Editor | Robert A. Heinlein |
---|---|
Illustrator | Richard M. Powers |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Genre | Science fiction |
Publisher | Doubleday Books |
Publication date | 1952 |
Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
Pages | 249 |
Tomorrow, the Stars is an anthology of speculative fiction short stories, presented as edited by American author Robert A. Heinlein and published in 1952.
Heinlein wrote a six-page introduction in which he discussed the nature of science fiction, speculative fiction, escapist stories, and literature. None of the stories had previously been anthologized.
According to science fiction historian Bud Webster, Heinlein's introduction and name on the book were his sole contributions; the actual selection of the stories, and the work involved in arranging for their publication, was done by Frederik Pohl and Judith Merril. This is confirmed by Virginia Heinlein in Grumbles from the Grave (without mentioning Pohl or Merril) and by Pohl in chapter 6 of his autobiography, The Way the Future Was. [1] However, the correspondence between Heinlein and Merril, now housed in Library and Archives Canada, shows that while Heinlein claimed to be uninvolved in the editing, he certainly had some input into the structure and contents of the book:
I am the lowest form of literary prostitute, swindling the public into thinking that I have done a piece of editing which I aint done and aint going to do ... On the issue of whether or not the volume should have a theme: I don’t give a hoot about a theme; I’d like to see stories picked for highest possible entertainment value. I can’t think of any other real excuse for putting out another S-F anthology ... I'll be of more help, I hope, a month from now when I can get at my files of magazines and books. [2]
It was published in 1952 in hardcover by Doubleday and Company, Inc., published 1953 in paperback. The Library of Congress Control Number of the hardcover was 52-5218.
P. Schuyler Miller found the stories to be "all smoothly professional, all enjoyable, some of them mind-tickling." [3] Damon Knight judged that of the fourteen stories in the volume, "ten are A's, four B's; there are no stinkers at all", and asserted that each of the ten excellent stories "is a pretty good approximation of the last word on its subject." [4]
Cyril M. Kornbluth was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond, and Scott Mariner. The "M" in Kornbluth's name may have been in tribute to his wife, Mary Byers; Kornbluth's colleague and collaborator Frederik Pohl confirmed Kornbluth's lack of any actual middle name in at least one interview.
Donald Allen Wollheim was an American science fiction editor, publisher, writer, and fan. As an author, he published under his own name as well as under pseudonyms, including David Grinnell.
James Benjamin Blish was an American science fiction and fantasy writer. He is best known for his Cities in Flight novels, and his series of Star Trek novelizations written with his wife, J. A. Lawrence. He is credited with creating the term "gas giant" to refer to large planetary bodies.
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.
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.
Judith Josephine Grossman, who took the pen-name Judith Merril around 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist, and one of the first women to be widely influential in those roles.
William Anthony Parker White 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".
Gnome Press was an American small-press publishing company primarily known for publishing many science fiction classics. Gnome was one of the most eminent of the fan publishers of SF, producing 86 titles in its lifespan — many considered classic works of SF and Fantasy today. Gnome was important in the transitional period between Genre SF as a magazine phenomenon and its arrival in mass-market book publishing, but proved too underfunded to make the leap from fan-based publishing to the professional level. The company existed for just over a decade, ultimately failing due to inability to compete with major publishers who also started to publish science fiction. In its heyday, Gnome published many of the major SF authors, and in some cases, as with Robert E. Howard's Conan series and Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, was responsible for the manner in which their stories were collected into book form.
The science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) was productive during a writing career that spanned the last 49 years of his life; the Robert A. Heinlein bibliography includes 32 novels, 59 short stories and 16 collections published during his life. Four films, two TV series, several episodes of a radio series, and a board game derive more or less directly from his work. He wrote a screenplay for one of the films. Heinlein edited an anthology of other writers' SF short stories.
Star Science Fiction Stories No.3 is a science fiction short story collection, first published in 1955 by Ballantine Books. The third book in the anthology series, Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl.
Star Science Fiction Stories No.2 is the second book in the anthology series, Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in 1953 by Ballantine Books.
Adventures in Time and Space is an American anthology of science fiction stories edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas and published in 1946 by Random House. A second edition was also published in 1946 that eliminated the last five stories. A Modern Library edition was issued in 1957. When it was re-released in 1975 by Ballantine Books, Analog book reviewer Lester del Rey referred to it as a book he often gave to people in order to turn them onto the genre. It is now once again out of print.
First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Damon Knight, first published in paperback by Lancer Books in August 1963. It is a compilation of the first published stories of ten authors in the genre. It was reprinted in November 1966 and reissued as Now Begins Tomorrow in November 1969 by the same publisher. An expansion of the work, retaining Knight's introduction and adding the initial stories of ten additional authors, was later prepared by Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander and published as First Voyages by Avon Books in May 1981.
Clarence Howard "Bud" Webster was an American science fiction and fantasy writer who is also known for his essays on both the history of science fiction and sf/fantasy anthologies as well. He is perhaps best known for the Bubba Pritchert series, which have won two Analytical Laboratory readers' awards from Analog Science Fiction and Fact magazine. Farewell Blues was featured on the cover of the January/February 2015 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Webster is also known for his survey of Groff Conklin's contribution to science fiction in 41 Above the Rest: An Index and Checklist for the Anthologies of Groff Conklin.
Star Science Fiction Stories No.1 is the first book in the anthology series Star Science Fiction Stories, edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in 1953 by Ballantine Books, without numeration, and was reprinted in 1972 as "No. 1". The book featured the first appearance of Arthur C. Clarke's short story, "The Nine Billion Names of God". These books have been very critically acclaimed by critics around the world.
Human? is an anthology of science fiction and fantasy stories edited by Judith Merril, published as a paperback original by Lion Books in 1954. No further editions were issued.
First Voyages is an anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Damon Knight, Martin H. Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander, first published in paperback by Avon Books in May 1981. It is a compilation of the first published stories of twenty prominent authors in the genre, and an expansion of Knight's earlier First Flight: Maiden Voyages in Space and Time, which covered ten of the same stories and authors.
A Treasury of Science Fiction is an American anthology of science fiction short stories edited by Groff Conklin. It was first published in hardcover by Crown Publishers in 1948, and reprinted in March 1951. A later edition was issued by Bonanza Books/Crown Publishers in March 1980. An abridged paperback version including eight of its thirty stories was published by Berkley Books in July 1957 and reprinted in January 1958 and January 1965.
The SFWA Grand Masters, Volume 3 is an anthology of science fiction short works edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardcover by Tor Books in June 2001, and in trade paperback by the same publisher in April 2002. It has been translated into Italian.
The Best of C. M. Kornbluth is a collection of science fiction and fantasy short stories by American author C. M. Kornbluth, edited by Frederik Pohl. It was first published in hardback by Nelson Doubleday in October 1976 and in paperback by Ballantine Books in January 1977 as a volume in its Classic Library of Science Fiction. A second hardcover edition was issued by Taplinger in November 1977, and an ebook edition by Faded Page in December 2017.