Science Fiction and Reader's Guide

Overview:

  • Title: Science Fiction and Reader's Guide
  • Author: Marjorie Barrows
  • Year: 1954
  • Publisher: Spencer Press
  • Pages: 376
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • Type: Anthology
  • Title Reference: Science Fiction and Reader's Guide
  • Notes:
    • Available only as one of the 16 volumes of The Children's Hour (List price: $120.00). This is Volume 16 in the series.
    • "Copyright 1954 by Spencer Press" on copyright page. No statement of edition or printing. List of Children's Hour titles inside FFEP ends with this Volume.
    • Published June 1954 per Cole Checklist of SF Anthologies.
    • The first 143 pages (38% of book) have an illustrated anthology of juvenile SF stories. Includes numerous 2-color illustrations, plus an un-numbered bound-in color plate by Hardie Gramataky after page 8.
    • "Pages for Parents" start on page 144 (62% of book.) First 44 pages of this section are 9 non-genre essays on children's literature and education. Remaining 191 pages (51% of book) are short biographies of editors, authors, and illustrators, plus an index.
    • The story "Mars and Miss Pickerell" is constructed from two excerpts of Ellen MacGregor's 1951 book "Miss Pickerell Goes to Mars" (pages 50-62 and 101-128 with some of the illustrations) with additional brief intro and bridge.
    • The story "Lancelot Biggs on the Saturn" is the first 4 chapters of The Remarkable Exploits of Lancelot Biggs: Spaceman, these chapters being a revised fix-up of 2 stories, "F.O.B. Venus" and "Lancelot Biggs Cooks a Pirate".
    • There is a footnote "See glossary, page 141" on page 70, the first page of "Lancelot Biggs on the Saturn". This uncredited glossary explains Nelson Bond's SFnal neologisms.