Gutenberg Sci-Fi 11

Robert Crowther May 2026

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Donald A. Wollheim

Donald Wollheim was probably as influential as editor and outspoken voice as better known persons like John Campbell. He sued Hugo Gernsback for payment, was a lead for Ace Books, published some of the first anthologies of SciFi, pirated (depends whose story you read) Lord of The Rings into paperback and a load more. His daughter wrote he didn’t think much of his own work, but he made sales from books for kids. Nothing is a micro‐story fantasy with scientific trappings, but it is an interesting side of physics, the bombed shelter scenario is oddly effective, and it is shorter than Jonathan Livingston Seagull. The story The Planet of Illusion is amiable for the genre, and has a wonderful premise I’ll not give away. The author then cobbles together an explanation that adds to the fun as it exposes the unscientific conveniences of other writers… writers who are more poker‐faced.

Only seven by Donald A. Wollheim—as writer he was not prolific—and I’d be wary of recommendation.

Mari Wolf

Only active in the early years of the golden age. Small output of a reported seven/eight short stories, though she wrote fan columns for SciFi magazines. Online presence amounts to notes. Robots of the World! Arise! is startling for it’s civil style, which shifts pleasantly and unobtrusively between personal and wider issues, with dashes of humour. There seems almost to be a sensibility hovering too, that drama need not be solved by a man and a gun. The story has a historical footnote that it introduced the very American ellipsis‐word of ‘droid’, but is more than that—I’d say the subject of the plot is an issue right now. And the perhaps too‐convenient plot resolution has, nonetheless, something important to say about the process of emancipation.

Six of the stories on Gutenberg (‘The House on the Vacant Lot’ and ‘Prejudice’ missing)!

John Wyndham

NB: not represented on Gutenberg

Writer best known for monsters leading to social disorder—so fantasy but with social realism. From a small output, many adaptions including the films The Day of the Triffids and Village of the Damned.

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Roger Zelazny

NB: not represented on Gutenberg

Literature student who became a writer, appeared early enough to note him. As a writer concerned with culture and mythology in variant or other worlds. More SocFi than science fiction. Likely the best known book is the ambiguously‐related multi‐cultural Lord of Light. I suppose it’s the proposed films that explain his absence from Gutenberg, but I’d like to think Zelanzy can never be explained.

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Order of first encounter

References

Clumsier than me, which is remarkable, this site is a notable example of putting in the hard yards. Under‐referenced, under‐visited, and a world in itself—if you want for basic information on a name, this is the place,

https://sf-encyclopedia.com

Sub‐domain of a home‐brew site that seems to know what it is doing, but is incapable of explaining itself. You can’t fault the sub‐domain for scale—it categorises on a century‐long timeline. And the enthusiasm for the artefact is clear—if you are looking for SciFi artwork, look here. The timeline is loose‐beaded, but the reviews are tighter than mine, and do not have the self‐imposed limit of placement on Project Gutenberg,

http://www.scifi.darkroastedblend.com/

Notionally a review of three books about early authors in science fiction, this is a well‐informed discussion about the origins of the Sci‐Fi uplift,

https://web.archive.org/web/20120905042510/http://www.depauw.edu/sfs/review_essays/mullen62.htm

If you have an interest in Pulp Fiction as publication, here is a short interview with the creator of Dark Roasted Blend,

http://www.scifi.darkroastedblend.com/2018/06/collecting-pulp-magazines.html

Video of Damon Knight on what he sees as the earliest Sci‐Fi impulses with, predicatively, some of his own opinion on what Sci‐Fi is,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ouYZVFBGUc