Short Fiction Collections: Annus Mirabilis

[J-Sun]

Happened to stumble across the Locus collection award nominees for 1975 (and looked around at some of the 70s in general and '76 is pretty incredible, too). Get this:

1. The Wind's Twelve Quarters, Ursula K. Le Guin (Harper & Row)
2. The Best of Cordwainer Smith, Cordwainer Smith, edited by J. J. Pierce (Ballantine)
3. Deathbird Stories, Harlan Ellison (Harper & Row)
4. Tales of Known Space, Larry Niven (Ballantine)
5. Warm Worlds and Otherwise, James Tiptree, Jr. (Ballantine)
6. The Best of Henry Kuttner, Henry Kuttner (Ballantine)
7. The Best of C.L. Moore, C. L. Moore, edited by Lester del Rey (Ballantine)
8. The Early del Rey, Lester del Rey (Doubleday)
9. The Infinity Box, Kate Wilhelm (Harper & Row)
10. The Second Book of Fritz Leiber, Fritz Leiber (DAW)
11. The Feast of St. Dionysus, Robert Silverberg (Scribners)
12. No Direction Home, Norman Spinrad (Pocket)
13. Buy Jupiter and Other Stories, Isaac Asimov (Doubleday)
14. The Best of Frederik Pohl, Frederik Pohl, edited by Lester del Rey (Ballantine)

I have the ones in bold (or, in the case of the Silverberg, the contents in an omnibus - though I haven't read The Early del Rey yet (or re-read Tales of Known Space which I've decided to give another try to when I saw it used). Of the ones I've had on my shelves and have read, they're invariably superb. And the most significant thing other than the stunning quality? All are ordinary major publishers - over half of them are mass-market paperback originals and all would quickly end up in ordinary mass-market paperback. Couple bucks a pop or so. Equals 8 bucks these days. None of this 15 bucks for a hardcover with the cover ripped off aka oversized awkward paperback aka "trade paperback", and none of this 40 buck small press hardcover stuff - and definitely none of this ebook stuff.

The next year is arguably almost as good:

1. A Song for Lya and Other Stories, George R. R. Martin (Avon)
2. Star Light, Star Bright, Alfred Bester (Berkley/Putnam)
3. The Worlds of Fritz Leiber, Fritz Leiber (Ace)
4. The Light Fantastic, Alfred Bester (Berkley/Putnam)
5. The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories, Isaac Asimov (Doubleday)
6. The Best of Damon Knight, Damon Knight (Pocket)
7. The Best of Robert Silverberg, Robert Silverberg (Pocket)
8. The Best of Jack Vance, Jack Vance (Pocket)
9. Alyx, Joanna Russ (Gregg Press)
10. Capricorn Games, Robert Silverberg (Random House)
11. The Best of C.M. Kornbluth, C. M. Kornbluth, edited by Frederik Pohl (Ballantine)
12. The Best of John W. Campbell, John W. Campbell, edited by Lester del Rey (Ballantine)
13. The Best of Poul Anderson, Poul Anderson (Pocket)
14. The Best of Fredric Brown, Fredric Brown, edited by Robert Bloch (Ballantine)
15. The Custodians and Other Stories, Richard Cowper (Gollancz)

I may have read the Knight - I've read at least some Knight collection and a novel but I don't much care for him, and I have yet to read the Russ and, again, I have an omnibus containing the Silverberg and one containing both Besters. The Pocket TBOs seem to be very much skimpier than and inferior to the Ballantine TBOs on average but the Anderson and Vance are still okay. And I don't see how the Martin won for collection unless it was on the strength of the all-time classic title story alone. But, still, an extraordinary quality output and, other than the Russ, still in affordable, accessible volumes. (The Russ would take seven years to be reprinted at all but then it was as a MMPB.)

This is kind of wide open - I've long been struck by the radical change that occurred maybe mid-90s that destroyed the collection market about the same time the magazine market was getting hammered. So there's that to talk about if anybody has insights. Or the individual collections if you've read them and have opinions. Or candidates for even better years (I didn't look through very many) if such a thing is possible. Or just wherever anyone can think to take the thread if anyone wants to. I just wanted to pass these lists on. If anybody wants to track these titles down, like I say, I can heartily recommend about all of them.