COPYRIGHT INFO
The Golden Age of Science Fiction Megapack #5: Lester del Rey is copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.
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“Pursuit” originally appeared in Space Science Fiction, May 1952.
“Let ’Em Breathe Space” originally appeared in Space Science Fiction, July 1953.
“No Strings Attached” originally appeared in If Worlds of Science Fiction, June 1954.
The Sky Is Falling originally appeared in 1954.
“Dead Ringer” originally appeared in Galaxy Science Fiction, November 1956.
“Victory” originally appeared in Astounding Science Fiction, August, 1955.
Police Your Planet originally appeared in 1956.
Badge of Infamy originally appeared in 1957.
“No Head for My Bier” originally appeared in Fantastic Adventures, January 1950.
A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER
Lester del Rey (1915–1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.
Del Rey often told people that his real name was Ramon Felipe Alvarez-del Rey (and sometimes even Ramon Felipe San Juan Mario Silvio Enrico Smith Heartcourt-Brace Sierra y Alvarez del Rey y de los Uerdes). He also claimed that his family was killed in a car accident in 1935. However, his sister has confirmed that his name was really Leonard Knapp and that the accident in 1935 killed his first wife but none of his parents, brother, and sister.
Del Rey first started publishing stories in pulp magazines in the late 1930s, at the dawn of the so-called Golden Age of Science Fiction. He was associated with the most prestigious science fiction magazine of the era, Astounding Science Fiction, from the time its editor John W. Campbell published his first short story in the April 1938 issue: “The Faithful”, already under the name Lester del Rey. The December 1938 issue featured his story “Helen O’Loy” which was selected for the prestigious anthology The Science Fiction Hall of Fame. By the end of 1939, he had also placed stories in Weird Tales (edited by Farnsworth Wright) and Unknown (Campbell), which featured more horror and more fantasy respectively. In the 1950s, del Rey was one of the main authors writing science fiction for adolescents (along with Robert A. Heinlein and Andre Norton).
During a period when del Rey’s work was not selling well, he worked as a short order cook at the White Tower Restaurant in New York. After he married his second wife, Helen Schlaz, in 1945, he quit that job to write full-time. After meeting Scott Meredith at the 1947 World Science Fiction Convention, he began working as a first reader for the new Scott Meredith Literary Agency, where he also served as office manager.
He later became an editor for several pulp magazines and then for book publishers. During 1952 and 1953, del Rey edited several magazines: Space SF, Fantasy Fiction, Science Fiction Adventures (as Philip St. John), Rocket Stories (as Wade Kaempfert), and Fantasy Fiction (as Cameron Hall). Also during 1952, his first two novels were published in the Winston juvenile series.
In 1957, del Rey and Damon Knight co-edited a small amateur magazine named Science Fiction Forum. During a debate about symbolism within the magazine, del Rey accepted Knight’s challenge to write an analysis of the James Blish story “Common Time” that showed the story was about a man eating a ham sandwich.
Del Rey was most successful editing with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey, at Ballantine Books, where they established the fantasy and science fiction imprint Del Rey Books in 1977. After science fiction gained respectability and began to be taught in classrooms, del Rey stated that academics interested in the genre should “get out of my Ghetto.” Del Rey stated that “to develop, science fiction had to remove itself from the usual critics who viewed it from the perspective of [the] mainstream, and who judged its worth largely on its mainstream values. As part of that mainstream, it would never have had the freedom to make the choices it did—many of them quite possibly wrong, but necessary for its development.” For a number of years in the 1970s, Del Rey, himself, helmed the review column for Analog Science Fiction and Fact entitled The Reference Library.
Del Rey was awarded the 1972 E. E. Smith Memorial Award for Imaginative Fiction (the “Skylark”) by the New England Science Fiction Association for “contributing significantly to science fiction, both through work in the field and by exemplifying the personal qualities that made the late “Doc” Smith well-loved by those who knew him”. He also won a special 1985 Balrog Award for his contributions to fantasy, voted by fans and organized by Locus Magazine. The Science Fiction Writers of America named him its 11th SFWA Grand Master in 1990, presented 1991.
My thanks to Wikipedia for the above info.
—John Betancourt
Publisher, Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidepress.com
ABOUT THE MEGAPACKS
Over the last few years, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has grown to be among our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”
The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)
A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS
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TYPOS
Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.
If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.
THE MEGAPACK SERIES
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION MEGAPACKS
1. Winston K. Marks
2. Mark Clifton
3. Poul Anderson
4. Clifford D. Simak
5. Lester del Rey
6. Charles L. Fontenay
SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY
The Edward Bellamy Megapack
The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack
The Fredric Brown Megapack
The Ray Cummings Megapack
The Philip K. Dick Megapack
The Dragon Megapack
The Randall Garrett Megapack
The Second Randall Garrett Megapack
The Edmond Hamilton Megapack
The