The Best of Science Fiction

Notes

• This listing is for the 1st printing. See below for points differentiating 1st and 2nd printing.
• Catalog of Copyright entry A00000001024 and Cole checklist of SF anthologies give publication date of February 11, 1946 for the 1st printing.
• On copyright page: "Copyright, 1946, by Crown Publishers" and "Designed by Robert Josephy". No statement of edition or printing.
• $3.00 price on front flap of dust jacket. Tuck incorrectly lists $3.50 price of later printings.
• There are six parts to the book:
  • PART ONE THE ATOM ("Solution Unsatisfactory" to "Atomic Power")
  • PART TWO THE WONDERS OF EARTH ("Killdozer!" to "Liquid Life")
  • PART THREE THE SUPERSCIENCE OF MAN("A Tale of the Ragged Mountains" to "A Scientist Divides")
  • PART FOUR DANGEROUS INVENTIONS ("Tricky Tonnage" to "The Machine")
  • PART FIVE ADVENTURES IN DIMENSION ("Short-Circuited Probability" to "The Monster From Nowhere")
  • PART SIX FROM OUTER SPACE ("First Contact" to "Jackdaw")
• No BLIC.
• The 1st and 2nd printing are differentiated by the following points:
    - Author credit for The Monster From Nowhere:
  • 1st printing: as noted by Tuck, "error in first printing credited to D. Wandrei" in Table of Contents and on page 542. As noted by Bud Webster in Anthopology 101 (http://www.philsp.com/articles/anthopology_101_03.html), "this was because Wandrei had written a story with the same title". The Cole Checklist notes a "second edition" of the 1st printing "carried an errata slip".
  • 2nd printing: correctly credited to Nelson Bond in Table of Contents and on page 542, with an added footnote on page 542 that begins, "Note: By error, Mr. Bond's story was credited to Donald Wandrei in the first edition of this anthology ...".
• Copyright page:
  • 1st printing: No printer credit.
  • 2nd printing: Printer credit for "American Book – Stratford Press".
• Boards:
  • 1st printing: embossed in silver on front and spine. Verification copy is black cloth.
  • 2nd printing: embossed in gold on spine only. Verification copy is maroon cloth.
• Book size:
  • both: Book is 6 x 8.5".
  • 1st printing: very thin paper (as during wartime paper rationing) so book is only 1.25" thick.
  • 2nd printing: thicker paper, so book is 1.75" thick.
• Dust jacket:
  • both: Color-printed portion is identical, 7.25" wide. $3.00 price on front flap.
  • 1st printing: Jacket is 21.5" wide. Blurb on back flap is for Furlough From Heaven (1946). Top 2 (of 6) blurbs on back are for The Collected Stories of Ben Hecht (1945) and A Treasury of American Folklore (1944).
  • 2nd printing: Jacket is 22" wide, with slightly wider back and flaps to fit thicker book. Blurb on back flap is for The Murder of the U.S.A. (1946). Top 2 (of 6) blurbs on back are for A Treasury of American Folklore and 20 Best Stories in Ray Long's 20 Years As An Editor (1932).