(CHALKER –Jack L. Chalker & Mark Owings, The Science Fantasy Publishers: A Critical and Bibliographic History, third edition, (Westminster, MD: The Mirage Press Ltd., 1991))
(CURREY – L.W. Currey, Science Fiction and Fantasy Authors: A Bibliography of First Printings of Their Fiction and Selected Nonfiction, revised edition, (rbPublishing CD-ROM, 2002))
(ESHBACH – Lloyd Arthur Eshbach, Over My Shoulder: Reflections on a Science Fiction Era (Philadelphia: Oswald Twain: Publisher, 1983))
Back in the 1930s, a group of monomaniacal and erudite fans embarked on the Great Game, attempting to reconcile the haphazardly ad hoc dating in the Sherlock Holmes stories. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the world’s most beloved literary hack, cared not a fig for continuity. At times, as in “The Red-Headed League,” he apparently didn’t bother to reread the beginning of the story when he wrote the ending. The Great Game combined the pleasures of crossword puzzles, sudoku, scavenger hunts, and mystery stories themselves as practitioners combed through the Canon – the 60Holmes stories and novels – hunting word by word for clues to Sherlock’s education, travels, skills, influences, and – primus inter alia – his chronology. At least a half-dozen full-length books are devoted to dating the stories. They agree on the exact day and date of only one story, “His Last Bow.”
The publication order of the 86 Gnome Press volumes should be far easier to determine. The information comes from Marty Greenberg himself, after all. Lloyd Eshbach set it down in print in Over My Shoulder, his memoirs of the post-World War II science fiction small presses. Every other commentator followed him without demur.
And yet I stumbled across an irreconcilable impossibility when examining Travelers in Space and Journey to Infinity, two of Greenberg’s anthologies in the Adventures in Science Fiction Series. ESHBACH lists them in that order as titles #16 and #17. Releasing two anthologies back-to-back is an odd move in itself but the true stumbling block appears in their respective Forewords. Journey to Infinity is referred to as “this second book” in the Adventures series after Men Against the Stars; Travelers of Space as “This third volume.” Journey to Infinity must have preceded Travelers of Space. Sure enough, the back panel of Journey to Infinity mentions only Men Against the Stars, while Travelers of Space lists Journey to Infinity in place of that title. (I wouldn’t have had to intuit this if I knew where to look. The back panels of The Sword of Conan and Five Science Fiction Novels lay it out in so many words.)
Switching the order of the two titles was trivially easy, but the back-to-back release nagged at me. Was there a way to determine if other titles appeared in between? For other projects I had gotten familiar with the Catalog of Copyright Entries, a compendium of all copyright registrations that was at the time issued in hardcovers twice a year by the Copyright Office. Google had them scanned and therefore searchable online.
The Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: Books January – June 1951 has a listing for Journey to Infinity, showing a registration of January 3, 1951 (3Jan1951 in their compact formatting). Travelers of Space is not there. It doesn’t turn up until The Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series: Books January – June 1952, where it’s shown as 3Jan1952, a year to the day later. Not first, not sequential, and one would think not easily misremembered as such. Possibly the confusion lay in both carrying copyright dates of 1951, although this too is hard to explain. A parenthetical note in the entry for Travelers gives a partial explanation: it was “in notice: 1951,” i.e. the book was sent to the Library of Congress in late 1951 but not processed until after the break. That explanation clouds rather than clears the reason why the same did not apply for Journey to Infinity, giving it a 1950copyright. Something about the sending and processing timeline must have been just sufficiently different.
The complete entry for Travelers of Space is a fine example of the richness of information packed into the brief confines of a public notice.
GREENBERG, MARTIN, ed.
Travelers of space. Introduced by Willy
Ley; illustrated by Edd Cartier; Special
feature: Science fiction dictionary;
introd, by Samuel Anthony Peeples.
Special story for illus. by David Kyle.
[1st ed.] New York, Gnome Press
[1952,c1951] 400 p. (Adventures in
science fiction series) © Martin Green-
berg; 3Jan1952 (in notice: 1951); A69038.
Unfortunately for bibliographers these capsule summaries must have been written by whichever clerk processed the book because they follow no standard template for what is to be included and aren’t consistently written even when similar information is presented.
Table 1, in which the books are listed in ESHBACH’s order, contains all the registration dates that can be found for Gnome titles, including those titles copyright by other firms. (The Maco Magazine Co. for Jeffrey Logan’s The Complete Book of Outer Space and Dell Publishing for Judith Merril’s anthologies.) Oddities and discrepancies appear immediately. Frank Owen’s The Porcelain Magician contains a copyright date of 1948 but was not registered until February 20, 1949. The explanation is the same as for Travelers of Space: it was in notice in 1948.
OWEN, FRANK.
The porcelain magician: a collection of
oriental fantasies. Illustrated by Frances
E. Dunn. New York, Gnome Press.
256 p. ©Frank Owen. 20Feb49 (in
notice: 1948); A42294.
An example of the lack of consistency is that this entry does not contain the copyright year information given in Travelers of Space. That the copyright is listed in Owen’s name is not an inconsistency: all Gnome copyrights were in the author’s name. (The few partial exceptions include the introductions to the Conan books, which were copyright by The Gnome Press.)
Copyright registrations are missing for several titles. These require individual explanation. The two Talbot Mundy novels, Tros of Samothrace and Purple Pirate, and Edward E. Smith’s Gray Lensman, were reprints of already copyrighted material without any new front matter as in the Conan volumes. No registration was needed. (Consistency is also missing here. A number of other titles, such as The Porcelain Magician, consist of nothing but material previously published in full in magazines with no mention of rewriting or expansion and no new front material. Apparently, purported novels having prior book publication could get by with no new registration.)
Judith Merril’s four Year’s Greatest anthologies were published in paperback by Dell, as Dell First Edition B103, B100, B119, and B129. They were registered by Dell rather than by Gnome. I could not find any record of a registration of the first volume. According to the ISFDB, W. R. Cole’s Checklist of Science Fiction Anthologies gives the publication date of the paperback as May 1956 and the Gnome hardcover as July 1956, but CURREY and BLEILER state they were published simultaneously. William H. Lyles, in his Dell Paperbacks, 1942 to Mid-1962: A Catalog-Index, also states that the Dell and Gnome editions were published simultaneously, but gives April 1956 as the publishing date for B103. B102 was published in March and B104 in October, which leaves wide leeway for an intervening book. It’s not clear how he derived the date for B103. B104 is dated October only because later editions gave the first edition this date. That Year’s Greatest did not have a second edition, which makes backfitting a date impossible.
A similar problem befalls Frederik Pohl’s Drunkard’s Walk. The short novel appeared in two parts in the June and August 1960 Galaxy Science Fiction and then was reprinted as Ballantine Books439 K. The Ballantine paperback states “Copyright © 1960 by Frederik Pohl” but again no mention is made in any volume of the Catalog of Copyright Entries. The third edition paperback gives the date of the first edition as November 1960. The Gnome hardcover repeats the copyright from Ballantine. When was the Gnome edition printed? Sources aren’t clear. CHALKER states:
Greenberg actually used the pb plates for his subsequent hb! Sources at Ballantine said that was part of the deal, although both were supposed to be out simultaneously.
Subsequent or not, CHALKER lists the Gnome edition as 1960, following ESHBACH even though their earlier edition had it in 1961. CURREY also gives it a 1961 date as does KEMP.
Robert Silverberg’s Starman’s Quest is not listed either, perhaps the most baffling omission. The novel is one of the few titles Gnome published whose contents did not have an earlier magazine appearance; a registration is critical. The copyright page states “Copyright 1958 by Robert Silverberg” but the actual date of publication is disputed. ESHBACH says 1958 and CHALKER follows while CURREY opts for 1959. A note on the ISFDB page says, quoting three general sources, “Clute/Nicholls, Tuck have this as ’59, Reginald1 as ’58.” The original hardcover does say 1959but the online sf-encyclopedia.com lists the book as 1958 in Silverberg’s entry. Silverberg himself, in his memoir, Robert Silverberg: Other Spaces, Other Times, opts for 1958. He didn’t realize the book hadn’t been registered at the time but since he produced a completely rewritten and properly copyrighted version in 1969, he never bothered to belatedly protect a youthful book that presumably nobody would bother to reprint.
If the omission of books from registration is odd, E. B. Cole’s The Philosophical Corps is perhaps more puzzling for its appearance. It is not listed until the Catalog of Copyright Entries. Third Series:1965: January-June. Why it does not appear until 1965 is inexplicable. Justas mysterious is that the registration date is given as 10Dec62 despite being in notice: 1961. Cole held the dubious distinction of being Gnome’s last book, a desperate heave by a failing concern. That cannot explain the lag of a year in the registration date, nor that the book was available long before December 1962.
Table 1: Eshbach’s Order
| # | Author | Title | Pub. | Copyright |
| 1 | L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt | The Carnelian Cube | 1948 | 11/1/1948 |
| 2 | Frank Owen | The Porcelain Magician | 1948 | 2/20/1949 |
| 3 | Nelson Bond | The Thirty-first of February | 1949 | 6/18/1949 |
| 4 | George O. Smith | Pattern for Conquest | 1949 | 11/16/1949 |
| 5 | Robert A. Heinlein | Sixth Column | 1949 | 12/7/1949 |
| 6 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | Men Against the Stars | 1950 | 3/20/1950 |
| 7 | L. Sprague de Camp & Fletcher Pratt | The Castle of Iron | 1950 | 7/1/1950 |
| 8 | William Gray Beyer | Minions of the Moon | 1950 | 7/15/1950 |
| 9 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Conqueror | 1950 | 10/17/1950 |
| 10 | Isaac Asimov | I, Robot | 1950 | 12/20/1950 |
| 11 | Clifford D. Simak | Cosmic Engineers | 1950 | 11/25/1950 |
| 12 | Will Stewart | Seetee Ship | 1951 | 7/15/1951 |
| 13 | Lewis Padgett | The Fairy Chessmen | 1951 | 12/1/1951 |
| 14 | Raymond F. Jones | Renaissance | 1951 | 4/15/1951 |
| 15 | L. Ron Hubbard | Typewriter in the Sky and Fear | 1951 | 5/15/1951 |
| 16 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | Travelers of Space | 1951 | 1/3/1952 |
| 17 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | Journey to Infinity | 1951 | 1/3/1951 |
| 18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | 1951 | 9/15/1951 |
| 19 | A. E. van Vogt | The Mixed Men | 1952 | 5/1/1952 |
| 20 | Lewis Padgett | Robots Have No Tails | 1952 | 5/15/1952 |
| 21 | Clifford D. Simak | City | 1952 | 5/15/1952 |
| 22 | C. L. Moore | Judgment Night | 1952 | 12/15/1952 |
| 23 | Robert E. Howard | The Sword of Conan | 1952 | 4/1/1952 |
| 24 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | Five Science Fiction Novels | 1952 | 4/1/1952 |
| 25 | Arthur C. Clarke | Sands of Mars | 1952 | 4/15/1952 |
| 26 | Leigh Brackett | The Starmen | 1952 | 11/15/1952 |
| 27 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | 1952 | 9/15/1952 |
| 28 | Wilmar H. Shiras | Children of the Atom | 1953 | 5/15/1953 |
| 29 | Nat Schachner | Space Lawyer | 1953 | 11/1/1953 |
| 30 | Lewis Padgett | Mutant | 1953 | 10/20/1953 |
| 31 | C. L. Moore | Shambleau and Others | 1953 | 11/1/1953 |
| 32 | Jeffrey Logan (ed) | The Complete Book of Outer Space | 1953 | 10/20/1953 |
| 33 | Robert E. Howard | The Coming of Conan | 1953 | 10/25/1953 |
| 34 | Robert E. Howard | King Conan | 1953 | 3/2/1953 |
| 35 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | The Robot and the Man | 1953 | 3/15/1953 |
| 36 | Hal Clement | Iceworld | 1953 | 4/15/1953 |
| 37 | Arthur C. Clarke | Against the Fall of Night | 1953 | 4/15/1953 |
| 38 | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | 1953 | 5/15/1953 |
| 39 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Barbarian | 1954 | 11/1/1954 |
| 40 | Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson | Undersea Quest | 1954 | 11/25/1954 |
| 41 | William Morrison | Mel Oliver and Space Rover on Mars | 1954 | 7/15/1954 |
| 42 | C. L. Moore | Northwest of Earth | 1954 | 10/25/1954 |
| 43 | Murray Leinster | The Forgotten Planet | 1954 | 7/21/1954 |
| 44 | L. Sprague de Camp | Lost Continents | 1954 | 3/25/1954 |
| 45 | Arthur C. Clarke | Prelude to Space | 1954 | 3/10/1954 |
| 46 | Jack Williamson & James Gunn | Star Bridge | 1955 | 3/25/1955 |
| 47 | F. L. Wallace | Address: Centauri | 1955 | 4/25/1955 |
| 48 | Andrew North | Sargasso of Space | 1955 | 5/25/1955 |
| 49 | Robert Howard & L. Sprague de Camp | Tales of Conan | 1955 | 12/5/1955 |
| 50 | James Gunn | This Fortress World | 1955 | 10/25/1955 |
| 51 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | All About the Future | 1955 | 1/15/1955 |
| 52 | H. Chandler Elliott | Reprieve from Paradise | 1955 | 7/25/1955 |
| 53 | Groff Conklin (ed) | Science Fiction Terror Tales | 1955 | 2/15/1955 |
| 54 | George O. Smith | Highways in Hiding | 1956 | 7/15/1956 |
| 55 | Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson | Undersea Fleet | 1956 | 9/1/1956 |
| 56 | Andrew North | Plague Ship | 1956 | 2/5/1956 |
| 57 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: The Year’s Greatest | 1956 | NA |
| 58 | Arthur K. Barnes | Interplanetary Hunter | 1956 | 3/15/1956 |
| 59 | Robert Randall | The Shrouded Planet | 1957 | 9/25/1957 |
| 60 | Bjorn Nyberg & L. Sprague de Camp | The Return of Conan | 1957 | 8/25/1957 |
| 61 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’57: The Year’s Greatest | 1957 | 7/9/1957 |
| 62 | Murray Leinster | Colonial Survey | 1957 | 4/15/1957 |
| 63 | Fritz Leiber | Two Sought Adventure | 1957 | 5/15/1957 |
| 64 | Martin Greenberg (ed) | Coming Attractions | 1957 | 3/15/1957 |
| 65 | Mark Clifton & Frank Riley | They’d Rather Be Right | 1957 | 10/25/1957 |
| 66 | James Blish | The Seedling Stars | 1957 | 4/1/1957 |
| 67 | Poul Anderson & Gordon Dickson | Earthman’s Burden | 1957 | 7/25/1957 |
| 68 | George O. Smith | The Path of Unreason | 1958 | 7/25/1959 |
| 69 | Robert Silverberg | Starman’s Quest | 1958 | NA |
| 70 | Frederik Pohl & Jack Williamson | Undersea City | 1958 | 7/1/1958 |
| 71 | Talbot Mundy | Tros of Samothrace | 1958 | NA |
| 72 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’58: The Year’s Greatest | 1958 | 7/15/1958 |
| 73 | Robert A. Heinlein | Methuselah’s Children | 1958 | 4/15/1958 |
| 74 | Tom Godwin | The Survivors | 1958 | 2/25/1958 |
| 75 | Wallace West | The Bird of Time | 1959 | 10/25/1959 |
| 76 | Robert Randall | The Dawning Light | 1959 | 8/25/1959 |
| 77 | Talbot Mundy | The Purple Pirate | 1959 | NA |
| 78 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’59: The Year’s Greatest | 1959 | 6/30/1959 |
| 79 | Robert A. Heinlein | Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag | 1959 | 12/25/1959 |
| 80 | Robert A. Heinlein | The Menace from Earth | 1959 | 11/25/1959 |
| 81 | Edward E. Smith | The Vortex Blaster | 1960 | 6/25/1960 |
| 82 | James A. Schmitz | Agent of Vega | 1960 | 3/25/1960 |
| 83 | Frederick Pohl | Drunkard’s Walk | 1960 | NA |
| 84 | John W. Campbell | Invaders from the Infinite | 1961 | 3/15/1961 |
| 85 | Edward E. Smith | Gray Lensman | 1961 | NA |
| 86 | Everett B. Cole | The Philosophical Corps | 1962 | 1210/1962 |
Even a casual glance at the registration dates in Table 1 creates vertigo. George O. Smith’s Pattern for Conquest, Robert A. Heinlein’s Sixth Column, and Nelson Bond’s The Thirty-first of February are traditionally given as Gnome’s third, fourth, and fifth volumes. All were issued in 1949, but the registration of Bond’s collection of short stories preceded the other two by several months. The same pattern appears in 1951, in which Journey to Infinity preceded Lewis Padgett’s The Fairy Chessmen and Tomorrow and Tomorrow by almost a year. The order is similarly mixed in each succeeding year as well.
Two possible explanations appear: either Greenberg held both back for months after registration or else the traditional order of publication is wildly off. (Greenberg could theoretically have released some books months before their registrations but that is implausible in the extreme, even granting the exception of The Philosophical Corps.)
With no internal records remaining, outside, independent sources of dating needed to be found to settle the issue. The Internet provides multitudes of databases that can be mined. I quickly found two that contained chronological information on virtually every Gnome publication.
One was obvious. The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a trove, wide and deep, that every f&sf researcher should be intimately familiar with. Virtually every book, every magazine, every author, every story, every artist, every illustration, and every publisher is parsed in granular detail, allowing the curious to follow the path of publication from the earliest appearance to the most recent. As is true of any database, the ISFDB contains mistakes both of commission and omission, but those are remarkably rare and usually rectifiable by alternative research sources.
In addition to the details I’ve already listed, each book in the ISFDB contains a listing of reviews of that title from all major magazines in the field and many fanzines as well. (Non-genre reviews are normally not included.) It was a mere matter of diligence to view each Gnome listing and record the date of that first review. Every title except the two late Edward E. Smith novels had such a listing.
I originally assumed that the next step would be to check the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature for dates of non-genre reviews. To my surprise, the Reader’s Guide seems not to have indexed reviews, at least not in any of the volumes I checked. Kirkus Reviews, a magazine aimed at libraries, also fails as a reliable source, reviewing some of the titles but nowhere near a majority.
Periodical reviews are problematic in any case. The lag time for magazines, especially monthly magazines, pushes the dates of reviews off for months. Reviews produced a list of dates that correlated highly with registration order but provided little proof of the date of first appearance.
Instead I turned to a source I had stumbled upon in earlier research, one far from obvious and yet more useful and more precise. Back in the 1950s, newspapers in small cities and towns often included lists of books newly acquired by the local library. Acquisitions were normally made via advance catalogs and distributor lists so the book could be purchased, delivered, and ready to circulate immediately after the date of publication. Libraries often ordered handfuls of Gnome Books, some new and some old, at one time. The Argus-Leader reported on July 8, 1953 that the Sioux Falls library had acquired eight Gnome titles. Also in 1953, the Canal Fulton library in Ohio announced a massive haul of 23 science fiction books, nine of them from Gnome. Gnome was selling its backlist off at discount prices in 1960, probably why the Prospect Hills library in Illinois snapped up nine. No one small library would ever buy every Gnome release but the massive newspaper databases now searchable represented the entire country’s libraries. A diligent search through Newspapers.com and NewspaperArchive.com turned up instances for all Gnome titles.
The results are added to the registration dates in Table 2. In a few instances a newspaper review preceded any library announcement. Table 2 always represents the earliest date found, of whatever type. I’ve shortened some of the names and titles to fit in the extra columns.
Table 2: Eshbach’s Order with Database Dates
| # | Author | Title | Pub. | Copyright | Newspaper | Review | |
| 1 | de Camp/Pratt | The Carnelian Cube | 1948 | 11/1/1948 | 12/5/1948 | 2,3/1949 | |
| 2 | Frank Owen | The Porcelain Magician | 1948 | 2/20/1949 | 3/9/1949 | Jul-49 | |
| 3 | George O. Smith | The Thirty-first of February | 1949 | 6/18/1949 | 1/2/1950 | Mar-50 | |
| 4 | Robert A. Heinlein | Pattern for Conquest | 1949 | 11/16/1949 | 1/14/1950 | Jan-50 | |
| 5 | Nelson Bond | Sixth Column | 1949 | 12/7/1949 | 7/3/1949 | Aut/1949 | |
| 6 | Greenberg (ed) | Men Against the Stars | 1950 | 3/20/1950 | 4/2/1950 | Jul-50 | |
| 7 | de Camp/Pratt | The Castle of Iron | 1950 | 7/1/1950 | 7/31/1950 | Nov-50 | |
| 8 | William Gray Beyer | Minions of the Moon | 1950 | 7/15/1950 | 9/2/1950 | Nov-50 | |
| 9 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Conqueror | 1950 | 10/17/1950 | 11/30/1950 | Jan-51 | |
| 10 | Isaac Asimov | I, Robot | 1950 | 12/20/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Apr-51 | |
| 11 | Clifford D. Simak | Cosmic Engineers | 1950 | 11/25/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Jan-51 | |
| 12 | Will Stewart | Seetee Ship | 1951 | 7/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Nov-51 | |
| 13 | Lewis Padgett | The Fairy Chessmen | 1951 | 12/1/1951 | 12/16/1951 | 1/27/1952 | |
| 14 | Raymond F. Jones | Renaissance | 1951 | 4/15/1951 | 5/3/1951 | Aug-51 | |
| 15 | L. Ron Hubbard | Typewriter in the Sky | 1951 | 5/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Aug-51 | |
| 16 | Greenberg (ed) | Travelers of Space | 1951 | 1/3/1952 | 2/10/1952 | May-52 | |
| 17 | Greenberg (ed) | Journey to Infinity | 1951 | 1/3/1951 | 1/27/1951 | Apr-51 | |
| 18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | 1951 | 9/15/1951 | 10/14/1951 | Feb-52 | |
| 19 | A. E. van Vogt | The Mixed Men | 1952 | 5/1/1952 | 5/30/1952 | Sep-52 | |
| 20 | Lewis Padgett | Robots Have No Tails | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Oct-52 | |
| 21 | Clifford D. Simak | City | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/20/1952 | Oct-52 | |
| 22 | C. L. Moore | Judgment Night | 1952 | 12/15/1952 | 12/28/1952 | Apr-53 | |
| 23 | Robert E. Howard | The Sword of Conan | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 4/27/1952 | Nov-52 | |
| 24 | Greenberg (ed) | Five Science Fiction Novels | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 5/15/1952 | Aug-52 | |
| 25 | Arthur C. Clarke | Sands of Mars | 1952 | 4/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Sep-52 | |
| 26 | Leigh Brackett | The Starmen | 1952 | 11/15/1952 | 11/2/1952 | Jan-53 | |
| 27 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | 1952 | 9/15/1952 | 9/21/1952 | Mar-53 | |
| 28 | Wilmar H. Shiras | Children of the Atom | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 | |
| 29 | Nat Schachner | Space Lawyer | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 12/17/1953 | Apr-54 | |
| 30 | Lewis Padgett | Mutant | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 11/21/1953 | Apr-54 | |
| 31 | C. L. Moore | Shambleau and Others | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 1/6/1954 | Oct-54 | |
| 32 | Jeffrey Logan (ed) | Book of Outer Space | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 12/30/1953 | May-54 | |
| 33 | Robert E. Howard | The Coming of Conan | 1953 | 10/25/1953 | 2/25/1954 | Feb-54 | |
| 34 | Robert E. Howard | King Conan | 1953 | 3/2/1953 | 4/8/1954 | Oct-53 | |
| 35 | Greenberg (ed) | The Robot and the Man | 1953 | 3/15/1953 | 5/31/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 36 | Hal Clement | Iceworld | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 37 | Arthur C. Clarke | Against the Fall of Night | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 38 | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 | |
| 39 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Barbarian | 1954 | 11/1/1954 | 3/10/1955 | Apr-55 | |
| 40 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Quest | 1954 | 11/25/1954 | 1/15/1955 | Jul-55 | |
| 41 | William Morrison | Mel Oliver | 1954 | 7/15/1954 | 7/22/1954 | Nov-54 | |
| 42 | C. L. Moore | Northwest of Earth | 1954 | 10/25/1954 | 11/18/1954 | Aug-55 | |
| 43 | Murray Leinster | The Forgotten Planet | 1954 | 7/21/1954 | 8/27/1954 | Nov-54 | |
| 44 | L. Sprague de Camp | Lost Continents | 1954 | 3/25/1954 | 6/6/1954 | Sep-54 | |
| 45 | Arthur C. Clarke | Prelude to Space | 1954 | 3/10/1954 | 3/14/1954 | Jul-54 | |
| 46 | Williamson/unn | Star Bridge | 1955 | 3/25/1955 | 6/2/1955 | Oct-55 | |
| 47 | F. L. Wallace | Address: Centauri | 1955 | 4/25/1955 | 7/16/1955 | Oct-55 | |
| 48 | Andrew North | Sargasso of Space | 1955 | 5/25/1955 | 8/11/1955 | Sep-55 | |
| 49 | Robert E. Howard | Tales of Conan | 1955 | 12/5/1955 | 3/21/1956 | May-56 | |
| 50 | James Gunn | This Fortress World | 1955 | 10/25/1955 | 12/27/1955 | Feb-56 | |
| 51 | Greenberg (ed) | All About the Future | 1955 | 1/15/1955 | 2/27/1955 | Feb-55 | |
| 52 | H. Chandler Elliott | Reprieve from Paradise | 1955 | 7/25/1955 | 9/20/1955 | Dec-55 | |
| 53 | Groff Conklin (ed) | SF Terror Tales | 1955 | 2/15/1955 | 4/27/1955 | Feb-55 | |
| 54 | George O. Smith | Highways in Hiding | 1956 | 7/15/1956 | 12/2/1956 | Nov-56 | |
| 55 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Fleet | 1956 | 9/1/1956 | 12/13/1956 | Jun-57 | |
| 56 | Andrew North | Plague Ship | 1956 | 2/5/1956 | 5/5/1956 | May-56 | |
| 57 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: The Year’s Greatest | 1956 | NA | 5/12/1956 | Aug-56 | |
| 58 | Arthur K. Barnes | Interplanetary Hunter | 1956 | 3/15/1956 | 5/7/1956 | Sep-56 | |
| 59 | Robert Randall | The Shrouded Planet | 1957 | 9/25/1957 | 2/2/1958 | Jun-58 | |
| 60 | Bjorn Nyberg | The Return of Conan | 1957 | 8/25/1957 | 10/17/1957 | Jun-58 | |
| 61 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’57: | 1957 | 7/9/1957 | 8/11/1957 | Nov-57 | |
| 62 | Murray Leinster | Colonial Survey | 1957 | 4/15/1957 | 5/19/1957 | Sep-57 | |
| 63 | Fritz Leiber | Two Sought Adventure | 1957 | 5/15/1957 | 8/25/1957 | Oct-57 | |
| 64 | Greenberg (ed) | Coming Attractions | 1957 | 3/15/1957 | 7/1/1957 | Apr-57 | |
| 65 | Clifton/Riley | They’d Rather Be Right | 1957 | 10/25/1957 | 1/23/1958 | Apr-58 | |
| 66 | James Blish | The Seedling Stars | 1957 | 4/1/1957 | 4/12/1957 | Apr-57 | |
| 67 | Anderson/Dickson | Earthman’s Burden | 1957 | 7/25/1957 | 9/19/1957 | Jan-58 | |
| 68 | George O. Smith | The Path of Unreason | 1958 | 7/25/1959 | 5/7/1959 | Nov-59 | |
| 69 | Robert Silverberg | Starman’s Quest | 1958 | NA | 1/24/1959 | Sep-59 | |
| 70 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea City | 1958 | 7/1/1958 | 8/3/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 71 | Talbot Mundy | Tros of Samothrace | 1958 | NA | 10/29/1958 | Mar-59 | |
| 72 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’58: | 1958 | 7/15/1958 | 7/27/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 73 | Robert A. Heinlein | Methuselah’s Children | 1958 | 4/15/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 74 | Tom Godwin | The Survivors | 1958 | 2/25/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Jun-58 | |
| 75 | Wallace West | The Bird of Time | 1959 | 10/25/1959 | 3/18/1960 | Aug-60 | |
| 76 | Robert Randall | The Dawning Light | 1959 | 8/25/1959 | 10/21/1959 | Jan-60 | |
| 77 | Talbot Mundy | The Purple Pirate | 1959 | NA | 4/15/1959 | Feb-60 | |
| 78 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’59: | 1959 | 6/30/1959 | 11/19/1959 | Nov-59 | |
| 79 | Robert A. Heinlein | Jonathan Hoag | 1959 | 12/25/1959 | 1/191960 | Jul-60 | |
| 80 | Robert A. Heinlein | The Menace from Earth | 1959 | 11/25/1959 | 12/17/1959 | Jul-60 | |
| 81 | Edward E. Smith | The Vortex Blaster | 1960 | 6/25/1960 | 7/31/1960 | ||
| 82 | James A. Schmitz | Agent of Vega | 1960 | 3/25/1960 | 5/26/1960 | Aug-60 | |
| 83 | Frederick Pohl | Drunkard’s Walk | 1960 | NA | 11/28/1960 | Mar-61 | |
| 84 | John W. Campbell | Invaders from the Infinite | 1961 | 3/15/1961 | 5/4/1961 | Sep-61 | |
| 85 | Edward E. Smith | Gray Lensman | 1961 | NA | 11/30/1961 | ||
| 86 | Everett B. Cole | The Philosophical Corps | 1962 | 1210/1962 | 6/15/1962 | Apr-63 | |
A pretty pattern emerges. The date of the first newspaper mention is nearly always within two months of the registration date. Travelers of Space is found properly in1952, a year after Journey to Infinity. The date of issue of five of the six Gnome books without copyright registration dates are fixed by newspaper mentions. A few anomalies appear – most of the Conan books have a long lag before showing up in newspapers and the 13-month gap for King Conan is decidedly odd –but these hits are merely from the newspapers in particular databases. Many hundreds more newspapers have not yet been added and future research could yield earlier dates.
The date of the first magazine reviews also correlates extremely well with the copyright registration date, much more so than the standard publication order. Gnome sent out review copies but not advance reading copies, to my knowledge, although a couple of books have dates so early than an advance peek must be postulated. The lag time varies greatly, but nomajor anomalies need to be explained away with the possible exception of Science Fiction Terror Tales, edited by Groff Conklin. It is traditionally listed as the last Gnome title of 1955, but its registration date of 15Feb55 is earlier than six other 1955 Gnome releases, paralleled by earliest newspaper mentions than those same six titles.
The mystery is therefore how a review could appear in the February 1955 issue of Fantastic Universe. A double mystery: Robert Frazier also reviewed Conklin’s anthology alongside Martin Greenberg’s own All About the Future, with a registration date of 15Jan55. A magazine dated February normally hits newsstands in January, usually early in January. (The cover date is the date at which it should be removed from newsstands.) Its content must be locked down no less than a month or two earlier, even though editors often keep pages open to slot in review columns as late as possible to keep them relatively fresh. Nevertheless, a deadline date for Frazier that wasn’t in1954 is hard to swallow.
Setting a publication date one month later than the registration date is not unusual. Getting copies out to bookstores, libraries, and other outlets takes time; a publisher would want its goods to be available to all on that date.
A possible explanation is found in the fine print in the Frazier column. “Gnome Press, $3.50; Pocket Books, Inc., 25 cents.” The ISFDB entry reads, confusingly, “Pocket Book edition published March 1955/1st Printing January 1955.” Later editions include the 1st Printing January 1955statement. (The ISFDB also has the Gnome edition listed as January 1955, with no attribution.) The Catalog of Copyright Entries mentions Pocket Books but not Gnome Press. It must be that Pocket Books 1045 is therefore the true first edition of Science Fiction Terror Tales. This is substantiated by the newspaper evidence. Several newspapers reprinted press release for new Pocket Books on March 6, 1955. The first specific mention of Gnome does not appear until a short review in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on April 27,1955. No mention of a library adding the anthology occurs until March 29, 1955, comfortably after the stated publication date. It is virtually inconceivable that a library would have added a paperback to its collection in 1955. Frazier, however, may have been working off an early printing of the Pocket Book paperback and included the Gnome edition based on an announcement of its forthcoming publication.
The existence of three independent sets of data all
correlating with each other rather than the traditional publication order would
in itself be sufficient to call for a revised dating. Table 3 rearranges the
order to conform with the evidence.
Table 3: My Revised Order Based on Database Info
| New | Old | Author | Title | Pub. | Copyright | Newspaper | Review | |
| 1 | 1 | de Camp/Pratt | The Carnelian Cube | 1948 | 11/1/1948 | 12/5/1948 | 2,3/1949 | |
| 2 | 2 | Frank Owen | The Porcelain Magician | 1948 | 2/20/1949 | 3/9/1949 | Jul-49 | |
| 3 | 5 | Nelson Bond | The Thirty-first of February | 1949 | 6/18/1949 | 7/3/1949 | Aut/1949 | |
| 4 | 3 | George O. Smith | Pattern for Conquest | 1949 | 11/16/1949 | 1/2/1950 | Mar-50 | |
| 5 | 4 | Robert A. Heinlein | Sixth Column | 1949 | 12/7/1949 | 1/14/1950 | Jan-50 | |
| 6 | 6 | Greenberg (ed) | Men Against the Stars | 1950 | 3/20/1950 | 4/2/1950 | Jul-50 | |
| 7 | 7 | de Camp/Pratt | The Castle of Iron | 1950 | 7/1/1950 | 7/31/1950 | Nov-50 | |
| 8 | 8 | William Gray Beyer | Minions of the Moon | 1950 | 7/15/1950 | 9/2/1950 | Nov-50 | |
| 9 | 9 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Conqueror | 1950 | 10/17/1950 | 11/30/1950 | Jan-51 | |
| 10 | 11 | Clifford D. Simak | Cosmic Engineers | 1950 | 11/25/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Jan-51 | |
| 11 | 10 | Isaac Asimov | I, Robot | 1950 | 12/20/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Apr-51 | |
| 12 | 17 | Greenberg (ed) | Journey to Infinity | 1951 | 1/3/1951 | 1/27/1951 | Apr-51 | |
| 13 | 14 | Raymond F. Jones | Renaissance | 1951 | 4/15/1951 | 5/3/1951 | Aug-51 | |
| 14 | 15 | L. Ron Hubbard | Typewriter in the Sky | 1951 | 5/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Aug-51 | |
| 15 | 12 | Will Stewart | Seetee Ship | 1951 | 7/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Nov-51 | |
| 16 | 18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | 1951 | 9/15/1951 | 10/14/1951 | Feb-52 | |
| 17 | 13 | Lewis Padgett | The Fairy Chessmen | 1951 | 12/1/1951 | 12/16/1951 | 1/27/1952 | |
| 18 | 16 | Greenberg (ed) | Travelers of Space | 1951 | 1/3/1952 | 2/10/1952 | May-52 | |
| 19 | 23 | Robert E. Howard | The Sword of Conan | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 4/27/1952 | Nov-52 | |
| 20 | 24 | Greenberg (ed) | Five Science Fiction Novels | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 5/15/1952 | Aug-52 | |
| 21 | 25 | Arthur C. Clarke | Sands of Mars | 1952 | 4/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Sep-52 | |
| 22 | 19 | A. E. van Vogt | The Mixed Men | 1952 | 5/1/1952 | 5/30/1952 | Sep-52 | |
| 23 | 20 | Lewis Padgett | Robots Have No Tails | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/20/1952 | Oct-52 | |
| 24 | 21 | Clifford D. Simak | City | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Oct-52 | |
| 25 | 27 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | 1952 | 9/15/1952 | 9/21/1952 | Mar-53 | |
| 26 | 26 | Leigh Brackett | The Starmen | 1952 | 11/15/1952 | 11/2/1952 | Jan-53 | |
| 27 | 22 | C. L. Moore | Judgment Night | 1952 | 12/15/1952 | 12/28/1952 | Apr-53 | |
| 28 | 34 | Robert E. Howard | King Conan | 1953 | 3/2/1953 | 4/8/1954 | Oct-53 | |
| 29 | 35 | Greenberg (ed) | The Robot and the Man | 1953 | 3/15/1953 | 5/31/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 30 | 36 | Hal Clement | Iceworld | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 31 | 37 | Arthur C. Clarke | Against the Fall of Night | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 | |
| 32 | 28 | Wilmar H. Shiras | Children of the Atom | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 | |
| 33 | 38 | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 | |
| 34 | 30 | Lewis Padgett | Mutant | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 11/21/1953 | Apr-54 | |
| 35 | 32 | Jeffrey Logan (ed) | Book of Outer Space | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 12/30/1953 | May-54 | |
| 36 | 33 | Robert E. Howard | The Coming of Conan | 1953 | 10/25/1953 | 2/25/1954 | Feb-54 | |
| 37 | 29 | Nat Schachner | Space Lawyer | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 12/17/1953 | Apr-54 | |
| 38 | 31 | C. L. Moore | Shambleau and Others | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 1/6/1954 | Oct-54 | |
| 39 | 45 | Arthur C. Clarke | Prelude to Space | 1954 | 3/10/1954 | 3/14/1954 | Jul-54 | |
| 40 | 44 | L. Sprague de Camp | Lost Continents | 1954 | 3/25/1954 | 6/6/1954 | Sep-54 | |
| 41 | 41 | William Morrison | Mel Oliver | 1954 | 7/15/1954 | 7/22/1954 | Nov-54 | |
| 42 | 43 | Murray Leinster | The Forgotten Planet | 1954 | 7/21/1954 | 8/27/1954 | Nov-54 | |
| 43 | 42 | C. L. Moore | Northwest of Earth | 1954 | 10/25/1954 | 11/18/1954 | Aug-55 | |
| 44 | 39 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Barbarian | 1954 | 11/1/1954 | 3/10/1955 | Apr-55 | |
| 45 | 40 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Quest | 1954 | 11/25/1954 | 1/15/1955 | Jul-55 | |
| 46 | 51 | Greenberg (ed) | All About the Future | 1955 | 1/15/1955 | 2/27/1955 | Feb-55 | |
| 47 | 53 | Groff Conklin (ed) | SF Terror Tales | 1955 | 2/15/1955 | 4/27/1955 | Feb-55 | |
| 48 | 46 | Williamson/Gunn | Star Bridge | 1955 | 3/25/1955 | 6/2/1955 | Oct-55 | |
| 49 | 47 | F. L. Wallace | Address: Centauri | 1955 | 4/25/1955 | 7/16/1955 | Oct-55 | |
| 50 | 48 | Andrew North | Sargasso of Space | 1955 | 5/25/1955 | 8/11/1955 | Sep-55 | |
| 51 | 52 | H. Chandler Elliott | Reprieve from Paradise | 1955 | 7/25/1955 | 9/20/1955 | Dec-55 | |
| 52 | 50 | James Gunn | This Fortress World | 1955 | 10/25/1955 | 12/27/1955 | Feb-56 | |
| 53 | 49 | Robert Howard | Tales of Conan | 1955 | 12/5/1955 | 3/21/1956 | May-56 | |
| 54 | 56 | Andrew North | Plague Ship | 1956 | 2/5/1956 | 5/5/1956 | May-56 | |
| 55 | 58 | Arthur K. Barnes | Interplanetary Hunter | 1956 | 3/15/1956 | 5/7/1956 | Sep-56 | |
| 56 | 57 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: The Year’s Greatest | 1956 | NA | 5/12/1956 | Aug-56 | |
| 57 | 54 | George O. Smith | Highways in Hiding | 1956 | 7/15/1956 | 12/2/1956 | Nov-56 | |
| 58 | 55 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Fleet | 1956 | 9/1/1956 | 12/13/1956 | Jun-57 | |
| 59 | 64 | Greenberg (ed) | Coming Attractions | 1957 | 3/15/1957 | 7/1/1957 | Apr-57 | |
| 60 | 66 | James Blish | The Seedling Stars | 1957 | 4/1/1957 | 4/12/1957 | Apr-57 | |
| 61 | 62 | Murray Leinster | Colonial Survey | 1957 | 4/15/1957 | 5/19/1957 | Sep-57 | |
| 62 | 63 | Fritz Leiber | Two Sought Adventure | 1957 | 5/15/1957 | 8/25/1957 | Oct-57 | |
| 63 | 61 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’57: | 1957 | 7/9/1957 | 8/11/1957 | Nov-57 | |
| 64 | 67 | Anderson/Dickson | Earthman’s Burden | 1957 | 7/25/1957 | 9/19/1957 | Jan-58 | |
| 65 | 60 | Bjorn Nyberg | The Return of Conan | 1957 | 8/25/1957 | 10/17/1957 | Jun-58 | |
| 66 | 59 | Robert Randall | The Shrouded Planet | 1957 | 9/25/1957 | 2/2/1958 | Jun-58 | |
| 67 | 65 | Clifton/Riley | They’d Rather Be Right | 1957 | 10/25/1957 | 1/23/1958 | Apr-58 | |
| 68 | 74 | Tom Godwin | The Survivors | 1958 | 2/25/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Jun-58 | |
| 69 | 73 | Robert A. Heinlein | Methuselah’s Children | 1958 | 4/15/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 70 | 70 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea City | 1958 | 7/1/1958 | 8/3/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 71 | 72 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’58: | 1958 | 7/15/1958 | 7/27/1958 | Oct-58 | |
| 72 | 71 | Talbot Mundy | Tros of Samothrace | 1958 | NA | 10/29/1958 | Mar-59 | |
| 73 | 69 | Robert Silverberg | Starman’s Quest | 1958 | NA | 1/24/1959 | Sep-59 | |
| 74 | 77 | Talbot Mundy | Purple Pirate | 1959 | NA | 4/15/1959 | Feb-60 | |
| 75 | 68 | George O. Smith | The Path of Unreason | 1958 | 7/25/1959 | 5/7/1959 | Nov-59 | |
| 76 | 78 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’59: | 1959 | 6/30/1959 | 11/19/1959 | Nov-59 | |
| 77 | 76 | Robert Randall | The Dawning Light | 1959 | 8/25/1959 | 10/21/1959 | Jan-60 | |
| 78 | 75 | Wallace West | The Bird of Time | 1959 | 10/25/1959 | 3/18/1960 | Aug-60 | |
| 79 | 80 | Robert A. Heinlein | The Menace from Earth | 1959 | 11/25/1959 | 12/17/1959 | Jul-60 | |
| 80 | 79 | Robert A. Heinlein | Jonathan Hoag | 1959 | 12/25/1959 | 1/19/1960 | Jul-60 | |
| 81 | 82 | James A. Schmitz | Agent of Vega | 1960 | 3/25/1960 | 5/26/1960 | Aug-60 | |
| 82 | 81 | Edward E. Smith | The Vortex Blaster | 1960 | 6/25/1960 | 7/31/1960 | ||
| 83 | 83 | Frederick Pohl | Drunkard’s Walk | 1960 | NA | 11/28/1960 | Mar-61 | |
| 84 | 84 | John W. Campbell | Invaders from the Infinite | 1961 | 3/15/1961 | 5/4/1961 | Sep-61 | |
| 85 | 85 | Edward E. Smith | Gray Lensman | 1961 | NA | 11/30/1961 | NA | |
| 86 | 86 | Everett B. Cole | The Philosophical Corps | 1962 | 12/10/1962 | 6/15/1962 | Apr-63 | |
A half dozen instances of two books sharing a registration date occur. I let the first newspaper mention be the tiebreaker and when that failed deferred to the standard order.
One flaw still appears, because of lack of proper data. In late 1958 or early 1959, Gnome issued several books that do not have copyright dates, Tros of Samothrace, Starman’s Quest, and Purple Pirate, as well as one whose copyright date is confounding, The Path of Unreason. ESHBACH has Path as the first book released in 1958, which seems impossible. Its registration is 25Jul1959 but in notice 1958. The earliest Ican trace the title is April 2, 1959, which is the date a fanzine review said the book was mailed. Starman’s first mention is considerably earlier. The Library of Congress (LoC) issued catalog card numbers for Path, Starman’s and Tros are in a block with 58 prefixes, (Purple does not have one at all), but LoC dates showing a year previous to the copyright registration dates had already happened three times, not an impediment to a1959 issue.
Sliding Path down between those other two titles seems like a good solution, but that would put its copyright registration date ahead of SF: ’59, making it the only one to be out of order. Merril’s anthology already has some mysteries of its own. The Dell edition states a first printing of June 1959, making a June 30 copyright date reasonable, but the title appears in a press release from Dell printed in the Boston Globe on June 14, 1959. Figuring out the date of the Gnome printing is next to impossible. All early newspaper mentions in 1959 are to the Dell paperback, until a library listing on October 22, which doesn’t mention the source but paperbacks were always frowned upon in 1950s libraries. Therefore, putting Path before SF: ’59 is a reasonable anomaly.
Table 4: My Order with Anomalies Corrected
| New | Old | Author | Title | Pub. | Copyright | Newspaper | Review |
| 1 | 1 | de Camp/Pratt | The Carnelian Cube | 1948 | 11/1/1948 | 12/5/1948 | 2,3/1949 |
| 2 | 2 | Frank Owen | The Porcelain Magician | 1948 | 2/20/1949 | 3/9/1949 | Jul-49 |
| 3 | 5 | Nelson Bond | The Thirty-first of February | 1949 | 6/18/1949 | 7/3/1949 | Aut/1949 |
| 4 | 3 | George O. Smith | Pattern for Conquest | 1949 | 11/16/1949 | 1/2/1950 | Mar-50 |
| 5 | 4 | Robert A. Heinlein | Sixth Column | 1949 | 12/7/1949 | 1/30/1950 | Jan-50 |
| 6 | 6 | Greenberg (ed) | Men Against the Stars | 1950 | 3/20/1950 | 4/2/1950 | Jul-50 |
| 7 | 7 | de Camp/Pratt | Castle of Iron, The | 1950 | 7/1/1950 | 7/31/1950 | Nov-50 |
| 8 | 8 | William Gray Beyer | Minions of the Moon | 1950 | 7/15/1950 | 9/2/1950 | Nov-50 |
| 9 | 9 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Conqueror | 1950 | 10/17/1950 | 11/30/1950 | Jan-51 |
| 10 | 11 | Clifford D. Simak | Cosmic Engineers | 1950 | 11/25/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Jan-51 |
| 11 | 10 | Isaac Asimov | I, Robot | 1950 | 12/20/1950 | 1/7/1951 | Apr-51 |
| 12 | 17 | Greenberg (ed) | Journey to Infinity | 1951 | 1/3/1951 | 1/27/1951 | Apr-51 |
| 13 | 14 | Raymond F. Jones | Renaissance | 1951 | 4/15/1951 | 5/3/1951 | Aug-51 |
| 14 | 15 | L. Ron Hubbard | Typewriter in the Sky | 1951 | 5/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Aug-51 |
| 15 | 12 | Will Stewart | Seetee Ship | 1951 | 7/15/1951 | 7/15/1951 | Nov-51 |
| 16 | 18 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation | 1951 | 9/15/1951 | 10/14/1951 | Feb-52 |
| 17 | 13 | Lewis Padgett | The Fairy Chessmen | 1951 | 12/1/1951 | 12/16/1951 | 1/27/1952 |
| 18 | 16 | Greenberg (ed) | Travelers of Space | 1951 | 1/3/1952 | 2/10/1952 | May-52 |
| 19 | 23 | Robert E. Howard | The Sword of Conan | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 4/27/1952 | Nov-52 |
| 20 | 24 | Greenberg (ed) | Five Science Fiction Novels | 1952 | 4/1/1952 | 5/15/1952 | Aug-52 |
| 21 | 25 | Arthur C. Clarke | Sands of Mars | 1952 | 4/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Sep-52 |
| 22 | 19 | A. E. van Vogt | The Mixed Men | 1952 | 5/1/1952 | 5/30/1952 | Sep-52 |
| 23 | 20 | Lewis Padgett | Robots Have No Tails | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/20/1952 | Oct-52 |
| 24 | 21 | Clifford D. Simak | City | 1952 | 5/15/1952 | 6/22/1952 | Oct-52 |
| 25 | 27 | Isaac Asimov | Foundation and Empire | 1952 | 9/15/1952 | 9/21/1952 | Mar-53 |
| 26 | 26 | Leigh Brackett | The Starmen | 1952 | 11/15/1952 | 11/2/1952 | Jan-53 |
| 27 | 22 | C. L. Moore | Judgment Night | 1952 | 12/15/1952 | 12/28/1952 | Apr-53 |
| 28 | 34 | Robert E. Howard | King Conan | 1953 | 3/2/1953 | 4/8/1954 | Oct-53 |
| 29 | 35 | Greenberg (ed) | The Robot and the Man | 1953 | 3/15/1953 | 5/31/1953 | Aug-53 |
| 30 | 36 | Hal Clement | Iceworld | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 |
| 31 | 37 | Arthur C. Clarke | Against the Fall of Night | 1953 | 4/15/1953 | 7/8/1953 | Aug-53 |
| 32 | 28 | Wilmar H. Shiras | Children of the Atom | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 |
| 33 | 38 | Isaac Asimov | Second Foundation | 1953 | 5/15/1953 | 6/23/1953 | Sep-53 |
| 34 | 30 | Lewis Padgett | Mutant | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 11/21/1953 | Apr-54 |
| 35 | 32 | Jeffrey Logan (ed) | Book of Outer Space | 1953 | 10/20/1953 | 12/30/1953 | May-54 |
| 36 | 33 | Robert E. Howard | The Coming of Conan | 1953 | 10/25/1953 | 2/25/1954 | Feb-54 |
| 37 | 29 | Nat Schachner | Space Lawyer | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 12/17/1953 | Apr-54 |
| 38 | 31 | C. L. Moore | Shambleau and Others | 1953 | 11/1/1953 | 1/6/1954 | Oct-54 |
| 39 | 45 | Arthur C. Clarke | Prelude to Space | 1954 | 3/10/1954 | 3/14/1954 | Jul-54 |
| 40 | 44 | L. Sprague de Camp | Lost Continents | 1954 | 3/25/1954 | 6/6/1954 | Sep-54 |
| 41 | 41 | William Morrison | Mel Oliver | 1954 | 7/15/1954 | 7/22/1954 | Nov-54 |
| 42 | 43 | Murray Leinster | The Forgotten Planet | 1954 | 7/21/1954 | 8/27/1954 | Nov-54 |
| 43 | 42 | C. L. Moore | Northwest of Earth | 1954 | 10/25/1954 | 11/18/1954 | Aug-55 |
| 44 | 39 | Robert E. Howard | Conan the Barbarian | 1954 | 11/1/1954 | 3/10/1955 | Apr-55 |
| 45 | 40 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Quest | 1954 | 11/25/1954 | 1/15/1955 | Jul-55 |
| 46 | 51 | Greenberg (ed) | All About the Future | 1955 | 1/15/1955 | 2/27/1955 | Feb-55 |
| 47 | 53 | Groff Conklin (ed) | SF Terror Tales | 1955 | 2/15/1955 | 4/27/1955 | Feb-55 |
| 48 | 46 | Williamson/Gunn | Star Bridge | 1955 | 3/25/1955 | 6/2/1955 | Oct-55 |
| 49 | 47 | F. L. Wallace | Address: Centauri | 1955 | 4/25/1955 | 7/16/1955 | Oct-55 |
| 50 | 48 | Andrew North | Sargasso of Space | 1955 | 5/25/1955 | 8/11/1955 | Sep-55 |
| 51 | 52 | H. Chandler Elliott | Reprieve from Paradise | 1955 | 7/25/1955 | 9/20/1955 | Dec-55 |
| 52 | 50 | James Gunn | This Fortress World | 1955 | 10/25/1955 | 12/27/1955 | Feb-56 |
| 53 | 49 | Robert Howard | Tales of Conan | 1955 | 12/5/1955 | 3/21/1956 | May-56 |
| 54 | 56 | Andrew North | Plague Ship | 1956 | 2/5/1956 | 5/5/1956 | May-56 |
| 55 | 58 | Arthur K. Barnes | Interplanetary Hunter | 1956 | 3/15/1956 | 5/7/1956 | Sep-56 |
| 56 | 57 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: The Year’s Greatest | 1956 | NA | 5/12/1956 | Aug-56 |
| 57 | 54 | George O. Smith | Highways in Hiding | 1956 | 7/15/1956 | 12/2/1956 | Nov-56 |
| 58 | 55 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea Fleet | 1956 | 9/1/1956 | 12/13/1956 | Jun-57 |
| 59 | 64 | Greenberg (ed) | Coming Attractions | 1957 | 3/15/1957 | 7/1/1957 | Apr-57 |
| 60 | 66 | James Blish | The Seedling Stars | 1957 | 4/1/1957 | 4/12/1957 | Apr-57 |
| 61 | 62 | Murray Leinster | Colonial Survey | 1957 | 4/15/1957 | 5/19/1957 | Sep-57 |
| 62 | 63 | Fritz Leiber | Two Sought Adventure | 1957 | 5/15/1957 | 8/25/1957 | Oct-57 |
| 63 | 61 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’57: | 1957 | 7/9/1957 | 8/11/1957 | Nov-57 |
| 64 | 67 | Anderson/Dickson | Earthman’s Burden | 1957 | 7/25/1957 | 9/19/1957 | Jan-58 |
| 65 | 60 | Bjorn Nyberg | The Return of Conan | 1957 | 8/25/1957 | 10/17/1957 | Jun-58 |
| 66 | 59 | Robert Randall | The Shrouded Planet | 1957 | 9/25/1957 | 2/2/1958 | Jun-58 |
| 67 | 65 | Clifton/Riley | They’d Rather Be Right | 1957 | 10/25/1957 | 1/23/1958 | Apr-58 |
| 68 | 74 | Tom Godwin | The Survivors | 1958 | 2/25/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Jun-58 |
| 69 | 73 | Robert A. Heinlein | Methuselah’s Children | 1958 | 4/15/1958 | 5/12/1958 | Oct-58 |
| 70 | 70 | Pohl/Williamson | Undersea City | 1958 | 7/1/1958 | 8/3/1958 | Oct-58 |
| 71 | 72 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’58: | 1958 | 7/15/1958 | 7/27/1958 | Oct-58 |
| 72 | 71 | Talbot Mundy | Tros of Samothrace | 1958 | NA | 10/29/1958 | Mar-59 |
| 73 | 69 | Robert Silverberg | Starman’s Quest | 1958 | NA | 1/24/1959 | Sep-59 |
| 74 | 68 | George O. Smith | The Path of Unreason | 1958 | 7/25/1959 | 5/7/1959 | Nov-59 |
| 75 | 77 | Talbot Mundy | Purple Pirate | 1959 | NA | 4/15/1959 | Feb-60 |
| 76 | 78 | Judith Merril (ed) | SF: ’59: | 1959 | 6/30/1959 | 11/19/1959 | Nov-59 |
| 77 | 76 | Robert Randall | The Dawning Light | 1959 | 8/25/1959 | 10/21/1959 | Jan-60 |
| 78 | 75 | Wallace West | The Bird of Time | 1959 | 10/25/1959 | 3/18/1960 | Aug-60 |
| 79 | 80 | Robert A. Heinlein | The Menace from Earth | 1959 | 11/25/1959 | 12/17/1959 | Jul-60 |
| 80 | 79 | Robert A. Heinlein | Jonathan Hoag | 1959 | 12/25/1959 | 1/19/1960 | Jul-60 |
| 81 | 82 | James A. Schmitz | Agent of Vega | 1960 | 3/25/1960 | 5/26/1960 | Aug-60 |
| 82 | 81 | Edward E. Smith | The Vortex Blaster | 1960 | 6/25/1960 | 7/31/1960 | NA |
| 83 | 83 | Frederick Pohl | Drunkard’s Walk | 1960 | NA | 11/28/1960 | Mar-61 |
| 84 | 84 | John W. Campbell | Invaders from the Infinite | 1961 | 3/15/1961 | 5/4/1961 | Sep-61 |
| 85 | 85 | Edward E. Smith | Gray Lensman | 1961 | NA | 11/30/1961 | NA |
| 86 | 86 | Everett B. Cole | The Philosophical Corps | 1962 | 12/10/1962 | 6/15/1962 | Apr-63 |
Note: 74 and 75 should be switched.
Providentially, a fourth source of critical data also exists that also contradicts ESHBACH. I referred to it earlier, in passing. All but three Gnome titles have a list of books available for purchase on the back panel. Presumably, these lists would reflect the most recent books published, or at least a set of recent or about to be released titles if the same list is found on more than one book. No suspense here. The correlation is again to the registration dates. Moreover, those panels provide an unexpected trove of information about Gnome and its plans and processes. They require a chapter all to themselves. It’s called The Back Panels, which will be posted soon.