Poul Anderson, "The Big Rain"; "Sister Planet"
Arthur C. Clarke, "Before Eden"
extracts from novels by Olaf Stapledon, Edgar Rice Burroughs and CS Lewis
There were others (see above link) but these were the ones that I found particularly significant. It is good that both of Anderson's stories were included. In conversation at the British Easter Con in 1970, Aldiss disclosed that he had asked Robert Heinlein for permission to include "Logic of Empire," which obviously would have fitted in very well, but Heinlein had replied, "You can't have that! That's part of my Future History!" Thus, two future histories, Anderson's Psychotechnic History and Stapledon's Last And First Men, were represented but not the Future History.
Secondly, at the Easter Con, Aldiss disclosed that, when asked for "Sister Planet," Anderson had replied, "Yes, but can you use the original version which has never been published?" Aldiss responded, "Yes, of course," but then found that the revised version was very religious!
Anderson deserved to be included twice and Heinlein should have agreed to be included.
4 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, Heinlein should have agreed to have "Logic of Empire" included in FANTASTIC VENUS.
Not quite sure what you meant in your next to last paragraph. Was Brian Aldiss hostile to religious believers and discovered from "Sister Planet" Anderson was friendly to them?
I am puzzled, are there two versions of "Sister Planet"? Maybe I did not read the one preferred by Anderson? DIALOGUE WITH DARKNESS (TOR, Feb. 1985) is the Anderson collection with the version I did read. But the publication credits states that "Sister" came from the May 1959 issue of SATELLITE.
Maybe we would have to track down FANTASTIC VENUS to find the text of "Sister Planet" preferred by Anderson.
Ad astra! Sean
Correction: I should have used FAREWELL, FANTASTIC VENUS! in my first comment here.
Sean
Sean,
I meant just that Aldiss said that. I took him to mean just that Anderson's preferred version of "Sister Planet" was more sentimentally religious than he would have liked. So, yes, it seems that there are definitely two versions of that story.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
You seem to have uncovered a mystery! If there are two versions of "Sister Planet," then the text preferred by Anderson should be the canonical form of that story.
Ad astra! Sean
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