C. M. Kornbluth: Golden Age Space Opera Tales

Cyril M. Kornbluth (July 2, 1923 – March 21, 1958) was an American science fiction author and a member of the Futurians. He used a variety of pen-names, including Cecil Corwin, S. D. Gottesman, Edward J. Bellin, Kenneth Falconer, Walter C. Davies, Simon Eisner, Jordan Park, Arthur Cooke, Paul Dennis Lavond, and Scott Mariner. The “M” in Kornbluth’s name may have been in tribute to his wife, Mary Byers; Kornbluth’s colleague and collaborator Frederik Pohl confirmed Kornbluth’s lack of any actual middle name in at least one interview.

Kornbluth began writing at 15. His first solo story, “The Rocket of 1955”, was published in Richard Wilson’s fanzine Escape (Vol. 1, No 2, August 1939); his first collaboration, “Stepsons of Mars,” written with Richard Wilson and published under the name “Ivar Towers”, appeared in the April 1940 Astonishing. His other short fiction includes “The Little Black Bag”, “The Marching Morons”, “The Altar at Midnight”, “MS. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie”, “Gomez” and “The Advent on Channel 12”.

Space Opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes space warfare, melodramatic adventure, interplanetary battles, chivalric romance, and risk-taking. Set mainly or entirely in outer space, it usually involves conflict between opponents possessing advanced abilities, futuristic weapons, and other sophisticated technology.

The term has no relation to music, as in a traditional opera, but is instead a play on the terms “soap opera”, a melodramatic television series, and “horse opera”, which was coined during the 1930s to indicate a formulaic Western movie. Space operas emerged in the 1930s and continue to be produced in literature, film, comics, television, and video games.

The Golden Age of Pulp Magazine Fiction derives from pulp magazines (often referred to as “the pulps”) as they were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term pulp derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called “glossies” or “slicks”. (Wikipedia)

The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. Although many writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were proving grounds for those authors like Robert Heinlein, Louis LaMour, “Max Brand”, Ray Bradbury, Philip K. Dick, and many others. The best writers moved onto longer fiction required by paperback publishers. Many of these authors have never been out of print, even long after their passing.

Anthology containing:

– The Marching Morons by C. M. Kornbluth
– Wolfbane by C. M. Kornbluth & Frederik Pohl
– Search the Sky by C. M. Kornbluth & Frederik Pohl
– The Syndic by C. M. Kornbluth
– The Luckiest Man in Denv by Cyril M. Kornbluth
– The Adventurer by C. M. Kornbluth
– The Altar at Midnight by Cyril M. Kornbluth
– With These Hands by Cyril M. Kornbluth

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