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The Voyage of the Space Beagle

3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 · rating details · 1,122 ratings · 62 reviews

*On and on Coeurl prowled.*
So began Van Vogt's first published story, and so begins this novel. The saga of the Space Beagle, mankind's first effort to reach another galaxy. And what strange life-forms are encountered!

Paperback, 191 pages

Published November 1973 by Panther (first published 1939)

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Mar 10, 2013 Dirk Grobbelaar rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-road-trip-2012, science-fiction

An exploration vessel with a crew complement of almost one thousand wandering between the stars... cue some music. No, wait a minute, it’s not the Enterprise. It’s the Space Beagle. When was this written then? Well, the individual parts that make up this novel were published between 1939 and 1952. This is quite a famous little novel, even though current opinion about it is somewhat divided. Some of the assumptions in this book are rather naïve, such as allowing a foreign organism into an enclose...more An exploration vessel with a crew complement of almost one thousand wandering between the stars... cue some music. No, wait a minute, it’s not the Enterprise. It’s the Space Beagle. When was this written then? Well, the individual parts that make up this novel were published between 1939 and 1952. This is quite a famous little novel, even though current opinion about it is somewhat divided. Some of the assumptions in this book are rather naïve, such as allowing a foreign organism into an enclosed system (spaceship) without any concern over contamination or disease. Perhaps it’s merely anachronistic: this novel is, after all, from the golden age of Science Fiction. However, if you look at the story with eyes unbiased by 60 years of Science Fiction history and evolution, you should be suitably impressed.

The Discord in Scarlet storyline is especially memorable. A vicious and supernaturally powerful alien steals aboard the human ship; it lays eggs inside its hosts (the hapless humans); it hides in the “miles-long system of air conditioning”; it is bent on survival at all cost... Sound familiar? It should. 20th Century Fox eventually settled out of court, although in all fairness it may have been coincidence after all.

The novel also coined the phrase Nexialism, which is basically a consolidated approach to problem solving, by applying approaches from different sciences. Or, the holistic (“whole”-istic according to the novel) approach. The Anabis sequence contains some startling ideas, such as the teleportation of entire planets to create artificial systems. We are so used to high concept SF these days that it’s somewhat hard to imagine what folk would have experienced when reading this in the 1940s when the sequence was first published (as M33 in Andromeda, Astounding, 1943).

Needless to say, the Voyage of the Space Beagle has influenced the field of Science Fiction and pop culture to a momentous extent. Whether you like the novel or not, there is no denying its impact. Van Vogt’s alien creatures have even made it into Dungeons & Dragons and Final Fantasy, albeit in slightly altered forms. The novel carries its years pretty well, all things considered, and despite the fact that the Space Beagle still sports a mail chute. A true classic.
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Oct 10, 2012 Philipp rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Fun! I mean, look at that name!

It's 4 short-stories with the same main character and the same spaceship woven into one book. The main guy seems to be the proto-Spock - a guy trained in a new science called Nexialism, some kind of "all-sciences-into-one" with hints of individualism/libertarianism with a healthy dose of what science-fiction in the 50s was like (electronic telepathy, mind-controlling, funky big machines etc).

Each story is about the crew encountering an unknown, but superior alien o...more

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Mar 29, 2011 Keely rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction, novel, reviewed

Written in 1939, The Voyage of the Space Beagle reads like the prototype for Star Trek. A multinational crew of scientists and the military embark on a ten-year mission to explore the galaxy, seeking out new aliens and almost being killed by them (they even have 'shields).

Grosvenor, our protagonist, is in many ways reminiscent of Mr. Spock: both are awkward, intelligent men mistrusted by their emotional shipmates because of their cool rationality. He also shares the standard characteristics of V...more

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Jim Another fine review, Keely. It evokes a couple thoughts:

(The novel is comprised of) a series of unconnected episodes

Indeed, the Wikipedia article on...more
Mar 30, 2011 01:57pm

Keely Indeed, the Wikipedia article on AEvV alludes to numerous Campbell-published short stories that were later incorporated into novels. It seems you have...more
Mar 30, 2011 02:25pm

Chad The short stories that the novel was based on were written in the World War Two years and not the 1950's
Sep 01, 2012 11:44am

Apr 01, 2011 James rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, read-and-reread, science-fiction

One of my favorites among the many novels of Van Vogt I have read is this classic. The story, like that told in The World of Null-A, has as its protagonist a superhero. In this case it is a genius scientist who is a Nexialist (one skilled in the science of joining together in an orderly fashion the knowledge of one field of learning with that of other fields). As a Nexialist, Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, is continually endeavoring to unite the disparate, sometimes warring, factions of scientists on th...more

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Mar 27, 2009 Stefan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I always hate to write about these venerable SF classics, because very frequently I end up being disappointed by them. I know that I can't hold genre fiction from the 1950's up to the same standards as current-day genre fiction, but...

Well, hold on. Actually, I can and I am. Maybe I just feel guilty about pointing out the various flaws, especially because back in the day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Sure, it's filled with cardboard characters (almost all male of course) that either talk about...more I always hate to write about these venerable SF classics, because very frequently I end up being disappointed by them. I know that I can't hold genre fiction from the 1950's up to the same standards as current-day genre fiction, but...

Well, hold on. Actually, I can and I am. Maybe I just feel guilty about pointing out the various flaws, especially because back in the day, this was cutting-edge stuff. Sure, it's filled with cardboard characters (almost all male of course) that either talk about science, fight off alien menaces, or do both simultaneously. Sure, some of the "cutting edge" science is now verging on the ridiculous (early in the novel, one of the scientists dictates a report and then runs it over to the steganography department to have it transcribed). Some of it is a bit unfortunate (naming the most commonly used weapons "vibrators" was just plain distracting). But there are also a lot of ideas here that were really innovative and exciting at the time.

In the end, I try to read these novels with an open mind, trying to muster admiration for them by keeping their place in the canon in mind... while trying to ignore the distractions.

So. This is an episodic novel --- it really feels like 4 separate novella's sharing the same characters. The 4 stories are incredibly similar (even down to the length --- about 50 pages each). The Space Beagle is basically a giant inter-galactic spaceship filled with a bunch of scientists from nearly every known discipline (and one new one --- more about this later). They are on a voyage heading out of our galaxy and on the way to the galaxy next door. Along the way, they encounter 4 different alien life forms (one per story) who all pose a threat to the expedition. Some of these aliens are pretty nifty (the telepathic bird-people were very cool). Others are more boring (the lay-their-eggs-inside-human-tummies variety).

Invariably, the aliens are defeated by Elliot Grosvenor, the ship's only representative of Nexialism, a relatively new science branch that is initially described in very vague terms but in the end turns out to be something like a simultaneous insight in every other science branch, achieved by hypnotic machine-learning brain-programming (with tapes --- in the vein of CJ Cherryh's Union folks but less evil). Grosvenor is initially ridiculed, shunned and/or ignored, but time and again turns out to be the ship's savior.

My favorite aspect of the novel was the sometimes ethically questionable methods Grosvenor uses to push through his will. It adds a nice greyness to the black-and-white quality of the other characters (good scientist versus evil scientist politics). Grosvenor does good things, but he sometimes accomplishes them by hypnotizing entire sections of the ship to make them do his bidding or by killing the last or only representative of an alien race.

In this sense, the novel reminded me of George RR Martin's "Tuf Voyaging" --- about another loner who is posed with moral dilemmas. (I just realize "Tuf Voyaging" is also an episodic novel. Hm.) However, none of the characters in this novel come anywhere close to the depth and charm Martin used to draw Haviland Tuf, one of my favorite SF characters of all time.

In the end, I would only recommend "The Voyage of the Space Beagle" to people who have an interest in the history of the genre and are willing to overlook some of the flaws common in older genre fiction.(less)

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Oct 24, 2012 Dan rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have read three AE van Vogt novels so far. I did not realize this was his first novel. That might explain why it seemed more mainstream (for the time) space exploration fare, and lacks his more overt libertarian themes as found in the Issher series.

The good ship Space Beagle engages in exploration of far flung galaxies, and is just one of hundreds of such flights of exploration. The main character, Grosvenor, is a Nexial scientist, a new science that is little appreciated by the other regular...more I have read three AE van Vogt novels so far. I did not realize this was his first novel. That might explain why it seemed more mainstream (for the time) space exploration fare, and lacks his more overt libertarian themes as found in the Issher series.

The good ship Space Beagle engages in exploration of far flung galaxies, and is just one of hundreds of such flights of exploration. The main character, Grosvenor, is a Nexial scientist, a new science that is little appreciated by the other regular science departments on the voyage. As a department of one, he is also the department head, but experiences resistance from the other departments when he tries to apply his approach of basically holistically viewing problem rather than from a single disciplines' perspective.

It may be that the science of this universe is depicted as too hidebound, but a read of Thomas Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions teaches us that science and scientists can indeed become resistant to new paradigms. Grosvenors initial suggestions become (from the reader's perspective) more and more urgently necessary, and culminate in his taking over the crew en masse to save humanity from perhaps its gratest threat. His Nexial approach also includes learning through autosuggestion, various kind of visual and chemical brainwashing, and defenses against the same. A recurring theme as they meet dangerous (they all are, whether intentonal or not...I guess peaceful aliens would have proven less exciting) is the applicationof cyclical historical theory (birth, rise, decline and death) to these aliens cultures and meinds. It may seem far-fetched, but it provides plausible solutions for the crew of the Space Beagle on several occasions.

One flaw in my edition was the lack of clear delineatiom between the four stories in the book. There are numbered chaopters, but nothing to indicate a new adventure is beginning. A last point is that Mr. van Vogt is from my home town. I can't help but at looking at the characters' names that he used street (Grosvenor) and personalities (Gourlay amd Morton) from there to populate his Space Beagle. This last point added a bit of charm to the read for me.(less)

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Mar 11, 2012 Josh Ang rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This classic SF novel tracks the intergalactic expeditions of the exploration spacecraft, Space Beagle. Along the way, the crew battle an intelligent cat-like predator with all the trappings of a scheming human consciousness, an amorphous male red monster with cylindrical body that kidnap members of the all-male crew to lay its spawn in (which gender study majors may knock themselves over with allusions to the male appropriation of the female womb in a very homoerotic act of procreation), and a...more

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Jul 01, 2009 Clay rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Pop culture is often dismissed as simply low culture – in contrast to the high art of opera or classical music or abstract expressionism. And there’s good reason: As long-ago scifi author Theodore Sturgeon once pointed out, “Ninety percent of everything is trash.”

A simple tour through the cable channels, or spin of the radio dial, will prove Sturgeon right, and in the mass of modern pop culture it’s much harder to filter out the signal from the noise. In classical music, for example, the bad sym...more

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May 19, 2011 Speedy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ciencia-ficción

"Alien, el octavo pasajero" bien podría basarse en uno de los cuentos de este volumen. Quizás lo haya sido, inconscientemente.

El viaje del beagle espacial presenta una serie de cuentos que relatan las aventuras que un grupo de científicos experimentan cuando salen a explorar el universo más allá de donde cualquier hombre ha llegado (claro antecendente de Star Trek) en busca de vida extraterrestre.

En dos de los cuentos el punto de vista de la narración es a través de los ojos de las bestias con...more

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Oct 19, 2012 Mutlu rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Elliot Grosvenor, Dış uzayı taramak ve incelemek için yola çıkmış olan Uzay Tazısı'ndaki tek neksiyologtur. Tek üyesi olan bölümünün başkanlığını da yapmaktadır. Uzay Tazısı yolculuğu esnasında tehlikeli türlerle,yabancı zekalarla karşılacak ve tüm sorunlarını bilim ışığında çözmeye çalışacaktır. Tüm bilimleri bünyesinde birleştiren neksiyolojinin ve Grosvenor'un akademik yobazlıklar ve kişisel husumetlerle ciddi sınavlar vermesi gerekecektir.

Kitap adı dolayısıyla (Beagle) açık bir Darwin gönder...more

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Feb 10, 2013 Rich Meyer rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2013

I've never gotten around to finishing this book before, even though I've enjoyed a lot of van Vogt's writing. The last time I tried to read it was about ten years ago and I ended up losing my copy of the paperback.

The book is a compilation/re-write of five short stories. I had read the comic book version of the first, "Black Destroyer" before. I had also heard that this book was the "inspiration" for the movies It! The Terror from Beyond Space and Alien, but while some scenes in both can be sai...more

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Apr 28, 2013 Ian Hu rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A timeless classic that has inspired Star Trek and Alien, among other movies, the Voyage of the Space Beagle tells the adventures of a large group of male spacemen aboard their spaceship the Space Beagle as it explores new worlds and meets new creatures.

Character development is evident in the entire book and the plots are very original (this was before all of the lame sci-fi ripoffs that made the plots cliched). What is astounding is that the novel is able to tie together very nicely even though...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Simon rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sf

To van Vogt, the universe is a violent place and teaming with life. The Space Beagle is a scientific exploration ship sent out from Earth to go where no man has gone before and study all that it finds. The alien beings that are encountered are invariably hostile or if they aren't their efforts to communicate their friendship inadvertedly cause much harm.

The book has an episodic nature that arises from the fact that it was forged from four seperate short stories that he reworked into one story.

T...more

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Apr 06, 2013 Rahadyan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

One of the many precursors to Star Trek, focusing on a mixed scientific and military expedition.

One of the many books recommended to me by my 8th grade social studies teacher, Mike Tanoff. My 8th grade English teacher had given me crap about all of my book reports being on science-fiction novels such as Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End and Joe Haldeman's The Forever War. Mr. Tanoff opined that my vocabulary and writing abilities were way ahead of many of my peers, so my reading tastes clearly...more

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Jun 19, 2009 Shane rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi, read-in-2009

I was in a used bookstore today and saw some vintage sci-fi so I got in the mood for some. I've had this book forever so it's about time I got to it.
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This was my first book from Van Vogt and it turned out to be exactly what I needed to scratch my vintage sci-fi itch. Aliens, spaceships, science, technology, space exploration. It had everything. It is a bit unfortunate that the "phasers" in this story happen to be called vibrators - gave it a kind of a homoerotic feel - a ship full of men all...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Jim rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Van Vogt collected three short stories together into a novel. It reads well, though. As you'd suspect, the Space Beagle is an exploratory space ship that runs into several different first contact scenarios. One is a very interesting failure to communicate. The other two have a lot in common; extreme power, immortality, war & stagnation. All have a lot of action & are tied together by a new breed of scientist, one who ties together the various specialties. There is a strong theme of 'the...more

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Mar 10, 2013 Oudge rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The front cover says 'an all time classic' and I was kinda let down. Yes it was early scifi and there were some novel (no pun intended) ideas. But most of the time I spent wondering why on earth these characters were acting in such a peculiar way. And we're you supposed to be cheering for the nexialist? At first description the science seem to tie into with early chaos theory - the kind of science that fell down the gap of classical sciences - and I was intrigued. But the science behind his last...more

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Sep 05, 2012 Dan rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

Brain-bending stuff. Van Vogt honestly thought that new ways of thinking could be devised that would help to elevate humankind to the next stage. He put a lot of that into this book. It consists of 3 or 4 previously published stories that he strung together with additional material to make it a more-or-less coherent novel, although "coherent" is rarely a word used for Van Vogt's particular brand of SF. Required reading for students of the field, and more interesting if you're a fan of the "Alien...more

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Feb 21, 2012 Derek rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: space-opera

Let me see if I understand: these explorers are the product of a galactic civilization, with atomic foundries to transmute base metals into super-substances, the ability to transverse and leave the galaxy itself, to reignite stars and relocate planets...and their interoffice mail system is based on pneumatic tubes?

There's a tremendous subtext at play throughout the entire work. In addition to the obvious fight-the-phenomenally-dangerous-monster plot lines, there are meditations on Oswald Spengle...more

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Sep 17, 2010 Manny rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I read this undistinguished piece of space opera when I was about 15. I can't say that I was a terribly discerning reader in those days - basically I read any SF I got my hands on, and enjoyed most of it - but there was one episode that managed to shock even my unreflective teenage self. I don't remember all the details, but it went something like this. The eponymous ship is several million light-years from home when it's attacked by a mysterious disembodied entity. It turns out that the aggress...more

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Feb 12, 2008 Nancy Oakes rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have just started reading old, classic science fiction. I have an old pretty well beat up 1970 version (so old that it still has an ad for Kent cigarettes in the middle of it). I also have a thing for really cool sci-fi cover art, so when I'm buying these things, I look for the cover art to see if it's entertaining. I was surprised to find out, was very likely the basis for one of my favorite movies ever, Alien. It is divided up into four stories, all of them tied together by the fact that the...more I have just started reading old, classic science fiction. I have an old pretty well beat up 1970 version (so old that it still has an ad for Kent cigarettes in the middle of it). I also have a thing for really cool sci-fi cover art, so when I'm buying these things, I look for the cover art to see if it's entertaining. I was surprised to find out, was very likely the basis for one of my favorite movies ever, Alien. It is divided up into four stories, all of them tied together by the fact that they all happened on this particular voyage of the Space Beagle -- a craft and crew which was put together to explore new worlds & galaxies.

The stories are as follows:
1. There is an encounter with a cat-like creature with tentacles who feeds on "id" on a desolate planet who threatens the ship & its crew (and possibly humanity);

2. an attack through psychic means by a bird-like population of aliens living in an outer galaxy;

3. third (and probably the best) the discovery of a bizarre creature who has no home except in space, pulled and pushed by the cosmic forces, and as you might guess, starving -- this one is outstanding.

4. another encounter with an attacking alien creature.

Another factor that ties all of these stories together is one Dr. Elliott Grosvenor, who was the first person to have graduated from "the Nexial Foundation." Grovesnor has been taken on board as a scientist (this expedition is filled with scientists) representing the field of nexialism -- a sort of integration of thought and science combined with mind and body control techniques. Where other scientists had problems trying to figure out what to do during each crisis listed above, Grovesnor could step back and use his education to solve the problems.

So here's what I didn't like about these stories: if you have absolutely no clue who Oswald Spengler was you may not understand how nexialism relies on inferences from Spengler's theories.

If you want some really fine classic sci-fi, then you may enjoy this one. It is dated, for sure, but still fun.(less)

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Jan 21, 2008 Robert Beveridge rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: finished, cle-pub-lib

A. E. van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle (Astounding, 1950)

The cover of the ebook trumpets this as "the novel that inspired Alien." And, to be fair, van Vogt sued Ridley Scott and co. and won. Okay, you can see the resemblances to the film if you turn your head and squint just right... but that Beagle did more than influence (roughly) the folks who developed the film is, in the final analysis, hogwash.

Voyage of the Space Beagle (the ship named, of course, after Darwin's home for a number o...more A. E. van Vogt, The Voyage of the Space Beagle (Astounding, 1950)

The cover of the ebook trumpets this as "the novel that inspired Alien." And, to be fair, van Vogt sued Ridley Scott and co. and won. Okay, you can see the resemblances to the film if you turn your head and squint just right... but that Beagle did more than influence (roughly) the folks who developed the film is, in the final analysis, hogwash.

Voyage of the Space Beagle (the ship named, of course, after Darwin's home for a number of years) is only loosely a novel. It is actually three of van Vogt's stories from Astounding combined with some extra material intended, one assumes, to tie the whole thing together. It doesn't work very well in that regard, as the book still comes off as far too episodic to be more than a collection of short stories. The added material is, however, the best-written and most compelling stuff in the book, and should be noted for that.

The stories center around one Elliott Grosvenor, paragon of a science called Nexialism, which unites all the sciences into one whole. (One is tempted to think of Nexialism as the science which grows up after the Unified Field equation is discovered.) He's on a very large (thousand-man) ship travelling about the Universe for what one can assume are the purposes of discovery (the ship's purpose is lightly alluded to close to the end of the book, but never spelled out). As with all episodic novels, the crew ends up encountering new creatures, trying to figure out what they are, and trying to figure out how to rid themselves of them once they have figured out what they are. The original stories follow exact patterns in this regard, and are where the source material for those parts of Alien that can be found here stem; everything Alienesque one will find in the book, by the way, happens in the first half hour of the film.

What is more interesting here is what came after to tie everything together, the expanded sections of Grosvenor's dynamic with the rest of the crew. The ship is filled with petty disagreements and minor skirmishes for power, each of which is catalyzed into action by the invasion of each of the new species in turn, and Grosvenor's handling of the various power structures is what makes this a truly readable piece of work. Had van Vogt expanded this aspect of the book more, it could have done nothing but improve. As it stands, worth reading for Alien completists. Those who are wondering what all the fuss was about will probably still be wondering after they finish. ** ½ (less)

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Nov 15, 2007 Christian rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: exodarwinists

If Darwin's Beagle had had a quarter of the problems the Space Beagle has, then we would all still be creationists.

This is a good book. However, it suffers from a couple problems. First off, it's really a melding of four short stories, not a proper novel, so there's very little exposition between the four different plots, and frankly, this book could've used an additional 100 pages or so (a rare criticism from me, as usually books are too long) because for an exploration ship, we don't get much...more

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Apr 10, 2010 Lawrence Raybon rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This book was lots of fun! I would compare it to watching reruns of Dr. Who (the ones from the 70s and 80s) or the original star trek. Yes, the target audience expected different things of science fiction when this was written than the average reader of today, but if you keep that in mind "Voyage of the Space Beagle" is well worth the read. Please understand that this is a "fixup", an almalgamation of four previously published short stories and some of the transitions are not perfect.

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Oct 10, 2008 Wadepalmer rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is one of my childhood favorites that I return to time and time again. It is an attempt to bring the voyage of Darwin's ship Beagle into the space age along with introducing a new holistic science. The modern struggle of science specialists to be able to see the big picture and how everything interrelates is a constant theme. It is amazine to me that this book (actually a compilation of magazine short stories) started life in 1939. The educated guesses of space travel are very fun. At this...more

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Jun 24, 2012 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

A fascinating and fun read, this classic science fiction novel contains many of the ideas found in later SF movies and books. The Voyage of the Space Beagle is imaginative and action-packed. I did think that one of the stories was a bit on the dull side, but not enough to dock the book. The aliens were original for the time it was written, and they were described in detail, including their biology. Definitely a hard SF story without a lot of "fluff".

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Jun 02, 2012 David Szondy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In July 1939, Van Vogt's first short story, "Black Destroyer" was published in Astounding Science Fiction magazine. By 1950, it, along with three other stories, were collected and rewritten to form his novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle.

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Aug 31, 2010 Eric Troy rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Sep 11, 2011 Shamus Mcgillicuddy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Golden age novel that's essentially a handful of short stories that were jammed together into an episodic novel. It's an interesting read from a historical perspective, as there are a few chapters that clearly served as an inspiration for the xenomorphs of the Aliens movie franchise.

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Mar 22, 2011 Douglas rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

This book is really a series of short stories about the travels an incidents encountered by the ship Space Beagle as it journeys to another galaxy. The strange thing is tthhat the stories just run together, they do not have separate titles. Oh well, interesting read none the less.

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About A.E. van Vogt

Alfred Elton van Vogt was a Canadian-born science fiction author regarded by some as one of the most popular and complex science fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century—the "Golden Age" of the genre.

van Vogt was born to Russian Mennonite family. Until he was four years old, van Vogt and his family spoke only a dialect of Low German in the home.

He began his writing career with 'true story' ro...more

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