The Unknown

by Anthony Boucher

Pyramid, 1970. Mass market paperback. First published in 1963, this is an anthology of 11 stories appearing in Unknown magazine between 1939 and 1941. Interior illustrations by Edd Cartier.

Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, Horror, Anthologies, Fiction

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

William Anthony Parker White, better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher, was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio dramas. Between 1942 and 1947, he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle. In addition to "Anthony Boucher", White also employed the pseudonym "H. H. Holmes", which was the pseudonym of a late-19th-century American serial killer; Boucher would also write light verse and sign it " Herman W. Mudgett" (the murderer's real name).
In a 1981 poll of 17 detective story writers and reviewers, his novel Nine Times Nine was voted as the ninth best locked room mystery of all time.

Reviews

[Stephanie Griffin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read The Misguided Halo by Henry Kuttner from 1939. Very funny!

[Paul Bryant · Rating 4 out of 5]

Contains one of PB's All Time Greats :

"The Gnarly Man" by L Sprague de Camp (1939)

So there's this immortal man working as a carnival entertainer in order to try to keep a low profile. Beautiful "be careful what you wish for" story. Compare "Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo?" by Gerald Kersh, same idea, also good.

[Joe Santoro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often wonder what it was like in the 40s, when the pulps were on the newstands, side by side with the superhero comics of the age... how awesome would that be? I know alot of our society today chooses others forms of entertainment besides print, but the thought of being able to see a rack of magazines with this quality of story in it boggles my mind sometimes.

This collection is all from the short lived magazine and has quite a stellar cast. Funnily enough, my favorite was the entry of L. Sprague de Camp, who the editors heaps quite a lot of praise on. I always think of him as the guy that tried to steal Conan, but 'The Gnarly Man' is really good.. its the story of a Neatherthal the survived into the modern world, and what happens when he reveals himself. Great stuff, with just the right balance of humor and seriousness.

This was not my favorite Ffynrd and the Gray Mouser story 'The Bleak Shore', in which the two heroes are mindless zombies for most of the story, but it's definately a classic property.

I also really liked H.L Gold's 'Trouble With Water', where a hen-pecked husband runs afoul of a water gnome on a fishing trip to hilarious effect.

My favorite was 'snulbug' by Anthony Boucher, where a very sad little demon is summoned, and the summoners uses it to try to learn about and profit from the future. Time travel REALLY sucks, and this story pointed out exactly why, as Snulbug tells the hapless hero exactly why all his schemes will fail. Our intrepid hero does get his money though, in a decidedly non-time travel way which made me smile.

The other stories were still decent, if not spectacular, and several include an illustration of some sort by Edd Carter that the preface indicates were from the original magazine. It's always good to read a few short stories as a change from the more common epics of today.

[Simon · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good collection of short stories, though a couple feel VERY dated, particularly their use of language.

[Roger Bailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Unknown was a magazine published between about 1939 and 1943. This is an anthology from it published in 1963 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of its demise. It was purportedly a magazine of fantasy, but a lot of these stories, even though technically fantasy, would be appropriately be classified as horror. One of them, The Gnarly Man, I would call science fiction. That was my favorite of the bunch. It was about a Neanderthal who had somehow been made immortal and was found in a twentieth century carnival playing the part of a sideshow ape-man. He has quite a few stories to tell from history, history that he lived through. It is interesting to note the quaintness of these stories. The quaintness reflects the attitudes that were extant during the time they were written in the mid-twentieth century and mostly sho in their sexism. It is not an overt sexism, but it does reflect the assumptions in the North American culture at the time. In The Gnarly Man the author was enough advanced in his thinking that one of his main characters was a female anthropologist, but still she was presented in a subtle sexist manner. Still, I found the stories quite enjoyable. I found them enjoyable because I do enjoy fantastic literature and I found them enjoyable because I enjoyed observing their quaintness. Please do not think that means that I approve of sexism. It just means that I enjoy observing the underlying assumptions of about seventy years ago.

[Michael Tildsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another lesser-known sci-fi/fantasy anthology collection! This time, most of the entries are from a long-dead publication called "The Unknown." I found many of the stories in this book to be dated, but that was to be expected. Most of the stories in this volume date back to the 1930s and 40s, so many of the paths they trek have been done to death. However, I found some charm in the book. It felt like reading an old pulp, but with most of the duds removed, leaving only the best bits.

The following is the list of short stories in this collection I found personally to be worthy of a five-star review themselves:

~Prescience by Nelson S. Bond

~The Gnarly Man by L. Sprague de Camp

~Snulbug by Anthony Boucher

~Armageddon by Fredric Brown

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one contains eleven stories from John W. Campbell's UNKNOWN (later known as UNKNOWN WORLDS) magazine, and appeared there from 1939 - 1941. It also includes some wonderful Edd Cartier illustrations. Some of the titles are renowned classics, such as Kuttner's "The Misguided Halo," Sturgeon's "Yesterday Was Monday," and Boucher's "Snulbug," but there are also some good works from less-remembered authors such as Nelson S. Bond and Manly Wade Wellman. I believe that the fantasies from UNKNOWN tend to hold up better than do the sf stories published in ASTOUNDING at the same time. This is a very nice collection.

[GD · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome! Every single story was unusual, and you can see the beginnings of a lot of ideas that later got turned into big books or movies. I think every story in here should have been an episode of the 80's Twilight Zone, funny, scary, strange.

[Erik Graff · Rating 3 out of 5]

Older science fiction stories published from 1939 through 1943 in Unknown and read during childhood while I was a voracious reader of such things.