Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer—Jack Williamson

"75 Years of Wonder” by Connie Willis
"Introduction" by Sir Arthur C. Clarke
"Scientifiction, Searchlight of Science"
"The Metal Man"
Sidebar: AS I KNEW HUGO

"The Crystal Castle"    39
Sidebar: THE YEARS OF WONDER
Sidebar: THE POLYCRAT
Sidebar: Excerpt from "The Prince of Space"

Golden Blood (excerpt)
Sidebar: WORLD OF WEIRD
Sidebar: JACK WILLIAMSON IN WEIRD TALES

The Legion of Space (excerpt)
Sidebar: Introduction from THE LEGION AT WAR

"The Red Beak of Thoth" (with Edmond Hamilton)
Sidebar: EDMOND HAMILTON: AS I KNEW HIM
Sidebar: THE CRIMSON WORLD

The Legion of Time (excerpt)
Sidebar: NOT THE, BUT A
Sidebar: FUTURE TRENDS IN FANTASY
Sidebar: Excerpt from "Darker Than You Think"

"Collision Orbit"
Sidebar: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF “SEETEE” STEWART
Sidebar: A SILENT COLLABORATOR
Sidebar: ANTIMATTER: FICTION INTO FACT
Sidebar: LEE ELIAS
Sidebar: "Beyond Mars"—excerpt from WONDER’S CHILD: MY LIFE IN SCIENCE FICTION
Sidebar: Excerpt from "The Electron Flame"

"The Rajah McCarthy and the Jungle Tomato"
Sidebar: Excerpt from WWII Diary
Sidebar: Excerpt from WWII Diary
Sidebar: Excerpt from “The Bomb, 1945” Chapter 21 of WONDER’S CHILD: MY LIFE IN SCIENCE FICTION

"With Folded Hands"
Sidebar: ME & MY HUMANOIDS
Sidebar: . . . AND SEARCHING MIND
Sidebar: THE HUMANOIDS ARE ON THE AIR!
Sidebar: Excerpt from THE HUMANOID TOUCH

Beyond Mars (Illustrated by Lee Elias)

A JACK WILLIAMSON CHRONOLOGY

"The Happiest Creature"
Sidebar: Excerpt from DRAGON’S ISLAND

H. G. Wells: Critic of Progress: The Limits of Progress: Cosmic
Sidebar: YOUTH AGAINST SPACE: HEINLEIN’S JUVENILES REVISITED

"Jamboree"
Sidebar:    PLOTTING "JAMBOREE"

"The Next Century of Science Fiction"
Sidebar:    APOCALYPSE (with David Ketterer)
Sidebar:    JACK WILLIAMSON’S 10 FAVORITE WORKS OF H. G. WELLS
Sidebar:    JACK WILLIAMSON’S 10 MOST OPTIMISTIC FUTURES

"People Machines: Hints for Design and Assembly"
Sidebar:    SPACE OPERA
Sidebar:    R FOR CHARACTER

"Previews of Hell"
Sidebar: THE COLLABORATIONS

Demon Moon (excerpt)
Sidebar: THE LOGIC OF FANTASY
Sidebar: RECALL TO ARMS!
Sidebar: THE CRITIC AS CONQUISTADOR
Sidebar: READ THIS
Sidebar: JACK WILLIAMSON’S DEGREES, HONORS, AND AWARDS
Sidebar: THE WORK OF JACK WILLIAMSON: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide
Sidebar: THE JACK WILLIAMSON LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING

"The Firefly Tree"
Sidebar: JACK WILLIAMSON SHORT FICTION COLLECTIONS

"The Ultimate Earth"
Sidebar: THE WILLIAMSON EFFECT
Sidebar: THE WILLIAMSON LECTURESHIP SERIES
Sidebar: RECOLLECTIONS OF ANALOG
Sidebar: BACK TO THE CLASSROOM by Patrice Caldwell, Ph.D.
Sidebar: THE WILLIAMSON ENDOWED CHAIR IN SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES
Sidebar: Excerpt from FIRECHILD
Sidebar: TERMS ATTRIBUTED TO OR INVENTED BY JACK WILLIAMSON
Sidebar: ASTEROID #5516 JAWilliamson

Afterword by Jack Williamson
Sidebar: PICTURES IN COLOR

Acknowledgments

“What a magnificent book! The quality of the fiction isn't news to me, of course, but I'm bowled over by all the accessory stuff wrapped around it. It's a really splendid editing job."
—Robert Silverberg, author of The Alien Years and Phases of the Moon

Starred Review "A true labor of love, this glorious tribute to Williamson’s prestigious sf career has been assembled by publisher Haffner and Williamson bibliographer Hauptmann. This massive illustrated collection runs the gamut, including numerous short pieces (some appearing for the first time) and excerpts form novels plus numerous color reproductions of Williamson’s 1950s comic strip, Beyond Mars. The pages are buttressed with illustrations and cover shots plus sidebars providing a plethora of info on Williamson and his work. Superb."
     —Michael Rogers, Library Journal

"What a well-done book! Nice touches abound, including about thirty pages of color in the center which include the 1954 "Beyond Mars" comic penned by Williamson. My sincere congrats to Stephen and to Jack."
—Douglas A. Anderson, editor of Tales Before Tolkien and Adrift on The Haunted Seas: The Best Short Stories of William Hope Hodgson

". . . he's SF's grand sequoia, and trying to review a book like this is somewhat like trying to review a sequoia. When people speak of him as a "pioneer," the word takes on an astonishing dual meaning, since he actually lived the early part of his life at the tail end of the pioneer era, having been born in the Arizona Territory and having traveled in a covered wagon in his boyhood. He knew Gernsback, and became such a popular contributor to the 1930s pulps (most notably with "The Legion of Space" and "The Legion of Time", both excerpted here) that he was already in danger of becoming superannuated when Campbell's Golden Age began to take shape in the early 1940s. But he adapted, providing Campbell with his famous "Seetee" stories and "With Folded Hands"--perhaps his single most famous tale--and he adapted again when Campbell went wonky with Dianetics and the Dean Drive. He began to publish novels with specialty presses as early as 1947 and with mainstream presses as early as 1951, introduced a syndicated comic strip in 1951, and started a series of collaborations with Frederik Pohl in 1953. He became an early champion of SF in academia, earning his bachelor's degree in 1957 and his doctorate in 1964 (with a dissertation on Wells, also excerpted here), the same year he introduced an SF course at Eastern New Mexico University, which eventually named its Liberal Arts building for him. And on and on.
All of this and a great deal more is catalogued in sumptuous detail in this generously illustrated book, which includes his earliest pulp stories, bibliographical notes, memoirs (the piece on Edmond Hamilton is especially touching), tips on writing (most of them disarmingly basic), essays, a lengthy color excerpt from the "Beyond Mars" comic strip (which has not really aged as well as some of the early pulp tales), glossaries (including one listing terms he invented or promoted, such as "terrforming" and "genetic engineering"), and endless photos, cover and interior illustrations, and chronologies.
—Gary K. Wolfe, Locus

"Any true fan of Williamson's must spring for the massive and classy commemorative volume issued by Haffner Press.Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer contains copious fiction, facts and photos relating to the Grand Master's life and career."
—Paul di Filippo, Science Fiction Weekly

GRADE 'A'  ". . . a lavish collection of his classic science fiction and related nonfiction, starting with an introduction by a relative newcomer to the genre, Sir Arthur C. Clarke—now 86—and a foreword by Connie Willis , who reminds us that Williamson invented the terms “android," “genetic engineering" and “terraforming." Included are “The Metal Man," the story that started it all; “With Folded Hands," the famous nightmare vision of a future in which robot “servants" are so insistently helpful that humanity is ultimately enslaved by them; excerpts from the fast-moving pulp novels Golden Blood, The Legion of Space and The Legion of Time; samples of the Sunday comic strip Beyond Mars; and “Collision Orbit," a tale from the “seetee" cycle, a word derived from CT, short for “contraterrene," an early term for antimatter, which, in these popular space adventures, provides a source of immense energy. Seventy-Five is profusely illustrated and handsomely produced and designed. The book brought back the fun of the science fiction I read so avidly in my youth—some of it, of course, by Jack Williamson. I look forward to another volume from him in four years, when he celebrates his first century."
—Lawrence Tucker, SCI FI, The Official Magazine of the SCI FI Channel

An Unabashed Rave Review: By A Fan.
I like books. I particularly like Science Fiction books. I ESPECIALLY like well designed, incredibly lavishly illustrated with production values out the wazoo, coffee-table-sized, 608 page science fiction books, which display a more-than-generous overview of the Grand-Master winning work of a ‘Science Fiction Original’. *Whew*
In my modest 3,000 volume library, there is only one book that fits *that* particular bill: ‘Jack Williamson - Seventy-Five: The Diamond Anniversary of a Science Fiction Pioneer’.
The minute I saw that such a book was being prepared, I preordered it lickedty-split (no chance I wasn’t going to miss out, by Ghod!), and in due course she arrived; pretty as a picture (Yes you are, sweetie, yes you are!). Gosh—the hours of fun we’ve had together! Never have I spent potato chip money so wisely. Look at that Table of Contents! Look at those Production Values! And comic books! Yes, you have full-color comic book reproductions here (Oh, you’re pretty, baby!). And it’s all about Jack Williamson! Remember Trapped in Space, from your Scholastic Books childhood; yeah, that guy. Or Golden Blood (of which someone should seriously make a movie); him. Or Darker Than You Think, the original *literary* werewolf novel; yup, they’re all Jack Williamson. Here's a sampling of his best and his best is something glorious to behold. And Limited, Slipcased edition #51, you’re mine, all mine, in all your autographed glory! Somehow, someway, I know you’ll always be with me, darling. *Smooch*
*Humph*, but enough of all that. Anyone else can, uhm, get it on, too! Not the incredibly rare slip-cased version (heh, heh), but the almost-as-good (but not quite, heh, heh, again), trade edition for a paltry 40 bucks. Less money than you’ll spend in McDonalds in a month and better for your waistline!
When I received the latest Haffner Press newsletter and I saw there was going to be a Facebook page for “75”, my immediate thought was to message Stephen and say:
“Just got your latest newsletter and, re: 75, wanted to say that I preordered that one the minute I saw it and it remains one of my favorite limited editions EVER (and I've got more than a few!). The superlatives just roll off the tongue but I think SUMPTUOUS describes it best! I'm actually somewhat gob-smacked that there are any left.”
So now you know. You’ve been told. You can’t whine later, ‘But I didn’t know, I didn’t know’ - Get on your horse and go!
—Jonathan K. Stephens