The H-Bombs Fell. And Then? 1940s-early 1960s

[pambaddeley]

Yes I would've mentioned James Blish's 2 books, Black Easter, about the run up to nuclear war albeit with the assistance of black magic and demonology, and the follow up, The Day after Judgement, covering the period immediately afterwards, but of course those date from late 60s and early 70s.I agree they are downbeat.

 

[Tom Hering]

Lynn A. Venable's short story Time Enough At Last (1953), which was filmed under the same title for The Twilight Zone, Episode 8 (1959), starring Burgess Meredith as Henry Bemis. (The script was Rod Serling's favorite of all the teleplays he wrote for TTZ.) The story can be found in The Twilight Zone: The Original Stories (1985) edited by Greenberg, Matheson, and Waugh.

 

[Extollager]

Tom Hering, I just saw "Time Enough at Last" again after some years a few days ago and found it quite a bit grimmer than I'd remembered. Bemis gloating over having time to read without being bugged by people, and then (haw haw) breaking his glasses, so that we readers can grin sardonically at the easy irony -- that was more or less what I thought I remembered. Seeing it again I noticed, for one thing, the high quality of the production values. It had more of an element of horror than I'd remembered. I don't think I've read the story, but it's available online:

The Project Gutenberg eBook of Time Enough at Last, by Lynn Venable

 

[Tom Hering]

TTZ did a few other after-the-bomb stories, but I don't think any of them fit within your time frame.

 

[Extollager]

Thanks -- yes, I'd like to keep this subforum focused as indicated above:

This thread is intended for discussions of fictions from the 1940s through the early 1960s that deal with scenarios immediately, or soon, after the bombs have fallen. That cataclysm is taken as a given for the story; now, what happens next?

Baylor mentioned Shute's On the Beach, and that would be a good example of the genre.

These would be stories imagined as being in the near future relative to the author's own time.

Some of the stories in the anthology Beyond Armageddon sound like they could apply. This anthology, with an introduction by Walter M. Miller Jr. that readers don't like, doesn't seem to get a lot of favorable comment on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0803283156/?tag=brite-21

 

[Tom Hering]

Thanks -- yes, I'd like to keep this subforum focused as indicated above ...

Wel, ha ha, I'll go way off topic and mention that I just happen to be reading Jeffrey D. Sachs' To Move The World, which is about the Peace Campaign that JFK waged during the last year of his presidency (1963). Through successful negotiations with Khrushchev and our European allies, expertly wielded political influence at home, and the passing of the Partial Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, Kennedy changed the feeling in the world that nuclear war was inevitable. It still felt all-too-possible, but peace also felt like a possibility for the first time since the Cold War began. Fascinating history. Recommended.

 

[Extollager]

No, thanks for the suggestion, Tom.

 

[Frost Giant]

I think the novel The Last Ship (1988) would qualify.

 

[Extollager]

No, thanks for the suggestion, Tom.

Meaning -- Yes, this conversation is supposed to be about works of fiction, but No, don't worry about it -- your recommendation was interesting! Thanks.

 

[thepaladin]

There's 1959's Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank and also 1949's Earth Abides by George R. Stewart.

 

[bwrynn]

Final Blackout 1948 L. Ron Hubbard

The book would be 1948; the Astounding serialization was 1940 or 1941 I think.