Ackermanthology: 65 Astonishing, Rediscovered Sci-Fi Shorts

by Forrest J. Ackerman (Compiler)

A collection of stories about aliens, perilous encounters, Mars, robots, and other science fiction topics by such authors as Issac Asimov, Ray Bradbury, H.G. Wells, and other less well-known authors

Genres: Science Fiction, Anthologies, Short Stories

303 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

Forrest J Ackerman (born Forrest James Ackerman; November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American collector of science fiction books and movie memorabilia and a science fiction fan. He was, for over seven decades, one of science fiction's staunchest spokesmen and promoters.

Ackerman was a Los Angeles, California-based magazine editor, science fiction writer and literary agent, a founder of science fiction fandom, a leading expert on science fiction and fantasy films, and possibly the world's most avid collector of genre books and movie memorabilia. He was the editor and principal writer of the American magazine Famous Monsters of Filmland, as well as an actor, from the 1950s into the 1980s, and appears in two documentaries related to this period in popular culture: writer and filmmaker Jason V. Brock's The Ackermonster Chronicles!, (a 2012 documentary about Ackerman) and Charles Beaumont: The Life of Twilight Zone's Magic Man, about the late author Charles Beaumont, a former client of The Ackerman Agency.

Also called "Forry," "The Ackermonster," "4e" and "4SJ," Ackerman was central to the formation, organization, and spread of science fiction fandom, and a key figure in the wider cultural perception of science fiction as a literary, art and film genre. Famous for his word play and neologisms, he coined the genre nickname "sci-fi". In 1953, he was voted "#1 Fan Personality" by the members of the World Science Fiction Society, a unique Hugo Award never granted to anyone else.

He was also among the first and most outspoken advocates of Esperanto in the science fiction community.

Ackerman was born Forrest James Ackerman (though he would refer to himself from the early 1930s on as "Forrest J Ackerman" with no period after the middle initial), on November 24, 1916, in Los Angeles, to Carroll Cridland (née Wyman; 1883–1977) and William Schilling Ackerman (1892–1951). His father was from New York and his mother was from Ohio (the daughter of architect George Wyman); she was nine years older than William.[13] He attended the University of California at Berkeley for a year (1934–1935), worked as a movie projectionist, and spent three years in the U.S. Army after enlisting on August 15, 1942.

He was married to teacher and translator Wendayne (Wendy) Wahrman (1912–1990) until her death. Her original first name was Matilda; Forry created "Wendayne" for her. Wendayne suffered a serious head injury when she was violently mugged while on a trip to Europe in 1990, and the injury soon after led to her death.

Ackerman was fluent in the international language Esperanto, and claimed to have walked down Hollywood Boulevard arm-in-arm with Leo G. Carroll singing La Espero, the hymn of Esperanto.

Ackerman was an atheist.

More: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0009969/

http://fancyclopedia.org/forrest-j-ac...

http://www.amazon.com/Forrest-J.-Acke...

http://content.time.com/time/magazine...

Reviews

[Kenneth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting collection of 65 short-short stories mostly (with a few exceptions) published between 1930 and the mid-1970s. Like any anthology, they are a mixed bag. Among the most memorable for me were "The Satellite-Keeper's Daughter" by Mark Reinsberg, "Nymph of Darkness" by Catherine L. Moore and Forrest J Ackerman, and "Beauty" by Hannes Bok.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, few of these are actually, objectively, all that good. One has to be a fan of very old pulp short-shorts. I did really like Shirley Parenteau's "Eye of the Beholder" and hope to find more by her.* If This Goes On is an anthology I'd like to find.

And this line from a secondhand comment, referring to a story about a phone call across the time zones, "the late afternoon New York traffic vibrated weirdly in the stillness of the London night," is haunting, and I'd like to read the story from which it was remembered.

*Oh! I just found out that OpenLibrary has Jelly and the Spaceboat, which is a children's book that I've been wanting to read, which is by her!

[Jannelies (living between hope and fear) · Rating 5 out of 5]

I met Forry Ackerman in 1987 and he is/was a great guy. He celebrated his 80th birthday in 1996 and he invited me an some other fans to come over and stay with him at the Ackermansion. It was a great couple of days and I will always remember Forry very fondly.

[Earl Truss · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember reading stories like these when I was a kid. I don't any more and this book reminded me why I don't. Most of the stories were so short they that relied on a pun or play-on-words at the end. Remember those? Most were predictable and not surprising. The only redeeming story was Big, Wide, Wonderful World.

[Rebecca Thomason · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun read.

[Annabelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has a book cover guaranteed to ensnare a twelve-year-old kid of the post-war fifties. Which of course appealed to my similar good taste. Taken in this spirit, I dug in hoping the stories were as promising as the cover. And I wasn't disappointed. As far as I can surmise, the stories were written between 1939 to the early seventies--or decades before the moon landing soured our stratospheric expectations of spacial socials. It's too bad Ackerman wasn't too conscientious with dates, but this is a smorgasbord of retro science fiction, served in short, even flash fiction spurts of pulpy scientifiction. If some of them read like the pulp fiction comic books of yore (hello, EC Comics), then that's just icing on an already decadent cake.

There are 65 SF contributions, ranging from flash fiction (the shortest being a one-letter story!) to 2-3 page short stories. I thoroughly enjoyed 42 of the stories (including the one-letter extravaganza), 7 of which were standouts (at least to me). Quite a few anecdotal stories of the SF heavyweights too. Among the contributors, SF stalwarts Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov were the only ones I recognized, and prior to reading this, Forrest Ackerman was a name unfamiliar to me. Not anymore! This is the guy after all, who coined the terms scientifiction and sci-fi. And to quote the always on point Dr Asimov, Star Trek is S.F., while Godzilla Meets Mothra is sci-fi. I'm a Trekkie myself, but I've a thing for radioactive monsters.

[Dave Newton · Rating 3 out of 5]

65 short short stories - 'short-shorts' - from the 1930s to the 1990s. This collection is a real pick'n'mix of tales. There are stories from the giants of SF and the forgotten giants and journeymen (and women) of yesteryear. This is not a collection to be read in one sitting, rather something that can be dipped into a couple of stories at a time, whenever the reader has a spare quarter-hour or so.