This post is brought to you by Steel and Stone a novel in three parts from M. D. Jackson. The Agency – otherwise known as the Department of Covert Operations – is a sophisticated galaxy-wide organization made up of unsophisticated operatives. Take John Steel, for instance. Or is it Abner Jenkins? Is he actually an operative of the Agency, or is he carrying out a personal vendetta? The galaxy is either on the verge of collapse or on the cusp of a universe shaking transformation. Either way, it’s up to the Operatives of the Agency to figure out which it is and then do something about it.
The early 1950s saw more Science Fiction magazines than the market could handle. A reckoning was coming in 1955, but two years before that deadline there appeared five issues of Orbit: The Best in Science Fiction. (Not to be confused with the Orbit anthology series by Damon Knight in the 1970s.) The publisher of this digest-sized Pulp was Morris S. Latzen. According to the masthead, the editor was Jules Saltzman. But in truth, it was Donald A. Wollheim. Not surprising, many of the authors of the first issue were too. What the authors weren’t was Isaac Asimov, Robert A. Heinlein or Arthur C. Clarke. This was not a magazine of Astounding Science Fiction heavy-hitters. That being said, they weren’t duds either. (DAW used some of the same authors’ work in Out of This World, 1950, 1951, an odd Pulp-Comic Book hybrid that failed miserably. He didn’t forget his comrades when he moved on.)
The authors who did appear in most issues include August Derleth, who was publishing his Horror/Arkham House volumes on a regular basis, but also enjoyed SF. He offers us the Tex Harrigan series here with the first tale appearing in Wollheim’s 10 Story Fantasy in 1951. There was also Philip K. Dick and Charles Beaumont, both masters on the rise, as were John Christopher, Jack Vance, Robert Abernathy, Alan E. Nourse, Chad Oliver, Mack Reynolds, well, you get the idea. The names that will be big in the 1960s. Donald A. Wollheim’s impeccable taste for the fantastic was at work even here. (In the decades ahead, his taste would select the contents of ACE Books and finally his own DAW Books. He was currently an editor at Avon, and perhaps that was why his name never appears in this magazine.) There were also some older writers like Basil Wells and E. Everett Evans. Richard S. Shaver appears under a pseudonym then his own name best known for the Shaver Mystery over at Ray Palmer’s Amazing Stories in the previous decade. The cover art is the best part of the visual feast in Orbit. The interiors are sadly typical of digests, which didn’t work that hard. Many had no art at all, like Fantastic Universe. (Saves money.) The majority here are by Jack Faragasso, who did some cover art for Dell Comics as well.
Issue One (September 1953)
“Invasion From the Microcosm” by August Derleth
“Luena of the Gardens” by Paul Brandts
“The Captain’s Getaway” by Robert Abernathy
“D. P. From Tomorrow” by Mack Reynolds
“Fritzchen” by Charles Beaumont
“Gateway to Yamarra” by E. Everett Evans
“Asteroid 745: Maurita” by Martin Pearson (Donald A. Wollheim)
“Monster No More” by Basil Wells, a writer who started in the 1940s and began in the fanzines.
“Ganymede House” by David Grinnell (Donald A. Wollheim)
“The Heart of the Game” by Richard English (Richard S. Shaver)
Issue Two (December 1953)
“Potential Enemy” by Mack Reynolds
“Exploiter’s End” by James Causey, a writer who got his start at Weird Tales, but moved into Mystery novels.
“The Mating of the Moons” by Kenneth O’Hara (Bryce Walton) Walton was active as a Mystery writer as well.
“A Traveler in Time” by August Derleth
“Tony and the Beetles” by Philip K. Dick
“Place of Meeting” by Charles Beaumont – probably the best extrapolation of the vampire theme ever. What a great story!
“Luna Escapade” by H. B. Fyfe
“Time and the Woman” by G. Gordon Dewey
“The Butterfly Kiss” by Arthur Dekker Savage
“Museum Piece” by John Christopher, a British writer actually named Samuel Youd from the John Wyndham/Arthur C. Clarke circle. He would score big with disaster SF like The Death of Grass (1956) and later with his Tripods trilogy.
Issue Three (July-August 1954)
“The Lure of the Satellite” by George R. Price
“Why Skeets Malloy Has Two Heads” by Richard S. Shaver
“My Friend Bobby” by Alan E. Nourse
“Fellow of the Bees” by Gordon R. Dickson, who sold regularly to John W. Campbell, may have been off-loading some rejects here.
“The Cargo” by Len J. Moffat, an Arizona writer who wasn’t prolific but active in fan circles.
“Paradox Gained” by Mack Reynolds
“Hair of the Dog” by Charles Beaumont
“The Ungrateful House” by August Derleth
“The Passion of Orpheus” by Bryce Walton
“The Dog That Liked Carmen” by Roger Dee, became the master of the short-short. His real name was Roger D. Aycock.
Issue Four (September-October 1954)
“Last Night of Summer” by Alfred Coppel
“Beast in the House” by Michael Shaara
“Danger Past” by James E. Gunn, is a future master and acolyte of Isaac Asimov.
“Me Feel Good” by Max Dancy (Peter Grainger) Grainger only wrote under pseudonyms.
“No More the Stars” by Irving Cox Jr.
“The Thinker and the Thought” by August Derleth
“The Image of the Gods” by Alan E. Nourse
“Adjustment Team” by Philip K. Dick
“Intruder on the Rim” by Milton Lesser, wrote under numerous pseudonyms as a high-production writer in the early Robert Silverberg mode. As Stephen Marlowe, he wrote Mystery fiction as well.
Issue Five (November-December 1954)
“So Lovely, So Lost” by James Causey
“The Queer Critter” by Gordon R. Dickson
“Aunt Else’s Stairway” by Antony Riker (F. Anton Reeds)
“The Last of the Masters” by Philip K. Dick
“Controlled Experiment” by Chad Oliver, anthropologist and writer. He also wrote a few Westerns.
“Noah” by Charles Beckman Jr. would sell better in the Mystery field, but like many of the Sf writers like Milton lesser, sold in both arenas.
“The Penfield Misadventure” by August Derleth
“Many Dreams of Earth” by Charles E. Fritch, who would one day be the editor of Mike Shayne Mystery magazine, but at this time was a new writer from Ray Bradbury’s L. A. circle like Charles Beaumont.
“The Enchanted Princess” by Jack Vance, a future master both in SF and Fantasy. Like Dickson, he might have been passing a rejected story from other magazines.
Conclusion
DAW had a good eye for writers but I have to wonder if he didn’t get a little help from the Winston Juvenile SF series (starting in 1952). Bryce Walton, Chad Oliver, Milton Lesser, Alan E. Nourse, Jack Vance and DAW himself wrote novels for the series. Alex Schomberg did artwork. Of course, Wollheim was big in SF fandom and knew many, many writers. The pay at Orbit was probably not going to lure Asimov away from Galaxy, but it kept Philip K. Dick in dog food (PKD tells a horrific tale in which he bought pet-quality meat but didn’t own a dog. Such was the glamor of being a Science Fiction writer.) Wollheim had been using material from friends from his very earliest days as a fanzine editor. (You might not give him your best stuff but it was always worth it to offer him something.) The authors here will fill the future issues of digests aplenty. (I admit there are a few I had never heard of: Paul Brandts, G. Gordon Dewey and F. Anton Reeds, I have never heard of. But they can’t all be as prolific as Roger Dee, H. B. Fyfe, James E. Gunn, James Causey, Michael Shaara and the others that would become familiar to magazine readers.
Discover these RAGE m a c h i n e SF books
Leave a Reply