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The Early Pohl
Elegy for a Dead Planet: Luna 1937 writing as Elton Andrews--a poem, his 1st publication
The Dweller in the Ice 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
The King's Eye 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
It's a Young World 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Daughters of Eternity 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Earth, Farewell! 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Conspiracy on Callisto 1943 writing as James MacCreigh
Highwayman of the Void 1943 writing under Dirk Wylie's name
Double-Cross 1943 writing as James MacCreigh
The Dweller in the Ice 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
The King's Eye 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
It's a Young World 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Daughters of Eternity 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Earth, Farewell! 1940 writing as James MacCreigh
Conspiracy on Callisto 1943 writing as James MacCreigh
Highwayman of the Void 1943 writing under Dirk Wylie's name
Double-Cross 1943 writing as James MacCreigh
183 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1976
About the author
Frederik Pohl
1,137 books1,086 followersFrederik George Pohl, Jr. was an American science fiction writer, editor and fan, with a career spanning over seventy years. From about 1959 until 1969, Pohl edited Galaxy magazine and its sister magazine IF winning the Hugo for IF three years in a row. His writing also won him three Hugos and multiple Nebula Awards. He became a Nebula Grand Master in 1993.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
February 9, 2021
This is a collection of Pohl's earliest stories, and is notable for its historical perspective; the stories themselves aren't outstanding. It's an interesting companion piece to his autobiography, The Way the Future Was, and the non-fiction anecdotes and comments in this one are quite interesting. It's also a nice companion volume with The Early Asimov and The Early Del Rey, to compare how the giants of the Golden Age field started out and stacked up against one another. When two different writers give first hand accounts of the same event, it's fascinating to see how their perspectives differ. (Particularly the banning from the first Worldcon, for example.) It's a worthwhile book for people interested in the early days of the genre, despite the unpleasant cover.
August 19, 2018
These are some of Mr. Pohl's earliest published works, credited the by pseudonym of James MacCreigh, written while in WWII and others while editor of small edition Scifi mags. These are well worth a read if a true fan of his work. It is not so much the average hit or miss stories themselves that are most note-worthy, but rather, the autobiographical tales inserted between them.
Also, I would nominate this dust jacket artwork as contender for worst scifi cover.
Also, I would nominate this dust jacket artwork as contender for worst scifi cover.
June 22, 2020
Inspired by his fellow Futurian’s book ‘The Early Asimov’, Fred Pohl persuaded publisher Doubleday to let him do the same thing but more modestly. Asimov’s large tome runs to several hundred pages and had to be divided into three for paperback publication. ‘The Early Pohl’ is just over 180 pages but contains the same mix of old stories interspersed with autobiography which is better than the stories.
With the exception of a few collaborations, young Fred Pohl didn’t do well at getting his early work published but finally managed to get a job as editor of ‘Super Science Stories’ on a paltry salary. Then he could publish them himself. In effect, this is self-publishing but the stories are no worse than the other fillers in the bad magazines of that era. He published them under pseudonyms because it seemed romantic at the time. I’ll give the publication dates for the benefit of historians.
The stories aren’t great but they are entertaining. ‘The Dweller In The Ice’ which appeared under his usual pseudonym James MacCreigh (Super Science Stories, Jan 1941) is about a monster in a mine. I liked the Hormone Salts workers use to keep their body temperature high. The monster is interesting in a half-baked kind of way and the attitudes of the time shine through in the dialogue: ‘A woman is trained to cling to a man.’
Those old favourites Venusian swamp men feature in ‘The King’s Eye’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb 1941). Chester Wing and Farrel Henderson crash-land on our neighbouring planet where humans are not welcome since outlaws stole a jewel. As the story opens, they are playing cards and Farrel’s skill at sleight of hand is introduced. It will crop up later. While not a masterpiece, this yarn does demonstrate basic construction skills such as introducing character names early.
Like young Silverberg, Pohl decided that hacking out filler material was not sufficiently ambitious and tried to write better stories. His first example of this is ‘It’s A Young World’ (Astonishing Stories, April 1941) in which primitive tribes compete and kill each other in a forest setting. When Keefe breaks the tribe’s rules to save a friend from a terrible death, he is exiled and chased. His escape route takes him to new places where he discovers the truth about his world. It’s an adventure yarn with a hint of the philosophy that underpins Robert Heinlein’s story ‘Universe’.
‘Daughters Of Eternity’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb 1942) is about a peace conference between the Earth-Mars-Venus alliance and the Oberonians. In an echo of the time it was written, the Oberonians regard themselves as a Master Race and are keen on war. Also at the conference are the Amonnia men of Jupiter and Saturn and metal delegates from the Robot Republic. It’s okay but technically flawed because the narrator is not the one who solves the crisis. As with all the previous stories in this volume, Pohl bought it off himself in his capacity as editor.
In ‘Earth, Farewell’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb. 1943) the rational, sane beings Others have taken control of Earth and ended international disputes, along with ‘the absurdity of democracy’. Once a year, they take a select group intelligent, healthy specimens of four best men and four best women to their home planet for training. Here the theme is cultural conditioning. Apart from some pulpish overtones: ‘He lipped a word to the pilot’, it’s a good story. At this stage, Pohl worked as a reader for ‘Astonishing’ but didn’t have any say over acceptance so the boss bought this. The rest of the stories here were also sold to someone other than himself.
There is pulp writing in ‘Conspiracy On Callisto’ which appeared in ‘Planet Stories’, Winter 1943: ‘Don’t be a fool,’ he grated. James Blish had not yet written his essay damning all said substitutes. The conspiracy of the title involves the crooked Governor of Callisto, a former penal colony and a dashing hero who loses his memory. As an adventure story, it’s fine.
I like corny old stories like these. The emphasis is on the adventure and the sense of wonder, not on the character or literary style. The autobiographical pieces about the life of a struggling young writer in the early years of the burgeoning SF field are interesting, too, and probably the main reason for buying this kind of book. If like me, you loved ‘The Early Asimov’ and ‘In The Beginning’ by Robert Silverberg, then this will be your kind of thing. Hard to get but not impossible.
Eamonn Murphy
With the exception of a few collaborations, young Fred Pohl didn’t do well at getting his early work published but finally managed to get a job as editor of ‘Super Science Stories’ on a paltry salary. Then he could publish them himself. In effect, this is self-publishing but the stories are no worse than the other fillers in the bad magazines of that era. He published them under pseudonyms because it seemed romantic at the time. I’ll give the publication dates for the benefit of historians.
The stories aren’t great but they are entertaining. ‘The Dweller In The Ice’ which appeared under his usual pseudonym James MacCreigh (Super Science Stories, Jan 1941) is about a monster in a mine. I liked the Hormone Salts workers use to keep their body temperature high. The monster is interesting in a half-baked kind of way and the attitudes of the time shine through in the dialogue: ‘A woman is trained to cling to a man.’
Those old favourites Venusian swamp men feature in ‘The King’s Eye’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb 1941). Chester Wing and Farrel Henderson crash-land on our neighbouring planet where humans are not welcome since outlaws stole a jewel. As the story opens, they are playing cards and Farrel’s skill at sleight of hand is introduced. It will crop up later. While not a masterpiece, this yarn does demonstrate basic construction skills such as introducing character names early.
Like young Silverberg, Pohl decided that hacking out filler material was not sufficiently ambitious and tried to write better stories. His first example of this is ‘It’s A Young World’ (Astonishing Stories, April 1941) in which primitive tribes compete and kill each other in a forest setting. When Keefe breaks the tribe’s rules to save a friend from a terrible death, he is exiled and chased. His escape route takes him to new places where he discovers the truth about his world. It’s an adventure yarn with a hint of the philosophy that underpins Robert Heinlein’s story ‘Universe’.
‘Daughters Of Eternity’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb 1942) is about a peace conference between the Earth-Mars-Venus alliance and the Oberonians. In an echo of the time it was written, the Oberonians regard themselves as a Master Race and are keen on war. Also at the conference are the Amonnia men of Jupiter and Saturn and metal delegates from the Robot Republic. It’s okay but technically flawed because the narrator is not the one who solves the crisis. As with all the previous stories in this volume, Pohl bought it off himself in his capacity as editor.
In ‘Earth, Farewell’ (Astonishing Stories, Feb. 1943) the rational, sane beings Others have taken control of Earth and ended international disputes, along with ‘the absurdity of democracy’. Once a year, they take a select group intelligent, healthy specimens of four best men and four best women to their home planet for training. Here the theme is cultural conditioning. Apart from some pulpish overtones: ‘He lipped a word to the pilot’, it’s a good story. At this stage, Pohl worked as a reader for ‘Astonishing’ but didn’t have any say over acceptance so the boss bought this. The rest of the stories here were also sold to someone other than himself.
There is pulp writing in ‘Conspiracy On Callisto’ which appeared in ‘Planet Stories’, Winter 1943: ‘Don’t be a fool,’ he grated. James Blish had not yet written his essay damning all said substitutes. The conspiracy of the title involves the crooked Governor of Callisto, a former penal colony and a dashing hero who loses his memory. As an adventure story, it’s fine.
I like corny old stories like these. The emphasis is on the adventure and the sense of wonder, not on the character or literary style. The autobiographical pieces about the life of a struggling young writer in the early years of the burgeoning SF field are interesting, too, and probably the main reason for buying this kind of book. If like me, you loved ‘The Early Asimov’ and ‘In The Beginning’ by Robert Silverberg, then this will be your kind of thing. Hard to get but not impossible.
Eamonn Murphy
June 3, 2018
Another salvage from my late Dad's SF bookshelf, The Early Pohl might hold some appeal for hardcore Pohl fans (if those are a thing) in the same way that listening to something like "Elton John - Rare Masters" does - kinda fun to see how bad they were before they actually got good.
The autobiographical blurbs between the largely terrible stories were the only bits of interest, and I did end up reading all of those while skipping over the longer stories: hanging with Sagan and Asimov as kids, setting up the first SF fan clubs, working on the early pulp magazines. And amusing to hear him say that in the early days, everybody still expected to find life on Mars and Venus, and so they were crushed to eventually learn that there (probably) was not, because that then meant there was no chance of life anywhere in the solar system - since scientists (and writers) are now getting excited about the possibility of life on some of the outer moons, something they apparently never even considered back then.
The autobiographical blurbs between the largely terrible stories were the only bits of interest, and I did end up reading all of those while skipping over the longer stories: hanging with Sagan and Asimov as kids, setting up the first SF fan clubs, working on the early pulp magazines. And amusing to hear him say that in the early days, everybody still expected to find life on Mars and Venus, and so they were crushed to eventually learn that there (probably) was not, because that then meant there was no chance of life anywhere in the solar system - since scientists (and writers) are now getting excited about the possibility of life on some of the outer moons, something they apparently never even considered back then.
January 27, 2023
This is an anthology of 8 early Fred Pohl short stories that appeared in SciFi magazines between 1933 and 1944. The stories are outdated and the plots are too predictable. They are pulp fiction fantasy stories more than science fiction.
However, Fred Pohl's introductions for each story are full of personal comments about everyday life in the USA during War World II. The narrative about the beginnings of the most iconic SciFi magazines, fan clubs, and his friendship with famous SciFi legends (Isaac Asimov, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Dirk Wylie, Carl Sagan, Don Wollheim, etc.) is awesome! For that alone, this book is worth reading.
Considering both points above, I give this book three stars.
However, Fred Pohl's introductions for each story are full of personal comments about everyday life in the USA during War World II. The narrative about the beginnings of the most iconic SciFi magazines, fan clubs, and his friendship with famous SciFi legends (Isaac Asimov, Cyril M. Kornbluth, Dirk Wylie, Carl Sagan, Don Wollheim, etc.) is awesome! For that alone, this book is worth reading.
Considering both points above, I give this book three stars.
September 23, 2021
My first experience with Pohl - I loved most of it, and couldn’t stand some of it. Many of the stories were creative and exciting, others were dry and boring, but his actual life stories in between each story made them memorable. It’s amazing to see the people who knew, the places he went, and the things he did (using pseudonyms when writing and then subsequently buying the stories from himself as an editor…) were some of the most interesting points of this book. Definitely worth trying to source some his other work!
February 16, 2019
Nicht besonders gut die stories, vielleicht noch am ehesten annehmbar die Geschichte des Unsterblichen, der zur geistigen Auffrischung ohne Gedächtnis für ein paar Jahre das Leben eines Wilden führt. 5/10
September 13, 2009
A collection of Pohl's earliest science fiction works, stories and a poem, from 1937 through 1943.
August 17, 2015
SciFi - Autobiographical essays are interspersed with 8 short stories that first appeared under pen names in the pulps of 1940-44.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews