Frederik Pohl : Star Science Fiction


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Frederik Pohl's Star Science Fiction was the first series of original anthologies, debuting in 1953 from Ballantine Books, with a first volume that included stories by C.M. Kornbluth, Fritz Leiber, Clifford D. Simak, Ray Bradbury, Issac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke ("The Nine Billion Names of God"). Three volumes, plus an interstitial volume of Short Novels, were published both in hardcover and paperback in 1953 and 1954; after a lapse, a single issue of Star Science Fiction Magazine and three further anthologies published in paperback only appeared in 1958 and 1959.

(The photo shows a first edition of Short Novels within a uniform set of November 1972 paperback reprints of the six Stars with wrap-around cover art by John Berkey.)

The first Star Science Fiction Stories was among the earliest titles published by Ballantine Books, created in 1953 by Ian and Betty Ballantine. Among Ian Ballantine's innovations in his new company was simultaneous hardcover/paperback publication of many of his titles (not all of them SF), and this series of SF anthologies distinguished from the competition by containing original, not reprint stories. Pohl, an active agent for many prominent SF authors at the time (and an author himself; The Space Merchants was another early Ballantine title), was in a perfect position to edit the series.

Early volumes published classic stories by Isaac Asimov, Alfred Bester, Jerome Bixby ("It's a Good Life," basis for the famous Twilight Zone episode), Ray Bradbury, Lester del Rey, Fritz Leiber, and others. The later volumes, a bit thinner, included notable stories by C.M. Kornbluth, James E. Gunn, Chan Davis, and Cordwainer Smith.

  • Star Science Fiction Stories, (Ballantine, 1953) [isfdb]
  • Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2, (Ballantine, 1954) [isfdb]
  • Star Short Novels, (Ballantine, 1954) [isfdb]
  • Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, (Ballantine, 1955) [isfdb]
  • Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4, (Ballantine, 1958) [isfdb]
  • Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5, (Ballantine, 1959) [isfdb]
  • Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6, (Ballantine, 1959) [isfdb]



Combined Contents by Author and Title


Isaac Asimov
  • It's Such a Beautiful Day -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Nobody Here But— -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Alfred Bester
  • Disappearing Act -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Jerome Bixby
  • It's a Good Life -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • James Blish
  • F Y I -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Elizabeth Mann Borgese
  • Twin's Wail -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Anthony Boucher
  • Conquest -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Ray Bradbury
  • A Scent of Sarsaparilla -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • The Strawberry Window -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Rosel George Brown
  • Hair-Raising Adventure -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Algis Budrys
  • The Congruent People -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Star Descending -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Arthur C. Clarke
  • The Deep Range -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • The Nine Billion Names of God -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Hal Clement
  • Critical Factor -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Tom Condit
  • Trouble with Treaties (by Katherine MacLean & TC) -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Edmund Cooper
  • Tomorrow's Gift -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • C. L. Cottrell
  • Danger! Child at Large -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Robert Crane
  • The Purple Fields -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Chan Davis
  • Adrift on the Policy Level -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Miriam Allen deFord
  • The Long Echo -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Press Conference -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Lester del Rey
  • Alien -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • For I Am a Jealous People! -- Star Short Novels
  • Helping Hand -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Idealist -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • A Pound of Cure -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Philip K. Dick
  • Foster, You're Dead -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Gordon R. Dickson
  • The Dreamsman -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Daniel F. Galouye
  • Diplomatic Coop -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • H. L. Gold
  • The Man with English -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • James Gunn
  • The Immortals -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Gavin Hyde
  • Sparkie's Fall -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Gerald Kersh
  • Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Damon Knight
  • Idiot Stick -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Howard W. Koch
  • Invasion from Inner Space -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • C. M. Kornbluth
  • The Advent on Channel Twelve -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Dominoes -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • The Remorseful -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Henry Kuttner
  • A Cross of Centuries -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • A Wild Surmise (by HK & C. L. Moore) -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Fritz Leiber
  • The Night He Cried -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Space-Time for Springers -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • Murray Leinster
  • The Journey -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Katherine MacLean
  • Trouble with Treaties (by KM & Tom Condit) -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Richard Matheson
  • The Creeping Terror -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Dance of the Dead -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • John J. McGuire
  • To Catch an Alien -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Judith Merril
  • So Proudly We Hail -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • C. L. Moore
  • A Wild Surmise (by Henry Kuttner & CLM) -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • William Morrison
  • Country Doctor -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Chad Oliver
  • Any More at Home Like You? -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Fletcher Pratt
  • Hormones -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Tom Purdom
  • The Holy Grail -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Arthur Sellings
  • The Scene Shifter -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Robert Sheckley
  • The Last Weapon -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • The Odor of Thought -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Robert Silverberg
  • Company Store -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 5
  • Clifford D. Simak
  • Contraption -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Cordwainer Smith
  • Angerhelm -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 6
  • Theodore Sturgeon
  • The Clinic -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • To Here and the Easel -- Star Short Novels
  • William Tenn
  • The Deserter -- Star Science Fiction Stories
  • Jack Vance
  • The Devil on Salvation Bluff -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • Jessamyn West
  • Little Men -- Star Short Novels
  • Jack Williamson
  • Guinevere for Everybody -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3
  • The Happiest Creature -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Richard Wilson
  • Friend of the Family -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 2
  • Man Working -- Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4
  • John Wyndham
  • The Chronoclasm -- Star Science Fiction Stories

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    This page last updated Thursday 3 Sep 2020 at 10:22 PT