u/dblowe

Silverberg did several of these sorts of anthologies, as the back cover shows.

An all-original anthology in memory of John W. Campbell, featuring an all-star lineup of authors he helped make famous. Illustrations by Frank Kelly Freas (the cover is the first one he did for the magazine in the 1940s (edit: 1953!), later of course made famous by Queen.

This was a paperback-original series edited by Terry Carr, who put out a lot of anthologies (and wrote some interesting short stories of his own in the 60s and 70s). As you can see from the table of contents, it's a strong selection. I bought this off the spinner rack in 1971 as a 9-year-old, and it was my first exposure to Lafferty, Borges, and Ballard.

These covers will be familiar to anyone who bought Bradbury's work in paperback back then, because Bantam published a whole series of his books with them. My copy of "Golden Apples" lists a 9th printing in 1970, and then 10th-13th printings underneath that with no dates. Similarly, my copy of "Machineries" lists an 8th printing in 1970, and 9th-12th printings underneath with no date.

Another excellent collection in the Ballantine “Best of” series. The cover illustrates “The Proud Robot” story, one of a series about a drunken inventor named Gallagher. That one was from 1943 and was originally published under one of Kuttner’s many pen names (Lewis Padgett), some of which were collaborations with his wife C. L. Moore.

Late Blish (original hardcover was 1972), and although I’m a fan of his, this one is not so great. It’s an odd story of mental/psychic time travel into a far future, and the pacing of the story seems somehow off and is rushed towards the end. There are a few characteristic Blish moments, but I think he was already in ill health by this point.

Originally published in 1955 - this edition was, I believe, slightly revised by Fred Pohl with an introduction by him. It is a an absolutely perfect example of a Cold War “Soviets beat America and America fights back” story, one of many from that era.

Another of the Ballantine “Best of” series, and it’s a terrific selection of these strange and unique works.

Airmont was an odd little paperback house of the 1960s and early 70s that (from what I've seen) specialized in reprinting Verne, Wells, and several other classic authors of that ilk. This edition says "Copyright 1963", but that appears to be mostly for the added two-page introduction (which is uncredited). No information on further printings, etc. I got this copy new in an elementary school book sale in about 1970. The cover art is also uncredited, and that seems to have been Airmont's way as well (!)

This was first published in 1940, then reissued in 1955 with a new introduction by the author. It's been in and out of print ever since - more in than out, because it's considered a classic. This is a 1985 edition from a small publisher in Burlington, VT (Fraser), that specialized in unusual and interesting books on financial topics.

You wouldn't think that a book from the 1930s about stock market investing would have any useful information, but I can strongly recommend giving it a read. It really is full of timeless advice on investor psychology and money in general, and is very well written with extremely dry humor.

Ace, 1972. This is a reprint (with a new cover) of the 1965 Ace paperback, which is another edition of a 1947 hardback. And that one is a fixup of a series first published in 1934-35 in Astounding Stories.

Absolutely pure pulp space opera, one of the finest examples of 1930s super-science planet-smashing action, with all that entails. I devoured it at the time as an 11-year-old, as I did E. E. Smith’s Lensman books, while realizing how old -fashioned they were.

Signet, 1969.I believe that this is the first US paperback printing. And it’s the first of a long series of Flashman adventures, with the fictional Harry Flashman grafted onto a whole list of world events from the 1840s through the 1890s.

The historical background in the footnotes of the books is mostly quite accurate. My own opinion is that the books start to run out of steam in the mid-80s or so and that the last ones are definitely inferior, but opinions vary.

Ballantine, 1974. Introduction by Poul Anderson. The second volume in the excellent Ballantine “Best of” series. My own well-worn copy.

Edit: Leiber!

Ballantine, 1973. A reprint of their 1968 edition, cover by Bob Pepper (who did many paperbacks and album covers in the 60s and 70s). This was part of Betty Ballantine’s “Adult Fantasy” series that made a lot of obscure classics like this one widely available.

A Voyage to Arcturus is an extremely strange philosophical novel that must have been otherworldly indeed when first published in 1920. Championed by C. S. Lewis and others, it’s weirdly compelling even when you have no idea what’s going on.

Signet, 1971. Originally published as “Under Compulsion” in the UK in 1968.

I bought this in 5th grade and frankly regretted it at the time. It was too much for me at that age - dark, dark stuff (as Disch often provided) with many elements of horror.

Progress Publishers, Moscow. 1984 English version of the 1982 Russian original. Bought as a grim souvenir of the DDR at a Volksbuchhandlung (“People’s Bookstore”) in East Berlin in the spring of 1989, just a few months before the regime collapsed. It’s all about how Amnesty International is a CIA front of the capitalist West, how Andrei Sakharov was never mistreated by the benevolent freedom-loving Soviet state, and on and on. I noted at the time that two rather different lots of paper had been used while printing this edition.

Fawcett Crest 1970, cover by John Berkey. I remember buying this from one of those wire paperback racks when I was in about third grade.

Pocket Books, 1974. Hoban’s first non-children’s book - he’s probably remembered best for the post-apocalyptic “Riddley Walker”.

Vintage, 1953, cover by Paul Rand. A deep look at the effect of Stalinism on the intellectuals of the Eastern Bloc after WWII.

The first is his hugely popular novel, Fawcett 1962. Later printings of this edition replace “Famous Bestseller” with “Now a great 20th Century-Fox film”. A ripping yarn for sure.

The second is his much lesser-known science fiction, Ace 1978, from the 1973 Harper and Row hardcover which I think isn’t often seen. The stories themselves are quite good; McKenna died much too young.