By the mid-1940s sufficient material had been published in the SF magazines, primarily in John W. Campbell's Astounding, to support the compilation of large hardcover anthologies of reprinted science fiction stories. While not the first one published, by far the most sigificant was this volume by editors Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas for one of the most respected publishers of the time. It became the definitive anthology of "golden age" SF, and was the highest-ranking anthology on polls of best SF books in 1949, 1952, and 1956, and still ranked third in a 1998 poll. Only three of the stories in the book are not from Astounding.

Healy only did a couple later anthologies, but one was signficant: New Tales of Space and Time in 1951, one of the earliest SF anthologies of original stories. McComas went on to co-found and -edit The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1949.

This book has had several later editions, some cut slightly and others in paperback including only selections. The full volume was republished in 1957 by Modern Library, under altered title Famous Science Fiction Stories: Adventures in Time and Space; and then in 1990 under the original title by the Science Fiction Book Club.

The images show a cover scan of the 1946 first edition, and a photo of the 1957 Modern Library edition.