Pioneers of Wonder: Conversations with the Founders of Science Fiction

Born in 1947, Davin discovered SF through the films and comic books of the 1950s. In 1956, a ""best of"" anthology led him to read the pioneering SF magazines of the '20s, most of which had died out and were being replaced by SF books and TV. Here, Davin extols at length the ""sense of wonder"" he believes SF engenders in its readers, defending the genre from those who dismiss it as an adolescent pursuit. Through an assortment of Q&A interviews, he attempts to rekindle his youthful enthusiasm, as well as to capture the memories of a handful of figures from the days of SF yore, several of whom have died since his interviews. But few readers will recognize his subjects: David Lasser edited several of Hugo Gernsback's pulps and wrote the first English-language book on space travel, The Conquest of Space, which inspired then 17-year-old Arthur C. Clarke. Lloyd Arthur Eshbach founded Fantasy Press, one of the better, longer-lived (1946-1955) specialty houses. Sam Moskowitz, who died in 1997, was SF's most prominent fan-cum-historian. Curt Siodmak, a German-born writer and director of B-films, is best known for his 1943 novel, Donovan's Brain. The author's other subjects are even more obscure. Davin's writing and interviewing skills are insufficient to bring his subjects alive, and his excessive praise of these mostly minor figures will limit the appeal of his book to a handful of SF historians. Readers with an interest in this period should turn instead to Paul A. Carter's exemplary 1977 study, The Creation of Tomorrow: Fifty Years of Magazine Science Fiction. Photos not seen by PW. (July)