Contents

• "Concerning Science Fiction," an essay by John W. Campbell
  John W. Campbell
  John Wood Campbell, Jr. was an influential figure in American science fiction. As editor of Astounding Science Fiction , from late 1937 until his death, he is generally credited with shaping the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction.Isaac Asimov called Campbell "the most powerful force in...
  
  
• Introduction by Groff Conklin
• "Solution Unsatisfactory
  Solution Unsatisfactory
  "Solution Unsatisfactory" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It describes the US effort to build a nuclear weapon in order to end the ongoing World War II, and its dystopian consequences to the nation and the world....
  
  " (1941) by Robert A. Heinlein
  Robert A. Heinlein
  Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...
  
  , credited as Anson MacDonald
• "The Great War Syndicate" (abridged) (1888) by Frank R. Stockton
  Frank R. Stockton
  Frank Richard Stockton was an American writer and humorist, best known today for a series of innovative children's fairy tales that were widely popular during the last decades of the 19th century...
  
  
• "The Piper's Son" (1945) by Henry Kuttner
  Henry Kuttner
  Henry Kuttner was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror.-Early life:Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915...
  
   and C. L. Moore
  C. L. Moore
  Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction....
  
  , credited as Lewis Padgett
  Lewis Padgett
  Lewis Padgett was the joint pseudonym of the science fiction authors and spouses Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore, taken from their mothers' maiden names. They also used the pseudonyms Lawrence O'Donnell and C. H...
  
  
• "Deadline
  Deadline (science fiction story)
  "Deadline" is a 1944 science fiction short story by Cleve Cartmill which was published in Astounding Science Fiction. The story described the then-secret atomic bomb in some detail. At that time the bomb was still under development and top secret, which prompted a visit by the FBI.In 1943, Cartmill...
  
  " (1944) by Cleve Cartmill
  Cleve Cartmill
  Cleve Cartmill was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories. He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair", when his 1944 story "Deadline" attracted the attention of the FBI by reason of its detailed description of a nuclear weapon...
  
  
• "Lobby" (1944) by Clifford D. Simak
  Clifford D. Simak
  Clifford Donald Simak was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo awards and by colleagues with one Nebula award and was named the third Grand Master by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 1977.-Biography:Clifford Donald Simak was born in...
  
  
• "Blowups Happen
  Blowups Happen
  "Blowups Happen" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It is one of two stories in which Heinlein, using only public knowledge of nuclear fission, anticipated the actual development of nuclear technology a few years later...
  
  " (1940) by Robert A. Heinlein, credited as Anson MacDonald
• "Atomic Power" (1934) by John W. Campbell, credited as Don A. Stuart
• "Killdozer!" (1944) by Theodore Sturgeon
  Theodore Sturgeon
  Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
  
  
• "Davey Jones' Ambassador" (1935) by Raymond Z. Gallun
  Raymond Z. Gallun
  Raymond Zinke Gallun was an American science fiction writer.Gallun was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin...
  
  
• "Giant in the Earth" (1933) by Morrison Colladay
• "Goldfish Bowl
  Goldfish Bowl
  Goldfish Bowl is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, first published 1942, and collected in one of Heinlein's anthologies, The Menace from Earth....
  
  " (1942) by Robert A. Heinlein, credited as Anson MacDonald
• "The Ivy War" (1930) by David H. Keller
  David H. Keller
  David H. Keller was a writer for pulp magazines in the mid-twentieth century who wrote science fiction, fantasy and horror. He was the first psychiatrist to write for the genre, and was most often published as David H...
  
  
• "Liquid Life" (1936) by Ralph Milne Farley
• "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
  A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
  "A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe partially based on his experiences while a student at the University of Virginia. Set near Charlottesville, it is the only one of Poe's stories to take place in Virginia...
  
  " (1844) by Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe
  Edgar Allan Poe was an American author, poet, editor and literary critic, considered part of the American Romantic Movement. Best known for his tales of mystery and the macabre, Poe was one of the earliest American practitioners of the short story and is considered the inventor of the detective...
  
  
• "The Great Keinplatz Experiment" (1885) by Arthur Conan Doyle
  Arthur Conan Doyle
  Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle DL was a Scottish physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, generally considered a milestone in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger...
  
  
• "The Remarkable Case of Davidson's Eyes" (1895) by H. G. Wells
  H. G. Wells
  Herbert George Wells was an English author, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing text books and rules for war games...
  
  
• "The Tissue-Culture King" (1926) by Julian Huxley
  Julian Huxley
  Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis...
  
  
• "The Ultimate Catalyst" (1939) by Eric Temple Bell
  Eric Temple Bell
  Eric Temple Bell , was a mathematician and science fiction author born in Scotland who lived in the U.S. for most of his life...
  
  , credited as John Taine
• "The Terrible Sense" (1938) by Thomas Calvert McClary
  Thomas Calvert McClary
  Thomas Calvert McClary was an American writer of science fiction and westerns. He wrote under the names T.C. McClary, Thomas Calvert, and Calvin Peregoy. His books include:...
  
  , credited as Calvin Peregoy
• "A Scientist Divides" (1934) by Donald Wandrei
  Donald Wandrei
  Donald Albert Wandrei was an American science fiction, fantasy and weird fiction writer, poet and editor. He wrote as Donald Wandrei. He was the older brother of science fiction writer and artist Howard Wandrei...
  
  
• "Tricky Tonnage" (1944) by Malcolm Jameson
  Malcolm Jameson
  Malcolm Jameson was an American science fiction author. An officer in the US Navy, he was active in American pulp magazines during the Golden Age of Science Fiction. His writing career began when complications of throat cancer limited his activity. According to John W...
  
  
• "The Lanson Screen" (1936) by Arthur Leo Zagat
  Arthur Leo Zagat
  Arthur Leo Zagat was an American lawyer and writer of pulp fiction and science fiction. Trained in the law, he gave it up to write professionally. Zagat is noted for his collaborations with fellow lawyer Nat Schachner. During the last two decades of his life, Zagat wrote short stories prolifically...
  
  
• "The Ultimate Metal" (1935) by Nat Schachner
  Nat Schachner
  Nat Schachner , also appearing as "Nathan Schachner" and under other bylines, was an American author. His first published story was "The Tower of Evil," written in collaboration with Arthur Leo Zagat and appearing in the Summer 1930 issue of Wonder Stories Quarterly...
  
  
• "The Machine" (1935) by John W. Campbell, credited as Don A. Stuart
• "Short-Circuited Probability" (1941) by Norman L. Knight
  Norman L. Knight
  Norman Louis Knight was an accomplished chemist and an American author of fantasy and science fiction.-Biography:...
  
  
• "The Search" (1942) by A. E. van Vogt
  A. E. van Vogt
  Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century: the "Golden Age" of the genre....
  
  
• "The Upper Level Road" (1935) by F. Orlin Tremaine
  F. Orlin Tremaine
  F. Orlin Tremaine was an American science fiction editor.Tremaine became the second editor of Astounding Science Fiction in 1933 following the magazine's purchase by Street and Smith when William Clayton went bankrupt. Tremaine remained editor until 1937, when he was succeeded by John W....
  
  , credited as Warner Van Lorne
• "The 32nd of May" (1935) by Paul Ernst
  Paul Ernst (Avenger writer)
  Paul Frederick Ernst was an American pulp fiction writer. He is best known as the author of the original 24 "Avenger" novels, published by Street and Smith Publications under the house name Kenneth Robeson.-Biography:Paul Ernst was born between 1899 and 1902, and "[took] up fiction writing in his...
  
  
• "The Monster from Nowhere" (1939) by Nelson S. Bond
  Nelson S. Bond
  Nelson Slade Bond was an American author who wrote extensively for books, magazines, radio, television and the stage....
  
  
• "First Contact
  First Contact (novelette)
  "First Contact" is a 1945 science fiction novelette by Murray Leinster credited as one of the first instances of a universal translator in science fiction. It won a retro Hugo Award for Best Novelette in 1996.-Plot summary:...
  
  " (1945) by Murray Leinster
  Murray Leinster
  Murray Leinster was a nom de plume of William Fitzgerald Jenkins, an award-winning American writer of science fiction and alternate history...
  
  
• "Universe
  Orphans of the Sky
  Orphans of the Sky is a science fiction novel by Robert A. Heinlein, consisting of two parts: "Universe" and its sequel, "Common Sense" . The two novellas were first published together in book form in 1963. "Universe" was also published separately in 1951 as a 10¢ Dell paperback...
  
  " (1941) by Robert A. Heinlein
• "Blind Alley" (1945) by Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
  
  
• "En Route to Pluto
  The Bird of Time
  The Bird of Time is a science fiction novel by author Wallace West. It was published in 1959 by Gnome Press in an edition of 5,000 copies, of which 2,102 were never bound...
  
  " (1936) by Wallace West
  Wallace West
  Wallace West was an American science fiction writer. He began publishing in 1927 with the story "Loup-Garou" in Weird Tales. The majority of West's work, which appeared prior to the 1960s, was short fiction, although he occasionally did turn his hand to writing novels...
  
  
• "The Retreat to Mars" (1927) by Cecil B. White
• "The Man Who Saved the Earth" (1919) by Austin Hall
  Austin Hall (writer)
  Austin Hall was an American short story writer and novelist. He began writing when, while working as a cowboy, he was asked to write a story. He wrote westerns, science fiction and fantasy for pulp magazines.-Works by Austin Hall:...
  
  
• "Spawn of the Stars" (1930) by Charles Willard Diffin
• "The Flame Midget" (1936) by Frank Belknap Long
  Frank Belknap Long
  Frank Belknap Long was a prolific American writer of horror fiction, fantasy, science fiction, poetry, gothic romance, comic books, and non-fiction. Though his writing career spanned seven decades, he is best known for his horror and science fiction short stories, including early contributions to...
  
  
• "Expedition" (1943) by Anthony Boucher
  Anthony Boucher
  Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...
  
  
• "The Conquest of Gola" (1931) by Leslie F. Stone
• "Jackdaw" (1942) by Ross Rocklynne
  Ross Rocklynne
  Ross Rocklynne was the pen name used by Ross Louis Rocklin, an American science fiction author active in the Golden Age of Science Fiction....
  
  

External links

• The Best of Science Fiction at ISFDB