Someone Like You (short story collection)

Last updated

Someone Like You
Someone like you.gif
Dust-jacket from the first edition
Author Roald Dahl
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Genre Mystery, horror, science fiction
Publisher Alfred A. Knopf
Publication date
1953
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages359 pp

Someone Like You is a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. It was published in 1953 by Alfred Knopf.

Contents

Contents

It contains eighteen short stories. The final four are grouped under a collective title. [1]

Reception & Legacy

Groff Conklin called Someone Like You "certainly the most distinguished book of short stories of 1953 ... all superb". [2] Anthony Boucher and J. Francis McComas praised the collection's "subtly devastating murder stories [as well as] two biting science-fantasties, plus a few unclassifiable gems" and concluded the volume "belong[ed] on your shelves somewhere in the Beerbohm/Collier/Saki section". [3]

Van Morrison's song Someone Like You is named after this collection. [4]

Two of the stories in this collection were adapted by Wes Anderson as short films for Netflix.

Awards

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katherine MacLean</span> American science fiction author (1925–2019)

Katherine Anne MacLean was an American science fiction author best known for her short fiction of the 1950s which examined the impact of technological advances on individuals and society.

Edward Groff Conklin was an American science fiction anthologist. He edited 40 anthologies of science fiction, one of mystery stories, wrote books on home improvement and was a freelance writer on scientific subjects as well as a published poet. From 1950 to 1955, he was the book critic for Galaxy Science Fiction.

<i>The Golden Apples of the Sun</i> 1953 short story anthology by Ray Bradbury

The Golden Apples of the Sun is an anthology of 22 short stories by American writer Ray Bradbury. It was published by Doubleday & Company in 1953.

<i>Expedition to Earth</i>

Expedition to Earth (ISBN 0-7221-2423-6) is a collection of science fiction short stories by English writer Arthur C. Clarke.

<i>Untouched by Human Hands</i>

Untouched by Human Hands is a collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Robert Sheckley. It was first published in 1954 simultaneously by Ballantine Books, both in hardback and paperback.

<i>The Great Automatic Grammatizator</i> Collection of short stories by Roald Dahl

The Great Automatic Grammatizator is a collection of thirteen short stories written by British author Roald Dahl. The stories were selected for teenagers from Dahl's adult works. All the stories included were published elsewhere originally; their sources are noted below. The stories, with the exception of the war story "Katina", possess a deadpan, ironic, bizarre, or even macabre sense of humor. They generally end with unexpected plot twists.

<i>Who He?</i> 1953 novel by Alfred Bester

Who He? is a non-science-fiction novel by the science fiction author Alfred Bester, published in 1953. The book was republished in 2007 and as of 2015 is available for purchase from Wildside Press. It provides a detailed if somewhat madcap view of the early days of television production in New York City before most tv production moved west to California.

"Skin" is a macabre short story written by author Roald Dahl. It was first published in the May 17, 1952 issue of The New Yorker, and was later featured in the collections Someone Like You, published in 1953, and Skin and Other Stories, published in 2000. It was adapted for television as part of Anglia Television's Tales of the Unexpected, broadcast on March 8, 1980.

<i>Tales from Gavagans Bar</i> Book by L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt

Tales from Gavagan's Bar is a collection of fantasy short stories by American writers L. Sprague de Camp and Fletcher Pratt, illustrated by the latter's wife Inga Pratt. It was first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers in 1953; an expanded edition rearranging the contents and adding pieces not in the first was published in hardcover by Owlswick Press in June 1978. The original illustrations were retained in this edition. It was subsequently issued in paperback by Bantam Books in January 1980. An e-book edition was published by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The collection has also been published in German.

<i>The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales</i>

The Tritonian Ring and Other Pusadian Tales is a 1953 collection of stories by American science fiction and fantasy author L. Sprague de Camp, first published in hardcover by Twayne Publishers. An E-book edition was published as The Tritonian Ring and Other Pasudian [sic] Tales by Gollancz's SF Gateway imprint on September 29, 2011 as part of a general release of de Camp's works in electronic form. The pieces were originally published between 1951 and 1953 in the magazines and anthologies Two Complete Science Adventure Books, Fantasy Fiction, Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, and Fantastic Adventures. The title story, the novel The Tritonian Ring has also been published separately.

<i>More Tales of the Unexpected</i>

More Tales of the Unexpected is a collection of nine short stories by Roald Dahl. It was published in 1980 by Penguin. Five of the stories were published in prior collections, while the other four had not been previously collected in book form.

<i>The Sword of Conan</i> Book by Robert E. Howard

The Sword of Conan is a collection of four fantasy short stories by American writer Robert E. Howard featuring his sword and sorcery hero Conan the Barbarian, first published in hardcover by Gnome Press in 1952. The stories originally appeared in the 1930s in the fantasy magazine Weird Tales. The collection never saw publication in paperback; instead, its component stories were divided and distributed among other "Conan" collections.

<i>The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1954</i>

The Best Science Fiction Stories: 1954 is a 1954 anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty. An abridged edition was published in the UK by Grayson in 1956 under the title The Best Science Fiction Stories: Fifth Series. The stories had originally appeared in 1953 in the magazines Avon Science Fiction and Fantasy Reader, Fantasy and Science Fiction, Amazing Stories, Fantastic, Astounding and Galaxy Science Fiction.

<i>Mutant</i> (short story collection)

Mutant is a 1953 collection of science fiction short stories by Lewis Padgett. It was first published by Gnome Press in 1953 in an edition of 4,000 copies. The stories all originally appeared in the magazine Astounding.

<i>The Black Star Passes</i>

The Black Star Passes is a fixup of science fiction short stories by American author John W. Campbell Jr. It was first published in 1953 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 2,951 copies. The book is the first in Campbell's Arcot, Morey and Wade series, and is followed by the novels Islands of Space and Invaders from the Infinite. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Amazing Stories and Amazing Stories Quarterly, and were "extensively edited" for book publication, with Campbell's approval, by Lloyd Arthur Eshbach.

<i>Giants Unleashed</i>

Giants Unleashed is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Grosset & Dunlap in 1965. A paperback edition followed from the publisher's Tempo Books imprint in April 1966. It was reprinted, minus the introduction and under the alternate title Minds Unleashed, in October 1970.

<i>Angels and Spaceships</i>

Angels and Spaceships is a 1954 collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by American writer Fredric Brown. It was initially published in hardcover by E. P. Dutton; a later Bantam paperback edition was retitled Star Shine.

<i>Science-Fiction Adventures in Dimension</i>

Science-Fiction Adventures in Dimension is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by Groff Conklin, first published by Vanguard Press in hardcover in 1953. An abridged edition was issued by Grayson & Grayson in the UK, and an abridged paperback edition, with a different selection of stories from the original, was issued by Berkley Books; both abridgments carried unhyphenated titles.

<i>Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation</i>

Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation is a theme anthology of science fiction stories edited by American anthologist Groff Conklin, published in hardcover by Vanguard Press in 1955. An abridged paperback edition was issued by Berkley Books in 1965.

<i>The Undying Fire</i> (Pratt novel) 1953 novel by Fletcher Pratt

The Undying Fire is a science fiction novel by Fletcher Pratt. It was first published in both hardcover and paperback by Ballantine Books in 1953. The novel has also been translated into Italian. The book is an expansion of the author's novella "The Conditioned Captain," originally published in the magazine Startling Stories in the issue for May, 1953.

References

  1. "Someone Like You". www.roalddahl.com.
  2. Conklin, Groff (May 1954). "Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf". Galaxy Science Fiction. pp. 129–133.
  3. 1 2 "Recommended Reading," F&SF , August 1954, p.79.
  4. Van Morrison interview with Marty Whelan 4th Nov 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBbNsPbqbKU

Further reading