Pioneers of Wonder: Conversations With the Founders of Science Fiction, Eric Leif Davin, Prometheus Books, 1999
Most science fiction fans are familiar with names like Asimov and Bradbury. How many are familiar with names like Lasser, Weinbaum and Eshbach?
This book of interviews concentrates on the early days of science fiction, during the depression, when a person's imagination was allowed to soar while speculating about the future. Hugo Gernsback, a Luxembourgian immigrant who became a magazine tycoon, founded, in 1926, the first all science fiction magazine called Amazing Stories. David Lasser was one of his editors, whose 1931 book, The Conquest of Space, was the first serious English-language look at travel to the moon. Stanley Weinbaum's classic story, "A Martian Odyssey", was the first sympathetic portrayal of aliens. Lloyd Eshbach started one of the first specialty book publishers, Fantasy Press, in the late 1940s. Up until then, even the best science fiction story had a life of about one month in a magazine.
This book is wonderful. Not only do the interviews with the actual people involved do a great job of bringing back the days of ray guns and alien monsters, this is a much-needed addition to the bookshelf of every science fiction fan. I give it two strong thumbs up.
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