Anthopology 101: 41 Above the Rest: An Index to the Anthologies of Groff Conklin

By Bud Webster

Hipness, it seems to me, can be best defined as knowing something that other people don't. If this is true, then we bibliographers are amongst the Hippest; in large part, our time is spent in ferreting out bits of information that most people don't know or, to be painfully honest, would ever care to know.

One of the joys (one of the few, I should say there's certainly no financial profit to be made here) of bibliography is recognizing a need, and then sweating blood to fill it. Most of the time it begins as an attempt to put our own house in order Donald Day's seminal Index to the Science Fiction Magazines: 1926-1950 began that way , and then we gradually realize that a) there might just be others out there who could benefit from the information we've been compiling, and it behooves us to share it; and b) there has to be some way to get paid for all the work you put into it.

This index is a product of that simple philosophy, and is dedicated to everybody who ever said, "There's just got to be a better way to keep this stuff straight!"

Like most science fiction readers my age, I spent a lot of time in libraries, both school and public. I read everything I could with those funny little pictures on the spine (one was a rocket, the other an atom of an undetermined element). I worked my way through Lester del Rey's Winston juveniles, the Avalon series, and all the Andre Norton I could find. I even remember who my two favorite writers were in the second grade: Robert Heinlein and Milton Lesser.

I also dove head-first into the short-story collections (I didn't yet know that SF magazines existed): the Healy and McComas Adventures in Time and Space, Stong's The Other Worlds, Bleiler and Ditky's (and, later, Judith Merril's) Best SF of the Year, the wonderful, if oddly small-sized, Star series edited by Frederik Pohl…

And Groff Conklin's The Best of Science Fiction.

At the time I was eight or nine , I didn't always notice who wrote the stories I read, and, with a few exceptions, I didn't bother to remember from one time to the next which writer I'd liked best the last time, I simply read everything with a rocket ship or an atom on the spine, indiscriminately.

But I kept noticing that the stories I liked best, the ones I'd remember from one week to the next, the ones I thrust on my friends with the words, "You GOTTA read THIS one!", all seemed to come from the Conklin anthologies. So, I began pulling his books off the library shelves before I picked Bleiler's, or Pohl's, or the others, and when I found (joy of joys!) a dingy little shop near my school that sold ratty old paperbacks for a dime, Conklin's were the ones I looked for first.

In a note to me about Conklin, Jack Williamson said, "His anthologies... were landmarks, and I think they had a good deal to do with a wider acceptance of sf." Conklin certainly had an enormous effect on what I read, and thus, the way I read; later, that would have an equally enormous effect on the way I wrote my own science fiction.

But the effect was spread far more widely than to just one pudgy bookworm in the wilds of Roanoke, Virginia in 1961. The books I checked out with Conklin's name on the spines and his choices in the table of contents were already well-worn by youthful (and some not so youthful) hands, in many cases already having been rebound after only a few years, the jackets long since gone. On my own shelves today I have old, ragged copies of The Big Book of SF and SF Omnibus that were discarded and sold by my local library for under $1. I can hold one of those books in my hands and tell by the looseness of the binding, by the wear at the top and bottom of the spine, by the dog-eared pages and finger-marks on the cloth that they spent many, many years being lovingly (and wonderingly!) read by some old fart like me revisiting their youth, or by a young Turk discovering for the first time that George Lucas and Gene Roddenberry didn't invent science fiction.

Now, almost forty years later, when I'm in a used bookshop and see a Conklin title in readable condition, I buy it. If I already have it, there's always someone to give it to. In fact, as I write this, I'm looking at a stack of 22 Conklin anthologies I stumbled upon at a local bookshop. Out of the 22, there were six I didn't already have, and I'm sure the others will find a home with anyone interested in how great SF used to be.

In compiling this beast, I've read reviews, looked at web pages, and talked to long-time sf readers, fans, and pros over and over. When anthologies are discussed, certain names are always mentioned: Pohl, Merril, Bleiler and Dikty, Healy and McComas. Specific books by these worthy editors are singled out, as indeed they should be, and their relative merits discussed at length. But when Conklin's name comes up, they invariably nod and say, "Oh, yeah, anything by Groff Conklin."

I've never been disappointed in a Conklin anthology, and I doubt you will be either.

Edward Groff Conklin (whose first name was originally Aaron, according to his great-niece) was born September 6, 1904 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey. He attended both Dartmouth and Harvard, and graduated from Columbia University in 1927. Within three years, he had become the assistant manager of the Doubleday & Co. chain of bookstores in New York, where he remained until he left for Chicago in 1934 to be an assistant editor at the University of Chicago Press. He was there for two years.

For the remainder of his life, Conklin worked freelance as an editor (Robert M. McBride Co.; the Living for Young Homemakers magazine; American Heritage Publishing, Inc.), an information specialist (US Census Bureau; Federal Home Loan Bank Board; US Department of Commerce; National Cancer Institute), and as a writer and researcher (Office of Strategic Services; Scientific Advisory Board, N. W. Ayer and Son, an advertising agency; American Diabetes Assoc.). He was the president of a homebuilders' society in Northern Virginia during WWII, and was the senior writer for the US Senate Subcommittee on Wartime Health and Education after the war. In the early 1950s, he created and edited the Science Fiction Classics series for Grossett & Dunlap.

(It's interesting to speculate about Conklin's war-time work: as a researcher for the OSS, did he perhaps come into contact with the Heinlein/Asimov/de Camp group at the Philadelphia Naval Yards? And did that encounter lead to his post-war enthusiasm for science fiction? There's certainly nothing in his pre-war curriculum vitae to indicate he had any interest before 1947.

(Phil Klass, who writes as William Tenn, doesn't think so: "I doubt...that he knew any of the de Camp/Heinlein axis during the war, and I had the strong feeling during the forties that John Campbell had not had his acquaintance as yet. I may well be wrong, but I think he was simply a non-organizational fan before he began editing sf anthologies.")

Somewhere in there amongst all the other things he did, he wrote books, beginning in 1934. His first was How to Run a Rental Library. Over the next 25 years, he wrote books on subways, home repairs, home air conditioning, and the common cold; this last was in conjunction with Dr. Noah D. Fabricant, with whom he would co-edit both Great Science Fiction About Doctors and Great Detective Stories About Doctors for Colliers.

In 1934, he edited in collaboration with Burton Rascoe an anthology of stories from the magazine SMART SET (The Smart Set Anthology, Reynal & Hitchcock and reprinted in 1944 by Grayson as The Bachelor's Companion), and later co-edited a collection of stories from the NEW REPUBLIC (The New Republic Anthology: 1915-1935, Dodge 1936) with Bruce Bliven. Clearly, his reading wasn't limited to just rockets and atoms; he read voraciously and widely.

But 1946, the year after the war, was the turning point. The Best of Science Fiction, some 200 pages shorter but seven stories richer than rival editors Healy and McComas's Adventures in Time and Space (Random House, same year), was published by Crown Books. Although both books drew heavily from the pages of ASTOUNDING, with Adventures... skimming the cream, the Conklin title not only came out first, but managed to reprint four Heinlein stories - two as by Heinlein, and two more as by Anson MacDonald - to Healy and McComas's three. Both books quickly became library mainstays, and helped define science fiction for years to come.

From then until his death in 1968, Conklin edited and published more than three dozen SF anthologies, two single-author collections[i], and a mystery anthology. He reprinted close to 700 stories by almost 300 authors. He pioneered the theme anthology so much beloved by editors and publishers today.

And, at least as important as all that, he gave a second life to stories that might otherwise have been forgotten. For example, Murray Leinster's "Skag with the Queer Head", a story that really got to me when I was a kid, was reprinted for the first and only time since its initial publication in the August, 1951 issue of MARVEL SCIENCE FICTION in Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation five years later. Other, lesser-known writers were (at least for a time) rescued from undeserved obscurity by his editorial hand: Hal Draper, Lion Miller, Richard Gehman, Will Stanton, Paul Ash. Better-known at the time, but largely forgotten now, were Miles J. Breuer, Robert F. Young, Alan Nourse, S. Fowler Wright, and so on. Certainly not an endless list, but one filled with worthwhile authors.

This is not to say that all he did was reprint older stories; although the vast majority of his books were reprint, he did publish a handful of originals: Chan Davis's "Last Year's Grave Undug" and John R. Pierce's "John Sze's Future", both in Great Science Fiction by Scientists; S. Fowler Wright's "The Better Choice", in Science Fiction Adventures in Mutation; Alan Bloch's "Men Are Different" in Science Fiction Thinking Machines; Edgar Pangborn's "Pick-Up for Olympus" in The Supernatural Reader; and the title story by Theodore Sturgeon in The Graveyard Reader.

In addition, Isaac Asimov's "Robbie" (originally published as "Strange Play-fellow" in the September 1940 SUPER SCIENCE) was revised for its inclusion in Science Fiction Thinking Machines, although for what specific reason and to what extent I don't know. Fletcher Pratt's "The Roger Bacon Formula" in The Big Book of Science Fiction was likewise revised.

About the Wright story, Conklin says, "I will never forget the delightful surprise of finding the present short-short [story] one morning last year in my mail - an unsolicited story written specifically for this collection by one of my favorite science-fantasy authors." This is confirmed by the S. Fowler Wright page at www.sfw.org.

Horace Chandler Davis merits several chapters, if not a book, to himself; however, this isn't the place to do it. Nonetheless, his story is a fascinating one and should be told in detail. "Last Year's Grave Undug" wasn't written especially for Conklin, but had never been published, possibly because of his political beliefs during a period in which they were extremely unpopular. Davis stopped writing altogether in 1958, and two years later was sentenced to six months in prison for contempt of Congress; he had refused to answer any and all questions put to him by the House Un-American Activities Committee. This would be his last published story until "Hexamination" appeared in Harry Harrison's Nova 1 in 1970.

It's easy to see who his favorites were, too. Theodore Sturgeon was, by far, the writer he enjoyed the most, if his editorial choices are indicative of his personal taste. Of the 41 anthologies covered by this index, 23 had stories by Sturgeon, and Conklin assembled Sturgeon's A Way Home for Funk & Wagnell in 1955, as well as writing the introduction for the 1953 Abelard collection, E Pluribus Unicorn (Sturgeon, writing years after the fact, mentioned in passing that he and Conklin had once discussed producing their own sf/fantasy magazine; how serious this might have been is a mystery at this remove). Murray Leinster was also well-represented with 19 stories, as was Eric Frank Russell with 15.

Conklin wasn't parochial when it came to source material, though, reprinting Poe (as well as editing a collection of his stories for Scholastic Books that I recall with fondness), Bierce, Kipling, Forster, and other pre-Gernsback authors of the fantastic.

(What's just as fascinating to me are the writers he didn't reprint: Robert Silverberg, Harlan Ellison, Christopher Anvil, Lloyd Biggle, Harry Harrison, Daniel Galouye, Clark Ashton Smith, Dean McLaughlin. All from the right period after all, he reprinted Niven and Dick , but hardly all cut from the same bolt. It's interesting, albeit academic, to speculate about why these authors are absent.)

In 1950, World Editions, an Italian publisher, launched GALAXY SCIENCE FICTION. Conklin wrote a book review column for GALAXY that ran in every issue for the first five years. That year also saw the first of the Grosset & Dunlap Science Fiction Classics series, which Conklin conceived as an inexpensive alternative to the hard-to-find first editions (often issued in tiny print runs by small presses), and which were published with the original cover art. At least one of these, Fury by Henry Kuttner (another Conklin favorite), was the true first edition.

While at GALAXY, Conklin was a member of the Hydra club with Fred Pohl, Phil Klass, and a number of other well-known SF writers in and around the New York area. Fellow Hydra Lawrence Janifer remembers him as a "short, solidly-built fellow with a reputation for kindness."

Around this same time, Conklin reprinted Hal Clement's first story, "Proof", in Possible Worlds of Science Fiction. Clement recalls, "A story I don't suppose he'd mind having people hear now is that he forgot to sign the check for it. I, too, failed to notice the omission, as did the teller at the bank when I deposited it. I got it back in the mail a couple of days later, and Groff apologized and sent a properly executed one."

Pohl recalls: "I don't think it is unfair to mention that Groff's career was not a great financial success. His early sf anthologies were real cash cows he paid the authors only a flat half-cent a word for the use of their stories and kept all the rather substantial royalties himself, as was the practice of the time but he seldom, maybe never, did that well again."

I suspect that the editing of the majority of his anthologies was as much a labor of love as reading them was (or, to be honest, as compiling this index has been).

His output continued throughout the 1950s and '60s, producing an average of two collections a year until his death from emphysema on July 19, 1968 at the age of 63. His work outlived him, though; Collier's The Supernatural Reader was in print until at least 1978, and there was an audio-book edition of 50 Short Science Fiction Tales in 1998.

But that output did change over the years; the hardcover "bricks" he produced up through the late '50s disappeared and were replaced by thinner paperbacks. In a letter printed in the February 1965 issue of Walt Willis's fanzine, HYPHEN, he bewailed the situation: "I am having the grim experience of tearing through the last ten years of the sf magazines and cannibalizing them for the stories I liked when I read them - making up a budget for future anthologies. A most heart-rending experience. Back in 1954 both Galaxy & ASF used occasionally to have issues in which every story was Class A or B: today, try and find a single Class A story! How are the mighty fallen, and the great laid low!"

Phil Klass recalls: "I found him honest and prompt in his payments, which is more than I could say of most anthologists. I also found him and his anthologies consummately literate, again more that I would say of most of his colleagues in the field. One of his anthologies, The Treasury of Science Fiction, was the first such to be reviewed in THE NEW YORKER which singled out for mention my story 'Child's Play.' This was a very big deal at the time."

There have been more prolific anthologists - Roger Elwood is said to have produced 80 in the years between 1964 and 1978, and Martin Harry Greenberg could be credited with more than a thousand - there have been others more literarily oriented, more radical, or more experimental, but I don't think that any anthologist from any period in the history of the genre has had more impact on the Golden Age of Science Fiction (12 years, in case you've forgotten) than Groff Conklin.

For the purposes of publication in the NYRSF, I've prepared an abstraction of the full index (to be published in 2002 by Aniara Press); all the information is there, but the format has been abbreviated. What follows is a chronological checklist of the anthologies, with a listing of the stories in each arranged by author. The final version of the index will include a listing by book title cross-indexed by author, as well as several appendices. Here, I've listed only the first printings for the sake of brevity.

This abbreviated index addresses US publications only and doesn't include the three single-author collections mentioned above; the full index will include as many foreign listings as I can track down, as well as a CD-ROM containing cover scans.

I'm indebted to those who helped me out with this index: Damon Knight, who gave me advice and wished the project well; Jon Hansen, who painstakingly transcribed the data on Conklin in Contemporary Authors for me; Fred Pohl, who gave me new avenues to investigate and supplied the introduction to the full index; and Jack Williamson, Phil Klass, Hal Clement and Larry Janifer, who shared their thoughts about the value of Conklin's work.

Further appreciation and credit is due to the FictionMags mailing list, the reliable and unending Source of All Knowledge, who have set as their goal the indexing of all periodicals that published fiction from the gaslight era to the present; an unenviable, Herculean, but undeniably important task. In particular, heartfelt thanks go to Chums Denny Lien at the University of Minnesota Libraries and Paul Brazier, both of whom went above and beyond to brave dusty shelves and boxes to send me needed information on foreign editions, and Phil Stephensen-Payne who corrected many errors and filled in data I was missing in many of the listings. Huzzah, Chums!

In addition, credit is due those who came before me: Donald H. Tuck, whose The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Advent 1974) formed the germ of the data herein; John Clute and Peter Nicholls, whose Encyclopedia of Science Fiction (St. Martin's Press 1993) proved a valuable resource; W. R. Cole's A Checklist of S.F. Anthologies (Cole 1964) and William Contento's Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections and Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections 1977-1983 (G.K. Hall 1978 & 1984) were absolutly essential, and showed me what I missed. George Willick's Spacelight website, which covers a large number of writers and editors in the field, also gave me material I wouldn't otherwise have had.

I'm also indebted to those who wrote me and shared their memories of spending hour after hour poring over the pages of wonder and magic. Thank you all.

I hope the reader will find this index of use, and I heartily invite any and all additions and corrections. A bibliographer's work is never really done, you know.

2. Treasury of Science Fiction - Crown, $3.50 (Polton Cross was one of the many pseudonyms of John Russell Fearn)

Anderson, Poul and F. N. Waldrop—Tomorrow's Children
Carter, Paul—Last Objective, The
Cartmill, Cleve—With Flaming Swords
Clarke, Arthur C.—Loophole
Clarke, Arthur C.—Rescue Party
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Cross, Polton—Wings Across the Cosmos
 (pseud. of John Russell Fearn)
Davis, Chan—Nightmare, The
de Camp, L.—Living Fossil
del Rey, Lester—Dark Mission
Friend, Oscar J.—Of Jovian Build
Grendon, Edward—Figure, The
Heard, H. F.—Great Fog, The
Heinlein, Robert—It's Great to be Back!
Jameson, Malcolm—Children of the Betsy B.
Jones, Raymond F.—Person from Porlock, The
Latham, Philip—N Day
 (pseud. of Robert S. Richardson)
Leinster, Murray—Ethical Equations, The
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Miller, P. Schuyler—Chrysalis, The
Moore, C. L.—No Woman Born
O'Donnell, Lawrence—Vintage Season
 (pseud. of C. L. Moore)
Padgett, Lewis—Mimsy Were the Borogroves
 (pseud. of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
Pearson, Martin—Embassy, The
 (pseud. of Donald A. Wollheim)
Piper, H. Beam—Time and Time Again
Sharp, D. D.—Eternal Man, The
Simak, Clifford D.—Tools
Tenn, William—Child's Play
 (pseud. of Philip Klass)
van Vogt, A. E.—Juggernaut
Walton, Harry—Housing Shortage
Williams, Robert Moore—Flight of the Dawn Star
Williamson, Jack—With Folded Hands

3. Big Book of Science Fiction, The - Crown, $3.50 ("Peter Phillips" was something of a mystery to me, as well as a few of those who came before me; according to both the Perri and G. K. Hall editions of the Day, he was possibly a Ziff-Davis house name. This may have been true for one or two of the earlier stories credited to the name, but Peter Phillips, a British journalist, does exist.)

Alexander, W.—One Leg Too Many
Bradbury, Ray—Forever and the Earth
Breuer, Miles J.—Man With the Strange Head, The
Brown, Fredric—Arena
Colladay, Morrison—Planetoid of Doom, The
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
de Courcy, John—Rat Race
del Rey, Lester—Wings of Night, The
Doar, Graham—Outer Limit, The
Gold, H. L.—Matter of Form, A
Kaempffert, Waldemar—Diminishing Draft, The
Knight, Damon—Not With a Bang
Kornbluth, C. M.—Only Thing We Learn, The
Leiber, Fritz—Sanity
Leinster, Murray—Nobody Saw the Ship
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Loomis, Noel—Long Dawn, The
MacDonald, John D.—Miniature, The
MacLean, Katherine—Defense Mechanism
McMorrow, Thomas—Mr. Murphy of New York
Moore, Ward—Peacebringer
Osborne, Robertson—Contact, Incorporated
Padgett, Lewis—Margin for Error
 (pseud. of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
Peyton, Green—Ship That Turned, The
Phillips, Peter—Manna
 (pseud. of Howard Browne?)
Pratt, Fletcher—Roger Bacon Formula, The
Reynolds, Mack—Isolationist
Russell, Eric Frank—Dear Devil
Shelton, Jerry—Culture
Sherred, T. L.—E For Effort
Simak, Clifford D.—Desertion
Sturgeon, Theodore—Mewhu's Jet
Verne, Jules—In the Year 2889
Williams, Ralph—Emergency Landing

4. Science Fiction Galaxy - Permabooks P67, 35¢ (Not a paperback as such, although it's the same size as one; Permabooks did a number of titles as little hardbacks with laminated covers. I used to find these all the time, but not any more. It's depressing.)

Bradbury, Ray—King of the Grey
Breuer, Miles J.—Appendix and the Spectacles, The
Clarke, Arthur C.—Fires Within, The
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Forster, E. M.—Machine Stops, The
Hilliard, A. Rowley—Death from the Stars
Hodgson, William Hope—Derelict, The
Kipling, Rudyard—As Easy as A.B C.
Leinster, Murray—Life Work of Professor Muntz, The
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
MacDonald, John D.—Child is Crying, A
Manning, Laurence—Living Galaxy, The
St. Clair, Margaret—Quis Custodiet...?
Sturgeon, Theodore—Hurkle is a Happy Beast, The

5. In the Grip of Terror - Permabooks P117, 25¢ (Maurice Level published a book in 1911 titled The Grip of Fear; this was almost certainly Conklin's inspiration for the title of the anthology)

Benson, E. F.—Horror Horn, The
Bierce, Ambrose—Resumed Identity, The
Blas, W.—Revenge
Bradbury, Ray—Illustrated Man, The
Collins, Wilkie—Terribly Strange
Crane, Stephen—Upturned Face, The
de Maupassant, Guy—Diary of a Madman, The
Gold, H. L.—Problem in Murder, A
Harvey, William Fryer—Tool, The
Jacobs, W. W.—Well, The
Jenkins, Will F.—Night Drive
Level, Maurice—Last Kiss, The
Lovecraft, H. P.—In the Vault
Munro, H. H.—Easter Egg, the
Owen, Walter—Cross of Carl, The
Poe, Edgar Allen—Pit and the Pendulum, The
Sayers, Dorothy—Incredible
St. Clair, Margaret—Hathor's Pets
Steele, Wilbur—Bubbles
Sturgeon, Theodore—Bianca's Hands
Wandrei, Howard—Macklin's Little Friend
Wells, H. G.—Moth, The

6. Possible Worlds of Science Fiction - Vanguard, $2.95
Anderson, Poul—Helping Hand, The
Asimov, Isaac—Not Final!
Berryman, John—Space Rating
Bond, Nelson—Day We Celebrate, The
Bradbury, Ray—Asleep in Armageddon
Clarke, Arthur C.—Walk in the Sun, A
Clement, Hal—Proof
 (pseud. of Harry C. Stubbs)
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Fyfe, H. B.—In Value Deceived
Gallun, Raymond Z.—Operation Pumice
Heinlein, Robert—Black Pits of Luna
James, D. L.—Moon of Delerium
Jameson, Malcolm—Lilies of Life
Leinster, Murray—Propagandist
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Long, Frank Belknap—Cones
MacLean, Katherine—Contagion
Merwin, Sam Jr.—Exit Line
Schmitz, James H.—Second Night of Summer
Simak, Clifford D.—Limiting Factor
St. Clair, Margaret—Pillows, The
Sturgeon, Theodore—Completely
van Vogt, A. E.—Enchanted Village
Vance, Jack—Hard Luck Diggings

7. Invaders of Earth - Vanguard, $3.75

Boucher, Anthony—Greatest Tertian, The
 (pseud. of William Anthony Parker White)
Brown, Fredric—Waveries, The
Clingerman, Mildred—Minister Without Portfolio
Grendon, Edward—Crisis
Grinnell, David—Top Secret
Grunert, Karl—Enemies in Space
Koch, Howard—Invasion From Mars
Lang, Allen K.—Eel by the Tail, An
Leinster, Murray—This Star Shall Be Free
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Lesser, Milton—Pen Pal
MacLean, Katherine—Pictures Don't Lie
Norton, Henry—Man in the Moon, The
Pangborn, Edgar—Angel's Egg
Reynolds, Mack—Discord Makers, The
Russell, Eric Frank—Impulse
St. Clair, Margaret—Child of the Void
Sturgeon, Theodore—Tiny and the Monster
Temple, William F.—Date to Remember, A
Tenn, William—"Will You Walk a Little Faster?"
van Vogt, A. E.—Not Only Dead Men
Williams, Robert Moore—Castaway
Wollheim, Donald—Storm Warning

8. Omnibus of Science Fiction - Crown, $3.50 (B. F. Ruby is a Fletcher Pratt pseudonym; it's not the first time Pratt collaborated with himself)

Abernathy, Robert—Heritage
Asimov, Isaac—Homo Sol
Blish, James—Box, The
Boucher, Anthony—Star Dummy, The
 (pseud. of William Anthony Parker White)
Bradbury, Ray—Kaleidoscope
Brown, Fredric—Weapon, The
Clarke, Arthur C.—History Lesson
Clifton, Mark—Conqueror, The
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
de Camp, L.—Hyperpilosity
del Rey, Lester—Instinct
Deutsch, A. J.—Subway Named Mobius, A
Ernst, Paul—Nothing Happens on the Moon
Fyfe, H. B.—Manners of the Age
Geier, Chester S.—Environment
Gray, Will H.—Bees from Borneo, The
Griffith, Ann—Zeritsky's Law
Grinnell, David—Rag Thing, The
Guinn, Wyman—Trigger Tide
Hilton-Young, W.—Choice, The
Jones, Raymond F.—Stone and a Spear, A
Keller, David H.—Doorbell, The
Knight, Damon—Catch That Martian
Leimert, John—John Thomas's Cube
Leinster, Murray—Plague
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
London, Jack—Scarlet Plague, The
Lovecraft, H. P.—Color Out of Space, The
MacDonald, John D.—Spectator Sport
MacLean, Katherine—And Be Merry
Matheson, Richard—Shipshape Home
Maurois, Andre—War Against the Moon
Nourse, Alan E.—High Threshold
Padgett, Lewis—What You Need
 (pseud. of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
Phillips, Peter—Counter Charm
Pratt, Fletcher and B. F. Ruby—Thing in the Woods, The
Robin, Ralph—Pleasant Dreams
Rocklynne, Ross—Backfire
Russell, Eric Frank—Test Piece
Sturgeon, Theodore—Never
Tenn, William—Alexander the Bait
 (pseud. of Philip Klass)
van Vogt, A. E.—Recruiting Station
Vance, Jack—Winner Lose All
Williams, Ralph—Head Hunters, The
Winterbotham, Russ—Fourth Dynasty, The

9. Crossroads in Time - Permabook P254, 35¢ (W. Norbert is mathemetician and cyberneticist Norbert Weiner; "The Brain" is also reprinted in Great Science Fiction by Scientists under his real name)

Bixby, Jerome—Zen
Cahn, Lee—Secret
Clement, Hal—Assumption
 (pseud. of Harry C. Stubbs)
Fyfe, H. B.—Let There Be Light
Kelleam, J. E.—Eagles Gather, The
Leiber, Fritz—Mutant's Brother, The
Leinster, Murray—Queen's Astrologer, The
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
M'Intosh, J. T.—Made in U.S.A.
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
MacFayden, A. Jr.—Time Decelerator
MacLean, Katherine—Feedback
Miller, P. Schuyler—Cave, The
Norbert, W.—Brain, The
 (pseud. of Norbert Weiner)
Oliver, Chad—Technical Advisor
Simak, Clifford D.—Courtesy
Smith, George O.—Vocation
St. Clair, Margaret—Thirsty God
Sturgeon, Theodore—Derm Fool
Wallace, F. L.—Student Body

10. Science Fiction Adventures in Dimension - Vanguard, $2.95

Asimov, Isaac—What If...
Bade, William L.—Ambition
Bradbury, Ray—Night Meeting
Breuer, Miles J.—Gostak and the Doshes
Cartur, Peter—Mist, The
Chandler, A. Bertram—Castaway
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
del Rey, Lester—...And It Comes Out Here
Gold, H. L.—Perfect Murder
Gross, Marion—Good Provider, The
Hull, E. Mayne—Flight That Failed, The
Jones, Raymond F.—Pete Can Fix It
Keene, Day—"What So Proudly We Hail..."
Leiber, Fritz—Business of Killing
Leinster, Murray—Middle of the Week After Next, The
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Long, Amelia R.—Reverse Phylogeny
Long, Frank Belknap—To Follow
MacDonald, John D.—Ring Around the Redhead
Nourse, Alan E.—Tiger by the Tail
Padgett, Lewis—Endowment Policy
 (pseud. of Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore)
Sell, William—Other Tracks
Sturgeon, Theodore—Yesterday was Monday
Temple, William F.—Way of Escape
Young, Roger Flint—Suburban Frontiers

11. Supernatural Reader (with Lucy Conklin)- Lippincott, $3.95

Bierce, Ambrose—Moonlit Road, The
Bradbury, Ray—Tombing Day, The
Collier, John—Bird of Prey
Coppard, Alfred E.—Piffingcap
Counselman, Mary—Tree's Wife, The
Crawford, F. Marion—For the Blood Is Life
Dunsany, Lord—Thirteen at Table
Fisher, Philip—Lights
Forster, E. M.—Curate's Friend, The
Grendon, Stephen—Mrs. Manifold
 (pseud. of August Derleth)
Hart, J. H.—Traitor, The
Heard, H. F.—Swap, The
Hughes, Richard—Stranger, The
James, M. R.—Lost Hearts
Jenkins, Will F.—Devil's Henchman
Keller, David H.—Thing in the Cellar
Kneale, Nigel—Minuke
Lawlor, Harold—Silver Highway, The
Munro, H. H.—Gabriel-Ernest
Nesbit, E.—Pavillion, The
O'Brien, Fitz-James—Lost Room, The
Pangborn, Edgar—Pick-Up for Olympus
Paul, Herb—Angel with Purple Hair, The
Rosmond, Babette—Are You Rundown, Tired -
Sinclair, May—Nature of the Evidence, The
Sturgeon, Theodore—Shottle Bop
Tanner, Charles R.—Angus MacAuliffe

17. Graveyard Reader - Ballantine 257, 35¢

Beaumont, Charles—Free Dirt
Bierce, Ambrose—Bottomless Grave, The
Bradbury, Ray—Screaming Woman, The
Collier, John—Special Delivery
Counselman, Mary—Night Court
Dahl, Roald—Skin
Hughes, Roy—Cart, The
Kuttner, Henry—Graveyard Rats, The
Lovecraft, H. P.—Outsider, The
O'Brien, Fitz-James—Child That Loved a Grave, The
Sturgeon, Theodore—Graveyard Reader, The
West, Wallace—Listen, Children, Listen

18. Br-r-r! - Avon T-289, 35¢

Asimov, Isaac and Frederik Pohl—Legal Rites
Beaumont, Charles—Nursery Rhyme
Blackwood, Algernon—Egyptian Hornet, The
Bradbury, Ray—Handler, The
Dahl, Roald—Sound Machine, The
Gold, H. L.—Warm, Dark Places
Jenkins, Will F.—Doomsday Deferred
Keller, David H.—Worm, The
Seabright, Idris—White Goddess
 (pseud. of Margaret St. Clair)
Sturgeon, Theodore—It

19. Four for the Future - Pyramid G-434, 35¢

Anderson, Poul—Enough Rope
Kuttner, Henry—Children's Hour, The
Russell, Eric Frank—Plus X
Sturgeon, Theodore—Claustrophile, The

20. 13 Great Stories of Science Fiction - Gold Medal s997, 35¢ (This may very well be the most common Conklin title, along with #25, and I've read it over and over throughout the years. This is the one I'm most likely to hand to someone who's new to the classic stuff - I've certainly given away more copies than I've ever sold.)

Anderson, Poul—Light, The
Budrys, Algis—War is Over, The
Clarke, Arthur C.—Silence, Please!
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Edmondson, G. C.—Technological Retreat
Gehman, Richard—Machine, The
Guinn, Wyman—Volpa
Knight, Damon—Analogues, The
Miller, Lion—Available Data on the Worp Reaction
Morrison, William—Shipping Clerk
 (pseud. of Joseph Samachson)
Nelson, Alan—Soap Opera
Powers, William T.—Allegory
Sturgeon, Theodore—Skills of Xanadu, The
Wyndham, John—Compassion Circuit
 (pseud. of John Benyon Harris)

21. Six Great Short Science Fiction Novels - Dell C111, 50¢ (Not to be confused with Six Great Short Novels of Science Fiction, as if you didn't already know that.)

Asimov, Isaac—Galley Slave
Budrys, Algis—Chain Reaction
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Knight, Damon—Rule Golden
MacLean, Katherine—Incommunicado
Merril, Judith—Project Nursemaid
Simak, Clifford D.—Final Gentleman

22. Great Science Fiction by Scientists - Collier AS218, 95¢ (See Crossroads in Time for a note about Norbert Weiner)

Asimov, Isaac—What If...
Bell, Eric Temple—Ultimate Catalyst, The
Breuer, Miles J.—Gostak and the Doshes
Clarke, Arthur C.—Summertime on Icarus
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Cooper, Ralph S.—Neutrino Bomb, The
Davis, Chan—Last Year's Grave
Haldane, J. B. S.—Goldmakers, The
Huxley, Julian—Tissue Culture
Ley, Willy—Martian Adventure, A
McConnell, James—Learning Theory
Oliver, Chad—Mother of Necessity
Pierce, John R.—John Sze's Future
Richardson, Robert—Kid Anderson
Ridenour, Louis N.—Pilot Lights of the Apocalypse
Szilard, Leo—Report on Grand Central Terminal
Wiener, Norbert—Brain, The

23. Twisted - Belmont L92-535, 50¢ (One of the harder-to-find of the paperbacks, and well worth tracking down)

Bierce, Ambrose—Holy Terror, A
Bradbury, Ray—Playground, The
Crane, Stephen—Upturned Face, The
de Maupassant, Guy—Diary of a Madman, The
Grendon, Stephen—Mrs. Manifold
 (pseud. of August Derleth)
Jenkins, Will F.—Night Drive
Keller, David H.—Thing in the Cellar, The
Langelaan, George—Other Hand, The
Lovecraft, H. P.—Shunned House, The
Miller, Walter M.—Song of Marya, The
Poe, Edgar Allen—Tell-Tale Heart, The
Russell, Eric Frank—Impulse
St. Clair, Margaret—Brenda
Stuart, William W.—Little Man Who Wasn't Quite, The
Sturgeon, Theodore—World Well Lost, The

24. Worlds of When - Pyramid F-733, 40¢

Clarke, Arthur C.—Death and the Senator
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Leiber, Fritz—Bullet With His Name
Oliver, Chad—Transfusion
Reynolds, Mack—Farmer
St. Clair, Margaret—Rations of Tantalus

25. 12 Great Classics of Science Fiction - Gold Medal d1366, 50¢ (Probably the first Conklin anthology I ever read in paperback, and I've read it over and over. Not a bad story in the batch, although you can say that of practically every Conklin book. The Smith bowled me over at the age of 11, and this was my first exposure to Sheckley. I still think that the Young is his best work, but I'm a sucker for sentiment)

Albee, Edward—Top, The
Anderson, Poul—My Object All Sublime
Bone, J. F.—On the Fourth Planet
Brown, Fredric—Earthmen Bearing Gifts
Budrys, Algis—Due Process
Chandler, A. Bertram—Cage, The
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Henderson, Zenna—Things
McIntosh, J. T.—Immortality...For Some
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
Sheckley, Robert—Human Man's Burden
Smith, Cordwainer—Ballad of Lost C'Mell
 (pseud. of Paul Linebarger)
Stuart, William W.—Star-Crossed Lover
Young, Robert F.—Thirty Days Had September

26. 17 x Infinity - Dell 7746, 50¢ (Conklin had this thing for using numbers in his titles. Makes perfect sense when you think about it, since it tells you right up front how many stories in the book. More than a dozen of his anthologies have numbers in their titles)

Alpert, Hollis—Simian Problem, The
Asimov, Isaac—Strikebreaker
Bradbury, Ray—Come Into My Cellar
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Draper, Hal—Ms Fnd in a Lbry
Fast, Howard—Cato the Martian
Felsen, Henry—Spaceman Cometh, The
Forster, E. M.—Machine Stops, The
Goggin, Richard—Frances Harkins
Gold, Herbert—Day They Got Boston, The
Herbert, Frank—A-W-F Unlimited
Kipling, Rudyard—As Easy as A.B.C.
Kipling, Rudyard—MacDonough's Song
Nelson, Alan—Silenzia
Pohl, Frederik—What to Do Until the Analyst Comes
Seabright, Idris—Short in the Chest
 (pseud. of Margaret St. Clair)
Smith, Evelyn E.—Last of the Spode
Sturgeon, Theodore—Never
Tenn, William—Brooklyn Project
 (pseud. of Philip Klass)

27. 50 Short Science Fiction Tales (with Asimov)- Collier AS516, 95¢ (Although I don't know how the editing chores were split between Conklin and Asimov, I suspect that Conklin did the initial pick and Asimov approved his choices. Asimov went on to do several more anthologies of short-shorts in collaboration with Martin Greenberg. And in case you're counting, there are, in fact, 52 stories - the Andersons' contributions are poems.)

Anderson, Karen—Six Haiku
Anderson, Poul—Ballade of an Artificial Satellite
Asimov, Isaac—Fun They Had, The
Asimov, Isaac—Introduction
Bloch, Alan—Men Are Different
Boucher, Anthony—Ambassadors, The
 (pseud. of William Anthony Parker White)
Brown, Fredric—Weapon, The
Caravan, T. P.—Random Sample
Cartmill, Cleve—Oscar
Cartur, Peter—Mist, The
Causey, J.—Teething Ring
Clarke, Arthur C.—Haunted Spacesuit, The
Clingerman, Mildred—Stair Trick
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Dee, Roger—Unwelcome Tenant
 (pseud. of Roger D. Aycock)
Feldman, Arthur—Mathematicians, The
Finney, Jack—Third Level, The
Friedman, Stuart—Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful!
Grendon, Edward—Figure, The
Grinnell, David—Rag Thing, The
 (pseud. of Donald A. Wollheim)
Gross, Marion—Good Provider, The
Heinlein, Robert—Columbus Was a Dope
Hernhuter, Albert—Texas Week
Hickey, H. B.—Hilda
 (pseud. of Herb Livingstone)
Hilton-Young, W.—Choice, The
Knight, Damon—Not With a Bang
Kornbluth, C. M.—Altar at Midnight, The
Leiber, Fritz—Bad Day for Sales, A
Lewis, Jack—Who's Cribbing?
MacDonald, John D.—Spectator Sport
Manhattan, Avro—Cricket Ball, The
Marks, Winston K.—Double-Take
McKnight, J. P.—Prolog
Miller, Lion—Available Data on the Worp Reaction
Nelson, Alan—Narapoia
Nourse, Alan E.—Tiger by the Tail
Phillips, Peter—Counter Charm
 (pseud. of ?)
Porges, Arthur—Fly, The
Reynolds, Mack—Business, As Usual, The
Robinson, Frank M.—Two Weeks in August
Robles, Edward G.—See?
Russell, Eric Frank—Appointment at Noon
Schmitz, James H.—We Don't Want Any
Schoenfeld, Howard—Built Down
Seabright, Idris—Egg a Month From All Over, An
 (pseud. of Margaret St. Clair)
Sheckley, Robert—Perfect Woman, The
Sheldon, Walt—Hunters, The
Smith, Evelyn E.—Martian and the Magician, The
Stanton, Will—Barney
Sturgeon, Theodore—Talent
Tenn, William—Project Hush
 (pseud. of Philip Klass)
van Vogt, A. E.—Great Judge
Williams, Ralph—Emergency Landing
Wright, S. Fowler—Obviously Suicide

28. Great Science Fiction about Doctors (with Fabricant) - Collier AS518, 95¢ (From co-writing a book about the common cold to co-editing an anthology of doctor stories isn't too much of a stretch, I guess. Another terrific collection, with all the best evil doctors represented. Plenty of range in this, from Poe and Doyle to Nourse.)

Breuer, Miles J.—Man Without an Appetite, The
Clarke, Arthur C.—Out of the Cradle, Endlessly Orbiting
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Dance, Clifton Jr.—Brothers, The
Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan—Great Keinplatz Experiment
Fink, David H.—Compound B
Hawthorne, Nathaniel—Rappaccini's Daughter
Keller, David H.—Psychophonic
Kornbluth, C. M.—Little Black Bag, The
Leinster, Murray—Ribbon in the Sky
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Marks, Winston K.—Mate in Two Moves
Morrison, William—Bedside Manner
Nelson, Alan—Shopdropper, The
Nourse, Alan E.—Family Resemblance
Poe, Edgar Allen—Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar, The
Porges, Arthur—Emergency
Shango, J. R.—Matter of Ethics, A
Wallace, F. L.—Bolden's Pets
Winter, J. A.—Expedition Mercy

29. Great Stories of Space Travel - Tempo T39, 50¢ (Several classics here, from Knight's amazing evocation of truly alien lifeforms the first such I'd experienced to Russell's comic masterpiece)

Anderson, Poul—Helping Hand, The
Asimov, Isaac—Blind Alley
Bixby, Jerome—Holes Around Mars, The
Bradbury, Ray—Kaleidoscope
Clarke, Arthur C.—Walk in the Dark, A
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
del Rey, Lester—Wings of Night, The
Knight, Damon—Cabin Boy
Leinster, Murray—Propagandist
 (pseud. of Will Jenkins)
Russell, Eric Frank—Allamagoosa
van Vogt, A. E.—Far Centaurus
Vance, Jack—I'll Build Your Dream Castle

30. Human and Other Beings (with DeGraeff, pseud. of Albert Paul Blaustein) - Collier AS567, 95¢ (Blaustein was a law professor who dabbled in things literary; he also worked on several of Basil Davenport's projects. The Tenn is perhaps my favorite story by that author)

Banks, Raymond E.—Double Dome
Brackett, Leigh—All the Colors of the Rainbow
Bradbury, Ray—Other Foot, The
Bradbury, Ray—Way in the Middle of the Air
Brown, Fredric and Mack Reynolds—Dark Interlude
Cogswell, Theodore—Big Stink, The
Conklin, Groff—Science Fiction
Elliott, George P.—NRACP, The
McIntosh, J. T.—Made in U.S.A.
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
Pohl, Frederik—My Lady
Pohl, Frederik and C. M. Kornbluth—World of Myrion Flowers, The
Russell, Eric Frank—Test Piece
Sheckley, Robert—Holdout
Smith, Evelyn E.—Vilbar Party, The
Tenn, William—Down Among the Dead Men
 (pseud. of Philip Klass)
Wilson, Richard—Honor
Wilson, Richard—Love

31. Dimension 4 - Pyramid F-973, 40¢

Cartmill, Cleve—Someday We'll Find You
Conklin, Groff—Introductions
MacDonald, John D.—Trojan Horse Laugh
Sturgeon, Theodore—Won't You Walk?
Tubb, E. C.—Sense of Proportion

32. Five-Odd - Pyramid R-1056, 50¢

Amis, Kingsley—Something Strange
Asimov, Isaac—Dead Past, The
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
McIntosh, J. T.—Unit
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
Schmitz, James H.—Gone Fishing
Wallace, F. L.—Big Ancestor

40. Elsewhere and Elsewhen - Berkley S1561, 75¢ (Again, the Smith blew me away; the Westlake was my first experience with him.)

Anderson, Poul—Turning Point
Clifton, Mark—How Allied
Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Lang, Allen K.—World in a Bottle
McIntosh, J. T.—Wrong World, The
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
Richmond, Walt & Leigh—Shortstack
Schmitz, James H.—Trouble Tide
Shaara, Michael—Book, The
Smith, Cordwainer—Think Blue, Count Two
 (pseud. of Paul Linebarger)
Westlake, Donald—Earthman's Burden, The

41. Seven Trips through Time and Space - Gold Medal R1924, 60¢ (The last original Conklin title, and the end of an era. Within a decade, the reprint anthology would be going the way of the dinosaur, the original anthology would have peaked, and the Conklin books would be slowly dropping out of print so that libraries couldn't replace them. There would be reprints of The Big Book of SF and The Best of SF in 1978 and 1980, but these would be published as "instant remainders")

Conklin, Groff—Introduction
Herbert, Frank—Tactful Saboteur, The
MacKenzie, J. B.—Overproof
McIntosh, J. T.—Poor Planet
 (pseud. of James MacGregor)
Neville, Kris—Shamar's War
Niven, Larry—Flatlander
Piper, H. Beam—Ministry of Disturbance
Smith, Cordwainer—Crime and the Glory of Commander Suzdak, The
 (pseud. of Paul Linebarger)