
I don’t recall just how I came to write the story of Mr. Peabody, but the internal evidence suggests an effort to translate the premise of H. G. Wells’ story and motion picture, “The Man Who Could Work Miracles” into the less fantastic terms of science fiction.
Another giant of SF, with many classics under his belt. Williamson chooses a fairly obscure one from the pages of a mainstream Pulp. That he reworks Wells isn’t strange. (The other author he often channeled was A. Merritt.) It is odd to think he reduced the fantastic in this story. Being about wishes, clearly a Fantasy idea, he brings it into the realm of SF.
Impressions
The first thing I noticed with the selections in this book is that none of them come from Astounding Science-Fiction. Most anthologies were 90% ASF. Not even John W. Campbell’s own choice. He picks from the earlier Tremaine Astounding Stories. (Perhaps he felt that was being loyal enough.) Not even Isaac Asimov, Campbell’s protege, chooses an Astounding Science-Fiction title. The sources are Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories and Fantastic Adventures, Mort Weisinger’s Thrilling Wonder, Dorothy McIlwraith’s Weird Tales, Sam Merwin Jr.’s Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder, T. O’Conor Sloane’s Amazing Stories, and the editor’s of 1936 and 1939’s Argosy.
Let’s not be naive here though. Thrilling Wonder and Startling Stories show up almost half the time. Even when not directly edited by Marguiles or Friend, they were part of the Popular staff. It isn’t hard to imagine prolific writers looking for their favorite Popular magazines stories to please the editors. We also have to look at their choices of authors. Did they pick predominately from writers they had worked with? Who should have been included but wasn’t?
Looking at Isaac Asimov Presents The Great Stories (1948) and (1949) writers they might have included were John D. MacDonald, Robert A. Heinlein, Arthur C. Clarke, Clifford D. Simak, Theodore Sturgeon, Katherine MacLean, James H. Schmitz, H. Beam Piper, Judith Merrill, Ray Bradbury, William Tenn, Fredric Brown, Eric Frank Russell and others. The inclusion of Otto Binder, John Taine and Fletcher Pratt might be questioned in place of these others. The rest of the authors were included in those volumes. We don’t know who was invited and didn’t reply.
Conclusion
All-in-all, My Best Science Fiction Story is interesting and unique for its time. If nothing else, it offers a look at Science Fiction away from Astounding Science-Fiction. If you read Healy & McComus, Groff Conklin and other anthologists, the Golden age dominates. Leo Marguiles and Oscar J. friend are here to remind us, not everything is John W. Campbell.
