K55

---

K55, an APAzine for Pieces of Eight, August '95, from A. VINCENT CLARKE, 16 Wendover Way, Welling, Kent, DA16 2BN.

---

UPDATE

The non-appearance of 'K' in the July mailing was almost involuntary – the end of the month crept up unobserved. I still have an uneasy suspicion that there was a world-wide conspiracy to skip a few days, like that time in the 18th. century when the calendar was adjusted and everyone lost 16 days. I can now sympathise with the mobs who agitated for their lost time.

Anyway, at the moment I'm still in trouble. There are crumbs between the sheets of life. The major irritation was this Amstrad 8256 Word Processor. Served me well for 7 years or so, but it started to display little windows saying DISC SECTOR MISSING and similar messages of distress. When I tried to run a game of Scrabble, which I bought new some years ago, it accused me of using a counterfeit disc. This was all a bit traumatic, as the Amstrad's been my chief means of communication outside of a chat at the local supermarket.

I moaned about this to, amongst others, old pal Derek Pickles, and he said that he'd read an advert where it was suggested that before doing anything drastic the owner of a defective Amstrad should buy (from them, natch) a new drive belt and a head cleaner (no, madam, not a shampoo). I did this, but couldn't bring myself to use this panacea until the object of my affections stopped working altogether in mid-July.

So I started the operation, laying out half-a-dozen different screwdrivers, lumps of Plasticine to stick screws onto, etc. And found in passing that an element of keyhole surgery was involved – I found myself constructing a small wire hook to fish in a half-inch gap.

And this has been an exercise in blowing my own trumpet, 'cos as you can plainly see, I did the job correctly, and it "works like new" as they say. Yes, I know that 'new' it was a glorified typewriter, but I'm comfortable with it. And what a marvellous feeling of triumph!

Anyway, having crowed at boring length, I must say that I don't feel much like going through the old routine, and it looks as if my time is going to be pretty well booked up for the couple of it'll take me to clear the back-log of neglected correspondence.

So it occurred to me that for the time being I'd fall back on what may be an unsuspected side to my character. I have my sercon moments, when the flippant fannish froth (I was once accused of being 'frothy') is put aside. So, to keep street-cred in the highways and byways of Pieces of Eight, I propose to run a multiple-part article which I'd already written for my own satisfaction, and it's on That Star Wars Stuff – Where to Read About it. Or to put it another way,

BOOKS ABOUT SF

Books actually about SF are fairly scarce, and the further you go back in time the scarcer they are, and consequently harder to find. So the following is just a once-over-lightly. If you're interested, you might still pick them up on Convention book-dealer's shelves. I've even come across some of the older ones in public libraries.

The first book was by Professor J.O. Bailey, in the States. A sort of closet SF intellectual, he secured his MA in 1926 with an essay on The Scientific Novels of H.G. Wells, following it in 1936 by Scientific Fiction in English. 1817-1914 which brought a Ph.D. He up-dated this text to the beginning of the War, and it was published in 1947 as PILGRIMS THROUGH SPACE & TIME. It's rather hard reading, as the Prof. was determined to wring every nuance he could out of a selection of books and magazine stories. In Chapter 9, 'Inventions & Discoveries', for instance, he has sub-headings: (A) Inventions in General, (B) Inventions Based Upon New Principles, (C) Inventions Concerned with Electricity, (D) Inventions Concerned with Transportation, to which there was another sub-heading (1) Land Traffic......... This may have enabled the Prof to keep the books in order, but was rather tiring on the reader, who came upon the same yarn from half-a-dozen angles. PILGRIMS was reprinted in '74.

Much more readable was OF WORLDS BEYOND (1947) by SF author Lloyd Arthur Eshbach. A man who knew the field, he prevailed upon several SF writers (Heinlein, van Vogt, de Camp, John W. Campbell Jnr. etc.) to write on 'The Science of SF writing', which could have been more cannily titled 'How I Do It'. It's an absorbing book, and there may be copies available in British libraries to this day.

Those who could actually write SF were busy jumping on the post-war SF boom band-wagon, and it wasn't until 1953 that another authoritative title was published. SCIENCE FICTION HANDBOOK: History of SF, Markets, Editors & Fans, Profiles of SF Writers, Writing and Selling SF, was by veteran author L. Sprague de Camp. It's 300+ pages were so well received that in 1975 de Camp, with his wife Catherine, up-dated the manual to SCIENCE FICTION HANDBOOK REVISED, this time subtitled 'A Guide to Writing Imaginative Literature', which was more or less that, in 200+ pages.

In 1953 there was also published MODERN SCIENCE FICTION, (Its Meaning & its Future) by an accomplished short story author in the field, Reginald Bretnor. This was a collection of essays by 'names' including Asimov, Campbell and Arthur C. Clarke, who commented that the space station had attracted very few writers because, to most people, it was a novel idea and not fully understood. When the first orbital rockets are set up it may...become one of the main preoccupations of contemporary science fiction. Hmmm. MODERN SCIENCE FICTION was up-dated and reprinted in '79.

Up to the mid-'50s, books about SF had all been written in the States, but in 1956 Great Britain entered the field with SCIENCE & FICTION by that cuddly eccentric Patrick Moore, who had already had some juvenile SF books published. It should have been a triumph. Instead, it was a disaster which tainted Moore in the eyes of enthusiasts. It was fairly good on early British SF, but by '56 most of the major events in the field had been in the States. Moore ignored almost all of that, not mentioning most of the influential names such as Heinlein, Campbell, Sturgeon, etc., etc., and where he did refer to Isaac Asimov put the name in inverted double quotes, as if he couldn't believe that a human could have such a weird name – it must be a pseudonym.

In 1959 Advent Publishers in Chicago started a long line of books about SF with THE SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL – essays on SF as social criticism by such as Alfred Bester, Heinlein and other experienced authors in the field.

NEW MAPS OF HELL ('61) by Kingsley Amis was a welcome (and knowledgeable) British addition to the subject, this book written by an author with some idea of the intricacies of the subject. Amis, who had scored a literary triumph with Lucky Jim in '54, , brought a rather disillusioned view of the world and it's works to SF, but was sufficiently popular to be a GoH at a '60s Convention. Science Fiction readers are addicts wrote Amis, but they are active addicts...given to banding together in fan clubs. Amis doesn't put himself firmly in the ranks of the 'addicts', but somewhere writes of his own sentimental, science-fictional optimism, which I suppose is as much as one can hope for in that particular author.

In 1964 Advent brought out two astonishing books. One was purely for fans. You should know (I hope) that the main SF magazine and the major reading source for fans for many years was Astounding Science Fiction, later Analog, and the change in title in 1960 caused Alva Rogers to write REQUIEM FOR ASTOUNDING, first serialised in US fanzines and then expanded into a book. Alva was an unashamed enthusiast for the older type of Astounding yarn, and his book details the history of the magazine and outlines most of the famous stories which it published, and includes many illustrations.

The other Advent title was THE ISSUE AT HAND by SF author James Blish. This was virtually the first book to subject SF and its authors to serious literary criticism. Given that the majority of stories up to that time had been magazines stories with all that implies, this may seem like using a steam-roller as a nut-cracker, but Blish was amazingly skilful; eg. of Jack Vance he says of his early work: He tossed off ideas, wisecracks, splashes of colour and exotic proper names like a Catherine wheel, while his plotting remained rudimentary or non-existent. THE ISSUE AT HAND, which was in part re-printed from various fanzines, was much liked, and Blish followed it six years later (1970) with MORE ISSUES AT HAND. These two books remain perfectly readable to this day.

Two years later, in 1966, Advent published THE UNIVERSES OF E.E. SMITH by two SF fans, Ron Ellik and Bill Evans. There's plot summaries of Smith's two major series, Skylark & Lensman, and a long concordance of all of these books.

One of the giants of American SF fandom is (still) Sam Moskowitz (he wrote a book-length survey of pre-war fandom as far back as 1954), and in the '60s he wrote EXPLORERS OF THE INFINITE, on old-time SF, SEEKERS OF TOMORROW, on authors '40-'65, and STRANGE HORIZONS, on themes in SF. Since then he has published many books and is still doing so. He has been criticised on grounds of style, accuracy, etc., but no one can deny that he has a burning passion for the minutiae of SF. The books are well worth reading, tho' you have to look long and hard for any trace of humour.

This is totally different from the next book here. Damon Knight's IN SEARCH OF WONDER was published in 1967. ISOW was a marvellous book, some of the pieces enlarged from fanzine appearances, and you can get some idea of the flavour from the chapter headings: 'When I was in Knee Pants: Ray Bradbury', 'Cosmic Jerrybuilder, A.E. Van Vogt', 'Genius to Order: Kuttner & Moore'. Mostly writing about fellow magazine writers, Knight was cheerfully iconoclastic and, rather like Clive James's TV reviews (from The Observer), you can appreciate the wit without having seen the original – eg. His thinking often seems to have as many holes in it as a Swiss cheese.... and he give an example. This is very good indeed, and highly knowledgeable – Knight himself has written much SF.

In 1969 Sam Lundwall, a Swedish SF fan, wrote an explanation of SF for his countrymen which he translated into English in '71 under the title SCIENCE FICTION: WHAT IT'S ALL ABOUT. A good overall view from a refreshingly un-American viewpoint, though at times some of his views can be queried: Practically all SF writers of today come from SF fandom.

Also in 1971 there was published THE UNIVERSE MAKERS: Science Fiction Today, by old-time fan, pro-editor and publisher Donald A. Wollheim. "An extremely perceptive and analysis of...modern science fiction" says the blurb. Still readable. In fact, I first read a library copy, but managed to pick up a copy this year at the EasterCon.

Then in 1973 came a landmark book – BILLION YEAR SPREE by SF author Brian Aldiss, subtitled 'The History of SF'. It was the most comprehensive work on the subject written up to that time, and gave full attention to the historical aspects – the first 2/3rds of the book detail SF up to the 1950s. Aldiss disregarded various theories on the beginnings of SF stretching back to the year 120 AD (Lucian of Samosata) and plumped for Mary Shelley (Frankenstein) as being the true originator, an opinion which is now generally accepted. In 1986 Aldiss brought out a revised and slightly expanded edition of the book and called it TRILLION YEAR SPREE.

Chronologically, this is as good a place as any to mention a curiosity. In 1973 the Sunderland Arts Centre and associated worthy burghers held what they called a Beyond This Horizon Festival. This was a sort of SF Convention held by people who didn't know what an SF Convention was, but it drew some knowledgeable participants. They later published what they termed a 'limited edition' (2,250 copies) of the proceedings in an A4 size paperback on glossy paper called BEYOND THIS HORIZON: An Anthology of Science Fact & Science Fiction. Contributors include Peter Weston, Brian Stableford, Phil Harbottle, Brian Aldiss and many other names familiar to fans.

Mike Ashley, a bibliographer from Chatham, Kent, published in 1974 and succeeding years a 4-volume HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE. It was an anthology of SF stories, mostly from 'before the Golden Age' to borrow an Asimov title, plus a comprehensive history of the magazines. It was published both here and in the US, but only in hard cover in the latter country.

1975 saw two SF coffee table books published. One was James Gunn's ALTERNATE WORLDS, The Illustrated History of SF. It was lushly illustrated, not only by numerous magazine covers, but with dozens of portraits of SF authors. The second was David Kyle's THE PICTORIAL HISTORY OF SF – again with profuse illustrations, and as Kyle was an old time fan it's no surprise to see a chapter on fandom. This book was in later years offered comparatively cheaply in department stores.

There might have been a third coffee-table-type book published in the same year, but Austrian Franz Rottensteiner's THE SCIENCE FICTION BOOK – An Illustrated History, had card covers. It gave a considerable amount of space to non-American SF, and has much criticism of the US type. Franz was agent for Stanislaw Lem, and one chapter is titled Stanislaw Lem, the greatest contemporary SF writer.

HELL'S CARTOGRAPHERS ('75), edited by Aldiss and Harry Harrison, had essays by half-a-dozen well known authors, with an appendix How We Work. Some of these essays are very personal indeed.

When Brian Ash's WHO'S WHO IN SF was published in '76, it was criticised by some as having inaccuracies, but these are hard to find. It included an unusual list, of authors who were prominent in each decade.

One of the more interesting books of those noted here was EXPLORATIONS OF THE MARVELLOUS, ('76), edited by Peter Nicholls. It has essays by authors such as John Brunner, Ursula K. Le Guin, Robert Sheckley (humorous) and, unusually, Edward de Bono.

The blurb of SCIENCE FICTION: History:Science:Fiction ('77) says The book is the first to deal with the science in science fiction. Messrs. Scholes & Rabkin, the authors, give a rather scholarly survey of the field, and include a survey of '10 representative novels'. Six of these were written prior to 1950, which you may think is significant.

A very readable book is THE CREATION OF TOMORROW: Fifty Years of Magazine SF, ('77) by Professor (of History) Paul Carter. He is an enthusiast (and an SF author) and it comes across, though curiously, as an enthusiast, he only mentions fans occasionally.

Dave Kyle, editor of a coffee-table book in '75, produced another in this year: THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF SCIENCE FICTION IDEAS & DREAMS. It really needed a large book to contain that title. It's virtually indistinguishable from his earlier book; marvellous reproductions of coloured magazine covers, some of them bigger than the originals. As his earlier book, copies were remaindered in department stores such as Marks and Spencer.

Another book on SF in 1977, in what might be called a vintage year for them, was THE VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE FICTION,, edited by Brian Ash and with researchers who included Walter Gillings, editor of Britain's first SF prozine, Phillip Harbottle and other 'names'. There's a weirdly futuristic 'Program' (spelt that way – the book's British) tracing the yearly history of not only SF but fandom as well; it's gratifying to see fannish names in print – but the thing is shot through with errors, and using the term that a fanzine 'aborts' for when it ends is plain silly. The Encyclopedia itself is, visually, extremely appealing, probably an average of 3 illustrations on each of its 350+ pages. Authors including James White, Niven, Brunner, Anderson, Josephine Saxon and Farmer contribute articles.

(TO BE BORINGLY CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT ISSUE)

[[See Books About SF Continued – Ed.]]

IT'S NO GOOD, I can't resist some COMMENTS ON THE JULY '95 (only took me 15 minutes to find it, Mum – you don't think it's easy for a congenitally untidy fan to remain on top of 7000+ fanzines, do you?):

Barry & Tara: Yeah, the house-style of allocating Caps, etc., to ms. is likely to get a bit cumbersome – Ken Lake has written a long letter to me about it too, and Theo's comments noted too. Fresh thoughts are circulating in brain.

Ken: Re 'Charrisma' Chuch's surname is 'Harris'. Geddit? Brian J. – Perceptive comment about fresh type in my June 'K' – as the Amstrad was unwell I couldn't access my usual disc, and fell back on one with what they term 'Modern' type on it. Yes, I like it too – often use it on letters; I prefer sans-serif.

Brian and Ros both comment on the Oxfam initiative – book banks for those unwanted but saleable (ah, there's the rub) volumes. Haven't got around to the supreme sacrifice yet, but note that two more charity shops have opened in Welling. There's now seven in about 400 yards, all carrying shelves of books. Are we outstandingly literate in these parts? Or more in need of old clothes? Wish some entrepreneur would start a shop for second-hand word-processor and computer spares. Brian S. – No, I can't remember reading Quiller-Couch; he was the guy who used 'Q' as a pen name, wasn't he? (don't ask how 'Q' could be a whole name). Do you want Grapes of Wrath? It's a bit grim/down beat. (pocket review).