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Author: Samuel R. Delany

Changes in Genre Evaluations: Stanley G. Weinbaum

Changes in Genre Evaluations: Stanley G. Weinbaum

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The Collected Science Fiction & Fantasy of Stanley G, Weinbaum, in four volumes:
Interplanetary Odysseys, Other Earths, The Black Heart, and Strange Genius (Leonaur, April 20006)

Isaac Asimov felt that Stanley G. Weinbaum (4 April 1902 — 19 Dec 1935) deserved to name an entire era in science fiction. The writer died at 33 of throat cancer — though how he got it no one can guess.

These four books which I got because, at least when I was young, titles like “The Black Flame” intrigued me and I’d certainly enjoyed stories like “A Martian Odyssey.” Today it makes one wonder what the rest of the genre was like, or whether his popularity was simply the personal preference of a very brilliant reader and writer in our genre.

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A Wonderful Picture of a Far-flung Community of Writers: Quark, edited by Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker

A Wonderful Picture of a Far-flung Community of Writers: Quark, edited by Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker

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The 4-volume Quark anthology series, edited by Samuel R. Delany and Marilyn Hacker
(Paperback Library, 1970-71). Covers by Russell FitzGerald, Ira Cohen, Roger Penney, and Martin Last

These four volumes of Quark came out in 1970-71. The publisher killed the Quark enterprise after a year mainly because they weren’t selling, but also because of a really ill-thought-out review that Ed Bryant, who had a story in the first issue, wrote about the journal, in which he praised Marilyn and me, but went on and on about what a schlock publisher Paperback Library was.

Ed eventually submitted a novel to Paperback Library, and I happened to be in the office just after it came in. Cathy, our editor showed me his cover letter and read me her rejection note. His letter began, “You probably never heard of me, but I am an SF writer and…” Her answer back started off:

Dear Mr. Bryant,

You sell yourself short. I’m very much aware of who you are. What I don’t understand is why you hope to be published by a publisher you consider…”

and a), b), c) and d) she quoted back to him all the scurrilous things he had written about Paperback Library in his review. I felt sorry for Ed. He’d been my student at Clarion a few years before. But Ed’s was the review that made the publisher, Hy Steerman, decide that he couldn’t win for losing, and scuttled the paperback journal after the fourth issue.

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