Gardner Dozois' first anthology was A Day in the Life in 1972, inspired by his experience as a slush-pile reader and a desire to show the world SF stories done right. Then followed Another World in 1977, the same year Dozois began his first best-of-the-year series; perhaps aimed at younger readers, the book ends with a "Reader's Guide to SF" with 10 pages of text, recommending anthologies, critical works, and magazines -- anticipating the detailed annual reviews in his later best-of-the-year series -- and 20 pages of recommended book titles.

Six large trade paperbacks for St. Martin's Griffin came at the turn of the century. Contents of all these are arranged chronologically (with only one story pre-dating 1950), and the "Good Stuff" pair are essentially one long anthology split into two volumes. These books feature long introductions to the stories, longer even than those in his best-of-year anthologies, often summarizing the author's entire career and essential works.

A final volume, in hardcover, focuses on the cultural war between religion and superstition on the one hand, science and rationality on the other, presenting SF as "one of the few places in modern letters" where the battle "is openly discussed and debated."

Authors most often reprinted in this group: Cordwainer Smith (6), then Poul Anderson, Robert Silverberg, James Tiptree, Jr., and Roger Zelazny (5 each).