Before the Golden Age

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Before the Golden Age is an anthology of 25 science fiction stories from 1930s pulp magazines. It was first published in 1974.

The stories were selected by Isaac Asimov and the main selection criterion was the degree to which they influenced young Asimov when he was growing up in the 1930s. The prefatory material and individual introductions to the stories fill in the details about the early life of the child prodigy, which effectively makes the volume a first stab at an autobiography. Asimov eventually published a number of autobiographical volumes starting with In Memory Yet Green. The anthology also includes "Big Game", a story written by Asimov in 1941 and never sold.

The stories collected in the anthology, although they range in quality from embarrassing to very good, are of a kind rarely anthologized and provide a unique historical and cultural retrospective of the genre.

The anthology was first published as a large hardcover in 1974 and re-issued as three smaller paperbacks the following year. As of 2006, it is out of print.

Contents 1 Contents 1.1 1931 1.2 1932 1.3 1933 1.4 1934 1.5 1935 1.6 1936 1.7 1937 1.8 1938

[edit] Contents

[edit] 1931

• "The Man Who Evolved" by Edmond Hamilton
• "The Jameson Satellite" by Neil R. Jones
• "Submicroscopic" by Capt. S.P. Meek
• "Awlo of Ulm" by Capt. S.P. Meek
• "Tetrahedra of Space" by P. Schuyler Miller
• "The World of the Red Sun" by Clifford D. Simak

[edit] 1932

• "Tumithak of the Corridors" by Charles R. Tanner
• "The Moon Era" by Jack Williamson

[edit] 1933

• "The Man Who Awoke" by Laurence Manning
• "Tumithak in Shawm" by Charles R. Tanner

[edit] 1934

• "Colossus" by Donald Wandrei
• "Born of the Sun" by Jack Williamson
• "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster
• "Old Faithful" by Raymond Z. Gallun

[edit] 1935

• "Parasite Planet" by Stanley G. Weinbaum
• "Proxima Centauri" by Murray Leinster
• "The Accursed Galaxy" by Edmond Hamilton

[edit] 1936

• "He Who Shrank" by Henry Hasse
• "The Human Pets of Mars" by Leslie Frances Stone
• "The Brain Stealers of Mars" by John W. Campbell
• "Devolution" by Edmond Hamilton
• "Big Game" by Isaac Asimov

[edit] 1937

• "Other Eyes Watching" by John W. Campbell
• "Minus Planet" by John D. Clark
• "Past, Present, and Future" by Nat Schachner

[edit] 1938

• "The Men and the Mirror" by Ross Rocklynne