TITLE: BEACHHEADS IN SPACE
EDITED BY: August Derleth
CATEGORY: Anthology
SUB-CATEGORY: Short Fiction
FORMAT: Hardback, 224 pages
PUBLISHER: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London, 1954 (Originally published in the US in 1952 by Pellegrini & Cudahy).
That\’s the various general details, here\’s a listing of the contents:
- \”Beachhead\” by Clifford D. Simak (1951)
- \”The Years Draw Nigh\” by Lester del Rey (1951)
- \”Metamorphosite\” by Eric Frank Russell (1946)
- \”Breeds There a Man…?\” by Isaac Asimov (1951)
- \”And the Walls Came Tumbling Down\” by John Wyndham (1951)
- \”The Blinding Shadows\” by Donald Wandrei (1934)
- \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” by Clark Ashton Smith (1951)
This is an interesting old anthology, edited by another of my favourite SF anthologists, August Derleth. The theme of this anthology, according to the book\’s jacket blurb, is \”invasion from another world, or counter-attack from Earth against the planets\”.
I haven\’t read this one in many years, maybe twenty-five years or more, but I remember that it was a favourite of mine way back in the day, and it still has a special place on my bookshelves. Obviously my memories of the individual stories are vague after all this time, and I don\’t remember all of them clearly, and a couple of them not at all. But the ones that I do recall really liking are Clifford D. Simak\’s very clever short story \”Beachhead\” (AKA \”You\’ll Never Go Home Again!\”, first published in Fantastic Adventures, July 1951), Eric Frank Russell\’s excellent novella \”Metamorphosite\”, (from Astounding, December 1946), and Clark Ashton Smith\’s scary and unusual alien invasion SF/Horror novelette \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” (Weird Tales, September 1951).
I also remember liking Lester del Rey\’s \”The Years Draw Nigh\” and Isaac Asimov\’s \”Breeds There a Man…?\”, although for some reason I remember a lot less about them than I do about the Russell, Simak and Smith stories. I don\’t recall anything at all about the Wyndham and Wandrei stories. I\’m surprised about not remembering the Wyndham story, as I\’m usually a big fan of his writing.
But as good as my recollections are of the Simak and Smith stories, the stand-out story for me in this anthology has always been Eric Frank Russell\’s classic \”Metamorphosite\”, which I recall having a huge impact on me back when I was a young guy in my twenties. I don\’t think this story is in any of my other anthologies (and I have zillions of the darned things!), so I reckon it hasn\’t been reprinted very often. It\’s far, far too many years since I last read it, and indeed this entire anthology, so it\’s long overdue for a re-read. I\’ve already started on the Simak story, and, so far, it\’s at least as good as I remember it, if not better. If the rest of the stories hold up as well as this one is doing, I\’m going to really enjoy reading this anthology again.
Please take note that this is the 1954 UK edition, which is different from the original 1952 US hardcover edition, published by Pellegrini & Cudahy. Apparently all editions aside from the original hardcover edition have been \”butchered\” in some way, missing stories, etc. This UK edition is missing the Introduction and seven of the stories from the US edition. Also note that John Wyndham has two stories in the original US edition, one under his usual John Wyndham pseudonym, and the other as John Benyon.
Here is the full Contents Listing of the original 1952 US edition:
- Introduction by August Derleth
- \”The Star\” by David H. Keller, M.D.
- \”The Man from Outside\” by Jack Williamson
- \”Beachhead\” by Clifford D. Simak
- \”The Years Draw Nigh\” by Lester del Rey
- \”Metamorphosite\” by Eric Frank Russell
- \”The Ordeal of Professor Klein\” by L. Sprague de Camp
- \”Repetition\” by A. E. van Vogt
- \”Breeds There a Man…?\” by Isaac Asimov
- \”Meteor\” by John Beynon
- \”And the Walls Came Tumbling Down\” by John Wyndham
- \”Blinding Shadows\” by Donald Wandrei
- \”The Metamorphosis of Earth\” by Clark Ashton Smith
- \”The Ambassadors from Venus\” by Kendell F. Crossen
- \”To People a New World\” by Nelson S. Bond
For lovers of old-style, classic SF short fiction, this anthology would be right up their alley. If you can actually find it, that is. As it\’s such an old book, it\’s obviously long out of print, and you\’ll have to hunt through used book stores to find this anthology. But it\’ll be well worth the trouble it takes to find it, as are any other anthologies edited by August Derleth.
After all these years, I think I\’ll actually make a major effort to get off my butt and track down the longer original US hardcover edition, which I didn\’t even realize was different/longer until I recently read the Wikipedia entry on the anthology.
Highly recommended, particularly the original US hardcover edition.