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The fifth in Greenberg’s Adventures in Science Fiction Series (ASFS), whose purpose, wrote Greenberg, “has been to take specific themes and show their development, perhaps even to their final evolution.” Here the theme “deals with our patterns of living in the future – culture.”

Gnome Notes

Greenberg again made his favored anthologies taller, wider, and thicker than most other Gnome books. The financial straits Gnome would now be perpetually encountering reveal themselves in the lesser grade of paper he used, which has browned noticeably more than that of the previous ASFS volume, The Robot and the Man. The first three were also distinctive for their use of a cloth spine over boards, with a rocket ship embossed on the front cover. All About the Future has red cloth over gray boards, but as with Robot, Greenberg cut a corner by leaving out the embossing. No previous chronicler has mentioned a second printing or binding or variant for this title, but two bindings exist nonetheless, the second being plain black boards with no cloth. The lettering on the spine is identical and so is everything else about the volume including the dust jacket. ESHBACH doesn’t mention a second printing, so I judge it to be a later binding instead. It can be timed by back panel evidence. Future stops being mentioned on back panel #33, first seen on Coming Attractions in early 1957, but reappears on back panels #37 and 38, in mid-1958.

 “AATF” is printed about the cover price on the front flap, beginning a run of ten titles in which the title’s initials would be associated with the price. Their appearance stops with George O. Smith’s Highways in Hiding and would not be seen afterward.

There are no story introductions in this 1955 release. Dave Kyle left Gnome in 1954. Further evidence that Kyle wrote all the editorial apparatus.

Reviews

Robert Frazier, Fantastic Adventures, February 1955
This fascinating anthology … is heartily recommended because it contains a goodly array of beautifully written satires on vulnerable facets of our culture, extrapolated into unique concepts and ideas.

Floyd C. Gale, Galaxy Science Fiction, June 1955
I think the book is an essential addition to anyone’s basic library of science fiction.

Contents and Original Publications

• “Introduction: Where To?” Robert A. Heinlein (Galaxy Science Fiction, February 1952).

• “Introduction: Let’s Not,” Isaac Asimov (Boston University Graduate Journal, December 1954).

• “The Midas Plague,” Frederik Pohl (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1954).

• “UN-Man,” Poul Anderson (Astounding Science Fiction, January 1953).

• “Granny Won’t Knit,” Theodore Sturgeon (Galaxy Science Fiction, May 1954).

• “Natural State,” Damon Knight (Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954).

• “Hobo God,” Malcolm Jameson (Astounding Science Fiction, September 1944).

• “Blood Bank,” Walter M. Miller Jr. (Astounding Science Fiction, June 1952).

• “Excerpts From the Encyclopedia of Galactic Culture,” edited [written] by Edward Wellen:

• “Origins of Galactic Etiquette” (Galaxy Science Fiction, October 1953).

• “Origins of Galactic Law” (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1953).

• “Origins of Galactic Slang” (Galaxy Science Fiction, July 1952).

• “Origins of Galactic Medicine” (Galaxy Science Fiction, December 1953).

Bibliographic Information

All About the Future, Edited by Martin Greenberg, Adventures in Science Fiction Series 5, 1955, copyright registration 15Jan55, Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 54-13101, title #46, back panel #28, 374 pages, $3.50. 5000 copies printed 1955, some bound 1958? Hardback. Jacket design by Ed Emsh. “FIRST EDITION” on copyright page. Manufactured in the U.S.A. Type & Design by: Slugs Composition Co., New York, N.Y. Printing & binding by: H. Wolff, N. Y. Back panel: 31 titles. Gnome Press address is given as 80 East 11th St., N. Y. 3.

         Variants, in order of priority

1). Dark-gray cloth with red cloth spine backing, spine lettered in silver. No embossing in front cloth.

2). Black boards, spine lettered in red. [Not in CHALKER]

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