Modern Science Fiction: Its Meaning and Its Future

by Reginald Bretnor (Editor)

Essays by John W. Campbell, Jr., Anthony Boucher, Don Fabun, Fletcher Pratt, Rosalie Moore, L. Sprague de Camp, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Philip Wylie, Gerald Heard, and Reginald Bretnor. The original 1953 edition was the first serious discussion of modern science fiction as literature. The San Francisco Chronicle said: "The book is very likely to recruit a whole host of new readers. . . A freely argued, objective, highly individualistic study by ten writers of the origins, advances and future prospects of science fiction as a spontaneous living literature." The essays are grouped in three sections: "Science Fiction Today," "Science Fiction as Literature," and "Science Fiction, Science, and Modern Man." This classic symposium is a fit companion to Mr. Bretnor's later books Science Fiction, Today and Tomorrow and The Craft of Science Fiction. Our new edition adds a preface by the editor, a chapter of notes and corrections, and a complete index.

327 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953