Saturday 10 May 2014

The Uncollected Works of Poul Anderson by Sean M Brooks

Originally published on Poul Anderson Appreciation, Wed 23 April 2014.

It would be easy for a zealous fan of the works of Poul Anderson, such as myself, to boast of how complete a collection I have.  I could brag of how many hard cover first editions I have, including rarities.  BUT, when I compiled this list of works by Anderson which I DON'T have or have not read, then I see how little right I have for boasting.  Because, as anyone can see from reviewing this list, FAR too many of Poul Anderson's  essays and stories has not yet been republished or collected.  This list strengthens my conviction that we need a COMPLETE COLLECTED WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON if interested readers are going to be able to access even the most obscure of his essays and stories.

For this list I leaned heavily on the bibliography of the works of Poul Anderson compiled by Jean-Daniel Breque and included by him as an appendix to his French translation of a collection of Anderson's Time Patrol stories.  I own M. Breque many thanks for giving me a copy of his translation of those stories.  I have also found the listing of Anderson's works in the special Poul Anderson issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION for April 1971 to be very helpful.  I have not included (aside from a very few exceptions) in this compilation stories which has been collected in anthologies which I either have or can be easily found elsewhere.

One point which concerns me is how many of the stories I listed below were first published in now obscure and little known magazines which has long since ceased being printed.  Because I think it is possible all of the issues of some of these forgotten magazines might disappear--meaning that the Anderson stories they printed will be at risk of being permanently lost.

I drew upon the listing of Anderson's articles and essays found in the April 1971 issue of THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION for Section I of the list below.  However, that list is only good up till that year. Poul Anderson wrote other non fiction essays after that time as well, some of which, such as "Thud and Blunder," are important and can be found in collections like FANTASY.  In addition, it's possible Anderson wrote essays for magazines or newspapers later than the items listed in the April 1971 issue of F&SF which I have no knowledge of.

Moreover, the publication credits for the 1963 edition of Anderson's IS THERE LIFE ON OTHER WORLDS? states that part of Chapter 7 of that book was originally "Science and Superman, an Inquiry," which can be found listed in Section I below.  And part of Chapter 8 of the same book was originally "How Social is Science?," also listed below in Section I.  My point being that Poul Anderson sometimes revised or incorporated stories and essays for inclusion in other works.

While working on this article I was amazed yet again at how creative and prolific an author Poul Anderson was.  All by themselves, the 90 plus essays and stories I listed here would be considered a very respectable lifetime achievement for many writers.  Never mind the far larger number of better known stories and novels written by Anderson!  Of course, the reason for that is simple: Anderson had to sell as many stories, essays, and novels as possible if he was to make a living as a free lance writer.

It was maddening and frustrating to list so many unknown essays and stories written by Poul Anderson. For instance, what did Anderson write about in the article "Those Hairy Ancestors?  The Neanderthals or some other branch of the hominid family? And the very title of "Ashtaru the Terrible" is tantalizing!  And was "The Corpse in a Suit of Armor" another Trygve Yamamura mystery story?

To sum up, with a few exceptions (e.g., some of Anderson's stories for THE FLEET books) the tales I listed below are works I have not read.  It is humbling to see, despite my ardor in collecting the works of Poul Anderson, how MANY of these articles and stories I have not yet managed to find.  In addition, one reason I have compiled this list is to highlight for future editors striving to collect the works of Poul Anderson which of his lesser known articles and stories they should take pains in tracking down.  Other readers, of course, may well compile somewhat different lists.

I. Articles, Essays, Reviews
"The Einstein Rocket," DSF, Dec. 1952
"Those Hairy Ancestors," ASTOUNDING SCIENCE FICTION (hereafter cited as ASF), Nov. 1954
"Plausibility in SF," WRITERS' YEARBOOK, 1956
"Nice Girls on Mars," THE MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION (hereafter cited as F&SF), May 1956
"The Troublesome Dimensions," ASF, Nov 1956
"How Social Is Science?," SATURDAY REVIEW, 27 April 1957
"Science and Superman, an Inquiry," AMAZING, Nov. 1959
"The Velocity of Gravitation," JOURNAL OF THE INTERPLANETARY EXPLORATION SOCIETY, Dec, 1960
"The Helpful Friend of Mohammed Abdullah" [The Library Murder], in THE QUALITY OF MURDER, ed. Anthony Boucher, Dutton 1962
"Poetry, Science, and Fiction," AMAZING, Feb. 1965
"Life in Space," in ASTRONAUTICS FOR SCIENCE TEACHERS, ed. John Meiner, Wiley, 1965
Untitled Reply to Soviet Critics, F&SF, Oct. 1965
"In One More Generation," NATIONAL REVIEW, 30 Jan. 1968
Untitled book reviews, F&SF, April 1968
"Limiting Factor," IF, May 1968
Untitled memorial to Anthony Boucher, F&SF, August 1968
"Search for the Hunter," in ADVENTURES IN DISCOVERY, ed. Tom Purdom, Doubleday, 1969
"The Past That Never Was," NATIONAL REVIEW, 24 Feb. 1970
Introduction to FIRST STEP OUTWARD, ed. Robert Hoskins, Dell 2549, 1969
"Commentary" in MEN ON THE MOON, ed. Donald Wollheim, Ace 52470, 1969
"Editorial," ASF, Jan, 1972
"Science and Creation," ASF, Sept, 1973

II. Science Fiction and Fantasy

"A Matter of Relativity," ASF, September 1944
"Genius," ASF, December 1948
"Prophecy," ASF, May 1949
"Entity," in collaboration with John Gregen, ASF, June 1949
"The Perfect Weapon," ASF, February 1950
"Trespass," in collaboration with Gordon R. Dickson, FANTASTIC SERIES QUARTERLY, 1950
"The Long Return," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, Sep./Oct. 1950
"Witch of the Demon Seas," PLANET STORIES (hereafter cited as PS), January 1951
"The Acolytes," WORLDS BEYOND, February 1951
"World of the Mad," IMAGINATION, February 1951
"Incomplete Superman," FUTURE COMBINED WITH SCIENCE FICTION STORIES, March 1951
"Inside Earth," GALAXY, April 1951
"The Missionaries," OTHER WORLDS, June/July 1951
"The Virgin of Valkarion," PS, July 1951
"Swordsman of Lost Terra," PS, November 1951
"War-Maid of Mars," PS, May 1952
"Garden in the Void," GALAXY, May 1952
"Sentiment, Inc.", SPACE SCIENCE FICTION, February 1953
"The Green Thumb," SCIENCE FICTION QUARTERLY, February 1953
"Security," SPACE SCIENCE FICTION, February 1953
"Ashtaru the Terrible," FANTASY MAGAZINE, March 1953
"Courier of Chaos," FUTURE SCIENCE FICTION, March 1953
"Three Wishes," FANTASTIC, March/April 1953
"Rachaela," FANTASY FICTION, June 1953
"The Temple of Earth," ROCKET STORIES, July 1953
"Butch," in TIME TO COME, anthology ed. by August Derleth, 1954
"Contact Point," collaboration with Theodore Cogswell, IF, August 1954
"Elliptic Orbit," IF, December 1954
"Snowball," IF, May 1955
"Catalysis," IF, February 1956
"Security Risk," ASF, January 1957
"Survival Technique," collaboration with Kenneth Gray, F&SF, March 1957
"Life Cycle," F&SF, July 1957
"Mister Tiglath, TALES OF THE FRIGHTENED, August 1957
"The Peacemongers," F&SF, December 1957
"The Apprentice Wobbler," STAR SCIENCE FICTION, January 1958
"The Barrier Moment," ASF, renamed ANALOG, March 1960
"The Covenant,"  FANTASTIC, July 1960
"Goodbye, Atlantis," FANTASTIC, August 1961
"The Enemy," TORONTO STAR WEEKLY, October 28, 1961
"Third Stage," AMAZING, February 1962
"In the Island of Uffa," WEST BY ONE AND BY ONE, anthology pub. 1965
"High Treason," IMPULSE, March 1965
"A Gift From Centauri," BOY'S LIFE, December 1967
"The Inevitable Weapon," ANALOG, March 1968
"The Galloping Hessian," BOY'S LIFE, October 1969
"I Tell You, It's True," NOVA 2, ed. Harry Harrison (1972), and in CONFLICT (1983)
"Strength," collaboration with Mildred D. Downey, in THE MAGIC MAY RETURN (ed. Larry Niven,1982)
"Letter from Tomorrow," ANALOG, August 1987
"The Deserter," NEW DESTINIES 4, ed. Jim Baen (1988)
"The Only Bed to Lie In," THE FLEET, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1988)
"The Death Wish, THE MICROVERSE, anthology ed. Byron Preiss (1989)
"Origin," NEW DESTINIES 4, anthology ed. Jim Baen (1989)
"Statesmen," NEW DESTINIES 8, anthology ed. Jim Baen (1989)
"Dereliction," THE FLEET 4: SWORN ALLIES, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1990)
"Kinetic Kill," THE FLEET: CRISIS, ed. David Drake & Bill Fawcett (1991)
"Unnatural Enemy," THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR, anthology ed. Byron Preiss & Robert Silverberg (1992)
"Scarecrow," NEW LEGENDS, anthology ed. Greg Bear & Martin H. Greenberg (1995)
"Renascence," ANALOG, March 1995
"Inside Passage," THE WILLIAMSON EFFECT, anthology ed. Roger Zelazny (1996)
"Tyranny," FREE SPACE, anthology ed. Brad Linaweaver & Edward E. Kramer (1997)
"Consequences," NATURE, vol. 405, no. 6784, May 18, 2000
"The Bog Sword," THE FIRST HEROES, anthology ed. Harry Harrison & Noreen Doyle (2004)

III. Mysteries and Adventures

"The Corpse in a Suit of Armor," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, November 1956
"The Trader and the Viking," JACK LONDON'S ADVENTURE MAGAZINE, October 1958
"Pythagorean Romaji," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, December 1959
"Stab in the Back," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, March 1960
"The Gentle Way," THE SAINT DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, August 1960

16 comments:

  1. This article actually inspired me to create an ebook of ALL thirteen stories - from OCRs of magazines that I'd downloaded from the wonderful PulpScans site. I've just posted it on Mobilism, along with 'Wing Alak', 'Cappen Varra', the 'Old Phoenix' stories and an omnibus edition of 'The Last Viking'. I've a sneaking suspicion that you may be interested....
    Regards,
    Petomane

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  2. Petomane,
    Thank you. I have made sure Sean is aware of your comment.
    Paul.

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Petomane!

      I'm very glad you found this essay of mine to have been of use. I think you collected some of the Anderson stories I listed in my piece? Could you explain what "OCRS" stands for?

      Thanks! Sean

      Delete
  3. Hello Sean,

    You probably think that OCRS are uncultured Australians....Well, think again!
    It's actually just an abbreviation for 'Optical character recognition' whereby images are converted to workable text. There are certainly 4 of the missing stories in the 'Planet Stories' epub, and I'll shortly be posting a PDF on Mobilism of ALL of the magazine artwork, apart from 'Captive of the Centaurianess' - of which I couldn't find a scan.
    You may be able to find a lot of these missing stories if you look for the magazines on the PulpScans forum - that's where I found all the 'Planet Stories' scans. Highly recommended!

    Regards,
    Peter

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    Replies
    1. Hi, Paul!

      I'm flattered that someone as far away from Massachusetts as Australia was interested by at least one of my essays. And I don't in the least believe Australians to be uncultured! (Smiles)

      Thanks for explaining what "OCRS" means. And the tales written by Poul Anderson for PLANET STORIES? I've actually managed to read all of them except "Witch of the Demon Seas" and "War Maid of Mars." I included "Swordsman of Lost Terra" in my "Uncollected" list because I found and read that story in an anthology called, I think, BARBARIANS. A collection which itself is now probably very hard to find. I'll be checking to see if I still have it.

      Thanks for mentioning the "PulpScans" forum. I'll be soon trying to find it.

      Let me recommend to you Sandra Miesel's monograph AGAINST TIME'S ARROW: THE HIGH CRUSADE OF POUL ANDERSON (1978). It seems to be the only serious commentary in English of the works of Poul Andeson (including the essays she wrote for various edtions of Anderson's works). Needless to say I include as well the many notes and commentaries Dr. Shackley wrote about PA's works.

      A French fan of Poul Anderson named Jean-Daniel Breque actually learned English so he could Anderson's works in their original languange--and started translating many of them into French. He wrote a book discussing Anderson and his works called ORPHEE AUX ETOILES (2007). This, along with Miesel's essay, seems to be the only extensive, published commentaries on Anderson's works.

      Thanks! Sean

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  4. Peter,
    Hi. Would you be able to give us links to some of the sites/blogs etc that you are talking about?
    Thanks,
    Paul.

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  5. Google " mobilism sf ", click on the link for " Mobilism • View forum - Sci-Fi/Fantasy " and away you go. You'll be in paradise (no virgins, unfortunately) -with an amazing array of sf & fantasy. Seek and ye shall find a fair amount of Poul Anderson (including my humble efforts). I don't think you have to sign-in to download, but if you do, it's well worth it.
    PulpScans is trickier because you need to create a Yahoo account to enter the forum.
    Regards,
    Peter

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  6. If you can provide an email address, I 'll send you the PulpScans spreadsheet (889 KB) of all magazine scans to date.The spreadsheet gives the urls of all magazines available -copy the url and download the magazine. Simple. And they have practically every issue of Astounding SF!
    Regards,
    Peter

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  7. Peter,
    Thank you. I always feel lost when I go on a new site and do not know where to go next. My email is paulshackley@gmail.com.
    Paul.

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  8. To All Interested Readers,

    I would like to ask any who read this piece of mine if they can suggest for inclusion in this list any forgotten works of Poul Anderson, both non fiction and fiction. If I agree such a work is obscure enough, I would ask Dr. Shackley to include it in my article.

    Sean M. Brooks

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  9. Kaor, Paul!

    Recently, I had a thought and wondered if among my boxes and shelves of old science fiction magazines I could find some nuggets of Andersonian gold. To my surprise and delight I found three articles written by Poul Anderson!

    The first was his "Untitled Reply To Soviet Critics," found in the October issue of the MAGAZINE OF FANTASY AND SCIENCE FICTION, and already included in Part I of my list of Anderson's uncollected works. Could you include the following two articles at the very end of the same Part 1 of my list?

    "Editorial," ASF, Jan, 1972
    "Science and Creation," ASF, Sep, 1983

    The first article was partly a homage for the recently deceased John Campbell. The second a defense of the science of evolution.

    "ASF" means, of course, ANALOG SCIENCE FICTION. And I also found the first publication, by ANALOG, of PA's "The Comrade," from a 1988 issue. But since that was incorporated as part of THE BOAT OF A MILLION YEARS, it's not right to call it one of Anderson's lost or uncollected works (and does not need to be included in Part II of this list). And the same reason applies to Anderson's "Strangers" (ASF, Jan, 1988), to be found in ALL ONE UNIVERSE (1996).

    Sean

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  10. Kaor, Paul!

    I hope you will revise, if it's not too much trouble, the second sentence of my sixth paragraph like this: "All by themselves, the 90 plus essays and stories..."

    Sean

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  11. Darn! I meant to say I found Anderson's "Untitled Reply To Soviet Critics" in the October 1965 issue of F&SF amid my old SF magazines.

    Sean

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  12. Sean,
    I have edited the article on both blogs.
    Paul.

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    Replies
    1. "Science and Creation" is in a NESFA collection.

      Delete
    2. Kaor, Paul!

      Thanks for making the revisions I asked for! Darn, I should have checked my copy of Volume 2 of NESFA's THE COLLECTED SHORT WORKS OF POUL ANDERSON, for "Science and Creation." But I still think that article needed to be placed in this list.

      Sean

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