Category Archives: Misc

Bibliography: Clifford D. Simak

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This continues the bibliography (checklist) series with Simak and his printed English-language books. The “Main” “Works Published in Simak’s Lifetime” is the very concise core that should suffice for most (though the “Other” works in that section and the Open Road posthumous works are also significant) and the rest covers everything else, trying to balance concision and comprehensiveness in a reasonably short page.

The format is ‘Title (Data)’ where the data includes year of first book publication (with—for initial publications in the first section only—a month if known), date of first magazine publication (if any, with the format ‘Year-Month+Number of issues (if more than one)~Rate of issues (if the issues are other than monthly)’), variant titles (if any), and occasional other notes. Editions are US unless otherwise noted. Abbreviations used are general such as ‘U’nited ‘K’ingdom, ‘c’irca, ‘et c’etera, or are mostly the same as for all these checklists: ‘P’aper’B’ack, ‘T’rade ‘P’aper, ‘H’ard’C’over, ‘NO’vel, ‘N’ovell’A’, ‘N’ovelett’E’, ‘S’hort ‘S’tory, ‘exp’anded, ‘mag’azine, ‘rest’ored, ‘rev’ised, and ‘v’ariant ‘t’itle. There are also a few abbreviations specific to this checklist which are for Simak’s three major collections of independent stories: ‘Strangers’ in the Universe, The ‘Worlds’ of Clifford Simak (never to the other two with “Worlds” in the titles), and All the ‘Traps’ of Earth. In one subsection, I also refer to its books by the last part of their dates. And, as always, I’m especially indebted to the Internet Speculative Fiction Database and the Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and welcome corrections.

Works Published in Simak’s Lifetime

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Examples of some of Simak’s work, including The Trouble with Tycho in an Ace “triple”

Main

All the titles in this subsection are novels except for five collections marked [C], one connected collection marked [CC], and one novella marked [NA].

Simak’s long career had many segments. He published five stories in 1931-32 and one more in 1935 but his main career runs from 1938 until 1986 and that stretch perhaps most significantly divides in two at 1966 where he published no short fiction from 1966-68 while publishing three novels. In the first period of 28 years, he wrote something like 106 stories and 8 novels while, in the second of 20, he wrote 20 stories and 18 novels.

Phase I

  • Cosmic Engineers (1950; mag (Astounding) 1939-02+2)
  • Empire (1951; exp vt Empire: With Hellhounds of the Cosmos! 2010)1
  • Time and Again (1951; mag (Galaxy) vt Time Quarry 1950-10+2; vt First He Died 1953)
  • [CC] City (1952-05; US exp w/1973 SS “Epilog” 1981, UK 1988)2
  • Ring Around the Sun (1953; mag (Galaxy) 1952-12+2)3
  • [C] Strangers in the Universe (1956; US cut 1957; UK cut 1958)4
  • [C] The Worlds of Clifford Simak (1960; UK cut vt Aliens for Neighbours 1961, further cut 1963; US split 1961 w/Other Worlds of Clifford Simak 1962)5
  • [NA] The Trouble with Tycho (1961; mag (Amazing) 1960-10)6
  • Time Is the Simplest Thing (1961-05; mag (Analog) vt The Fisherman 1961-04+3)
  • [C] All the Traps of Earth and Other Stories (1962-01; US cut 1963, rest 1979; UK split 1964 with The Night of the Puudly 1964)7
  • They Walked Like Men (1962)
  • Way Station (1963; mag (Galaxy) vt Here Gather the Stars 1963-06+1~2)
  • [C] Worlds Without End (1964-04)
  • All Flesh Is Grass (1965-09)

Phase II

  • The Werewolf Principle (1967)
  • Why Call Them Back from Heaven? (1967)
  • [C] So Bright the Vision (1968)8
  • The Goblin Reservation (1968-10; mag (Galaxy) 1968-04+1~2)
  • Out of Their Minds (1970-03)
  • Destiny Doll (1971; mag (Worlds of Fantasy) vt Reality Doll 1971-03)
  • A Choice of Gods (1972-01)
  • Cemetery World (1973-03; cut from mag (Analog) 1972-11+2; rest 1983)
  • Our Children’s Children (1974-01; mag (If) 1973-05+1~2)
  • Enchanted Pilgrimage (1975-05)
  • Shakespeare’s Planet (1976-05)
  • A Heritage of Stars (1977-06)
  • Mastodonia (1978-03; UK vt Catface 1979)
  • The Fellowship of the Talisman (1978-09)
  • The Visitors (1980-01; mag (Analog) 1979-10+2)
  • Project Pope (1981-03)
  • Special Deliverance (1982-02)
  • Where the Evil Dwells (1982-09)
  • Highway of Eternity (1986-06)

Other (Derivative/UK-only/Pamphlet)

  • The Creator (1948; mag (Marvel Tales) 1935; a small-press limited-edition pamphlet of a NE)
  • [C] Best Science Fiction Stories of Clifford D. Simak (1967 UK; 1971 US; reprints one story from Strangers, two from Traps, three from Worlds, and adds “New Folks’ Home” (1963))
  • [C] The Best of Clifford D. Simak (1975-06 UK; inexplicably titled collection reprints one story from Traps and adds two stories from 1939-40 and seven from 1959-71)
  • [C] Skirmish: The Great Short Fiction of Clifford D.Simak (1977-10; reprints one story from Worlds, one from Strangers, two from City, three from Traps, and adds “The Thing in the Stone” (1970), “The Autumn Land” (1971), and “The Ghost of a Model T” (1975))

Posthumous Works

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A set of The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak. (Thanks to Hugh at SFFChronicles.)

Until the final subsection, all the below are collections except for one omnibus marked [O]. While the books in the first subsection made a substantial contribution at the time in their place, none of the rest did much until the group of collections from Open Road.

1986-97: Severn House/Methuen/Mandarin Group

Simak lived to 1988 and this UK-only group includes two volumes just prior to that but the bulk of them came out after that and they belong together. (The final one also came out one year before the book in the next subsection but is grouped here for the same reason.) They are all edited and introduced by Francis Lyall and were published in HC except 90-91 and all those by Severn House except 88 by Methuen. They were published in PB by Methuen/Mandarin (sometimes using only one or the other of the names) except 93 and 97. (Severn House also published 93 in TP.) They all contain 4-7 stories except 93 (9) and are 190pp or less except 88 (223), 93 (278), and 97 (250). The contents are generally collected for the first time but each reprints a story from Simak’s major antemortem US collections except 86a (0), 90 (2), and 91/93 (3). These reprint 5 of 11 from Strangers, 5 of 12 from Worlds, and just 1 of 9 from Traps.

  • The Marathon Photograph and Other Stories (1986)
  • Brother and Other Stories (1986; Strangers: 1)
  • Off-Planet (1988; Strangers: 1)
  • The Autumn Land and Other Stories (1990; Worlds: 1, Strangers: 1)
  • Immigrant and Other Stories (1991; Worlds: 2, Strangers: 1)
  • The Creator and Other Stories (1993; Traps:1, Worlds: 1, Strangers: 1)
  • The Civilisation Game and Other Stories (1997; Worlds: 1)

1996: Tachyon Derivative

This limited-edition HC (though there was an SFBC version, too) reprints four longer stories (3 from Worlds, 1 from Traps) and adds four shorter ones.

  • Over the River and Through the Woods (1996)

2005-06: Darkside Press’s Collected Stories

The limited-edition HC volumes from this obviously abandoned series collect only twenty-four stories.

  1. Eternity Lost (2005)
  2. Physician to the Universe (2006)

2010: Wildside Press Volume

This is a TP of four public domain stories.

  • Impossible Things: Four Classic Tales (2010; vt Hellhounds of the Cosmos and Other Tales from the Fourth Dimension 2011)

2013: A Gollancz SF Gateway Omnibus

A TP which reprints three unrelated novels.

  • [O] Time Is the Simplest Thing / Way Station / A Choice of Gods (2013)

2015-23: Open Road’s The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak

These TPs aren’t completely complete but do collect essentially all the stories.

  1. I Am Crying All Inside and Other Stories (2015)
  2. The Big Front Yard and Other Stories (2015)
  3. The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories (2015)
  4. Grotto of the Dancing Deer and Other Stories (2016)
  5. No Life of Their Own and Other Stories (2016)
  6. New Folks’ Home and Other Stories (2016)
  7. A Death in the House and Other Stories (2016)
  8. Good Night, Mr. James and Other Stories (2016)
  9. Earth for Inspiration and Other Stories (2016)
  10. The Shipshape Miracle and Other Stories (2017)
  11. Dusty Zebra and Other Stories (2017)
  12. The Thing in the Stone and Other Stories (2017)
  13. Buckets of Diamonds and Other Stories (2023)
  14. Epilog and Other Stories (2023)

Other (Short Fiction Singles)

Other than The Creator and The Trouble with Tycho (discussed above), there were no books of single short Simak fictions until 2007 when the internet and the lapse of some copyrights led to a flood of trivia. Of the dozens of freely available digital tales, some of which were senselessly sold for a buck or more, some also made it into print to be sold with little more reason and for a lot more money. All of those are listed below and are available in The Complete Short Fiction. Some of the other places they can be found are also noted below.

  • Hellhounds of the Cosmos (2008, a 1932 NE available at Project Gutenberg)
  • Project Mastodon (2009, a 1955 NE available in Traps and at PG)
  • Spacebred Generations (2009, a vt of a 1953 NE otherwise always called “Target Generation” in book form and available in Strangers)
  • The World That Couldn’t Be (2010, a 1958 NE which had appeared earlier in Off-Planet and is available at PG)
  • The Street That Wasn’t There (2011, a 1941 SS written with Carl Jacobi available at PG)
  • Second Childhood (2016, a 1951 SS)
  • Mr. Meek Plays Polo (2020, a 1944 NE available at PG)
  • Message from Mars (2021, a 1943 NE)

Somewhat more impressively, Armchair Fiction has its version of a Double line and has released three more Simak stories bound with works by others.

  • Worlds Without End / The Lavender Vine of Death (2011; combines a Don Wilcox novella and Simak’s 1956 NA “Worlds Without End” which had appeared earlier in Worlds Without End)
  • Full Cycle / It Was the Day of the Robot (2012; combines a Frank Belknap Long NO and Simak’s 1955 NE “Full Cycle” which had appeared earlier in Worlds Without End)
  • The Wailing Asteroid / The World That Couldn’t Be (2014; combines a Murray Leinster NO and Simak’s previously printed 1958 NE “The World That Couldn’t Be” listed above.)

Changes

  • 2024-10-15: I added the specific magazine in parentheses after the ‘mag’ items, itemized the reprints in the 1986-97 group, made two or three other more trivial changes, and incorporated the information about the single versions of “The World That Couldn’t Be,” “Second Childhood,” “Mr. Meek Plays Polo,” and the hardcover edition of Off-Planet from Ralf 58 at SFFChronicles.
  1. Empire should arguably be listed in the “Other” section as it was actually written by John W. Campbell, Jr. c.1930 and then rewritten at Campbell’s request by Simak c.1940. Neither liked it and it went in the trunk until the editor of Galaxy urgently needed material for his new line of Galaxy Science Fiction Novels, so was finally published. As this was in digest magazine format it never actually appeared in book form in Simak’s lifetime. (It was never reprinted until 2009 when someone realized it was in the public domain and it’s been reprinted digitally and physically many times since. The unrelated Simak NE “Hellhounds of the Cosmos” was in the same situation from 1932 to 2008. They appeared together in the TP Empire: With Hellhounds of the Cosmos! (2010). Another TP, The Country Beyond the Curve / Empire (2015), attaches Walt Sheldon’s 1950 NA “The Country Beyond the Curve” to the Simak novel.) ↩︎
  2. Unusually for such bonus text, most (something like five of nine) editions of City published since the 1981 expansion stick with the original eight-story version rather than reprinting the nine-story Ace text. ↩︎
  3. After being published in HC, the first paperback appearance of Ring Around the Sun was in an Ace Double with L. Sprague de Camp’s Cosmic Manhunt. All other editions are individual publications. ↩︎
  4. The only complete editions of Strangers in the Universe are the US HCs. The US PBs and all UK editions include 7 of the 11 stories, having 4 in common and 3 unique to each, thus leaving one (“Contraption”) unavailable in either. ↩︎
  5. The only complete editions of The Worlds of Clifford Simak are the US HCs, though the US split PBs contain all 12 stories between them. The UK vt Aliens for Neighbours contains 9 stories in HC and 6 in PB. ↩︎
  6. The Trouble with Tycho originally appeared as an Ace Double with A. Bertram Chandler’s Bring Back Yesterday before being printed separately in 1976. This could also be considered an “Other” book except that it is not too far removed from novel-length and has been published in mass-market paperbacks. ↩︎
  7. US PBs of All the Traps of Earth had six of the nine stories until the Avon editions beginning in 1979 restored the three cut stories. The UK editions are split into a book with the original title containing four stories and The Night of the Puudly (which retitles “Good Night, Mr. James” and uses it as the title story) containing the other five. ↩︎
  8. So Bright the Vision is a four-story collection originally published with Jeff Sutton’s The Man Who Saw Tomorrow before being printed separately in 1976. ↩︎

Save the Dust Jackets!

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Other than having thousands of books, I’m not really a book collector. In other words, I don’t generally spend more than I must to get something decent (because I do care about at least “enjoyable to read” condition and the books I read tend to be in the same condition after I’m done that they were in before I started) and I don’t buy things I intend to seal in an argon case or whatever, but just stuff I intend to read (if only some day). Still, I recently learned that dust jackets (which I always thought were somewhat important) are really important, at least in terms of collector value. That, coupled with getting some books in a series with protected dust jackets and some without (as well as some with none at all, unfortunately) and wanting to have them all protected, led to my buying a couple of small packs of polyester dust jacket covers on Amazon to experiment with. Then I got a little smarter and signed up with brodart.com to order larger packs directly which costs more in absolute dollars but is far cheaper per book cover. Creating an account was relatively noninvasive: just give them an email address and choose a password. Then, obviously, if you want to get what you’ve ordered, you’ll need to provide your name and address. The one problem is that, at least at the time I ordered (a couple-three months ago), there was an automatic shipping charge of $10.95 which was about a third of the cost of my total order. But if you wanted to make a bigger order, it might be the same or not much more and would be a proportionally better deal.

I was a little nervous about taking a part of a book that was molded to fit and mashing it flat and possibly screwing it up but it turns out you can be pretty vigorous with it without any problem and the jacket with its new jacket-jacket basically returns to its previous state. The most helpful “how to” video of a few that I looked at was “Protecting a Dust Jacket with an Archival Polyester Sleeve.” (I would embed this but either the site or utoob won’t let me, so I’m providing a link—which goes to an infinitely superior utoob front-end while I’m at it.)

However, I found that the suggestion in the video about flattening out the Brodart cover was a good one, but slightly overkill, and had better luck just putting some more books behind the cover, opening the paper up over them, and just creasing it lightly to get a ninety-degree angle. That let me get the dust jacket to fit tightly without distorting the cover. I also got by with using my thumbnail rather than a special tool such as the bone folder, though I’d bet the tool would be better.

I also went with the “Just-A-Fold III Archival Book Jacket Covers” though I went with the sheets rather than the rolls because, while more per cover and not cut-to-fit, the packs cost fewer dollars than the rolls. Still, in retrospect, I probably should have spent more and gotten the rolls. That affects the horizontal length but I would make a note about the vertical length: the Amazon page (and I think Brodart, itself) claims that a given size will fit a book “several inches” smaller and this is technically true but I found that using a ten-inch cover on, say, a nine-inch book creates a sort of puffy, padded feel vs. using a nine-inch on a nine-inch. I can’t figure out the logic of why this should be so unless creating your own fold is simply not as sharp as using the perforated “[ad]just-a-fold[s]” but it does seem to make a slight difference. So I’d say you could certainly use a ten on a nine or the like in a pinch but I’d prefer to get the right size.

Finally, I would say to watch out for the things that aren’t “archival” because (a) the plastic (polyester or polypropylene) may not be of lasting, safe quality and (b) more likely, the printing on the paper of some may leach into the jacket. Conversely, if people who know more about this stuff than I do could tell me, maybe it’s just wasted money if the “non-archival” ones are good enough, because the archival ones are a little bit more. And, speaking of the paper, some collectors would argue that there shouldn’t be any paper at all, as this may affect the dust jacket’s fit, though it does provide more support if you’re trying to preserve a damaged jacket rather than keep a perfect one perfect. Another downside of the paper is that, somehow, a chipped dust jacket with the spine showing looks more “natural” than the chipped areas showing white paper covering the spine but, as I say, without the paper, the covers feel pretty flimsy.

Anyway, it’s not much, but it’s what little I learned from this experience and I hope it’s helpful (or at least has some interest) to somebody and maybe inspires more knowledgeable people to improve this post with their comments.

Though there’s ideally not much to see, here’s a pic of some of the ones I did. First comes a two-volume set I want to keep as perfect as I can (if you can call anything rife with typos “perfect”). Next a set in variable sort of “standard poor” condition. Then a truly bad one (the Simak) where I really enjoy the feeling of being able to handle the book without fear of the jacket disintegrating when I do so. The last one (Latin Poets) is a bit of an oddity because (a) old Modern Library books almost never have their jackets, (b) those jackets have a book list printed on the inside which the paper of the Brodart cover would, well, cover, and (c) they’re very small. So I was able to detach the paper from the plastic of one of the sheets, cut the plastic to fit better and cover most of the back of the jacket, and crease it hard with my thumbnail, and it seems to work well.

jacketcovers

Book Haul #9

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I went to a couple of used bookstores awhile ago but never got around to posting the haul. It’s mostly science fiction/fantasy and dictionaries (okay, so I’m weird).

bk-haul-221111-spinebk-haul-221111-cover

The big ticket item (ten whole bucks!) is the one that’s probably impossible to make out in either picture: the blue book near the end is a signed 1950 Prime Press first (and only) edition of George O. Smith’s Nomad, serialized in Astounding in 1944-45. I don’t know if the signature is genuine (though it’s a nice bonus if it is) and it obviously doesn’t have a dust-jacket so the cover is a little dingy and the spine is cocked so it’s might not even be worth ten bucks except to me, but the text block is in basically perfect condition and (a) I just wanted the novel regardless and (b) its being a Prime Press book which could join a couple of other hardcovers I have from that era made it irresistible. I was also very happy to find A. Merritt’s only collection, The Fox Woman and Other Stories ($4) which also nearly completes the late ’70s Avon uniform reissues of his work. I’d previously read and enjoyed Harry Harrison’s Deathworld ($3), so it’s nice to get a copy of my own. And I’d previously owned and enjoyed C. M. Kornbluth’s The Explorers ($1), so it’s nice to get that back.

The other eleven books cost a total of two dollars at a quarter or dime apiece. I already had a pair of Malorys and the first three Rice vampire books (the only ones I liked as far as I read, which was the first five, I think) but the Malory is a different edition and a single volume of Rice is nice and takes up less room on the shelves.

The dictionaries are the largest group after the SF/F. I’m really happy to have found the very long Shorter OED, even if it is a Johnny Cash edition of 1944/1956/1964 (edition/latest revision with addenda/latest printing with corrections) and, even if it did cost me a dime, I’m ecstatic to get it for so little. I also didn’t have the ninth edition of the Collegiate, or any New World dictionary, or the Penguin dictionary of literary terms, which dwarfs my others put together.

Finally, for odds and ends, I got two anthologies of poetry/fiction/drama (though To Read Literature has one of the most asinine, counter-productive messages “To the Student” that I’ve ever read), a collection of poetry and essays I actually got more for the essays than the poems (though I may enjoy both or neither), and (mostly restoring a couple of paperbacks I didn’t have anymore) an oddly appealing hardcover of seven Shaw plays.

Book Haul #8

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No SF this time. I’ve got various editions of various history books but, of all of them, the Landmark series is, well, a landmark. New translations (or at least revised, in one case) with copious illustrations, maps, sidebars, headers, and all sorts of navigational aids, not least of which is a prodigious index. I got the Thucydides first when I was in the History Book Club (or whatever it’s exactly called), then picked up the Herodotus and Arrian used, and don’t even know where I got the Hellenika. Now I’ve gotten the Xenophon’s Anabasis and the Julius Caesar so, until they bring out the Polybius (bated breath), this is all of them.

landmark-front

Spine-view:

landmark-spine

Book Haul #7

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This haul is a bit different. You can play “Where’s Waldo & Magic, Inc.?” (which is to say, “Where’s the SF?”) with this one (not to mention “Where’s the Non-Anthology?”). Stray note: the six anthologies contain 579 stories (obviously with plenty of overlap in the litfic anthologies, but still… it’s a lot of stories).

Front:

2022-07-07-front

Spine:

2022-07-07-spine

 

Bibliography: Groff Conklin

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I wasn’t intending to do this, especially so close to the last one, but here’s another bibliography/checklist, this time of an editor of anthologies rather than an author of novels and collections. (While he wrote some and edited a few non-speculative anthologies prior to turning to science fiction, this includes only the speculative anthologies beginning with 1946.)

The format is ‘Title (Publication year-month Publisher Format (hc=hardcover/tp=trade paperback/pb=mass-market paperback) Co-editor, story-count/page-count); any significant variants…’ Not all elements will be present for all editions. Note that books with identical contents but differing page counts (presumably due to being reset) are ignored but, if they have some other reason to be listed, are listed with the page counts separated with a bar: ‘page-count|other page count’. Variant listings include only the elements which are different from the first edition. For instance, the 1963 edition of The Best of Science Fiction is still a Crown hardcover and the 1980 Bonanza/Crown edition is still a hardcover with the original story and page counts. Variants are ‘cut’ (missing stories), ‘split’ (one large book published in smaller books, ‘vt’ (variant title), ‘va’ (variant attribution), or some combination.

Sources: ISFDB, Anthopology 101 by Bud Webster, my books. ISFDB, Webster, and other sources have complete story listings but this is intended to be a book checklist which can provide a concise but somewhat detailed overview of his work, help people avoid cuts or duplicates under other names, point people to the big and the little, particular publishers, etc.

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Phase I

In this period, Conklin did mostly large anthologies in hardcover, mostly for Crown, Vanguard, and Permabooks.

  • The Best of Science Fiction (1946-02 Crown hc, 40/785); cut 1963 23/440 (also cuts Campbell’s intro, though it preserves Conklin’s); vt The Golden Age of Science Fiction (1980 Bonanza/Crown).
  • A Treasury of Science Fiction (1948-03 Crown hc, 30/517); cut 1957-07 Berkley pb, 8/186|192.
  • The Science Fiction Galaxy (1950-02 Permabooks hc, 12/242).
  • Big Book of Science Fiction (1950-08 Crown hc, 32/545); cut 1957-04 Berkley pb, 10/187|176; vt The Classic Book of Science Fiction (1978 Bonanza/Crown).
  • Possible Worlds of Science Fiction (1951-04 Vanguard hc, 22/372); cut 1952-06 Grayson & Grayson (UK), 13/254; cut 1955-07 Berkley pb, 10/189.
  • In the Grip of Terror (1951 Permabooks pb, 22/364).
  • Invaders of Earth (1952-03 Vanguard hc, 22/333); cut 1953 Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) 14/256; cut 1955-07 Pocket pb, 15/257; cut split vt Invaders of Earth (1962 Digit (UK) pb, 8/160)/Enemies in Space (1962 Digit (UK) pb, 6/159). The Digits contain all the Weidenfeld & Nicolson.
  • Omnibus of Science Fiction (1952-11 Crown hc, 43/562); cut split vt Strange Travels in Science Fiction (1954-01 Grayson & Grayson (UK); 13/256)/Strange Adventures in Science Fiction (1954-06 Grayson & Grayson (UK), 9/238); cut vt Science Fiction Omnibus (1956-08 Berkley pb 11/187|190).
  • Science Fiction Adventures in Dimension (1953-03 Vanguard hc, 23/354); cut vt Adventures in Dimension (1955 Grayson & Grayson (UK), 13/240); cut 1965-03 Berkley pb, 12/174.
  • The Supernatural Reader (1953-04 Lippincott hc, 27/349) with Lucy Conklin; cut 1958 World (UK) pb, 19/252; va 1962 Collier pb, /352 credited to Groff Conklin only.
  • Crossroads in Time (1953-11 Permabooks pb, 18/312).
  • 6 Great Short Novels of Science Fiction (1954-01 Dell pb, 6/384).
  • Science-Fiction Thinking Machines (1954-05 Vanguard hc, 22/367); cut vt Selections from Science-Fiction Thinking Machines (1955-08 Bantam pb, 12/183|201).
  • Science Fiction Terror Tales (1955-01 Gnome hc, 15/262).
  • Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation (1955 Vanguard hc, 20/316); cut vt Selected Stories from Science-Fiction Adventures in Mutation (1965-06 Berkley pb, 14/174).
  • Operation Future (1955-07 Permabooks pb, 19/356).

ImagePhase II

The two years between the last book of Phase I and the first of Phase II marks the longest gap between books of his entire career. From here on, he did mostly relatively smaller paperbacks, mostly for Pyramid, Fawcett, and Collier (and no more with Crown, Vanguard, or Permabooks).

  • The Graveyard Reader (1958 Ballantine pb, 12/156)
  • Br-r-r-! (1959 Avon pb, 10/192)
  • 4 for the Future (1959-08 Pyramid pb, 4/160)
  • 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction (1960-05 Fawcett pb, 13/192)
  • Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels (1960-11 Dell pb, 6/350)
  • Twisted (1962-05 Belmont pb, 15/189); cut 1963 Horwitz (UK) pb, 10/130.
  • Worlds of When (1962-05 Pyramid pb, 5/159)
  • Great Science Fiction by Scientists (1962-06 Collier pb, 16/313)
  • Fifty Short Science Fiction Tales (1963-02 Collier pb, 50/287) with Isaac Asimov. Also includes a poem by Poul Anderson and six haiku by Karen Anderson.
  • Great Science Fiction About Doctors (1963-04 Collier pb, 18/412) with Noah D. Fabricant, M.D.
  • Great Stories of Space Travel (1963-07 Tempo pb, 11/256)
  • 17 X Infinity (1963-08 Dell pb, 17/272). Also includes a poem by Rudyard Kipling.
  • 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction (1963-12 Fawcett pb, 12/192)
  • Dimension 4 (1964-02 Pyramid pb, 4/159)
  • Five-Odd (1964-08 Pyramid pb, 5/188); vt Possible Tomorrows (1972-06 Sidgwick & Jackson (UK) hc).
  • Great Detective Stories About Doctors (1965-01 Collier pb, 17/288) with Noah D. Fabricant, M.D.
  • 5 Unearthly Visions (1965 Fawcett pb, 5/175)
  • Giants Unleashed (1965 Grosset & Dunlap hc, 12/248); vt Minds Unleashed (1970-10 Tempo pb). Conklin’s introduction is dropped from the variant title.
  • 13 Above the Night (1965-10 Dell pb, 13/286)
  • Another Part of the Galaxy (1966 Fawcett pb, 6/224)
  • Seven Come Infinity (1966 Fawcett pb, 7/288)
  • Science Fiction Oddities (1966-11 Berkley pb, 19/256); split vt Science Fiction Oddities (1969-06 Rapp & Whiting (UK) hc, 9/156)/Science Fiction Oddities: Second Series (1969-06 Rapp & Whiting (UK) hc, 10/160)
  • Elsewhere and Elsewhen (1968-05 Berkley pb, 9/253); split vt Science Fiction Elsewhen (1970-07 Rapp & Whiting (UK) hc, 5/152)/Science Fiction Elsewhere (1970-07 Rapp & Whiting (UK) hc, 4/166)
  • Seven Trips Through Time and Space (1968 Fawcett pb, 7/256)

Note: ISFDB quotes Tuck as saying Conklin “sub-edited” Human and Other Beings (1963 Collier pb, 16/319) which is a title in the Collier Science Fiction series of which Conklin is credited as the general editor. Webster also lists it among Conklin’s works. But if this were true, it would make this book the only example of such a thing in all of Conklin’s SF anthologies and crediting only Allen DeGraeff (a pseudonym of Albert Paul Blaustein according to OCLC (via ISFDB) and Webster) would have hurt the sales of the book, so Conklin’s anonymity in this makes little sense to me without definite proof. For what it’s worth (because I don’t know what the usual batting average is), of the 15 authors in this anthology, Banks, Brackett (!), Elliott, and Wilson (with two stories) appear in none of the books I list above.

Book Haul #6

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This isn’t actually a single haul or much of a “haul” even if it had been but, while I was reorganizing the site map slightly and moving the list of previous book haul posts, it occurred to me to add what I’ve gotten so far in this pretty slow year. First pic is of covers; next is of sideways spines. The last two are tangents. (They’re not all the prettiest books, but the words are all there.)

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I don’t have all of van Vogt but, as I mention in the Bibliography: A. E. van Vogt post, Out of the Unknown now gives me at least all of “Phase I” van Vogt:

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And the splurge of Datlow Omni anthologies was to finally complete those (the Book and Visions series are mostly reprints, while the middle, oddly titled, Best series is mostly original):

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Bibliography: A. E. van Vogt

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Resources like the ISFDB and The Storysource are wonderful but sometimes too detailed or require a lot of navigating and collating of information while others like the SFE are equally wonderful but sometimes not bibliographically detailed enough. This is a middle road, based on those sources and my collection, which may still be too much or too little for many but I hope some will find it useful or possibly even interesting.

This particular thin bibliography or fat checklist was motivated by my recent purchase of Out of the Unknown which completes my library of what I think of as van Vogt’s “Phase I” books. The reason for the notion of “phases” is that, with very few exceptions, he essentially wrote from 1939-1951 and managed to publish most of this material in book form from 1946-66 until, after over a decade of almost no original material, Frederik Pohl (editing Galaxy and If at the time) got van Vogt back to writing new material in 1963 which manifested in book form from 1969 on. I wanted to recheck his bibliography to make sure I’d gotten it right and, while I was at it, post the results as this categorized bibliography.

However, this isn’t the first one I’ve started–just the first I’ve finished. Prior to the van Vogt, I’d also recently acquired the “last” of what I think of as the essential (if affordable) Kuttner/Moore and, before that, Leiber. I actually started with the Kuttner/Moore bibliography, so it and the Leiber may be along some time soon, possibly followed by others.

The following is a list of parameters and conventions used in the lists below but it might be better to skip it, move directly to the lists, and only refer to it as needed.

  • The lists don’t include non-SF, translations, omnibuses, etc., but do include van Vogt’s core titles of science fiction published in English.
  • The format of entries is generally ‘Title (Series). Date Publisher Book-format Author-attribution. Description: Contents. Other-editions. Notes.’ (not all elements are present in all entries). The original edition and every edition that is substantially different from the original are listed in bold. If the publisher is based in the UK, that’s noted in parentheses. The book formats are ‘hc’ (hardcover), ‘tp’ (trade paper), or ‘pb’ (mass market paperback). The format of the contents is: ‘(Date [Fixup] Magazine/Anthology)’ (see below for “fixup”).
  • Dates for books and their contents are given as ‘1939’ (if the month is unknown), ‘1939-07’ (for July 1939), ‘1979-06/07’ (for June/July 1979), ‘1951-Sp’ (for Spring 1951) or ‘1948-10+3’ (meaning the work was serialized in the October 1948 issue plus the next three issues, taking it to January 1949. If the issue sequence is more complicated than that, I’ll note it.
  • I list significant variant titles (indicated with SFE’s ‘vt’) but I’m not too particular about details of spelling, articles, prepositions, etc., in the titles. The point is simply to list titles that might possibly be confusing rather than every trivial variation.
  • Books are ordered chronologically by book publication within each main category (with the exception of redundant books which are extracted from the chronological order and placed in their own subsection) although, when a book has a prior magazine publication, that is significant and is also listed.
  • When referred to in the descriptions, non-US and posthumous books are surrounded by {braces}. (For van Vogt, this is especially pertinent to the US and UK versions of The Best of A. E. van Vogt. Also note that {Futures Past} came out about three months before van Vogt died but he was suffering from advanced Alzheimer’s at that point (not to mention it had been 21 years since his last collection) so I count it as posthumous.)
  • When referred to in the descriptions, collections are often referred to in (parentheses). If they have multi-word titles, those are abbreviated:
    • {3EE}=The Three Eyes of Evil and Earth’s Last Fortress
    • AB=Away and Beyond
    • DU=Destination: Universe!
    • {FP}=Futures Past
    • FOW=The Far-Out Worlds of A. E. van Vogt
    • M33=M 33 in Andromeda
    • MOT=Masters of Time
    • MTS=More Than Superhuman
    • OOTU=Out of the Unknown
    • PI=The Proxy Intelligence and Other Mind Benders
    • TBO=The Best of A. E. van Vogt
    • TM=The Twisted Men
  • Though fixups are usually considered novels, in this particular bibliography, I separate van Vogt’s fixups from his novels and collections. For those not familiar with the term, a “fixup” (at least as I use it) is a half-collection/half-novel-like thing made up of previously published stories that are revised to merge better with the other stories, often with the help of new bridge/glue sections written to smooth the transitions and/or expand the material.
  • Stories that are part of fixups or expansions are indicated by a shortened book title in [brackets]. This means they have been collected in a sense, but when I describe them as uncollected, collected for the first time, etc., I’m referring to them as individual stories in essentially their original forms. Fixup references are usually the same as the title (possibly with articles dropped). More severe abbreviations are:
    • Atom=Empire of the Atom
    • Rogue=Rogue Ship
    • Rull=The War Against the Rull
    • Space Beagle=The Voyage of the Space Beagle
    • Weapon Shops=The Weapon Shops of Isher
  • A ‘^’ before a date indicates a story that was extracted from the fixup material at that time, rather than a pre-existing story incorporated into the fixup.
  • An ‘*’ after a title indicates a story that never appeared in a van Vogt collection individually but appears only in a fixup or an expanded novel.

Another thing to note about fixups and “phases” is that Rogue Ship could arguably be Phase II because a significant part of it comes from 1963 but it also includes two Phase I stories and was fixed up prior to The Silkie. On the flipside, Quest for the Future and Supermind could arguably be Phase I fixups because the former is built entirely out of Phase I material but none were related, and all had been previously collected while the latter is much like Rogue Ship in reverse, having only one Phase I story and being mostly two Phase II stories. Both also came out after The Silkie. Some collections are also ambiguous (though perhaps less so, with most being entirely from one phase or the other or with the exception of only a story or two. Most Phase II or posthumous collections with significant Phase I content have mostly only reprinted or previously fixed-up Phase I content).

Finally, I’d note that Edna Mayne Hull was van Vogt’s wife. E. M. (or E. Mayne) Hull is credited with some stories that came out from 1942-46 (coincidentally, van Vogt’s peak of productivity when it was a rule to use a pseudonym when more than one story by the same author appeared in the same issue) which resulted in a collection, fixup, and novel under that name or combined with van Vogt’s. Some believe she had a brief writing career (a notion van Vogt helped support) but others believe van Vogt essentially used the name as a pseudonym, much as John Campbell used his wife’s name Doña Stuart to create his Don A. Stuart pseudonym. Either way, all work credited to Hull appears in four books. Three stories published in Unknown appear in all editions of Out of the Unknown while a fourth ostensibly intended to be published there appears in the 1969 paperback edition. Five of the six Artur Blord stories originally published in Astounding appeared in the fixup Planets for Sale. The other (“Abdication” vt “The Invisibility Gambit”) and one other Astounding story credited to Hull (“Rebirth: Earth” vt “The Flight That Failed”) appear in The Proxy Intelligence with other van Vogt stories. Finally, the serial The Winged Man was published in Astounding and much later in revised book form. All four books are listed below.

I’ve tried very hard to include all information on a certain level and to make it accurate but there are bound to be errors. I’ll update this if anyone points out any or provides more information, or if I discover anything myself. I’ll then add a changelog of substantial changes at the end of the post to make it easy for people to be aware of them.

I’ve also tried to make this concise yet clear but, if it’s not, let me know and I’ll try to fix it.

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Novels

Phase I

  • Slan. 1946 Arkham House hc. Slightly revised from 1940-09+3 Astounding. 1951 Simon & Schuster hc and 1968 Berkley pb both slightly revised.
  • The Weapon Makers (Weapon Shops #2). 1947 Hadley hc. Reprinted from 1943-02+2 Astounding. 1955 Ace double pb vt One Against Eternity.
  • The Book of Ptath. 1947 Fantasy Press hc. Reprinted from 1943-10 Unknown. 1964-07 Paperback Library pb vt Two Hundred Million A. D.; 1976-03 Zebra pb vt Ptath.
  • The World of Null-A (Null-A #1). 1948 Simon & Schuster hc vt The World of Ā (spelling used only on US hardcovers). Reprinted from 1945-08+2 Astounding.
  • The House That Stood Still. 1950 Greenberg hc. 1960 Beacon pb slightly revised, likely by other hands, vt The Mating Cry, which was used for subsequent reprints under the original title; 1976-06 Panther (UK) pb as The Undercover Aliens, which perhaps uses the original text.
  • The Universe Maker. 1953-10 Ace double pb. Expanded from the novella “The Shadow Men”* 1950-01 Startling.
  • The Pawns of Null-A (Null-A #2). 1956 Ace pb. Reprinted from 1948-10+3 Astounding vt The Players of Ā. 1966-03 Berkley vt The Players of Null-A.
  • The Mind Cage. 1957 Simon & Schuster hc. The short story “The Great Judge” (AB, {Transfinite}) was the seed for this.
  • The Wizard of Linn (Clane #2). 1962 Ace pb. Reprinted from 1950-04+2 Astounding.
  • The Winged Man. 1966-03 Doubleday hc as by A. E. van Vogt & E. Mayne Hull. Revised from 1944-05+1 Astounding as by E. Mayne Hull.

Phase II

  • Children of Tomorrow. 1970 Ace pb.
  • The Battle of Forever. 1971 Ace pb.
  • The Darkness on Diamondia. 1972-01 Ace pb.
  • Future Glitter. 1973-10 Ace pb; 1977-10 Sphere (UK) vt Tyranopolis.
  • The Secret Galactics. 1974-03 Prentice-Hall tp. 1976-08 DAW pb as Earth Factor X.
  • The Man with a Thousand Names. 1974-08 DAW pb.
  • The Anarchistic Colossus. 1977-04 Ace pb.
  • Renaissance. 1979-05 Ace pb. An excerpt with slightly modified ending was published essentially simultaneously as “Femworld”* 1979-06/07 Galaxy.
  • Cosmic Encounter. 1980-02 Doubleday hc.
  • Computerworld. 1983-11 DAW pb. 1985-07 DAW pb vt Computer Eye.
  • Null-A Three (Null-A #3). 1985-07 DAW pb.

Posthumous (essentially not by van Vogt)

  • Slan Hunter. 2007-07 Tor hc as by Kevin J. Anderson and A. E. van Vogt (written by Anderson from an outline by van Vogt and his step-son). Reprinted from 2006-12+2 Jim Baen’s Universe (bi-monthly).

 

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Fixups

Phase I

  • The Voyage of the Space Beagle. 1950 Simon & Schuster hc. Components: “Black Destroyer” (1939-07 Astounding), “War of Nerves” (1950-05 Other Worlds), “Discord in Scarlet” (1939-12 Astounding), “M 33 in Andromeda” (1943-08 Astounding). 1952-01 Signet pb vt Mission: Interplanetary.
  • The Weapon Shops of Isher (Weapon Shops #1). 1951 Greenberg hc. Components: “The Seesaw”* (1941-07 Astounding), “The Weapon Shop” (1942-12 Astounding), “The Weapon Shops of Isher”* (1949-02 Thrilling Wonder).
  • The Mixed Men. 1952 Gnome hc. Components: “Concealment” (1943-09 Astounding), “Lost: Fifty Suns” (^1972 The Book of Van Vogt), “The Storm” (1943-09 Astounding), “The Mixed Men” (1945-01 Astounding). 1955-12 Berkley pb vt Mission to the Stars.
  • Planets for Sale. 1954 Frederick Fell hc as by E. Mayne Hull. Components: “Competition”* (1943-06 Astounding), “The Debt”* (1943-12 Astounding), “The Contract”* (1944-03 Astounding), “Enter the Professor”* (1945-01 Astounding), “Bankruptcy Proceedings”* (1946-08 Astounding) all as by E. Mayne Hull. 1965 Book Company of America pb as by A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull. (Incidentally, in addition to none of the Blord stories being collected individually, none were even anthologized except for “Competition” in Men Against the Stars, Martin Greenberg, ed.)
  • Empire of the Atom (Clane #1). 1957 Shasta hc. Components: “A Son Is Born” (1946-05 Astounding), “Child of the Gods” (1946-08 Astounding), “Hand of the Gods” (1946-12 Astounding), “Home of the Gods” (1947-04 Astounding), “The Barbarian” (1947-12 Astounding). 1957 Ace double pb slightly abridged.
  • The War Against the Rull. 1959-09 Simon & Schuster hc. Components: “Co-operate–Or Else!” (1942-04 Astounding), “Repetition” (1940-04 Astounding), “The Second Solution” (1942-10 Astounding), “The Green Forest” (1949-06 Astounding), “The Sound” (1950-02 Astounding), “The Rull” (1948-05 Astounding).
  • The Beast. 1963 Doubleday hc. Components: “The Great Engine” (1943-07 Astounding), “The Changeling” (1944-04 Astounding), “The Beast”* (1943-11 Astounding). 1969 Panther (UK) pb vt Moonbeast.
  • Rogue Ship. 1965 Doubleday hc. Components: “Centaurus II”* (1947-06 Astounding), “The Expendables” (1963-09 If), “Rogue Ship” vt “The Twisted Men” (1950-03 Super-Science Stories).

Phase II

  • The Silkie. 1969 Ace pb. Components: “Prologue to The Silkie” (^1976 The Best of A. E. van Vogt), “The Silkie”* (1964-07 If), “Silkies in Space” (1966-05 If), “Enemy of the Silkies”* (1967-10 If).
  • Quest for the Future. 1970-07 Ace pb. Components: “Film Library” (1946-07 Astounding), “The Search” (1943-01 Astounding), “Far Centaurus” (1944-01 Astounding). All three unrelated stories had been collected in AB and DU.
  • Supermind. 1977-01 DAW pb. Components: “Asylum” (1942-05 Astounding), “Research Alpha” (1965-07 If with James H. Schmitz), “The Proxy Intelligence” (1968-10 If). Two previously collected related stories were combined with the unrelated (and uncredited) collaboration with Schmitz which served in place of an unwritten third story, with the whole serving in place of an unwritten but contracted book.

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Collections

Phase I

  • Out of the Unknown. 1948-04 Fantasy Press hc as by A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull. Six previously uncollected stories from 1940-43 Unknown with half credited to van Vogt and half to E. Mayne Hull: “The Sea Thing” (1940-01), “The Witch” (1943-02), “The Ghost” (1943-08), all as by A. E. van Vogt; “The “Ultimate Wish” (1943-02) originally as by E. M. Hull, “The Wishes We Make” (1943-06), “The Patient” (1943-10), both as by E. Mayne Hull. 1969 Powell pb adds an introduction by A. E. van Vogt and “The Wellwisher” as by E. Mayne Hull, which is included as a story scheduled for Unknown when the magazine shut down. 1970-06 Sigwick & Jackson (UK) hc vt The Sea Thing and Other Stories. 1970-10 NEL (UK) pb restores the title but cuts the intro, “The Witch”, and “The Patient”. Only “The Sea Thing” (Monsters) and “The Ghost” ({Transfinite}) appear in other collections.
  • Masters of Time. 1950 Fantasy Press hc. Two previously uncollected novellas from 1942-44 Astounding: “Recruiting Station” (1942-03, re-titled “Masters of Time” for this collection and later sometimes titled “Earth’s Last Fortress”) and “The Changeling” [Beast] (1944-04). The Fantasy Press edition is the only one, but the two parts were later published individually as Masters of Time and The Changeling, both 1967 Macfadden. The former also appears as half of a 1960 Ace double vt “Earth’s Last Fortress”, part of the UK-only collection The Three Eyes of Evil and Earth’s Last Fortress and, under its original title, in the collection {Transfinite}.
  • Away and Beyond. 1952 Pellegrini & Cudahy hc. Nine previously uncollected stories from 1940-48, all but one of which are from Astounding: “Vault of the Beast” (1940-08), “The Great Engine” [Beast] (1943-07), “The Great Judge” (1948-07 Fantasy Book), “Secret Unattainable” (1942-07), “The Harmonizer” (1944-11), “Heir Unapparent” (1945-07 vt “Heir Apparent”), “The Second Solution” [Rull] (1942-10), “Film Library” (1946-07), “Asylum” [Supermind] (1942-05). 1963-09 Panther (UK) pb cuts “Vault of the Beast”. 1952-09 Berkley pb cuts that and “Heir Unapparent”. (The Avon and Jove paperbacks are complete.) The latter story also appears in M 33 in Andromeda while the former is reprinted in Monsters, {TBO}, {FP}, and {Transfinite}. Further, {Transfinite} reprints everything else in this collection except (again) “Heir Unapparent” and “The Second Solution” [Rull], which is reprinted in {FP} and {Transgalactic}.
  • Destination: Universe!. 1952 Pellegrini & Cudahy hc. Ten previously uncollected stories from 1943-50, six of which were published in Astounding: “Far Centaurus” (1944-01), “The Monster” vt “Resurrection” (1948-08), “Dormant” (1948-11 Startling), “Enchanted Village” vt “The Sands of Mars” (1950-07 Other Worlds), “A Can of Paint” (1944-09), “Defense” (1947 Avon Fantasy Reader, No. 4), “The Rulers” (1944-03), “Dear Pen Pal” vt “Letter from the Stars” (1949-Wi Arkham Sampler), “The Sound” [Rull] (1950-02), “The Search” (1943-01). 1953-03 Signet pb and 1964-03 Berkley pb drop van Vogt’s introduction. “Monsters” and “Enchanted Village” are reprinted in Monsters, the former also in {TBO} (which also reprints “Dear Pen Pal”) and the latter also in {FP}. All but “Defense” are also reprinted in {Transfinite}, leaving that one unique to this collection.
  • The Twisted Men. 1964-01 Ace double pb. Three previously uncollected novelettes from 1949-51, two of which were published in Super Science Stories: “The Twisted Men” vt “Rogue Ship” [Rogue] (1950-03), “The Star-Saint” (1951-03 Planet Stories), “The Earth Killers” (1949-04). “The Star-Saint” is reprinted in PI and “The Earth Killers” is reprinted in FOW but the only other appearance of “The Twisted Men” is in fixup form.
  • Monsters. 1965-02 Paperback Library pb. Four previously uncollected stories (though two had appeared earlier in fixup form) from 1949-50, three of which were published in Astounding, and four reprints (one of which had been cut from an edition of AB): “Not Only Dead Men” (1942-11), “Final Command” (1949-11), “War of Nerves” [Space Beagle] (1950-05 Other Worlds), “Concealment” [Mixed Men] (1943-09), “Enchanted Village” vt “The Sands of Mars” (DU), “The Sea Thing” (OOTU), “Resurrection” vt “The Monster” (DU), “Vault of the Beast” (AB). 1976-08 Zebra pb vt The Blal drops Forrest J. Ackerman’s intro, and doesn’t credit him as editor. Monsters is also sometimes known as Science Fiction Monsters, but this title is only found on the cover and not the spine or title page. “Final Command” and “War of Nerves” [Space Beagle] later appear in {Transfinite}, with the latter also appearing in both TBOs. “Concealment” [Mixed Men] later appears in {Transgalactic}. “Not Only Dead Men” is unique to this collection.
  • The Far-Out Worlds of A. E. van Vogt. 1968-10 Ace pb. Eleven previously uncollected stories from 1941-51 and 1963-66 and one reprint: “The Replicators” (1965-02 If), “The First Martian” vt “This Joe” (1951-08 Marvel), “The Purpose” (1945-05 Astounding), “The Cataaaaa” (1947-07 Fantasy Book), “Automaton” vt “Dear Automaton” (1950-09 Other Worlds), “Itself!” (1963-07 Gamma 1), “Process” (1950-12 F&SF), “Not the First” (1941-04 Astounding), “Fulfillment” (1951-11 New Tales of Space and Time), “Ship of Darkness” (1948-02 Fantasy Book), “The Ultra Man” (1966-05 Worlds of Tomorrow) and “The Earth Killers” (TM). 1974-01 Ace pb vt The Worlds of A. E. van Vogt adds one previously uncollected story (other than in its fixup) and two stories that had been collected after the original release of FOW: “The Storm” [Mixed Men] (1943-10 Astounding), “The Expendables” [Rogue] (M33), “The Reflected Men” (MTS). Later reprints from the original contents are: “The Cataaaaa” ({TBO}) and “The Replicators”, “The First Martian” vt “This Joe”, and “Fulfillment” (all {FP}). From the additional contents: “The Storm” [Mixed Men] and “The Expendables” [Rogue] (both {TBO}, the former also in Transgalactic), and “The Reflected Men” (FP). The other seven are unique to this collection.
  • The Proxy Intelligence and Other Mind Benders. 1971-01 Paperback Library pb. Five previously uncollected stories (including one which had appeared in fixup form) from 1940-49 and 1968 and one reprint. “The Proxy Intelligence” [Supermind] (1968-10 If), “The Problem Professor” aka “Project Spaceship” (1949-08 Thrilling Wonder), “Rebirth: Earth” vt “The Flight That Failed” as by A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull (1942-12 Astounding as by E. Mayne Hull), “The Gryb” [Rull] vt “Repetition” (1940-04 Astounding), “The Invisibility Gambit” vt “Abdication” as by A. E. van Vogt and E. Mayne Hull (1943-04 Astounding as by E. Mayne Hull), “The Star-Saint” (TM). 1976-05 Zebra pb vt The Gryb replaces “The Proxy Intelligence” with “Humans, Go Home!” (MTS). “The Proxy Intelligence” [Supermind] is a sequel to “Asylum” [Supermind] (AB) and is reprinted in both TBOs. The other stories first collected in this are also unique to it with “The Invisibility Gambit” vt “Abdication” being notable as the only Artur Blord story not fixed up into Planets for Sale.
  • M 33 in Andromeda. 1971-04 Paperback Library pb. Five previously uncollected stories (though all but one had appeared in fixups) from 1939-46 Astounding and 1963 and one reprint (which had been cut from an edition of AB): “Siege of the Unseen” vt “The Chronicler” vt “The Three Eyes of Evil” (1946-10), “Discord in Scarlet” [Space Beagle] (1939-12), “M 33 in Andromeda” [Space Beagle] (1943-08), “The Expendables” [Rogue] (1963-09 If), “Heir Unapparent” vt “Heir Apparent” (AB), “The Weapon Shop” [Weapon Shops] (1942-12). “Siege of the Unseen” had appeared as half of a 1959 Ace double but this was its first appearance in a collection. It was only reprinted in the all-reprint {3EE}. Other stories reprinted later are “Discord in Scarlet” [Rull] ({Transfinite}), “The Expendables” [Rogue] (the “Worlds” version of FOW and {TBO}), and “The Weapon Shop” [Weapon Shops] (also {TBO}). “M 33 in Andromeda” [Space Beagle] is unique.

Phase II

  • More Than Superhuman. 1971-05 Dell pb. Six previously uncollected (and recently written) stories from 1965-71: “Humans, Go Home!” (1969-09 Galaxy), “The Reflected Men” (1971-02 Galaxy), “All the Loving Androids” (original), “Laugh, Clone, Laugh” (1969 The Science Fiction Worlds of Forest J. Ackerman, with Forest J. Ackerman), “Research Alpha” [Supermind] (1965-07 If, with James H. Schmitz), “Him” (1969-01 Spaceway). “Humans, Go Home!” is reprinted in the Gryb version of PI and “The Reflected Men” is reprinted in the Worlds version of FOW and {FP}.
  • The Book of van Vogt. 1972-04 DAW pb. Seven previously uncollected stories (two from fixups) from 1947, 1952, and 1971-72, four of which are original: “The Timed Clock”, “The Confession”, “The Rat and the Snake” (1971-01/02 Witchcraft & Sorcery), “The Barbarian” [Atom] (1947-12 Astounding), “Ersatz Eternal”, “The Sound of Wild Laughter”, “Lost: Fifty Suns” [Mixed Men] (1952 The Mixed Men). 1979-09 DAW pb vt Lost: Fifty Suns. “The Sound of Wild Laughter” receives a sequel novel with The Secret Galactics. “The Barbarian” [Atom] is reprinted in {Transgalactic}. “Lost: Fifty Suns” [Mixed Men] was original material in its fixup but is broken out as an independent story for the first time.
  • The Best of A. E. van Vogt. 1974-05 Sphere (UK) pb (apparently beating the hardcover from Sidgwick & Jackson (UK) by six months). UK-only collection of four previously uncollected stories (three from fixups) from 1944-49 Astounding and 1966 and nine reprints: “Juggernaut” (1944-08), “Hand of the Gods” [Atom] (1946-12), “The Green Forest” [Rull] (1949-06), “Silkies in Space” [Silkies] (1966-05 If), “Vault of the Beast” (AB), “The Weapon Shop” [Weapon Shops] (M33), “The Storm” [Mixed Men] (Worlds), “The Cataaaaa” (FOW), “The Monster” vt “Resurrection” (DU), “Dear Pen Pal” vt “Letter from the Stars” (DU), “War of Nerves” [Space Beagle] (Monsters), “The Expendables” [Rogue] (M33), “The Proxy Intelligence” [Supermind] (PI). 1979-03 Sphere pb splits this into two volumes. Of the previously uncollected stories, “Hand of the Gods” reappears in {Transgalactic}.
  • The Best of A. E. van Vogt. 1976-07 Pocket pb. Bizarrely selected collection of six previously uncollected stories (three from fixups) from 1947-48 and 1964-74, two reprints, plus an intro, outro, and three essays by van Vogt, as well as an intro by Barry N. Malzberg: “Don’t Hold Your Breath” (1973-07 Saving Worlds), “All We Have on This Planet” (1974-10 Stopwatch), “War of Nerves” [Space Beagle] (Monsters), “The Rull” [Rull] (1948-05 Astounding), “Future Perfect” (1973-08 Vertex), “Home of the Gods” [Atom] (1947-04 Astounding), “Prologue to The Silkie” [Silkie] (1969 The Silkie), “The Proxy Intelligence” [Supermind] (PI). Of the previously uncollected stories, “Don’t Hold Your Breath”, “The Rull”, and “Future Perfect” were reprinted in {Transfinite} and “Home of the Gods” was reprinted in {Transgalactic}. The excerpt from The Silkie and “Don’t Hold Your Breath” (1973) are unique to this collection.
  • Pendulum. 1978-12 DAW pb. Contains seven previously uncollected stories (six original) from 1971 and 1978 and an article: “Pendulum”, “The Male Condition”, “Living with Jane”, “The First Rull”, “Footprint Farm”, “The Non-Aristotelian Detective”, “The Human Operators” (1971-01 F&SF with Harlan Ellison). All are unique to this collection with the allowance that “The Human Operators” had been collected in Ellison’s Partners in Wonder and “The First Rull” was added to a 1999 Orb edition of The War Against the Rull.

Redundant

  • The Three Eyes of Evil and Earth’s Last Fortress. 1973-06 Sidgwick & Jackson (title is reversed for the paperback edition). This UK-only volume reprints “Siege of the Unseen” vt “The Three Eyes of Evil” (M33) and “Masters of Time” vt “Earth’s Last Fortress” (MOT).
  • The Universe Maker and The Proxy Intelligence. 1976-08 Sidgwick & Jackson (second title dropped from the paperback edition). This UK-only volume prints The Universe Maker with “The Proxy Intelligence” [Supermind] (PI).

Posthumous (and largely redundant)

  • Futures Past: The Best Short Fiction of A. E. van Vogt. 1999-10 Tachyon hc (in a limited printing of 1,000 trade paperbacks and 126 hardcovers). One previously uncollected story (from a fixup) and seven reprints: “Co-operate–Or Else!” [Rull] (1942-04 Astounding), “Enchanted Village” (DU), “The Second Solution” [Rull] and “Vault of the Beast” (both AB), “The First Martian” vt “This Joe”, “Fulfillment”, and “The Replicators” (all FOW), and “The Reflected Men” (MTS). “Co-operate–Or Else!” appears again in {Transgalactic}.
  • Transfinite: The Essential A. E. van Vogt. 2003-04 NESFA hc. One previously uncollected story (from a fixup) and twenty-four reprints. This would be an omnibus of the story contents of four books (if the fixup nature of The Voyage of the Space Beagle is ignored) but for the substitution of five stories (two being cut from one book and one from the rest). It includes 7/9 of Away and Beyond (skipping “Heir Unapparent” and “The Second Solution”), 9/10 of Destination: Universe (skipping “Defense”), 3/4 of The Voyage of the Space Beagle (skipping “M 33 in Andromeda”), 1/2 of Masters of Time (skipping “The Changeling” and reprinting “Masters of Time” under the title “Recruiting Station”). The five replacments are: the Phase I stories “The Ghost” (OOTU), “Final Command” (Monsters) and “The Rull” [Rull] and the Phase II stories “Future Perfect” and “Don’t Hold Your Breath” (the last three all from TBO). Bizarrely, “Black Destroyer” [Space Beagle] (1939-07 Astounding) appears as an independent story in a van Vogt collection for the first time, though it of course appeared in its fixup and appeared independently in multiple essential anthologies such as Adventures in Time and Space, From Wells to Heinlein, and The Great Science Fiction Stories #1.
  • Transgalactic. 2006-10 Baen tp. Three previously uncollected stories (all from fixups) from 1945-46 Astounding and eight reprints (including a novel). This collects the magazine versions of material incorporated into the three fixups of The Mixed Men, the Ezwal subset of The War Against the Rull (“Co-operate–Or Else!” and “The Second Solution”), and Empire of the Atom, plus the latter’s serial sequel, The Wizard of Linn. See the books above for details. Of this material, “A Son Is Born” [Atom] (1946-05), “Child of the Gods” [Atom] (1946-08), and “The Mixed Men” [Mixed Men] (1945-01) are collected in this form for the first time. However, of this material, only “The Second Solution” [Rull] (AB) and “Concealment” [Mixed Men] (Monsters) had appeared in “Phase I” collections.

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Uncollected Stories

Despite all the above, some stories never made it into any van Vogt book, at least in their original forms (though all but one of the early fugitives did appear in the fixups or expansions detailed above). The following list excludes various excerpts, condensations, round-robins, etc., and only lists things that were, or were billed as, actual stories. (It also doesn’t repeat the several Blord stories credited to Hull which are fully detailed above in Planets for Sale.) If a story was reprinted in an anthology, that’s listed after its original publication. Only “Seesaw” was anthologized more than once and, for it, I just picked the anthology I think is best. Since van Vogt’s last collection in his lifetime was 1978, I classify the last few stories as “post-collection era” stories.

Phase I

  • “The Seesaw” [Weapon Shops] (1941-07 Astounding) The Great Science Fiction Stories #3, Asimov/Greenberg, eds.
  • “The Beast” [Beast] (1943-11 Astounding)
  • “Centaurus II” [Rogue] (1947-06 Astounding)
  • “The Weapon Shops of Isher” [Weapon Shops] (1949-02 Thrilling Wonder)
  • “The Shadow Men” [Universe Maker] (1950-01 Startling)
  • “Haunted Atoms” (1951-Sp 10 Story Fantasy.)

Phase II

  • “The Silkie” [Silkie] (1964-07 If) The If Reader of Science Fiction, Pohl, ed.
  • “Enemy of the Silkies” [Silkie] (1967-10 If)
  • “Death Talk” (1978 Pulsar 1, Hay, ed.; reprinted in 1981-12 Fantasy Book)
  • “Carthing” (1970-11 Quark/1, Delany/Hacker, eds.)

Post-Collection Era

  • “Identity” (1978 Chattacon SF Convention Booklet) The Survival of Freedom, Carr/Pournelle, eds.
  • “Femworld” [Renaissance] (^1979-06/07 Galaxy)
  • “The Dream of the Sorceress (1980-11 Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn, Aspirin, ed.)
  • “The Brain” (1985-Wi Weird Tales.)
  • “Prologue to Freedom” (1986-11 Worlds of If) Lamps on the Brow, Cahill, ed.

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