Thursday, October 14, 2010

Paperback 363: Fantasy & Science Fiction (Oct. 1957)

Paperback 363: The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October, 1957

Includes stories by: Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Lewis Carroll, L. Sprague de Camp, Jane Roberts, Anthony Boucher, Poul Anderson, H.P. Lovecraft, etc.

Cover artist: Ed Emshwiller

Yours for: $20

F&SFOct57.EMSH

Best things about this cover:
  • ... featuring the controversial story, "Anorexic Chicken Whores of The Mogron Valley!"
  • Monster designs on this are Fabulous. Emshwiller is a cover art hero.
  • Trying to understand, from an evolutionary standpoint, why the bird (background) should require an oxygen helmet while everyone else apparently easily breathes the miasma of peach atmosphere. Also wondering why giant deformed Gumby monster should have to brush his teeth.

F&SFOct57bc.Bkclub

Best things about this back cover:
  • People were apparently Really excited about satellites in the late '50s.
  • We're not really comfortable using slang, so ... we'll just put "top-drawer" in quotations, so you won't think you're actually supposed to store the books in the top drawer of your dresser.
  • "Handsome, permanent bindings," to prevent annoying fall-apart.

Page 123~ (from "Full Pack (Hokas Wild)" by Poul Anderson & Gordon R. Dickson)

He was not a bad felino-centauroid at heart.

Can't believe that line is buried at the back of a F&SF Magazine. Should be the first line of some epic space opera.

~RP

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter]

3 comments:

DemetriosX said...

It would take me too long to dig out my Leiber collection and I'm not even sure if I have The Big Trek in any of my books, but the story involves aliens from all over the galaxy "walking to the stars". So the reason the bird thing in the background needs a helmet and the anorexic chicken doesn't is that they're from entirely different planets. But yeah, Emshwiller was a freaking genius. And yet the cover is still very 50s.

The book club ad is interesting, too. Five anthologies, the Project Blue Book report, an Asimov novel (one of his best), a pre-Dune Herbert, that satellite book. Given that this is the October 1957 issue, this ad was designed, printed, and released before Sputnik. I can't find out anything about the book, though. It's not a title I recognize and it's impossible to Google.

What an awesome issue. Leiber, Matheson, Sprague de Camp, and the Anderson/Dickson collaboration didn't even rate mention on the cover! Great line, though. And it was just a throwaway in a short story.

sc said...

Try the author Erik Bergaust for Satellite!

Anonymous said...

Wait... Lewis Carroll? I'm quite curious what Lewis Carroll story this magazine/book club decided to re-print, and why.