The Ultimate Egoist, the first volume of The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon, contains the late author's earliest work, written from 1937 to 1940. Although Sturgeon's reach was limited to the lengths of the short story and novelette, his influence was strongly felt by even the most original science fiction stylists, including Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gene Wolfe, each of whom contributes a laudatory foreword. The more than 40 stories here showcase Sturgeon's masterful knack with clever, O. Henry-ish plot twists, sparkling character development, and almost archetypal, why didn't I think of that? story ideas. Early Sturgeon masterpieces include "It," about the violence done by a creature spontaneously born from garbage and mud, and "Helix the Cat," about an inventor's bizarre encounter with a disembodied soul and the cat that saves it. Sturgeon's unique genius is timelessly entertaining. Table of Contents: Forewords by Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, and Gene Wolfe Stories: Heavy Insurance The Heart Cellmate Fluffy Alter Ego (prev unpub) Mailed Through a Porthole A Noose of Light (prev unpub) Strangers on a Train (prev unpub) Accidentally on Porpoise The Right Line (prev unpub) Golden Day Permit Me My Gesture Watch My Smoke The Other Cheek Extraordinary Seamen One Sick Kid His Good Angel Some People Forget A God in a Garden Fit for a King Ex-Bachelor Extract East is East Three People (prev unpub) Eyes of Blue Ether Breather Her Choice Cajun Providence Strike Three (prev unpub) Contact! The Call Helix the Cat To Shorten Sale Thanksgiving Again (prev unpub) Bianca's Hands Derm Fool He Shuttles Turkish Delight Niobe The Long Arm The Man on the Steps Punctuational Advice A Place of Honor The Ultimate Egoist It Butyl and the Breather Look Around You (poem) Mahout

The second of a planned 10 volumes that will reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output during 1940 and 1941, after which he suffered five years of writer's block. Showcasing Sturgeon's early penchant for fantasy, the first six selections include whimsical ghost stories, such as "Cargo," in which a World War II munitions freighter is commandeered by invisible, peace-loving fairies. With the publication of his enduring SF classic, "Microcosmic God," Sturgeon finally found his voice, combining literate, sharp-edged prose with fascinating speculative science while recounting the power struggle between a brilliant scientist, who creates his own miniature race of gadget makers, and his greedy banker. Voice found or not, every one of the stories here is readable and entertaining today because of Sturgeon's singular gifts for clever turns of phrase and compelling narrative. As Samuel R. Delaney emphasizes in an insightful introduction, Sturgeon was the single most influential SF writer from the 1940s through the 1960s. Table of Contents: Foreword by Samuel R. Delaney Stories: Cargo Shottlebop Yesterday Was Monday Brat The Anonymous Two Sidecars Microcosmic God The Haunt Completely Automatic Poker Face Nightmare Island The Purple Light Artnan Process Biddiver The Golden Egg Two Percent Inspiration The Jumper (with James H. Beard) Microcosmic God (early unfinished draft)

Killdozer is the third volume of a series of the complete short stories from Theodore Sturgeon's career. It contains a few of his best and most famous short stories: "Medusa," "Killdozer " and "Mewhu's Jet." The series editor Paul Williams has dug into the background of each story, and come up with a lot of interesting lore about Sturgeon. Especially of interest in this volume is the alternative original ending to "Mewhu's Jet." Table of Contents: Foreword by Robert Silverberg Afterword by Robert A. Heinlein Stories: Blabbermouth Medusa Ghost of a Chance The Bones (with James H. Beard) The Hag Séleen (with James H. Beard) Killdozer! Abreaction Poor Yorick (prev unpub) Crossfire (prev unpub) Noon Gun Bulldozer is a Noun (prev unpub) August Sixth The Chromium Helmet Memorial Mewhu's Jet

Table of Contents: Foreword by James Gunn Stories: Maturity Tiny and the Monster The Sky Was Full of Ships Largo Thunder and Roses It Wasn't Syzygy The Blue Letter (prev unpub) Wham Bop Well Spiced Hurricane Trio That Low Memory There Is No Defense The Professor's Teddy-Bear A Way Home Maturity (original second half)

The fifth of ten volumes that will reprint all Sturgeon's short fiction covers his prolific output volume contains 15 classics and two previously unpublished stories, including "Quietly." The Perfect Host provides enough of a representative sampling of Sturgeon's "greatest hits" to give the uninitiated a good sense of what all the fuss was about way back when. At the same time it offers a generous selection of alternate takes and rarities, notably several of Sturgeon's best forays into other forms of genre writing, plus previously unreleased cuts and liner notes.

"Baby Is Three" is the sixth volume in the series devoted to the complete works of one of science fiction's titans. Like others in the series, this one includes extensive notes and background information on each story by editor Paul Williams. The early 1950s, during which this material was written, was the beginning of Sturgeon's greatest creative period. The title story for this collection was later expanded into the International Fantasy Award winning novel" More Than Human." Sturgeon's whimsical, sardonic sense of humor lifts his work out of the mundane realm of genre science fiction. This wide-ranging collection shows precisely why he has been cited as a primary influence by authors as varied as Stephen King, Ray Bradbury, and Carl Sagan. Shadow, Shadow on the Wall The Stars Are the Styx Rule of Three Make Room for Me (with Ree Dragonette) Special Aptitude The Traveling Crag Excalibur and the Atom The Incubi of Parallel X Never Underestimate The Sex Opposite Baby Is Three

This volume includes 12 stories, written between autumn 1952 and autumn 1953, from 20th-century science fiction and fantasy writer Theodore Sturgeon, including A Saucer of Loneliness, The Silken-Swift and The World Well Lost. A Saucer of Loneliness The Touch of Your Hand The World Well Lost And My Fear Is Great The Wages of Synergy The Dark Room Talent A Way of Thinking The Silken-Swift The Clinic Mr. Costello, Hero The Education of Drusilla Strange

Sci-fi master Theodore Sturgeon wrote stories with power and freshness, and in telling them created a broader understanding of humanity—a legacy for readers and writers to mine for generations. Along with the title story, the collection includes stories written between 1953 and 1955, Sturgeon's greatest period, with such favorites as "Bulkhead," "The Golden Helix," and "To Here and the Easel." Cactus Dance The Golden Helix Extrapolation Granny Won't Knit To Here and the Easel When You're Smiling Bulkhead The Riddle of Ragnarok Twink Bright Segment So Near the Darkness Clockwise Smoke!

Written between 1955 and 1957, the 15 stories in And Now the News ... include five previously uncollected stories along with five well-known works, two cowritten with genre legend Robert Heinlein. Spanning his most creative period, these tales show why Sturgeon won every science fiction award given. Won't You Walk...? New York Vignette The Half-Way Tree Murder The Skills of Xanadu The Claustrophile Dead Dames Don't Dial Fear Is a Business The Other Man The Waiting Thing Inside (with Don Ward) The Deadly Innocent (with Don Ward) And Now the News... The Girl Had Guts The Other Celia Affair With a Green Monkey The Pod and the Barrier

By the winner of the Hugo, the Nebula, and the World Fantasy Life Achievement Awards, this latest volume finds Theodore Sturgeon in fine form as he gains recognition for the first time as a literary short story writer. Written between 1957 and 1960, when Sturgeon and his family lived in both America and Grenada, finally settling in Woodstock, New York, these stories reflect his increasing preference for psychology over ray guns. Stories such as "The Man Who Told Lies," "A Touch of Strange," and "It Opens the Sky" show influences as diverse as William Faulkner and John Dos Passos. Always in touch with the zeitgeist, Sturgeon takes on the Russian Sputnik launches of 1957 with "The Man Who Lost the Sea," switching the scene to Mars and injecting his trademark mordancy and vivid wordplay into the proceedings. These mature stories also don't stint on the scares, as "The Graveyard Reader"—one of Boris Karloff's favorite stories—shows. Acclaimed novelist Jonathan Lethem's foreword neatly summarizes Sturgeon's considerable achievement here. A Crime For Llewellyn It Opens the Sky A Touch of Strange The Comedian's Children The Graveyard Reader The Man Who Told Lies The Man Who Lost the Sea The Man Who Figured Everything (with Don Ward) Like Young Night Ride Need How to Kill Aunty Tandy's Story

This book contains ten major stories by the master of science fiction, fantasy, and horror written during the 1960s. The controversial "If All Men We re Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister?" shows the author's technique of "ask the next question" used in a way that shatters social conventions. "When You Care, When You Love" offers a prescient vision of the marriage of deep obsessive love and genetic manipulation, written long before actual cloning techniques existed. "Runesmith" constitutes a rare example of Sturgeon collaborating with a legendary colleague, Harlan Ellison. Included also are two other rarities: two detective stories and a Western that showcase Sturgeon's knack for characterization and action outside his usual genre. "Take Care of Joey" has been read as an allusion to the complex personal relationship between Sturgeon and Ellison, while "It Was Nothing, Really!" hilariously skewers the mores of the military-industrial complex. As always, these stories demonstrate not only Sturgeon's brilliant wordplay but also his timeliness, with "Brown-shoes" and "The Nail and the Oracle" standing out as powerful commentaries on the use and abuse of power that might have been written yesterday. Ride In, Ride Out (with Don Ward) Assault and Little Sister When You Care, When You Love Hold Up à la Carte How to Forget Baseball The Nail and the Oracle If All Men Were Brothers, Would You Let One Marry Your Sister? Runesmith (with Harlan Ellison®) Jorry's Gap Brownshoes It Was Nothing - Really! Take Care of Joey

Theodore Sturgeon was a model for his friend Kurt Vonnegut’s legendary character Kilgore Trout, and his work was an acknowledged influence on important younger writers from Harlan Ellison and Robert Silverberg to Stephen King and Octavia Butler. His work has long been deeply appreciated for its sardonic sensibility, dazzling wordplay, conceptual brilliance, memorable characters, and unsparing treatment of social issues such as sex, war, and marginalized members of society. Sturgeon also authored several episodes of the original Star Trek TV series and originated the Vulcan phrase “Live long and prosper.” This twelfth volume of North Atlantic’s ambitious series reprinting his complete short stories includes classic works such as the award-winning title story, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards in 1971, as well as “Case and the Dreamer,” a well-crafted tale of an encounter with a trans-spatial being that is also a meditation on love, and “The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff,” a creative exploration of the human ability to achieve self-realization in response to crisis. The book includes a new Foreword, an illuminating section of Story Notes, and a comprehensive index for the entire series. The [Widget], the [Wadget], and Boff The Beholders (prev unpub) It's You! Slow Sculpture The Girl Who Knew What They Meant The Patterns of Dorne Crate Suicide Uncle Fremmis Necessary and Sufficient The Verity File Occam's Scalpel Dazed Pruzy's Pot

James Blish called him the "finest conscious artist science fiction ever produced." Kurt Vonnegut based the famous character Kilgore Trout on him. And such luminaries as Harlan Ellison, Stephen King, and Octavia Butler have hailed him as a mentor. Theodore Sturgeon was both a popular favorite and a writer's writer, carving out a singular place in the literary landscape based on his masterful wordplay, conceptual daring, and narrative drive. Sturgeon's sardonic sensibility and his skill at interweaving important social issues such as sex—including gay themes—and war into his stories are evident in all of his work, regardless of genre. "Case and the Dreamer "displays Sturgeon's gifts at their peak. The book brings together his last stories, written between 1972 and 1983. They include "The Country of Afterward," a sexually explicit story Sturgeon had been unable to write earlier in his career, and the title story, about an encounter with a transpatial being that is also a meditation on love. Several previously unpublished stories are included, as well as his final one, "Grizzly," a poignant take on the lung disease that killed him two years later. Noted critic and anthologist Paul Williams contextualizes Sturgeon as both man and artist in an illuminating afterword, and the book includes an index to the stories in all thirteen volumes. Tuesdays Are Worse Case and the Dreamer Agnes, Accent and Access Ingenious Aylmer The Sheriff of Chayute (with Don Ward) The Mysterium (prev unpub) I Love Maple Walnut Blue Butter The Singsong of Cecily Snow Harry's Note Time Warp The Country of Afterward Like Yesterday Why Dolphins Don't Bite Vengeance Is. Seasoning Not an Affair Black Moccasins (prev unpub) The Trick Grizzly