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The Startling Worlds of Henry Kuttner
From the pages of Startling Stories and science fiction's Golden Age... Here are three magnificent novels of alternate time streams and fantastic worlds, of ordinary men and women who, by some fluke, are torn from the earth we know to land in parallel worlds where genetically altered monsters rule... realms where Alchemy is the state religion... places where science and sorcery battle for control.
And your guide for these three incredible journeys is Henry Kuttner, master storyteller, world-builder extraordinaire, and creator of exotic new places and exciting ideas... a writer who ranks with Heinlein, Asimov, A. Merritt, and van Vogt, as one of the top authors of that golden era when the science fiction magazines ruled supreme. Now three of Henry Kuttner's finest stories await you: The Portal in the Picture (also published as Beyond Earth's Gate), Valley of the Flame, and The Dark World.
And your guide for these three incredible journeys is Henry Kuttner, master storyteller, world-builder extraordinaire, and creator of exotic new places and exciting ideas... a writer who ranks with Heinlein, Asimov, A. Merritt, and van Vogt, as one of the top authors of that golden era when the science fiction magazines ruled supreme. Now three of Henry Kuttner's finest stories await you: The Portal in the Picture (also published as Beyond Earth's Gate), Valley of the Flame, and The Dark World.
357 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1987
About the author
Henry Kuttner
758 books216 followersHenry Kuttner was, alone and in collaboration with his wife, the great science fiction and fantasy writer C.L. Moore, one of the four or five most important writers of the 1940s, the writer whose work went furthest in its sociological and psychological insight to making science fiction a human as well as technological literature. He was an important influence upon every contemporary and every science fiction writer who succeeded him. In the early 1940s and under many pseudonyms, Kuttner and Moore published very widely through the range of the science fiction and fantasy pulp markets.
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, and Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant, are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. There are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature: "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950s, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty finished the Baldy series in 1953). Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine, and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
His pseudonyms include:
Edward J. Bellin
Paul Edmonds
Noel Gardner
Will Garth
James Hall
Keith Hammond
Hudson Hastings
Peter Horn
Kelvin Kent
Robert O. Kenyon
C. H. Liddell
Hugh Maepenn
Scott Morgan
Lawrence O'Donnell
Lewis Padgett
Woodrow Wilson Smith
Charles Stoddard
Their fantasy novels, all of them for the lower grade markets like Future, Thrilling Wonder, and Planet Stories, are forgotten now; their science fiction novels, Fury and Mutant, are however well regarded. There is no question but that Kuttner's talent lay primarily in the shorter form; Mutant is an amalgamation of five novelettes and Fury, his only true science fiction novel, is considered as secondary material. There are, however, 40 or 50 shorter works which are among the most significant achievements in the field and they remain consistently in print. The critic James Blish, quoting a passage from Mutant about the telepathic perception of the little blank, silvery minds of goldfish, noted that writing of this quality was not only rare in science fiction but rare throughout literature: "The Kuttners learned a few thing writing for the pulp magazines, however, that one doesn't learn reading Henry James."
In the early 1950s, Kuttner and Moore, both citing weariness with writing, even creative exhaustion, turned away from science fiction; both obtained undergraduate degrees in psychology from the University of Southern California and Henry Kuttner, enrolled in an MA program, planned to be a clinical psychologist. A few science fiction short stories and novelettes appeared (Humpty Dumpty finished the Baldy series in 1953). Those stories -- Home There Is No Returning, Home Is the Hunter, Two-Handed Engine, and Rite of Passage -- were at the highest level of Kuttner's work. He also published three mystery novels with Harper & Row (of which only the first is certainly his; the other two, apparently, were farmed out by Kuttner to other writers when he found himself incapable of finishing them).
Henry Kuttner died suddenly in his sleep, probably from a stroke, in February 1958; Catherine Moore remarried a physician and survived him by almost three decades but she never published again. She remained in touch with the science fiction community, however, and was Guest of Honor at the World Convention in Denver in 198l. She died of complications of Alzheimer's Disease in 1987.
His pseudonyms include:
Edward J. Bellin
Paul Edmonds
Noel Gardner
Will Garth
James Hall
Keith Hammond
Hudson Hastings
Peter Horn
Kelvin Kent
Robert O. Kenyon
C. H. Liddell
Hugh Maepenn
Scott Morgan
Lawrence O'Donnell
Lewis Padgett
Woodrow Wilson Smith
Charles Stoddard
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
April 23, 2026
This Questar book from 1987 is an omnibus volume of three novels by Henry Kuttner, with the possible (probable, in fact) sometimes uncredited collaboration of his wife, C.L. Moore. The Portal in the Picture was published in the September 1949 issue of Startling Stories as by Kuttner, and was published in paperback by Ace in 1954 as Beyond Earth's Gate as a collaboration by Lewis Padgett (a pseudonym used by both of them) and Moore; it was in one of the Ace Double volumes, bound with an Andre Norton novel. Valley of the Flame was published in the March 1946 issue of Startling as by Keith Hammond, another Kuttner pseudonym, and was reprinted in paperback by Ace in 1964 with Kuttner's name. The final novel is The Dark World, from the Summer issue of Startling in 1946, also as by Kuttner. Ace released it in paperback in 1965. The writing of all three is quite pulpy and fast-paced and adventurous, but there are some passages that are quite strikingly lyrical, descriptions of exotic locations that remind you a lot of Moore's style and talent. There's a lost-race story set in Paititi, hidden in a South America jungle where time passes strangely, an alternate-world fantasy set in Malesco where alchemy rather than science prevails, and the more serious Dark World, which has a strong basis in Celtic mythology. Baird Searles contributed a brief but insightful introduction to the volume, which has a pretty good David Mattingly cover. It's a fine Golden Age retrospective.
May 22, 2022
Kuttner really loves his time displaced other worlds.
In the first story "The Portal in the Picture" we have Eddie Burton passing through his Uncle's picture into a different NYC than the one he came from in pursuit of Lorna, the gal he just cannot shake. In the other world there is a major class society taking place and Eddie goes on quite the adventure there in order to get Lorna and return to New York again.
The second story "Valley of the Flame" Brian Raft ends up in another world in which the population evolved from cats as opposed to apes and uncovers the mystery of a radioactive fire. This one read more like a Burroughs concept taking place in jungle mainly.
The third story I read this year already which was "The Dark World" featuring Edward Bond ending up in a world where his doppleganger is an evil man with three other villains in his circle and each a threat to not only each other, but to the world itself.
Pretty decent pulp from Kuttner with possible help from his wife C. L. Moore who I read would hop onto the typewriter and work on the stories her husband was working on if he was out or left the room. Who the hell knows ?
In the first story "The Portal in the Picture" we have Eddie Burton passing through his Uncle's picture into a different NYC than the one he came from in pursuit of Lorna, the gal he just cannot shake. In the other world there is a major class society taking place and Eddie goes on quite the adventure there in order to get Lorna and return to New York again.
The second story "Valley of the Flame" Brian Raft ends up in another world in which the population evolved from cats as opposed to apes and uncovers the mystery of a radioactive fire. This one read more like a Burroughs concept taking place in jungle mainly.
The third story I read this year already which was "The Dark World" featuring Edward Bond ending up in a world where his doppleganger is an evil man with three other villains in his circle and each a threat to not only each other, but to the world itself.
Pretty decent pulp from Kuttner with possible help from his wife C. L. Moore who I read would hop onto the typewriter and work on the stories her husband was working on if he was out or left the room. Who the hell knows ?
March 7, 2013
A diverse collection. The arching theme are the "worlds" of Kuttner's creations, which here are an alternate history story, a lost world story in the scientific romance sense, and a hard-to-classify story that wants to be a fantasy but for some reason has an alternate history fig leaf pulled inadequately over its nethers.
Of these, The Portal in the Picture is the odd one out, as it is conspicuously less of an adventure piece, and is more along the lines of L. Sprague de Camp's The Wheels of If or H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen in tone: a man lost in a weird alternate history has to use his wits and technical knowledge to overcome his total absence of starting resources, and violence is not really the answer.
It's more a matter of intrigue and conspiracy, and while the plot elements lock together admirably at its climax, getting there was a haul, and I'm not sure why that was. Too much focus on the minutia of his situation? The sludgy mundanity of this world? A fault in pacing?
In comparison, the other two were incredibly briskly paced and felt much larger than their 125-odd pages, in the best possible sense. Valley crams the backstory, the travel to and discovery of the Paititi valley, the alien and malevolent Garden of Kharn, a mad king and his vengeful lover, various monsters, and a romantic subplot all in there somewhere, and still manages to get the plot done as well.
Of these, The Portal in the Picture is the odd one out, as it is conspicuously less of an adventure piece, and is more along the lines of L. Sprague de Camp's The Wheels of If or H. Beam Piper's Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen in tone: a man lost in a weird alternate history has to use his wits and technical knowledge to overcome his total absence of starting resources, and violence is not really the answer.
It's more a matter of intrigue and conspiracy, and while the plot elements lock together admirably at its climax, getting there was a haul, and I'm not sure why that was. Too much focus on the minutia of his situation? The sludgy mundanity of this world? A fault in pacing?
In comparison, the other two were incredibly briskly paced and felt much larger than their 125-odd pages, in the best possible sense. Valley crams the backstory, the travel to and discovery of the Paititi valley, the alien and malevolent Garden of Kharn, a mad king and his vengeful lover, various monsters, and a romantic subplot all in there somewhere, and still manages to get the plot done as well.
November 25, 2020
The first two novellas, (The Portal in the Picture and The Valley of the Flame), left me cold. They struck me as old-school "boys own adventure" stories full of stereotypical characters and situations -- Oh, those horny cat-women who just want to explore interspecies romance!
Kuttner also annoyed me by introducing scientific ideas into his stories without adequately explaining them. For example, when the protagonist of The Portal in the Picture enters a parallel universe, the explanation of how this happened is sketchy. In the Dark World, the supernatural powers of the magical characters such as shape shifting and turning people to stone with a single glance are explained as being the result of mutation.
I fell in love with the third novella, The Dark World. Though The Dark World was written in 1946, it seems far ahead of its time in its blending of Celtic mythology and sci-fi. It also featured an unreliable protagonist with a doozy of an identity crisis.
Kuttner also annoyed me by introducing scientific ideas into his stories without adequately explaining them. For example, when the protagonist of The Portal in the Picture enters a parallel universe, the explanation of how this happened is sketchy. In the Dark World, the supernatural powers of the magical characters such as shape shifting and turning people to stone with a single glance are explained as being the result of mutation.
I fell in love with the third novella, The Dark World. Though The Dark World was written in 1946, it seems far ahead of its time in its blending of Celtic mythology and sci-fi. It also featured an unreliable protagonist with a doozy of an identity crisis.
September 19, 2025
Kuttner And Moore’s “Portal In The Picture”
review by Jeff Baker
(September 19th, 2025)
There’s a land that I’ve heard of, once in a lullaby-----”Over The Rainbow.”
Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s novella “The Portal In the Picture” was first published as “Beyond Earth’s Gates” in the September 1949 issue of “Startling Stories Magazine.” The Kuttners (Husband-and-Wife writers; that’s “Catherine” L. Moore, by the way.) collaborated on a lot of fiction to the extent that they said they weren’t sure who wrote what since they would alternate writing chores on a single story and “Portal…” is basically a short novel, so this review will credit it to both writers.
The plot is simply told: New York actor Eddie Burton inherits an apartment from his favorite uncle, Jim Burton. When a portal opens up in the air in the apartment Eddie’s wannabe-girlfriend Lola is sucked through and Eddie follows some time later. Eddie discovers he is in Malesco, a fantastic city that is nonetheless a gritty, urban jungle, and is the place Eddie’s Uncle Jim used to spin bedtime stories about. Eddie finds it’s quite real and that Uncle Jim had spent about ten years there, which explains to Eddie how his Uncle could make up the Malescan language which he partially taught Eddie.
Eddie narrates to us that he is no hero like Alan Quattermain or John Carter Of Mars: he just wants to get Lola and go home. But he gets involved in the oppressive world held in the grip of a hierarchy of priests and their religion of Alchemy.
The story is set in the very-near future and the Kuttners, writing in the 1940’s, had no problem making television and video a regular part of both the worlds of New York and Malesco. Nonetheless the story is old-fashioned in a lot of ways: Lola comes off as a ditsy airhead who has no problem with Malesco venerating her as an “angel.” Also, Eddie comes off like the standard Kuttner hero; just short of being a character out of Damon Runyon.
As the story goes on and Eddie gets in further over his head, the reader wonders how he’ll get out of this. So does Eddie and so did I! Knowing how the Kuttners did their writing I can almost imagine one of them getting up from the typewriter at a pivotal moment in the story leaving the other to figure out “what’s next?”
Eddie starts off the story sitting in a nightclub after his adventure is over and references his eventual return during the story so while we know he does get home, we wonder what will happen along the way. The climax is satisfying and clever. The entire story is a breezy read with the humor mainly coming from Eddie as he deals with a situation straight out of one of the novels of Haggard or Burroughs. The Kuttners had read those book series which were still being written when they were growing up.
There were also moments that reminded me of the novel “The Wizard Of Oz” as well as “Logan’s Run,” the latter of which did not exist when Henry Kuttner was still alive.
“The Portal In the Picture” is readily available online or in used stories in various collections. My copy is collected in the 1987 Warner Books paperback “The Startling Worlds Of Henry Kuttner” which collects three novels the Kuttners published in “Startling Stories” Magazine, where they were regular contributors.
--end--
review by Jeff Baker
(September 19th, 2025)
There’s a land that I’ve heard of, once in a lullaby-----”Over The Rainbow.”
Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore’s novella “The Portal In the Picture” was first published as “Beyond Earth’s Gates” in the September 1949 issue of “Startling Stories Magazine.” The Kuttners (Husband-and-Wife writers; that’s “Catherine” L. Moore, by the way.) collaborated on a lot of fiction to the extent that they said they weren’t sure who wrote what since they would alternate writing chores on a single story and “Portal…” is basically a short novel, so this review will credit it to both writers.
The plot is simply told: New York actor Eddie Burton inherits an apartment from his favorite uncle, Jim Burton. When a portal opens up in the air in the apartment Eddie’s wannabe-girlfriend Lola is sucked through and Eddie follows some time later. Eddie discovers he is in Malesco, a fantastic city that is nonetheless a gritty, urban jungle, and is the place Eddie’s Uncle Jim used to spin bedtime stories about. Eddie finds it’s quite real and that Uncle Jim had spent about ten years there, which explains to Eddie how his Uncle could make up the Malescan language which he partially taught Eddie.
Eddie narrates to us that he is no hero like Alan Quattermain or John Carter Of Mars: he just wants to get Lola and go home. But he gets involved in the oppressive world held in the grip of a hierarchy of priests and their religion of Alchemy.
The story is set in the very-near future and the Kuttners, writing in the 1940’s, had no problem making television and video a regular part of both the worlds of New York and Malesco. Nonetheless the story is old-fashioned in a lot of ways: Lola comes off as a ditsy airhead who has no problem with Malesco venerating her as an “angel.” Also, Eddie comes off like the standard Kuttner hero; just short of being a character out of Damon Runyon.
As the story goes on and Eddie gets in further over his head, the reader wonders how he’ll get out of this. So does Eddie and so did I! Knowing how the Kuttners did their writing I can almost imagine one of them getting up from the typewriter at a pivotal moment in the story leaving the other to figure out “what’s next?”
Eddie starts off the story sitting in a nightclub after his adventure is over and references his eventual return during the story so while we know he does get home, we wonder what will happen along the way. The climax is satisfying and clever. The entire story is a breezy read with the humor mainly coming from Eddie as he deals with a situation straight out of one of the novels of Haggard or Burroughs. The Kuttners had read those book series which were still being written when they were growing up.
There were also moments that reminded me of the novel “The Wizard Of Oz” as well as “Logan’s Run,” the latter of which did not exist when Henry Kuttner was still alive.
“The Portal In the Picture” is readily available online or in used stories in various collections. My copy is collected in the 1987 Warner Books paperback “The Startling Worlds Of Henry Kuttner” which collects three novels the Kuttners published in “Startling Stories” Magazine, where they were regular contributors.
--end--
July 24, 2021
This's an anthology of three pulp "science fantasy" novellas, which barely even pretend their technobabble about splitting timelines and "life force" and sped-up time mean anything. The characters are two-dimensional at best (which can partly be justified by each of the stories being 100-150 paperback pages). But the plots are fast-moving and fun; I'm glad I read them.
January 1, 2019
The Dark World, third in this collection, is not reader friendly. The second story is could have been a script for a 1950's B movie. Loved the opener, though.
May 21, 2024
So many plot twists, this is classic science fiction at its' best!
January 17, 2016
I love short stories. Probably started when we read Shirley Jackson's The Lottery in school. Henry Kuttner wrote some awesome stories. I especially loved his drunken inventor Gallegher who sobers up and has to figure out what he invented, and the hillbilly mutants who have special powers but need to keep out of the public eye. If you like short stories, these are classics.
November 29, 2009
A collection of longer stories from Henry Kuttner's pulp Fantasy works. Kuttner is largely forgotten today, but he and his wife C. L. Moore were two of the best short story writers of the early SF magazines.
August 8, 2016
One of the best reads.
July 3, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews