First Printing Appearances of Poul Anderson's "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" and Leigh Brackett's "The Ginger Star," Five Issues of the Hugo-Winning "Worlds of If," 1973–1974

"Worlds of If" Science Fiction

Archive

A five-issue run from the final phase of "If," the Hugo-winning digest, spanning 1973 to 1974 and carrying the magazine through its last editorial transition and into its closing numbers. Under Frederik Pohl, "If" had become one of the major American science fiction digests, winning the Hugo Award for Best Professional Magazine in 1966, 1967, and 1968. These late issues document its final period under UPD Publishing, as Ejler Jakobsson's editorship gave way to James Baen's, and they conclude with the November–December 1974 issue, among the last the magazine published before it merged into "Galaxy."
The run gathers sci fi fiction by writers central to postwar and New Wave science fiction, among them Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Poul Anderson, Fritz Leiber, Leigh Brackett, Clifford D. Simak, Christopher Priest, Norman Spinrad, and Pamela Sargent. Two works appear here in first printing. Leigh Brackett's "The Ginger Star" makes its first appearance as a shorter serialized version, beginning in the January–February 1974 issue, ahead of the Ballantine paperback of May 1974. Clifford D. Simak's "Our Children's Children" also appears first, in the July–August 1973 issue, preceding its publication as a novel by Putnam in 1974.
Beyond tthe sci-fi fiction, the group preserves the surrounding reading economy of 1970s genre publishing: serialized novels and Baen's editorials alongside Science Fiction Book Club offers, Last Gasp underground-comics mail-order pages, "Fiction" magazine subscription coupons, and Other World Records advertising for "The Tower" as a "mind-expanding trip" in stereophonic sound. "The archive offers a view of older digest publishing, New Wave authorship, fan correspondence, book-club and mail-order commerce, and early experiments in recorded speculative fiction.
Worlds of If Science Fiction. New York: UPD Publishing Corporation, 1973–1974. Five digest-format issues, comprising July–August 1973, January–February 1974, August 1974, October 1974, and November–December 1974, cover price 75 cents.[1] July–August 1973. Vol. 21, No. 12, Issue 166. Edited by Ejler Jakobsson, with Clifford D. Simak's "Our Children's Children," F. M. Busby's "Pearsall's Return," Stephen Tall's "The Invaders," Chelsea Quinn Yarbro's "The Meaning of the Word," and David Magil's "Support Your Local Police," together with the "Hue and Cry" letters column, "SF Calendar," and Lester del Rey's "Reading Room."
[2] January–February 1974. Vol. 22, No. 3, Issue 170. Edited by Ejler Jakobsson, opening Leigh Brackett's serial "The Ginger Star," with Hal Clement's "Mistaken for Granted," Pamela Sargent's "If Ever I Should Leave You," Norman Spinrad's "Eye of the Storm," Christopher Priest's "Transplant," Gordon Eklund's "Continuous Performance," and del Rey's "Reading Room."
[3] August 1974. Issue 175. Edited by James Baen, with Fritz Leiber's "Midnight by the Morphy Watch" and contributions by Isaac Asimov, Larry Niven, Fred Saberhagen, Bob Shaw, and F. M. Busby, plus features by Dick Geis and Richard C. Hoagland and Baen's editorial "On the Urbanization of the Solar System."
[4] October 1974. Issue 176. Edited by James Baen, featuring Poul Anderson's Flandry novel "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows" and Colin Kapp's "Mephisto and the Ion Explorer," with cover billing for Lester del Rey, Dick Geis, Richard C. Hoagland, and Arsen Darnay.
[5] November–December 1974. Issue 178. Edited by James Baen, with the continuation of Poul Anderson's "A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows," Daniel Dern's "Stormy Weather," J. A. Lawrence's "The Descent of Man," Craig Strete's "Time Deer," and Arsen Darnay's "Gut in Peril."
Covers and spines with some wear, pencil and inked price marks; pages toned as is usual for pulp paper, with handling wear. Overall good condition.

Item #23514

Price: $350.00