This is actually a fairly sedate cover by Allen Anderson on this issue of PLANET STORIES. There's a good group of writers inside, too, including Ray Bradbury (with a reprint from MACLEAN'S), Damon Knight, Alfred Coppel, Henry Hasse, Basil Wells, Stanley Mullen, and the less well-known (at least to me) Robert Abernathy and George Whitley. I don't own this issue, but it's available on-line here if any of you want to check it out. (With all the pulps that I own and all the ones that are on-line, I swear I could sit and read pulps all day, every day, and never even come close to reading all the ones I'd like to. It's a frustrating state of affairs, but what're you gonna do?)
Abernathy published about 40 science fiction stories over a fifteen-year period in the 40s and 50s; his work was competent, with his best known tales beeing "Pyramid" and "Junior." In later life he was a scholar specializing in Slavic languages. "George Whitley" was an early pseudonym for Australian SF writer A. Bertram Chandler, who was best known for his Rim World-John Grimes novels. Chandler was a professional ship's captain; his nautical experience has led to many of his books having been described as "Hornblower in space."
ReplyDeleteThanks, Jerry. I think I knew that about Whitley being a pseudonym for Chandler, but it had slipped my mind. I've read very little by Chandler, one or two of the Grimes novels many years ago. I remember liking them all right. I've always meant to read more by him, but at this late date, who knows if I'll ever get around to it.
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