"More Good Reading in Science Fiction"--short list by Damon Knight

[Extollager]

I picked up a copy of Damon Knight's 1965 anthology aimed at the school market, Beyond Tomorrow (boy, do I remember this book) and noted his brief bibliography at the end.

What do you think of his choices, as of 1965, for young readers getting started in sf? What would you remove, if any? What would you add? He wanted a short list.

Asimov -- The Martian Way and Other Stories
Bradbury -- The Martian Chronicles
Clarke -- Childhood's End, The Deep Range
Heinlein -- The Man Who Sold the Moon
Knight himself -- A Century of Science Fiction, A Century of Great Short Science Fiction
Kuttner -- A Gnome There Was
Nourse -- Tiger by the Tail
Simak -- City
Stuart -- Who Goes There?
van Vogt -- The Weapon Makers, The Weapon Shops of Isher

All of these authors, except Knight himself, have stories in Beyond Tomorrow (which also has a story by Kate Wilhelm).

 

[Vince W]

I'm surprised there are two by van Vogt there. I thought Knight didn't really like van Vogt's writing. Or am I thinking of someone else?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

An interesting list, and very "Golden Age" for 1965. Many of them seem to be story collections rather than novels.

The only one I would omit would be van Vogt, since I find his stuff darn near unreadable. That probably says more about me than it does about him.

I might extend it a bit into the 1950's. Lots of choices. "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Leiber might be a good one for this age group. Kornbluth might be a bit dark for these readers (except for his comedies), but "The Little Black Bag" might be OK. I'd like to include the early Alfred Bester staory "Adam and No Eve" and the early Philip K. Dick story "The Preserving Machine." Just about anything by Zenna Henderson; maybe "The Anything Box" instead of a People story.

 

[Bick]

It's a slightly strange list for me. Some I haven't read, so can't write them off, but I'm surprised by the inclusion of The Stuart, the choice of Asimov, the van Vogt's, the Heinlein (not the one that most people suggest).
My short list for classic SF books, as of 1965 might be more along these lines:

Asimov -- The Caves of Steel, Foundation
Bradbury -- The Martian Chronicles
Aldiss -- Hothouse
Clarke -- Childhood's End
Heinlein -- Starman Jones, Double Star
Huxley -- Brave New World
Dick -- Time out of Joint
Bester -- The Stars My Destination
Pohl & Kornbluth -- The Space Merchants
Simak -- Way Station
van Vogt -- Voyage of the Space Beagle
Wells -- War of the Worlds

 

[J-Sun]

I'm surprised there are two by van Vogt there. I thought Knight didn't really like van Vogt's writing. Or am I thinking of someone else?

Nope, you've got it. Surprised me, too. The specific book he's most famous for (unjustly) trashing was Worlds of Null-A and that's not recommended here, but I gathered he didn't care for van Vogt at all.

An interesting list, and very "Golden Age" for 1965. Many of them seem to be story collections rather than novels.

Good point. I noticed the collection-heaviness myself (and like it) but you're also right that it's older stuff. I could definitely understand cutting it off a way back to allow for historical settling and avoiding momentary overratings - at least 1960, if this was 1965 - but more 50s could very reasonably be prominent here.

What do you think of his choices, as of 1965, for young readers getting started in sf? What would you remove, if any? What would you add? He wanted a short list.

Asimov -- The Martian Way and Other Stories
Bradbury -- The Martian Chronicles
Clarke -- Childhood's End, The Deep Range
Heinlein -- The Man Who Sold the Moon
Knight himself -- A Century of Science Fiction, A Century of Great Short Science Fiction
Kuttner -- A Gnome There Was
Nourse -- Tiger by the Tail
Simak -- City
Stuart -- Who Goes There?
van Vogt -- The Weapon Makers, The Weapon Shops of Isher

Even given the comments above, I don't see much to object to. I've never read Nourse and don't really feel too terribly lacking about it. I'm not a big fan of Norton so far, but it would make room for her. If I have to switch one out to get one in, though, I'd switch out the Nourse for Clement's Mission of Gravity even before the Norton. There's some light/soft SF and some reasonably rigorous stuff, too, but I'd want an example of harder SF on there to cover the bases. I agree with Bick that I'd be tempted to replace the Asimov with The Caves of Steel. (I'd want all the Foundation stories if any of them but that was three volumes). Also would replace the Heinlein with a juvenile novel - it seems like that omission is the weirdest of Knight's choices. (And, again, I'd want all the Future History stories, rather than a particular volume.) Also like Bick's Space Merchants choice - never too early to start teaching the necessary cynicism and paranoia. You could debate whether Bradbury should be represented as he was or with Fahrenheit 451. I know that was one of the few books I was assigned as a kid that I actually enjoyed. But then I also followed up with The Martian Chronicles myself (unless we were assigned both, which I doubt) and enjoyed it, too. As far as anthologies, especially if we're going to be Golden Age-heavy, it should obviously be Adventures in Time and Space or one of the big Crown Conklins rather than the okay-but-sketchy-looking Knight but I'm not surprised he couldn't help himself there.

I mean, my list, if drawn from scratch, would be different, but I write that down to personal idiosyncrasies. Knight's is a decent list and those tweaks above cover all the things I'd really want to change that I think are also reasonably disinterested.

 

[Extollager]

Aldiss -- Hothouse

In a list for youngsters?

 

[dask]

Perhaps a good starting point would be the three THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAMEs. That way you wouldn't be stuck in any era for too long and you'd have a really good selection. Without checking I'm fairly certain some of the novels listed by Knight are cobbled together out of shorter works anyway so these three volumes could be a great place to start.

 

[Bick]

In a list for youngsters?

I don't see why not - a lot of it is fantastical in an Alice in Wonderland kind of way - the tummy-belly men, and talking dolphins and whatnot. It can be read on different levels. There certainly isn't anything horrific or 'adult' in it, in the sense of it being explicit in adult themes (sex, violence, etc).

 

[psikeyhackr]

This is what I find really curious from way back when:

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sce.3730430106/abstract

For me science fiction made science more interesting than my teachers did. Now the SF is associated with Fantasy so much it seems stupid.

Nourse got me started in SF

Star Surgeon (1959) by Alan E. Nourse
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1598180657/?tag=brite-21
http://manybooks.net/titles/noursea1849218492-8.html
http://librivox.org/star-surgeon-by-alan-edward-nourse/
http://www.sffaudio.com/?p=1299

But there is hardly any mention of him these days. To me he was always better than Philip K. Dick.

But the title Blade Runner came from Nourse. LOL

psik

 

[Extollager]

Nourse got me started in SF....But there is hardly any mention of him these days.

I wonder why that is. I have hardly read him. Maybe someone should start a thread on the writer and his stories.

 

[hitmouse]

Its not a bad list really, when one considers that it aimed at school age kids (probably a male audience.)
Apart from the Nourse and Stuart, who I know nothing about, and the Kuttner which has passed me by, I read and enjoyed all the others, mainly when I was about the intended age. I really liked Heinlein's future history short stories, which are a bit neglected. The Martian Chronicles I found strange and wonderful. Not the best van Vogt (for me, back in the day, that was The Empire of the Atom, and The Book of Ptath) but still.
SF short stories were always a treat for me as a teeneager.
My all time favourite anthology as a kid was the Harry Harrison edited Blast Off (1969) which contains a number of classics:

• 13 · Sunjammer · Arthur C. Clarke · nv Boys’ Life Mar ’64
• 37 · The Thing Under the Glacier · Brian W. Aldiss · ss The Daily Express Science Annual #2 ’63
• 51 · Tricky Tonnage · Malcolm Jameson · ss Astounding Dec ’44
• 68 · Hi Diddle Diddle! · Robert Silverberg · nv Astounding Feb ’59
• 97 · Rock Pilot · Harry Harrison · ss Fleetway Boy’s Annual, 1965
• 107 · A Pail of Air · Fritz Leiber · ss Galaxy Dec ’51
• 124 · The Howling Bounders [Magnus Ridolph] · Jack Vance · nv Startling Stories Mar ’49
• 148 · Moon Wreck · William F. Temple · ss Boy’s Own Paper Nov ’53
• 161 · Heavy Planet [as by Lee Gregor; with Frederik Pohl] · Milton A. Rothman · ss Astounding Aug ’39
• 174 · Keyhole · Murray Leinster · ss Thrilling Wonder Stories Dec ’51
• 194 · The Wall Around the World · Theodore R. Cogswell · nv Beyond Fantasy Fiction Sep ’53
• 226 · Someday · Isaac Asimov · ss Infinity Science Fiction Aug ’56