Judith Merril: The Year's Greatest Science Fiction & Fantasy 6

Most controversial book of the year: Kingsley Amis’s New Maps of Hell, the first extensive and informed critical survey of s-f by a literary figure quite unconnected with the field. Your editrix devoted much of her commentary in the last of these annuals to violent disagreement with Amis. I submit that the book, arguable in details, presents a knowledgeable, broad picture of s-f calculated to cause the general reader to respect and even to investigate it.

To turn to pure fantasy—F without S—1960 was notable for the first American publication of the imaginative nightmares of Sarban (especially The Sound of His Horn) and for an excellent chiller of witchcraft survivals in the modern world: The Devil’s Own by Peter Curtis (pseudonym of Norah Lofts). Robert Bloch’s Pleasant Dreams is an agreeably grisly assembly of shorts; and volumes of straight mainstream fiction by Roald Dahl (Kiss Kiss ) and the increasingly interesting Muriel Spark (The Go-Away Bird ) contain a few first-rate fantasies.

Out of the 500-odd books, in assorted fields, that I read professionally during the year, the one that gave me the most intense pleasure was a century and a half old, though new to English. The Saragossa Manuscript by Count Jan Potocki (1761-1815), translated by Elisabeth Abbott, is a one-of-a-kind book, a (literally) marvelous collection of tales-within-tales-within-tales, which blends fantasy, horror, sensuality, romantic adventure, mysticism, Gothic extravagance ... I can never describe it; I can only urge every connoisseur of caviar to leave no single egg untasted.

Amz Amazing Science Fiction Stories

ASF Analog (Astounding) Science Fact and Fiction

Cos Cosmopolitan

Dude The Dude

Esq Esquire

Fant Fantastic Science Fiction

FU Fantastic Universe

F&SF Fantasy and Science Fiction

“F&SF:10” “The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction: Tenth Series,” ed.

Robert P. Mills (Doubleday, 1960)

Fut. Future Science Fiction

Gal Galaxy Science Fiction

Gent Gent

If If Science Fiction

Ken Kenyon Review

LHJ Ladies’ Home Journal

McC McCall’s

Mlle Mademoiselle

NW New Worlds (British)

“NWW #16” “New World Writing #16” (J. B. Lippincott Co., 1960)

OSFS Original Science Fiction Stories

Plby Playboy

Rog Rogue

SEP Saturday Evening Post

SciF Science Fantasy

17 Seventeen

Vance Aandahl “It’s a Great Big Wonderful Universe,” F&SF, Nov.

Mrs. Agate “Slammy and the Bonneygott,” F&SF, June.

Poul Anderson “The Burning Bridge,” ASF, Jan.

----------, “The Martyr,” F&SF, Mar.

Anderson, Asimov, Bloch, Leinster, Sheckley “The Covenant” (round-robin story), Fant, July.

Christopher anvil “The Troublemaker,” ASF, July.

J. G. ballard “The Last World of Mr. Goddard,” SciF #43, Oct.;

----------, “The Voices of Time,” NW , Oct.

John Berry “The Listener,” “NWW#16.”

James Blish “The Oath,” F&SF, Oct.

Robert Bloch “The Funnel of God,” Fant, Jan.

William Brandon “The Hermit,” SEP, Mar.

John Brunner “Badman,” NW, Mar.

----------, “Imprint of Chaos,” SciF #42, Aug.

ALGIS BUDRYS “The Price,” F&SF, Feb.

----------, “Rogue Moon,” F&SF, Dec.

WALTER Bupp “Vigorish,” ASF, June.

Arnold Castle “When Day Is Done,” If, May;

----------, “The Perfectionists,” Amz, Jan.

Arthur C. Clarke “Inside the Comet,” F&SF, Oct.

Tom and Gladys Cluff “The Lutine Bell,” FU, Feb.

Theodore R. Cogswell “The Burning,” F&SF, July.

Charles Cottrell “Jack of No Trades,” Amz, Aug.

Gordon R. Dickson “An Honorable Death,” Gal, Feb.

William Eastlake “What Nice Hands Held,” Ken.

Carol Emshwiller “Puritan Planet,” OSFS, Jan.

Patrick Fahy “Bad Memory,” Gal, Dec.

Jack Finney “I Love Galesburg in the Springtime,” McC, Apr.

David E. Fisher “East in the Morning,” Gal, Feb.

Jean Fritz “Haunted Christmas,” 17, Dec.

Randall Garrett “... And Peace Attend Thee,” Fant, Sept.

----------, “Drug on the Market,” FU, Feb.

Phyllis Gottleib “A Bone to Pick,” Fant, Oct.

William Lindsay Ghesham “Room for One More,” Dude, Nov.

Jim Harmon “Blueblood,” Gal, Dec.

Larry M. Harris “Charley de Milo,” ASF, June.

Raymond Hartley “Monkey on My Magazine Rack,” Gent, May.

Zenna Henderson “Things,” F&SF, July.

Charles Henneberg (trans: Damon Knight) “The Blind Pilot,” F&SF, Jan.

Frank Herbert “Egg and Ashes,” If, Nov.

----------, “The Priests of Psi,” Fant, Feb.

Philip E. High “Mumbo-Jumbo Man,” NW, Jan.

Hugh Hood “After the Sirens,” Esq, Aug.

Lance Horne “Nuclear Justice,” NW, July.

Hayden Howard “Murder Beneath the Polar Ice,” If, July.

Evan Hunter “It Was Lovely That Summer,” Dude, Mar.

Eugene Ionesco “Rhinoceros,” Mlle, Mar.

Rona Jaffe “Trompe l’Oeil,” Cos, July.

Stephen A. Kallis, jr. “The Untouchable,” ASF, Dec.

Colin Kapp “Enigma,” NW, Feb.

Daniel Keyes “Crazy Maro,” “F&SF: 10.”

Damon Knight “Time Enough,” Amz, July.

R. A. Lafferty “McGonigal’s Worm,” If, Nov.

Rex Lardner “American Plan,” F&SF, May.

Keith Laumer “Combat Unit,” F&SF, Nov.

Stanley R. Lee “The Eye of Aesculapius,” Fant, Dec.

Fritz Leiber “The Night of the Long Knives,” Amz, Jan.

Murray Leinster “The Ambulance Made Two Trips,” ASF, Apr.

Dan Lindsay “The Beatnik Werewolf,” F&SF, Dec.

C. B. Lovehill “Gentlemen Be Seated,” Rog, Apr.

Katherine Maclean “Interbalance,” “F&SF: 10.”

Larry Maddock “Creatures, Incorporated,” AW, June.

Richard Matheson “First Anniversary,” Plby, July.

Kate Mcnair “Her Dearest Wish,” LHJ, Nov.

E. Mittleman “The Non-Electronic Bug,” If, July.

Howard Nemerov “An Executive,” Esq, Dec.

Alan E. Nourse “The Mirror,” Fant, June.

Harold Parsons “The Funnel,” NW, Aug.

Frederik Pohl “The Day the Icicle Works Closed,” Gal, Feb.

Arthur Porges “Words and Music,” If, Sept.

John Rackham “The Bright Ones,” NW, May.

Francis G. Rayer “Static Trouble,” NW, Feb.

Brian Rencelaw “Ounce of Prevention,” Plby, Sept.

Mack Reynolds “Combat,” ASF, Oct.

----------, “Revolution,” ASF, May.

Charles W. Runyon “Remember Me, Peter Shepley,” Fant, Dec.

William Sambrot “The Story of an Atomic Age Ordeal,” SEP, July 9.

Winston P. Sanders “The Word to Space,” F&SF, Sept.

Thomas N. Scortia and Jim Harmon “Caliban,” Fut, Apr.