Galaxy Science Fiction, Vol. 4, No. 5, August 1952

by H.L. Gold

Attention Sci -Fi Fans!! Campy! Funny! Thought-Provoking! This digitally reproduced full edition replica of Galaxy Science Fiction's ground-breaking sci-fi magazine from August 1952 has been brought back to life for a new generation of fans to enjoy! Explore the possibilities of life in the future from the perspective of the 1950's pre-spaceflight era. Several of the stories and commentaries in this 65+ year-old publication are stunningly accurate, while others are amusingly way off base . . . or are they?? . All are well written and entertaining, with beautiful illustrations and advertisements in the classic 1950's comic book style.

Along with commentary by editor H.L. Gold, each Galaxy issue also contains a book review column by anthologist Groff Conklin, and a Willy Ley science column. The stories in this magazine are written by some of science fiction's most beloved authors, including Ray Bradbury, Robert Sheckley, Fritz Leiber, Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth, just to name a few. This August 1952 issue contains stories from Fritz Leiber, Frederik Pohl & C.M. Kornbluth among others.
Established in 1950, Galaxy Science Fiction was a pioneer in Science Fiction magazine publishing. Original editor H. L. Gold was interested in sociology, psychology, and other "soft" sciences, and was also willing to publish humorous and satirical stories.

Science Fiction historian David Kyle commented in his book A Pictorial History of Science Fiction , 1979, that "of all the editors in and out of the post-war scene, the most influential beyond any doubt was H. L. Gold". The editorship of Galaxy passed from H.L. Gold to Frederik Pohl and then to Ejler Jakobsson during the 1960s.

Look for more editions of MDP's Galaxy's Science Fiction series, coming soon to e-retailers worldwide.

Genres: Science Fiction

Paperback

First published August 1, 1952

About the author

Horace Leonard Gold was a science fiction writer and editor most noted for bringing an innovative and fresh approach to science fiction while he was the editor of Galaxy Science Fiction, and also wrote briefly for DC Comics. Born in Canada, Gold moved to the United States at the age of two. He also published under the pseudonyms Clyde Crane Campbell, Dudley Dell, Christopher Grimm, and Leigh Keith.

Reviews

[Warwick Stubbs · Rating 2 out of 5]

Surface Tension: James Blish's tale of microscopic humans is one I thought I had read, but possibly hadn't. I also thought I knew what happened at the end, based on John Clute's brief description in Science Fiction: The Illustrated Encyclopedia, but the actual story goes slightly past that. The story doesn't quite live up to the 'wonder' that I was expecting from it, that sudden sense of conceptual breakthrough that Arthur C. Clarke was so good at producing. But considering it was written in the early 50s, the story does well to produce an idea of what it might be like for creatures that small. However, I did feel as though it was a little unbelievable, since there's no way 'humans' could exist that small... but if we were talking nanotechnology in a modern sense, that might be different... Of interest, and worth reading for what was considered classic SF back in the 50s.

Proof of the Pudding: Robert Sheckley's story set in a post world war torn earth about a man who returns after hiding in his spaceship on the dark side of the moon until the war is over, is a last-man-on-earth fantasy where he magically is able to create with his mind whatever he wants. In a Dickean twist, a woman turns up claiming she was on the ship with him hidden from view, and he is left wondering if she actually is real, or whether he created her from his subconscious. It is well written, but it is still a basic male wish fulfillment fantasy. The kind of story Joanna Russ had things to say about.

Yesterday's House: A story by Fritz Leiber that didn't impress me. A young man discovers a young woman who seems to be living on an island of the past, circa 30 years prior, with her two aunts Hilda and Hani. He returns from the island and Mrs Kesserich (I didn't pick up how he was or wasn't related to her), an old woman who Lieber describes with much crude and disparaging remarks, tells him the tale of Martin (from Hungary) who lost his love, to a possible murder by his own sisters, takes the woman's ovum and places it inside Mrs Kesserich's uterus in an attempt to clone his lost love, based on similar research done on heifers (I did no research in light of this info, but honestly, it sounded plausible - the research, that is). The rest of the story is pretty much teenage wish fulfilment coming from the hand of an adult. Neither interesting, nor exciting.

Education of a Martian: Joseph Shallit's story of a young woman wanting to marry a martian and bring him back to earth to prove to her bigoted father that martians are fine, turns sour when she discovers that her newly married martian husband is just as racist as her own father is (or seems to be). Kind of a dumb take on a decent idea.

Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf sees Groff Conklin reviewing some books I've never heard of: 998 by Edward Hyams, which after googling brings up some interest for this early 50s satire; The Iron Star by John Taine - "a link between mundane literature and the highly advance science fiction of today"; Five Science Fiction Novels which collates together novels by Jack Williamson, Norvell W. Page, Fritz Lieber, A.E. van Vogt, and Norman L. Knight; Robur the Conqueror by Jules Verne, which Conklin's review peaked my interest in; and Murder in Millenium (sic.) IV by Curme Gray. The final column is Conklin setting the record straight about where Heinlein got his title 'The Green Hills of Earth' from, acknowledging C.L. Moore, and not Frederic Brown.

What looks like the final part of the continuing Gravy Planet 3-part serial by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth ends the magazine.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

PLEASE NOTE:

There is another publication listed on Goodreads which is mistakenly listed under this name.


CONTENTS:

Fiction:

Novelets:
"Surface Tension" - James Blish
"Yesterday House" - Fritz Leiber

Short Stories:
"Proof of the Pudding" - Robert Sheckley
"Education of a Martian" - James Shallit

Serial:
Gravy Planet (aka The Space Merchants) [part 3 of 3] - C. M. Kornbluth and Frederik Pohl


Non-fiction:

"Editor's Page" - H. L. Gold
"For Your Information" (science column) - Willy Ley
"Galaxy's Five Star Shelf" (book reviews) - Groff Conklin


Four stories and a third of a novel might not appear to make up much of an issue of Galaxy. However, a couple of those stories and the novel are very fine indeed.

The novel that is serialized appeared in Galaxy as Gravy Planet. It was later published as a book under the title The Space Merchants. It is unquestionably one of the most highly regarded science fiction novels of the 1950's. The magazine version and the book have significant differences (particularly in the ending) but in either incarnation, The Space Merchants is a very good, extremely influential novel.

Robert Sheckley's "The Proof of the Pudding" is not among his best stories. It is one of the approximately seventeen million post-apocalypse stories that flourished at that time (and, really, ever since).

"Education of a Martian" by Joseph Shallit is better. An Earth woman decides to marry a Martian despite her family's prejudice. However, anti-Martian feeling is not the Solar System's only prejudice.

James Blish was never one of my favorite science fiction authors; nevertheless, I think that his story "Surface Tension" is excellent. Wikipedia says:

"Surface Tension" was among the stories selected in 1970 by the Science Fiction Writers of America as one of the best science fiction short stories published before the creation of the Nebula Awards. As such, it was published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame Volume One, 1929–1964.

In "Surface Tension" (great title!), Earth is attempting to spread some form of Mankind throughout the Galaxy. They plan to do this by genetic engineering. On one planet, they are forced to design "people" to live underwater- and to be microscopic. This was part of a series of stories by Blish that were collected under the title The Seedling Stars.

Fritz Leiber was one of the best writers of science fiction and fantasy in the Twentieth Century. "Yesterday House" is a short story that is both a good love story and a good science fiction story. A man comes to an island on which he finds a beautiful young woman who has never seen a man except in films. Although the story is set in what was then the present time, 1952, she has been very convincingly led to believe that it is 1933. The reason why this has been done is not revealed until late in the story. This is essentially the same situation used in Alfred Bester's story "Time Is the Traitor" (1953) and in Theodore Sturgeon's "When You Care, When You Love" (1962).

H. L. Gold's editorial "Action & Reaction" is about the impossibility of predicting the future accurately. As I write this in 2017, the following passage remains significant:

This country is defending freedom - yet it is adopting some of the legal principles of dictatorship.

Willy Ley's "For Your Information" science column discusses a variety of topics, including the flying speed of the deerbot fly, insects' legs and wings, the diameter of Pluto, Jovian satellites, and answers to readers' questions.

The book reviews by Groff Conklin include a rave of 998 by Edward Hyams. Conklin says that it is "the best satire the English language has produced in decades" and "unreservedly wonderful." Nobody has ever rated or reviewed 998 on Goodreads; can it really merit Conklin's enthusiastic praise?

Interior illustrations are by Ed Emshwiller (some attributed to "Willer" rather than the usual "Emsh"), William Ashman, and Don Sibley. The amusing front cover, entitled "The 40 Credit Tour of Earth," is also by Emshwiller.