Thought-variant stories from Astounding in the early 1930's

[Extollager]

That sounds like a project/challenge. I imagine I could work it out and post it here

Please do! I can't wait to see it.

 

[Bick]

Please do! I can't wait to see it.

It's a bit of a task to find out which were 'thought-variant' stories or not - I'm finding out from the archive pdfs. I've not determined a full list yet, but the first year of the 'project' led to publication of the following 'thought-variant' feature stories:

Ancestral Voices - Nat Schachner (Dec 33)
Colossus - Donald Wandrei (Jan 34)
Rebirth - Thomas Calvert McClary (Feb 34) - I think it's a thought-variant, but it may only be a 'feature story', its not explicitly stated
Born of the Sun - Jack Williamson (Mar 34)
He From Procyon - Nat Schachner (Apr 34)
The Brain of Light - John Russell Fearn (May 34)
Sidewise in Time - Murray Leinster (Jun 34)
Before Earth Came - John Russell Fearn (Jul 34)
The Skylark of Valeron - Edward E. Smith (Aug 34)
The Living Equation - Nat Schachner (Sep 34)
Inflexure - Clyde Crane Campbell (Oct 34)
The Mole Pirate - Murray Leinster (Nov 34)
The Mightiest Machine (serial in 5 parts) - John W. Campbell, Jr ( Dec 34)

The most famous stories here are, I think Ancestral Voices, Colossus and Sidewise in Time. Leinster's story was one of the first parallel universe stories, and a huge influence on Asimov and his thinking (apparently).

 

[dask]

Cool! Many thanks. Finally, a true blueprint for my future. Well, it’ll keep me busy for a while anyway checking to see which of these I have.

 

[dask]

Anyone know if this is a safe site to download stories from?

Ancestral Voices

With the December 1933 issue of Astounding Stories, the editor Tremaine announced his new policy for stories of total originality and scope. He called them 'thought variants', and the first example was 'Ancestral Voices' by none other than Wonder Stories' leading writer Nathan Schachner. The...

www.fadedpage.com

 

[Bick]

Probably fine, but I don’t know for certain.

 

[Extollager]

Bick, that’s a great resource! I feel stoked to track down and read the ones I haven’t read. Btw, “Born of the Sun” is in Asimov’s Before the Golden Age anthology, which many people here at Chrons will have. It’s an entertaining, preposterous story I discuss in the article I posted earlier on this thread.

 

[BAYLOR]

Bick, that’s a great resource! I feel stoked to track down and read the ones I haven’t read. Btw, “Born of the Sun” is in Asimov’s Before the Golden Age anthology, which many people here at Chrons will have. It’s an entertaining, preposterous story I discuss in the article I posted earlier on this thread.

I have Before the Golden Age by Asimov and Ive read that Jack Willians story Before the Story. It does require a certain level of suspension of disbelief but I agree , a very entertaining story .

. The magazine Slipstream Adventures in Science Fiction issue #3 1976 did a comic book adaptation of Born of the Sun .

 

[Extollager]

Look, Bick & everyone, I volunteer to look up these stories & report back about anthology appearances. I'll plan to report back here with my findings before long. To make this information easy to access, I plan to post it as the first entry in a new thread.

 

[Bick]

Look, Bick & everyone, I volunteer to look up these stories & report back about anthology appearances. I'll plan to report back here with my findings before long. To make this information easy to access, I plan to post it as the first entry in a new thread.

Great!

 

[dask]

Probably fine, but I don’t know for certain.

I have a 7" tablet, unregistered with no personal information tucked away inside that I know of, so I downloaded the Mobi/Kindle version. It took just a few seconds and looks great. Here's a screenshot:

 

[dask]

Here’s the cover:

 

[Extollager]

Look, Bick & everyone, I volunteer to look up these stories & report back about anthology appearances. I'll plan to report back here with my findings before long. To make this information easy to access, I plan to post it as the first entry in a new thread.

I'm going to use the Contento index. This may be incomplete (out of date). Right off, it looks like Schachner's "Ancestral Voices" has never been reprinted in a book! Can that be? Here it is online:

The Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook of Ancestral Voices, by Nat Schachner. (fadedpage.com)

His "He from Procyon" doesn't seem to have had a book appearance, but is here:

The Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook of He From Procyon (fadedpage.com)

 

[Extollager]

Okay, go here for some information about reprints of "thought-variant" stories. A few seem never to have been reprinted.

The "Thought-Variant" Stories in ASTOUNDING, 1933-1934 | Science Fiction & Fantasy forums (sffchronicles.com)

I'm sorry that my title for the new thread was so close to this one's title -- apologies for any confusion. I wasn't paying attention.

 

[BAYLOR]

I'm going to use the Contento index. This may be incomplete (out of date). Right off, it looks like Schachner's "Ancestral Voices" has never been reprinted in a book! Can that be? Here it is online:

The Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook of Ancestral Voices, by Nat Schachner. (fadedpage.com)

His "He from Procyon" doesn't seem to have had a book appearance, but is here:

The Distributed Proofreaders Canada eBook of He From Procyon (fadedpage.com)

Interesting .

 

[Extollager]

Here is Bick's list, including the stories listed in his posting following this one, with a little information added about reprints of most of the stories.

 

[Bick]

The 'thought-variant stories published in 1935 were as follows:

The Ultimate Metal - Nat Schachner (Feb 35)
The Einstein Express - J. George Frederick (Apr 35; 2-part serial)
Earth's Mausoleum - John Russell Fearn (May 35)
The Son of Old Faithful - Raymond Z. Gallun (Jul 35)
The Galactic Circle - Jack Williamson (Aug 35)
Islands of the Sun - Jack Williamson (Sep 35; 2-part serial)

It's interesting to note that in 1935, thought-variant stories do not occur every month, and in some months (e.g. May) they were not the 'feature story', but were within the contents as a 'novel'. At other times, the thought-variant idea was very prominent at the start of the story, as in the Williamson serial in Sep-Oct:

 

[Extollager]

Oh, so there were more! I have added information about them to the document attached above.

Asimov's anthology Before the Golden Age reprints four of the thought-variant stories.

 

[Bick]

The thought-variant stories were becoming less frequent, and less prominent in the magazine in 1936:

White Adventure - Warner van Lorne (Apr 36)
The time Entity - Eando Binder (Oct 36)

 

[Bick]

Oh, so there were more!

Yes - I did note in my post of the 33-34 stories that this was all I had collated so far, and there were more to come.
I'm not sure there were more after Oct 36 though...

 

[Bick]

Yes - I did note in my post of the 33-34 stories that this was all I had collated so far, and there were more to come.
I'm not sure there were more after Oct 36 though...

Tell a lie - there was one further thought-variant story in '37:

The Great Thought - K. Raymond (Mar 37)

I'll collate the full list in one post for ease of reference...