The Best of Science Fiction 12

The first SF Annual, in 1956, was called The Year's Greatest Science Fiction and Fantasy; that title stayed on the paperback (it was a Dell Original) for four years, although the simultaneous hardcover edition published by Gnome Press switched to just SF:1957 with the second volume. In 1960, the book became a hardcover original, published by Simon & Schuster, and the title changed to The Fifth (and etc.) Annual of the Year's Best SF. When Dell inaugurated its own hard-back line, Delacorte Press, the book went back home, so to speak: that was the 10th Annual.

The first ten Annuals all concluded with a Summation of the year in science fiction and — increasingly — speculative writing generally, and with a listing of Honourable Mention stories. The Honourable Mentions were dropped from the 11th Annual, for the same reasons — already extensively explained here — that the title was changed this year to read simply SF 12. It would be as absurd, at this point, to attempt to 'sum up' what has happened in speculative writing since the last volume as it would have been to call this collection either an 'Anthology of Science Fiction' or 'The Year's Best' of — well, what?

It should be clearly understood, then, that what follows does not represent any comprehensive culling of work published in or out of any special category during any particular calendar period. It is simply that there were things I read or saw which I meant to mention in the course of the book, and never did.

For instance, there should have been a spot somewhere to chuckle over Giles Goat-Boy, or to mention John Barth's thoughtful and effective article 'The Literature of Exhaustion', in Atlantic. And I wanted to find space to discuss at least briefly the flood of critical volumes on s-f over the past two years: H. Bruce Franklin's Future Perfect, I. F. Clarke's Voices Prophesying War, and Mark Hillegas' The Future as Nightmare, all from Oxford University Press; Advent's reissue of an expanded version of Damon Knight's In Search of Wonder; C.S. Lewis' posthumous collection of papers. Of Other Worlds (Harcourt); and a whole range of books of varying merit on Cabell, E. R. Burroughs, E. E. Smith, and others — right down to Sam Moskowitz's Six-Foot Shelf of Plodding Prose in Praise of 1950.

Somehow, I never got around to saying anything about Jean-Claude Forest's contribution to the Space Scene — Barbarella (Grove; and — chuckles — now banned in Paris!); or Gahan Wilson's first hardcover cartoon collection, The Man in the Cannibal Pot (Doubleday). And then there is Witzend, the new Thinking Man's Comic Book, whose only real competition appears in Grump (items like 'Stan Mack's 5th Dimension' and 'The Urban World of Donald Silverstein').

Possibly by the time SF 13 comes out (on a Friday, one trusts) I will be able to do more than just mention artists like Esher, Paolozzi, and Colin Self And there's a whole stack of clippings and jottings on 'psychedelic art', posters and buttons and the 'underground press'. And I never did squeeze in any mention of La Jetée, or the incredible experience of Ed Emshwiller's Relativity, or the sad bust of Fahrenheit 451; but I can at least note here that Ballantine has done a fine paperback from Juliet of the Spirits, with the original script, a transcript of the final scenario, and a fascinating interview with Fellini.

I wanted to make special mention of the quality — and quantity — of speculative/fabulative fiction in Transatlantic Review; and (second place, but way up) in Cavalier. And I should note here, for readers really upset about the changes in this book, that there are now three field-wide science-fiction 'Bests' each year — the Carr-Wollheim World's Best Science Fiction (Ace), SFWA's Nebula (Doubleday), and a new annual coming from Putnam edited by Harry Harrison — in addition to the yearly collections published by each of the magazines.

I am not going to attempt to list the many outstanding short stories which were not, for all the familiar reasons, reprinted here; but let me say quickly that readers who feel strongly about some of the obvious omissions, or who know of titles I may have missed seeing entirely, are more than welcome to write in and tell me what to use next time. And I cannot quite stop name-dropping without a word about the delight of seeing a Nobel prize go to Asturias' Mulata (Delacorte).

Less happily, it is also necessary to record here, with no space to do more than record, the deaths of two writers of major importance to speculative fiction: Paul Linebarger ('Cordwainer Smith') and Charles Beaumont.

And, finally, although it is quite impossible to thank individually each of the many people whose suggestions, criticism, advice, clerical help, or just cups-of-coffee assistance, went into the making of this book, I must express particular appreciation, for assistance entirely beyond the limits of probability, to Sharon Robinson and Bernard K.Kay.