INTRODUCTION by Ben Bova
This two-book set is the second volume of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and consists of stories of longer lengths than those published in the highly acclaimed Volume One.
These stories have been selected by the members of the Science Fiction Writers of America (SFWA), the organization of some four hundred professional science fiction writers. Thus, the Science Fiction Hall of Fame is the definitive anthology in this field, the collective choice of the practitioners of the science fiction art themselves.
Founded in 1965, each year since 1966 SFWA has given achievement awards for the best stories of the year. The awards are called Nebulas, and are chosen on the basis of a vote by SFWA's members. The purpose of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame anthologies is to bestow a similar recognition on stories that were published prior to 1966, and thus never had a chance to earn a Nebula.
Like the annual Nebula awards themselves, election to the Hall of Fame anthology is based on a poll of SFWA's members. Volume One was restricted to short stories; Volume Two is devoted to novelettes and novellas.
The voting procedure began with recommendations. For nearly a full year, SFWA members sent in suggestions for stories that were worthy of inclusion in the Hall of Fame. As editor, I quickly began to see that it was going to be a heartbreaking job to rule out any of these fine tales. Almost every title recommended brought back a powerful memory of the first time I had read that particular piece. And the authors! H. G. Wells, John W. Campbell, Jr., Robert Heinlein, Cyril Kornbluth . . . how could any of them be ruled out?
A ballot was finally prepared, consisting of seventy-six recommended stories. The SFWA members were asked to vote for ten stories out of the seventy-six. Since many authors had more than one story on the ballot, and we didn't want any individual author to be represented more than once in the anthology, the members were further asked to vote for only one story per author.
Many of the ballots came back with screams of despair and frustration scribbled over them. "How can I pick only ten of 'em?" was the typical cry. Most of the members wanted most of the recommended stories to go into the final anthology.
When the votes were counted, the top ten stories were: who goes there? by John W. Campbell, Jr. A canticle for leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. with folded hands by Jack Williamson the time machine by H. G. Wells baby is three by Theodore Sturgeon vintage season by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore the marching morons by C. M. Kornbluth universe by Robert A. Heinlein by his bootstraps by Robert A. Heinlein nerves by Lester del Rey
Since several authors had more than one story on the ballot, and thus were in the unhappy position of competing with themselves, I sliced the pie in the other direction, too, and looked for the ten most popular authors: Robert A. Heinlein Theodore Sturgeon John W. Campbell, Jr. Walter M. Miller, Jr. Lester del Rey C. M. Kornbluth Jack Williamson H. G. Wells Poul Anderson Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore
The procedure for picking the stories to go into the anthology, then, was fairly straightforward, since most of the top authors were also represented among the most popular stories. I prepared a list of stories that included the highest vote-getters among the stories and the most popular authors. For any individual author, I picked the story of his that had received the most votes.
It was much easier to start the list than end it. There was always the temptation to sneak in just one more story—after all, I would tell myself, this one's really too good to be left out. I ended with a list of twenty-two stories, totaling more than 400,000 words. Far too much for a single book.
I took my problem to Larry Ashmead, the editorial mastermind who presides over Doubleday's science fiction publications. It was a shameful dereliction of duty, but I didn't have the heart to cut out any of those twenty-two stories. Thankfully, neither did Larry. After one look at the list, he suggested making a two-book set so that all the stories could be included.
Unfortunately, two of the stories—Miller's A Canticle for Leibowitz, and Ray Bradbury's The Fireman—were unavailable for this anthology. Both are currently available in book form, however.
So here is the second volume of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame. It represents the best that science fiction has to offer, by some of the best writers working in this or any field of literature.
One final note of acknowledgment and thanks. Much of the onerous work of tracking down publication dates and magazines, toting up wordage lengths, and finding copies of the original stories, was done by Anthony R. Lewis. Without his aid, this volume might still be little more than an unfulfilled promise.