The Best of Planet Stories #1 [antikvár]

Introduction: Beyond Our Narrow SkiesIt is seldom enough that one has the opportunity to stand up publicly and say "Thank you" to an old friend. Therefore it gives me great pleasure to be writing this introduction to the first of a new series: THE BEST OF PLANET STORIES.For fifteen years, from 1940 to 1955, when the magazine ceased publication, I had the happiest relationship possible for a writer with the editors of Planet Stories. They gave me, m the begmning, a proving-ground where I could gain strength and confidence in the exercise of my fledgeling skills, a thing of incalculable value for a young writer. They sent me checks, which enabled me to keep on eatmg. In later years, they provided a steady market for the kind of stories I liked best to write. In short, I owe them much. To Malcolm Reiss, and to Wilbur Peacock, Chester Whitehom, Paul L. Payne, Jack O'SuUivan, and Jerome Brxby, my fondest salutations.It was fashionable for a while, among certain elements of science-fiction fandom, to hate Planet Stories. They hated the magazine, apparently, because it was not -Astounding Stories, a view which I found ridiculous at the time, and still do. (They come nowto be truthful, not those identical fansand say, "Gee, Planet was a great magazine, I wish we had it back!") Of course Planet wasn't Astounding; it never pretended to be Astounding, and that was a mercy for a lot of us who would have starved to death if John W. Campbell, Jr., had been the sole and only market for our wares. Apart from everything else, there wasn't room enough for all of us in that one magazine. And we