The Other Side of the Moon (anthology)

The Other Side of the Moon is an anthology of science fiction stories edited by American writer August Derleth. It was first published by Pellegrini & Cudahy in 1949. Many of the stories had originally appeared in the magazines The Graphic Christmas, Astounding Stories, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Wonder Stories, Weird Tales, Blue Book, Planet Stories, The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's Weekly or in the collections The Fourth Book of Jorkens by Lord Dunsany and The Witchfinder by S. Fowler Wright.

For the album by The Cardigans, see The Other Side of the Moon (album).
The Other Side of the Moon
Dust-jacket from the first edition
EditorAugust Derleth
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherPellegrini & Cudahy
Publication date
1949
Media typePrint (hardback)
Pages416

Aside from a second printing by Pellegrini and Cudahy in 1949, the anthology has never been reprinted in its original form. All subsequent editions were substantially abridged. The only British hardcover, from Grayson & Grayson in 1956, contained only 11 stories. The only American paperback, a 1959 Berkley Books version, included only 10 of the original 20 stories. The first British paperback, from Panther Books in 1963, also included only 10 stories, though the selection was somewhat different. A 1966 British paperback, from Mayflower-Dell in 1966, carried the same title, but contained the 10 stories not included in the Panther edition.[1][2][3]

In 1951, The New York Times reported that The Other Side of the Moon had become the first science fiction title to be included in the Talking Books program.[4]

Contents

Reception

Kirkus Reviews praised the original volume as "A collection of recent supersonic science fiction, not only from magazines devoted solely to this type of reading but even from nationally known periodicals".[5] New Worlds reviewer Leslie Flood found the British hardcover to be "Neither distinguished nor mediocre, but a reasonable addition to your bookshelf for future browsing".[6] Authentic Science Fiction described the same edition as "a mixed bag of good, very good, and indifferent", but found it "most enjoyable".[7] P. Schuyler Miller, reviewing the Berkley paperback, noted that Derleth was "conservative and literary in his SF tastes, Lovecrafty in his fantasy".[8]

gollark: Suuuuuuuure.
gollark: You should obviously magically parallelize things utterly.
gollark: Due to VERY few transistors → low heat output.
gollark: If it was made on the latest fabrication things it might reach up to 5GHz.
gollark: Actually, this is a reasonable idea, an ABCOut timesharing system.

References
  1. ISFDB publishing history
  2. Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  3. Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections
  4. "Science Fiction For Blind", New York Times, December 12, 1951
  5. The Other Side of the Moon
  6. "Book Reviews", New Worlds, July 1956, p.128
  7. "Book Reviews", Authentic Science Fiction, July 1956, p.128
  8. "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction, November 1959, p.156

Sources
  • Tuck, Donald H. (1974). The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Chicago: Advent. p. 139. ISBN 0-911682-20-1.
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