I've had a few too many All-Night sessions of various taxing sorts over the last few months, and last night was yet another...so, as the most monotonously anthology (and fiction-magazine)-oriented of FFBers, a redux post of two of the reviews from past years that perhaps could use a few more eye tracks...sorry if you find them a bit slight or overfamiliar! TM (Please see Patti Abbott's blog for the fresher examples from other contributors!)
The Contento Index:
Partners in Wonder Harlan Ellison (Walker, 1971, hc)
· Sons of Janus · in [now-dead link]
· I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg · Harlan Ellison & Robert Sheckley · nv F&SF Jan ’68
· Brillo · Harlan Ellison & Ben Bova · nv Analog Aug ’70
· A Toy for Juliette · Robert Bloch · ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World · nv Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· Scherzo for Schizoids: Notes on a Collaboration · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ms Knight Nov ’65
· Up Christopher to Madness · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ss Knight Nov ’65
· Runesmith · Harlan Ellison & Theodore Sturgeon · ss F&SF May ’70
· Rodney Parish for Hire · Harlan Ellison & Joe L. Hensley · ss Swank May ’62
· The Kong Papers · Harlan Ellison & William Rotsler · ct The Kong Papers, William Rotsler & Harlan Ellison, 1969
· The Human Operators · Harlan Ellison & A. E. van Vogt · ss F&SF Jan ’71
· Survivor No. 1 [“The Man with the Green Nose”] · Harlan Ellison & Henry Slesar · ss Knave Sep ’59
· The Power of the Nail · Harlan Ellison & Samuel R. Delany · ss Amazing Nov ’68
· Wonderbird · Harlan Ellison & Algis Budrys · ss Infinity Science Fiction Sep ’57
· The Song the Zombie Sang · Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg · ss Cosmopolitan Dec ’70
· Street Scene [“Dunderbird”] · Harlan Ellison & Keith Laumer · ss Galaxy Jan ’69; this story has two different endings. The version with the Ellison ending was in Galaxy, the version with the Laumer ending was in Adam Mar ’69 as “Street Scene”.
· Come to Me Not in Winter’s White · Harlan Ellison & Roger Zelazny · ss F&SF Oct ’69
There are certain books which will change your life, though usually only very slightly. This was one of those more potent ones for me, as a young reader, which more than any other early reading experience brought home the sense of a writer's life and the community of writers. It's available as an e-book, which is the source of the link to the introduction [since removed from the web, apparently], but I read the Pyramid edition with the Leo and Diane Dillon cover design pictured here, part of the series they did of Ellison paperbacks for the publisher (some reissued by Jove after the purchase). This is almost certainly the only version of an Ellison book to be blurbed with the employment of Jimmie Walker's mid-'70s catchphrase. (The painting they did for the hardcover, below, rather better.)
The stories here, in what was the first collection of collaborations between one writer and several others that Ellison was aware of (I think there was at least one previous example, but it eludes me at the moment), are a mixed lot (and include a series of cartoons with William Rotsler which struck me as Just OK even when I was ten, not Rotsler's best work in the form, certainly--though I'm still fond of Fay Wray in the clutches of the big ape as he scales the Empire State, and someone shouting up from below, "Trip him, Fay!"). Even the best of them are almost invariably not quite up to the best of either collaborator, but they do have a special flavor...even when, as with the the two stories by Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison individually, the collaboration is more along the lines of nudging inspiration...resulting in a decent Bloch story, since his was merely commissioned for Dangerous Visions, and a rather better sequel to that story by Ellison, who was mildly obsessed with what he was asking Bloch to do (both stories being sequels to Bloch's early story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," one of those stories which follow their creators around for their entire careers, and one of the most widely plagiarized stories written in the last century). The antic comedies, such as the Laumer and Davidson collaborations, are often more successful than the attempts at more serious work, but the darker humor of the Sheckley and Silverberg stories are certainly effective. And, of course, while I'd read a few Davidson stories before this book (in anthologies attributed to Hitchcock), this was the first opportunity I had to read Davidson's delightful nonfiction, in this case an acocunt of an incident that Ellison also recounts, and the comparison of the two versions is telling and extremely entertaining.
And the Bova story, "Brillo," was even ripped off for at least two tv series, though only actionably for one.
Still a valuable read, and the ancillary material might be Ellison at his best at this, at which he is one of the best.
For more "Forgotten" Books, please see Patti Abbott's blog, though updates will be delayed while she Shakespeares.
I picked up (either purchased or found in libraries) all these volumes (with the exception of the Pushcart item) back when, and I was fascinated not only by the contents themselves but also by the choices made among the short fiction published in 1978, a good chunk of which I'd read as it was offered in the magazines and original anthologies (though I didn't yet have access to little magazines--I read The Atlantic Monthly by year's end and looked at The New Yorker and some of the other newsstand titles). Looking at their contents now, I'm impressed, if not universally, any more than I was back then, by the quality of the selection--it was a good year to start reading new short fiction in bulk, though it's usually if not always a good year to do so. It's rather telling that the fantasy (and horror) volumes have no overlap or shared stories, and neither do the eclectic/contemporary mimetic volumes, but the sf volumes certainly do. Also notable to me, as it was then, how certain books demonstrate, if not the desire to include Names at the cost of quality, then at least a certain kindness or nostalgia toward some of the writers...certainly Terry Carr, in the first two volumes of his fantasy annual, included two of the worst Stephen King stories I've read...at least Gerald Page and Ed Hoch selected rather better, though not Year's Best, stories from King for their books. The Stephen Donaldson story was also not up to most of the rest of the Carr fantasy selections. Lin Carter likewise could let nostalgia and desire to play up Conan and such overwhelm his annual, but Arthur Saha, who would inherit the series on his own after Carter's death, probably was already being felt in this volume in some of the more innovative choices.
Multiple appearances across several volumes include those of John Varley, with four appearances of two different stories (three reprints of "The Persistence of Vision"), four appearances with three different stories for Michael Bishop and three with three for Thomas Disch (the O. Henry volume was indexed for WorldCat by a proud fellow Minnesotan), three inclusions of two stories by Gregory Benford, likewise three inclusions for two stories by Joan D. Vinge, and, as noted, three appearances with three different stories by Stephen King. It really was a very good year for Disch and Bishop amd Janet Fox.
Among the particularly brilliant stories (among many) I remember are Dennis Etchison's "The Pitch" (Horror), Bill Pronzini's "Strangers in the Fog" (Detective), Fox's "Demon and Demoiselle" (Carter/Saha Fantasy), and Gregory Benford's squicky "In Alien Flesh" (several). John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" certainly blew me (and the award voters) away in 1978 and into the next year, though even from the first reading it struck me as more fantasy than sf, and perhaps in more than one way (though Varley's sexual libertinism certainly struck a chord with 13yo me, and I'm somewhat in sympathy with that attitude still, with certain reservations). Look at all that established and emerging talent in the Pushcart...and all the others...
The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII ed. Gerald W. Page (DAW 0-87997-476-1, Jul ’79, $1.95, 221pp, pb)
The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2 ed. Terry Carr (Berkley 0-425-04155-7, Jul ’79, $1.95, 311pp, pb); Series continued with Fantasy Annual III.
The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 5 ed. Lin Carter and Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-510-5, Jan ’80, $1.95, 204pp, pb)
The 1979 Annual World’s Best SF ed. Donald A. Wollheim & Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-459-1, May ’79, $2.25, 268pp, pb)
The Best Science Fiction of the Year # 8 ed. Terry Carr (Ballantine 0-345-28083-0, Jul ’79, $2.25, 372pp, pb)
The Best Science Fiction Novellas of the Year #1 ed. Terry Carr (Ballantine, Sep ’79, 328pp, pb)
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year (1978) ed. Gardner R. Dozois (Elsvier-Dutton, 1979, hc); Also in pb (Dell Aug ’80).
Best detective stories of the year, 1979 ; 33rd annual collection
edited by Edward D. Hoch.
New York : E.P. Dutton, 1979. 209 pages
Quitters, Inc. / Stephen King --
Little paradise / Zena Collier --
The man in the lake / Ernest Savage --
Strangers in the fog / Bill Pronzini --
Delayed mail / Jack Ritchie --
Filmflam / Francis M. Nevins --
The fire man / Elizabeth A. Lynn --
The adventure of the blind alley / Edward Wellen --
The cloud beneath the eaves / Barbara Owens --
The closed door / Thomas Walsh --
Truth will out / Ruth Rendell --
Checkpoint Charlie / Brian Garfield --
Rite of Spring / Jerry Jacobson --
The golden circle / Patricia L. Schulze --
Captain Leopold Incognito / Edward D. Hoch --
The leech / Frank Sisk.
[This citation in WorldCat is annoyingly shorthanded...particularly where the writer's name isn't so obvious as with Herbert Gold or Alice Adams.]
Prize stories 1979 : the O. Henry Awards edited and with an introduction by William Abrahams.
"Includes story by Minnesota author Thomas M. Disch."
Weaver, G. Getting serious.--
Bromell, H. Travel stories.--
Hecht, J.I want you, I need you, I love you.--
Goldberg, L. Shy bearers.--
Heller, S. The summer game.--
Pfeil, F. The quality of light in Maine.--
Leaton, A. The passion of Marco Z--.--
Thomas, A. Coon hunt.--
Molyneux, T.W. Visiting the point.--
Oates, J.C. In the autumn of the year.--
Baumbach, J. Passion?--
Zelver, P. My father's jokes.--
Gold, H. The smallest part.--
Van Dyke, H. Du Côté de Chez Britz.--
Smith, L. Mrs. Darcy meets the blue-eyed stranger at the beach.--
Caputi, A. The derby hopeful.--
Schwartz, L.S. Rough strife.--
Yates, R. Oh, Joseph, I'm so tired.--
Peterson, M. Travelling.--
Disch, T.M. Xmas.--
Adams, A. The girl across the room.
The Pushcart prize, IV : best of the small presses
edited by Bill Henderson. 591 pages
The Contento Index:
Partners in Wonder Harlan Ellison (Walker, 1971, hc)
· Sons of Janus · in [now-dead link]
· I See a Man Sitting on a Chair, and the Chair Is Biting His Leg · Harlan Ellison & Robert Sheckley · nv F&SF Jan ’68
· Brillo · Harlan Ellison & Ben Bova · nv Analog Aug ’70
· A Toy for Juliette · Robert Bloch · ss Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· The Prowler in the City at the Edge of the World · nv Dangerous Visions, ed. Harlan Ellison, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1967
· Scherzo for Schizoids: Notes on a Collaboration · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ms Knight Nov ’65
· Up Christopher to Madness · Harlan Ellison & Avram Davidson · ss Knight Nov ’65
· Runesmith · Harlan Ellison & Theodore Sturgeon · ss F&SF May ’70
· Rodney Parish for Hire · Harlan Ellison & Joe L. Hensley · ss Swank May ’62
· The Kong Papers · Harlan Ellison & William Rotsler · ct The Kong Papers, William Rotsler & Harlan Ellison, 1969
· The Human Operators · Harlan Ellison & A. E. van Vogt · ss F&SF Jan ’71
· Survivor No. 1 [“The Man with the Green Nose”] · Harlan Ellison & Henry Slesar · ss Knave Sep ’59
· The Power of the Nail · Harlan Ellison & Samuel R. Delany · ss Amazing Nov ’68
· Wonderbird · Harlan Ellison & Algis Budrys · ss Infinity Science Fiction Sep ’57
· The Song the Zombie Sang · Harlan Ellison & Robert Silverberg · ss Cosmopolitan Dec ’70
· Street Scene [“Dunderbird”] · Harlan Ellison & Keith Laumer · ss Galaxy Jan ’69; this story has two different endings. The version with the Ellison ending was in Galaxy, the version with the Laumer ending was in Adam Mar ’69 as “Street Scene”.
· Come to Me Not in Winter’s White · Harlan Ellison & Roger Zelazny · ss F&SF Oct ’69
There are certain books which will change your life, though usually only very slightly. This was one of those more potent ones for me, as a young reader, which more than any other early reading experience brought home the sense of a writer's life and the community of writers. It's available as an e-book, which is the source of the link to the introduction [since removed from the web, apparently], but I read the Pyramid edition with the Leo and Diane Dillon cover design pictured here, part of the series they did of Ellison paperbacks for the publisher (some reissued by Jove after the purchase). This is almost certainly the only version of an Ellison book to be blurbed with the employment of Jimmie Walker's mid-'70s catchphrase. (The painting they did for the hardcover, below, rather better.)
The stories here, in what was the first collection of collaborations between one writer and several others that Ellison was aware of (I think there was at least one previous example, but it eludes me at the moment), are a mixed lot (and include a series of cartoons with William Rotsler which struck me as Just OK even when I was ten, not Rotsler's best work in the form, certainly--though I'm still fond of Fay Wray in the clutches of the big ape as he scales the Empire State, and someone shouting up from below, "Trip him, Fay!"). Even the best of them are almost invariably not quite up to the best of either collaborator, but they do have a special flavor...even when, as with the the two stories by Robert Bloch and Harlan Ellison individually, the collaboration is more along the lines of nudging inspiration...resulting in a decent Bloch story, since his was merely commissioned for Dangerous Visions, and a rather better sequel to that story by Ellison, who was mildly obsessed with what he was asking Bloch to do (both stories being sequels to Bloch's early story "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," one of those stories which follow their creators around for their entire careers, and one of the most widely plagiarized stories written in the last century). The antic comedies, such as the Laumer and Davidson collaborations, are often more successful than the attempts at more serious work, but the darker humor of the Sheckley and Silverberg stories are certainly effective. And, of course, while I'd read a few Davidson stories before this book (in anthologies attributed to Hitchcock), this was the first opportunity I had to read Davidson's delightful nonfiction, in this case an acocunt of an incident that Ellison also recounts, and the comparison of the two versions is telling and extremely entertaining.
And the Bova story, "Brillo," was even ripped off for at least two tv series, though only actionably for one.
Still a valuable read, and the ancillary material might be Ellison at his best at this, at which he is one of the best.
For more "Forgotten" Books, please see Patti Abbott's blog, though updates will be delayed while she Shakespeares.
 |
| The first edition, from Walker & Co. |
FFB: the best short stories of 1978 (the year I started reading new short fiction in earnest) as judged by the annual editors...
I picked up (either purchased or found in libraries) all these volumes (with the exception of the Pushcart item) back when, and I was fascinated not only by the contents themselves but also by the choices made among the short fiction published in 1978, a good chunk of which I'd read as it was offered in the magazines and original anthologies (though I didn't yet have access to little magazines--I read The Atlantic Monthly by year's end and looked at The New Yorker and some of the other newsstand titles). Looking at their contents now, I'm impressed, if not universally, any more than I was back then, by the quality of the selection--it was a good year to start reading new short fiction in bulk, though it's usually if not always a good year to do so. It's rather telling that the fantasy (and horror) volumes have no overlap or shared stories, and neither do the eclectic/contemporary mimetic volumes, but the sf volumes certainly do. Also notable to me, as it was then, how certain books demonstrate, if not the desire to include Names at the cost of quality, then at least a certain kindness or nostalgia toward some of the writers...certainly Terry Carr, in the first two volumes of his fantasy annual, included two of the worst Stephen King stories I've read...at least Gerald Page and Ed Hoch selected rather better, though not Year's Best, stories from King for their books. The Stephen Donaldson story was also not up to most of the rest of the Carr fantasy selections. Lin Carter likewise could let nostalgia and desire to play up Conan and such overwhelm his annual, but Arthur Saha, who would inherit the series on his own after Carter's death, probably was already being felt in this volume in some of the more innovative choices.
Multiple appearances across several volumes include those of John Varley, with four appearances of two different stories (three reprints of "The Persistence of Vision"), four appearances with three different stories for Michael Bishop and three with three for Thomas Disch (the O. Henry volume was indexed for WorldCat by a proud fellow Minnesotan), three inclusions of two stories by Gregory Benford, likewise three inclusions for two stories by Joan D. Vinge, and, as noted, three appearances with three different stories by Stephen King. It really was a very good year for Disch and Bishop amd Janet Fox.
Among the particularly brilliant stories (among many) I remember are Dennis Etchison's "The Pitch" (Horror), Bill Pronzini's "Strangers in the Fog" (Detective), Fox's "Demon and Demoiselle" (Carter/Saha Fantasy), and Gregory Benford's squicky "In Alien Flesh" (several). John Varley's "The Persistence of Vision" certainly blew me (and the award voters) away in 1978 and into the next year, though even from the first reading it struck me as more fantasy than sf, and perhaps in more than one way (though Varley's sexual libertinism certainly struck a chord with 13yo me, and I'm somewhat in sympathy with that attitude still, with certain reservations). Look at all that established and emerging talent in the Pushcart...and all the others...
The Year’s Best Horror Stories: Series VII ed. Gerald W. Page (DAW 0-87997-476-1, Jul ’79, $1.95, 221pp, pb)
- 7 · Introduction · Gerald W. Page · in
- 11 · The Pitch · Dennis Etchison · ss Whispers Oct ’78
- 20 · The Night of the Tiger · Stephen King · ss F&SF Feb ’78
- 34 · Amma · Charles R. Saunders · ss Beyond the Fields We Know Fll ’78
- 54 · Chastel [Lee Cobbett; Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant] · Manly Wade Wellman · nv *
- 78 · Sleeping Tiger · Tanith Lee · ss Dragonbane Spr ’78
- 87 · Intimately, with Rain · Janet Fox · ss Collage Nov ’78
- 94 · The Secret · Jack Vance · ss Impulse Mar ’66
- 103 · Hear Me Now, My Sweet Abbey Rose · Charles L. Grant · ss F&SF Mar ’78
- 118 · Divers Hands [Julian] · Darrell Schweitzer · nv *
- 144 · Heading Home · Ramsey Campbell · ss Whispers Oct ’78
- 149 · In the Arcade · Lisa Tuttle · ss Amazing May ’78
- 159 · Nemesis Place [Dama (& Vettius)] · David Drake · ss Fantastic Apr ’78
- 173 · Collaborating · Michael Bishop · ss Rooms of Paradise, ed. Lee Harding, South Yarra, Victoria, Australia: Quartet Books, 1978
- 192 · Marriage · Robert Aickman · nv Tales of Love and Death, Gollancz, 1977; F&SF Apr ’78
The Year’s Finest Fantasy Volume 2 ed. Terry Carr (Berkley 0-425-04155-7, Jul ’79, $1.95, 311pp, pb); Series continued with Fantasy Annual III.
- 1 · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
- 3 · Gotcha! · Ray Bradbury · ss Redbook Aug ’78
- 11 · The Lady in White · Stephen R. Donaldson · nv F&SF Feb ’78
- 43 · Within the Walls of Tyre · Michael Bishop · nv Weirdbook #13 ’78
- 75 · The Man Who Was Heavily into Revenge · Harlan Ellison · ss Analog Aug ’78
- 91 · The Gunslinger [Roland (Gunslinger)] · Stephen King · nv F&SF Oct ’78
- 141 · A Certain Slant of Light · Raylyn Moore · ss Shadows #1, ed. Charles L. Grant, Doubleday, 1978
- 155 · Sleep Well of Nights [“A Good Night’s Sleep”; Jack Limekiller] · Avram Davidson · na F&SF Aug ’78
- 209 · Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies · R. A. Lafferty · nv Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
- 241 · The Treasure of Odirex [Erasmus Darwin] · Charles Sheffield · na Fantastic Jul ’78
- 299 · Recommended Reading—1978 · Misc. · bi
- 301 · The Year in Fantasy: 1978 · Susan Wood · ar
The Year’s Best Fantasy Stories: 5 ed. Lin Carter and Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-510-5, Jan ’80, $1.95, 204pp, pb)
- 11 · The Year in Fantasy · Lin Carter · in
- 15 · The Troll · T. H. White · ss Gone to Ground, 1935
- 28 · In the Balance · Tanith Lee · ss Swords Against Darkness #3, ed. Andrew J. Offutt, Zebra, 1978
- 34 · The Gem in the Tower [Conan] · L. Sprague de Camp & Lin Carter · nv Conan the Swordsman, ed. L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter & Bjorn Nyberg, Bantam, 1978
- 58 · Above Ker-Is · Evangeline Walton · ss The Fantastic Imagination II, ed. Robert H. Boyer and Kenneth J. Zahorski, Avon, 1978
- 70 · Ms. Lipshutz and the Goblin · Marvin Kaye · ss Fantastic Oct ’78
- 77 · Rhian and Garanhir · Grail Undwin · ss *
- 83 · Lord of the Dead [Steve Harrison] · Robert E. Howard · nv, 1978
- 118 · Child of Air · Pat McIntosh · ss *
- 136 · A Malady of Magicks [Ebenezum] · Craig Shaw Gardner · ss Fantastic Oct ’78
- 153 · St. George · David Mallory · ss, 1978
- 158 · Astral Stray [Voidal] · Adrian Cole · nv Heroic Fantasy, ed. Gerald W. Page & Hank Reinhardt, DAW, 1979
- 180 · Demon and Demoiselle [Arcana] · Janet Fox · nv Fantastic Oct ’78
- 201 · The Year’s Best Fantasy Books · Lin Carter · bi
The 1979 Annual World’s Best SF ed. Donald A. Wollheim & Arthur W. Saha (DAW 0-87997-459-1, May ’79, $2.25, 268pp, pb)
- 7 · Introduction · Donald A. Wollheim · in
- 11 · Come to the Party · Frank Herbert & F. M. Busby · ss Analog Dec ’78
- 37 · Creator · David Lake · nv Envisaged Worlds, ed. Paul Collins, Void, 1978
- 64 · Dance Band on the Titanic · Jack L. Chalker · nv IASFM Jul/Aug ’78
- 87 · Cassandra · C. J. Cherryh · ss F&SF Oct ’78
- 96 · In Alien Flesh · Gregory Benford · nv F&SF Sep ’78
- 122 · SQ · Ursula K. Le Guin · ss Cassandra Rising, ed. Alice Laurance, Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1978
- 133 · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
- 181 · We Who Stole the Dream · James Tiptree, Jr. · nv Stellar #4, ed. Judy-Lynn del Rey, Ballantine, 1978
- 206 · Scattershot · Greg Bear · nv Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
- 239 · Carruthers’ Last Stand · Dan Henderson · nv Analog Jun ’78
The Best Science Fiction of the Year # 8 ed. Terry Carr (Ballantine 0-345-28083-0, Jul ’79, $2.25, 372pp, pb)
- ix · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
- 1 · The Barbie Murders [Anna-Louise Bach] · John Varley · nv IASFM Jan/Feb ’78
- 35 · A Hiss of Dragon · Gregory Benford & Marc Laidlaw · nv Omni Dec ’78
- 56 · Black Glass · Fritz Leiber · nv Andromeda 3, ed. Peter Weston, London: Futura, 1978
- 89 · To Bring in the Steel · Donald Kingsbury · nv Analog Jul ’78
- 136 · The Very Slow Time Machine · Ian Watson · nv Anticipations, ed. Christopher Priest, Scribner’s, 1978
- 159 · Devil You Don’t Know [Val Clarke] · Dean Ing · nv Analog Jan ’78
- 207 · Count the Clock That Tells the Time · Harlan Ellison · ss Omni Dec ’78
- 228 · View from a Height · Joan D. Vinge · ss Analog Jun ’78
- 246 · The Morphology of the Kirkham Wreck · Hilbert Schenck · nv F&SF Sep ’78
- 281 · Vermeer’s Window · Gordon Eklund · ss Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
- 298 · The Man Who Had No Idea · Thomas M. Disch · nv F&SF Oct ’78
- 336 · Death Therapy · James Patrick Kelly · nv F&SF Jul ’78
- 364 · Recommended Reading—1978 · Terry Carr · bi
- 366 · The Science Fiction Year · Charles N. Brown · ar
- vii · Introduction · Terry Carr · in
- 1 · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
- 54 · Old Folks at Home · Michael Bishop · na Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
- 110 · Shipwright · Donald Kingsbury · na Analog Apr ’78
- 153 · Seven American Nights · Gene Wolfe · na Orbit 20, ed. Damon Knight, Harper & Row, 1978
- 211 · Fireship · Joan D. Vinge · na Analog Dec ’78
- 274 · The Watched [Dream Archipelago] · Christopher Priest · na F&SF Apr ’78
Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year (1978) ed. Gardner R. Dozois (Elsvier-Dutton, 1979, hc); Also in pb (Dell Aug ’80).
- · Introduction- Summation: 1978 · Gardner R. Dozois · in
- · The Persistence of Vision · John Varley · na F&SF Mar ’78
- · Found! · Isaac Asimov · ss Omni Oct ’78
- · Whores [Dream Archipelago] · Christopher Priest · ss New Dimensions 8, ed. Robert Silverberg, Harper & Row, 1978
- · Cousins · Bernard Deitchman · nv Analog Aug ’78
- · View from a Height · Joan D. Vinge · ss Analog Jun ’78
- · Mutability · Thomas M. Disch · ss Anticipations, ed. Christopher Priest, Scribner’s, 1978
- · Lost and Found · Phyllis Eisenstein · ss Analog Oct ’78
- · Old Folks at Home · Michael Bishop · na Universe 8, ed. Terry Carr, Doubleday, 1978
- · September Song · James P. Girard · ss Penthouse Sep ’78
- · In Alien Flesh · Gregory Benford · nv F&SF Sep ’78
- · Seven American Nights · Gene Wolfe · na Orbit 20, ed. Damon Knight, Harper & Row, 1978
- · Honorable Mentions- 1978 · Misc. · bi
courtesy WorldCat:
edited by Edward D. Hoch.
New York : E.P. Dutton, 1979. 209 pages
Quitters, Inc. / Stephen King --
Little paradise / Zena Collier --
The man in the lake / Ernest Savage --
Strangers in the fog / Bill Pronzini --
Delayed mail / Jack Ritchie --
Filmflam / Francis M. Nevins --
The fire man / Elizabeth A. Lynn --
The adventure of the blind alley / Edward Wellen --
The cloud beneath the eaves / Barbara Owens --
The closed door / Thomas Walsh --
Truth will out / Ruth Rendell --
Checkpoint Charlie / Brian Garfield --
Rite of Spring / Jerry Jacobson --
The golden circle / Patricia L. Schulze --
Captain Leopold Incognito / Edward D. Hoch --
The leech / Frank Sisk.
courtesy Contento/Stephensen-Payne Miscellaneous Anthologies:
The Best American Short Stories 1979
ed. Joyce Carol Oates & Shannon Ravenel (Houghton Mifflin, 1979, tp)- xi · Introduction · Joyce Carol Oates · in
- 1 · A Silver Dish · Saul Bellow · nv New Yorker Sep 25 ’78
- 28 · An Exile in the East · Flannery O’Connor · ss South Carolina Review Nov ’78
- 39 · Home and Native Land · Seán Virgo · ss Malahat Review, 1978
- 44 · A Short Walk into Afternoon · Kaatje Hurlbut · ss The Southwest Review, 1978
- 56 · Shadrach · William Styron · nv Esquire Nov 21 ’78
- 79 · The Wedding Week · Rosellen Brown · ss Boston University Journal, 1978
- 84 · A Party in Miami Beach · Isaac Bashevis Singer · ss Playboy Jun ’78
- 97 · The Quail · Rolf Yngve · ss Quarterly West, 1978
- 102 · Some Manhattan in New England · Peter LaSalle · ss Georgia Review, 1978
- 115 · Plaisir d’Amour · Lynne Sharon Schwartz · ss The Ontario Review, 1978
- 131 · Falling Off the Scaffold · Lyn Coffin · ss Michigan Quarterly Review Win ’78
- 150 · Spelling · Alice Munro · ss Weekend Magazine, 1978
- 157 · Seasons · Ruth McLaughlin · ss California Quarterly, 1978
- 167 · Living Alone · Robley Wilson, Jr. · ss Fiction International, 1978
- 172 · The Middle Place · Mary Hedin · ss The Southwest Review, 1978
- 184 · The Quarterback Speaks to His God · Herbert Wilner · nv Esquire, 1978
- 206 · Trip in a Summer Dress · Annette Sanford · ss Prairie Schooner, 1978
- 214 · The Eye · Paul Bowles · ss The Missouri Review, 1978
- 222 · Paper Covers Rock · Jean Thompson · ss Mademoiselle, 1978
- 234 · The Missing Person · Maxine Kumin · ss TriQuarterly, 1978
- 243 · Finisterre · Louis D. Rubin, Jr. · nv The Southern Review, 1978
- 270 · A Lingering Death · Silvia Tennenbaum · ss Massachusetts Review, 1978
- 284 · Home Is the Hero · Bernard Malamud · nv Atlantic Monthly, 1978
- 312 · The New Music · Donald Barthelme · ss New Yorker Jun 19 ’78
- 324 · Something That Happened · Jayne Anne Phillips · ss Gallimaufry, 1978
Prize stories 1979 : the O. Henry Awards edited and with an introduction by William Abrahams.
"Includes story by Minnesota author Thomas M. Disch."
Weaver, G. Getting serious.--
Bromell, H. Travel stories.--
Hecht, J.I want you, I need you, I love you.--
Goldberg, L. Shy bearers.--
Heller, S. The summer game.--
Pfeil, F. The quality of light in Maine.--
Leaton, A. The passion of Marco Z--.--
Thomas, A. Coon hunt.--
Molyneux, T.W. Visiting the point.--
Oates, J.C. In the autumn of the year.--
Baumbach, J. Passion?--
Zelver, P. My father's jokes.--
Gold, H. The smallest part.--
Van Dyke, H. Du Côté de Chez Britz.--
Smith, L. Mrs. Darcy meets the blue-eyed stranger at the beach.--
Caputi, A. The derby hopeful.--
Schwartz, L.S. Rough strife.--
Yates, R. Oh, Joseph, I'm so tired.--
Peterson, M. Travelling.--
Disch, T.M. Xmas.--
Adams, A. The girl across the room.
The Pushcart prize, IV : best of the small presses edited by Bill Henderson. 591 pages
| Introduction : about Pushcart Prize, IV -- Home / by Jayne Anne Phillips -- From laughing with one eye / by Gjertrud Schnackenberg Smyth -- A renewal of the word / by Barbara Myerhoff -- Ice / by AI -- In another country / by James Laughlin -- The daisy dolls / by Felisberto Hernández -- Snow owl / by Dave Smith -- Lot's wife / by Kristine Batey -- The stone crab : a love poem / by Robert Phillips -- Night flight to Stockholm / by Dallas Wiebe -- Literature and ecology: an experiment in ecocriticism / by William Rueckert -- Ghosts like them / by Shirley Ann Taggart -- Elegy / by David St. John -- The ritual of memories / by Tess Gallagher -- Plowing with elephants / by Lon Otto -- Meeting Mescalito at Oak Hill Cemetery / by Lorna Dee Cervantes -- A Jean-Marie cookbook / by Jeff Weinstein -- dg The politics of anti-realism / by Gerald Graff -- Winter sleep / by Mary Oliver -- Wildflower / by Stanley Plumly -- Letters from a father / by Mona Van Duyn -- Early winter / by Max Schott -- My work in California / by James B. Hall -- The ownership of the night / by Larry Levis -- The Spanish image of death / by César Vallejo -- For Papa (and Marcus Garvey) / by Thadious M. Davis -- A vision expressed by a series of false statements / by John Love -- Jeffrey, believe me / by Jane Smiley -- Sweetness, a thinking machine / by Joe Ashby Porter -- To Ed Sissman / by John Updike -- The man whose blood tilted the earth / by M.R. Doty -- Lawrence at Taos / by Shirley Kaufman -- Contemporary poetry and the metaphors for the poem / by Charles Molesworth -- Another Margot chapter / by R.C. Day -- Sitting up, standing, taking steps / by Ron Silliman -- Made connections / by Michael Harper -- Anonymous courtesan in a jade shroud / by Brenda Hillman - A woman in love with a bottle / by Barbara Lovell --- Proteus / by Judith Hoover -- Quinnapoxet / by Stanley Kunitz -- Things that happen where there aren't any people / by William Stafford -- Lechery / by Jayne Anne Phillips -- Civilization and isolation / by Vine Deloria -- from Kiss of the spider woman / by Manual Puig -- Running away from home / by Carolyn Kizer -- The biography man / by Gary Reilly -- The nerves of a midwife: contemporary American women's poetry / by Alicia Ostriker -- Forgive us / by George Venn -- The hat in the swamp / by Paul Metcalf -- These women / by Christine Schutt -- Johnny Appleseed / by Susan Schaefer Neville -- Some carry around this / by Susan Strayer Deal -- The stonecutter's horses / by Robert Bringhurst -- Grandmother (1895-1928) / by Cleopatra Mathis -- Rich / by Ellen Gilchrist -- Pig 311 / by Margaret Ryan -- American poetry: looking for a center / by Ishmael Reed- I show the daffodils to the retarded kids / by Constance Sharp -- Dream / by John Willson -- Living with animals / by Margaret Kent -- The trial of Rozhdestvov / by Russian Samizdat -- Contributors notes -- Outstanding writers -- Outstanding small presses. For more of this week's books, please see Patti Abbott's blog... |
PARTNERS was my first ever Ellison sometime in the mid 1980s while I was living in Singapore - still a wonderful memory and a great book. Thanks Todd, thirty years just vanished in an instant ... :)
ReplyDeleteThis was a walk down MEMORY LANE! I remember these anthologies well. PARTNERS IN WONDER is still a great collection of stories. The YEAR'S BEST anthologies started to increase in number in 1978. Today, I can't keep up with them all!
ReplyDeleteHa, Sergio...to think I first read the book 40 years ago...about the same time I was dipping into the annuals cited here, actually a year or three earlier...has a warm glow of fond memory and a sobering splash of four decades ago...that's Not Too Many...
ReplyDeleteIndeed, George...glad to remind you of a time when you were more satisfied with the annuals...and to think we've only recently exceeded the number of extant science fiction annuals that were published in 1972 and '73, when the Wollheim, Carr, Lester Del Rey (before Dozois succeeded him at Dutton), Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss (at Putnam/Berkley), and Forrest J Ackerman, doing the second volume at then-troubled Ace Books of the short series Frederik Pohl had started, all were offered...that, too, isn't Too Many, when we think of the current set of Dozois, Strahan, Horton, Adams, Steve Berman's gay male and (as co-editor) lesbian SF best-of series and the David Afsharirad military sf/space opera annuals...and not counting all the horror and fantasy annuals with no explicit science fiction, nor the eclectic fiction annuals with only the occasional such story...also seems odd to be down to one crime-fiction annual...we had three not too long ago...
Lordy but your library must be...how do we put it now: EEYUUUGE!
ReplyDeleteYou remind me of Eeyore, a character I have been compared to in the past. "It's cumbersomely large. It will probably collapse some part of the house under its weight, no doubt burying me with it. And how are you today, Pooh?"
ReplyDeleteI had a friend with so many books it was as if he lived in a library's stacks. I think that is precisely what eventually happened to him. Good luck!
ReplyDeleteLots of writers familiar but unread as yet. I have read random short stories from early anthologies, at least those legally available in public domain. It led to the discovery of several authors.
ReplyDelete