Women Wrote the Future, Vol. 1: Tales from Galaxy is an extravaganza of great science fiction written by
women and published in Galaxy in the 1950s. It is available
now at Amazon. Story notes, which include a little about the story’s author,
accompany each tale. Keep reading for the book’s Introduction, written by the
enigmatic J. LaRue. With a little luck a second volume will
appear soon. |
Women Wrote the Future, Vol. 1: Tales from
Galaxy
Edited by J. LaRue Vintage Lists, 2023 Introduction A mythology
in science fiction circles—academia and readership alike—claims women were
excluded from the genre until the late-1960s and early-1970s, when writers
like Joanna Russ, Ursula K. Le Guin, and Octavia E. Butler jumped the sexism
barrier that had kept women out. While these writers are culturally important,
both inside and outside the genre, it is nonsense to imagine they appeared on
the science fiction scene without precedence. The first woman to publish a
story in a science fiction magazine was Clare Winger Harris when her tale,
“The Fate of Poseidonia” was published in the June 1927 issue of Amazing
Stories. It was that same pulp, Amazing Stories,
that created the entire modern science fiction genre when its first issue hit
newsstands in April 1926. And those first few years, between 1926 and 1929,
were a dark period for women and science fiction because only 17 stories by six
known female authors were published. The next ten years (1930 – 1939) weren’t
much better with 62 stories by 25 women published, but the 1940s saw a
significant gain with 209 stories by 47 female writers, and in the 1950s women
exploded on the scene with 634 tales, by 154 writers. While these numbers
represent a slim ratio of the total number of science fiction stories
published during this period, it was a beginning that ultimately led to the celebration
of women as some of the best writers in the genre.* This anthology, which is intended as a tribute
and to bring attention to these early female writers, is a survey of the
fiction published by the most respected science fiction magazine of the
1950s: Galaxy. Galaxy’s first issue reached newsstands in
October 1950. The list of contributors for that issue included many of the
genres’ brightest stars: Theodore Sturgeon, Richard Matheson, Fritz Leiber,
and Isaac Asimov. It also started a trend of publishing women writers by publishing
Katherine MacLean’s brilliant novelette, “Contagion” (which, unfortunately,
isn’t included in this collection). Although three other marvelous stories by
MacLean—“Pictures Don’t Lie” (Aug. 1951), “The Snowball Effect” (Sep. 1952),
and “Games” (Mar. 1953)—are scattered across its pages. Over the rest of the 1950s, Galaxy published
30 stories written by thirteen women. The tales ranged from imaginative
adventures—Rosel George Brown’s “From an Unseen Censor” (Sep. 1958)—to
cultural critique, “One Way” by Miriam Allen deFord (Mar. 1955), to homegrown
silliness, with a feminist bent, like Ruth Laura Wainwright’s “Green Grew the
Lasses” (July 1953). These stories, along with thirteen others written by
women and published by Galaxy in the 1950s, are reprinted in Women
Wrote the Future, Vol. 1: Tales from Galaxy. And frankly, they are some of
the best tales to appear in Galaxy during its 30-year run. Included are gems by genre stars like
Katherine MacLean, as mentioned above, and Betsy Curtis, and rising stars
like Rosel George Brown. Each story and its author are briefly introduced and
while some of the writers are little-known with only a few publishing credits,
others had impressive careers both in and out of science fiction. Miriam
Allen deFord—“One Way” (Mar. 1955) and “The Eel” (Apr. 1958)—was a
suffragette, wrote for Nation, and won an Edgar Award for Best Crime
Fact Book. Phyllis Sterling Smith—“What is POSAT” (Sep. 1951)—attended
Stanford and Tufts, she worked for the Psychological Testing Corporation, and
she was an energy consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency. Ann
Warren Griffith—“Zeritsky’s Law” (Nov. 1951)—attended Barnard College,
piloted as a WASP in WW2, and wrote for The New Yorker and The
Atlantic. And those are only three of the 12 writers inside this
anthology. __________ *publishing statistics come from
Partner in Wonder, by Eric Leif Davin [Lexington Books, 2006] Click here for the
Kindle edition and here for the paperback at Amazon. |
Table of Contents “Games” – Katherine
MacLean / “The Pilot and the Bushman” – Sylvia Jacobs / “One Way”
– Miriam Allen deFord / “Rough Translation” – Jean M. Janis / “Pictures
Don’t Lie” – Katherine MacLean / “The Vilbar Party” – Evelyn E.
Smith / “What is POSAT?” – Phyllis Sterling Smith / “Green Grew
the Lasses” – Ruth Laura Wainwright / “The Trap” – Betsy Curtis
/ “Know Thy Neighbor” – Elisabeth R. Lewis / “Tea Tray in the Sky” – Evelyn
E. Smith / “Homesick” – Lyn Venable / “The Snowball Effect” – Katherine
MacLean / “Zeritsky’s Law” – Ann Griffith / “From an Unseen
Censor” – Rosel George Brown / “The Eel” – Miriam Allen deFord Click here for
the Kindle edition and here for the paperback at Amazon. |
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