Mark Rich has written multiple books on toys and toy history, along with numerous articles on science fiction literature. He lives in Cashton, Wisconsin.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgments      Preface      Introduction: Cyril Kornbluth, 1923–1958      Part I. Life and Works1. Futurians      2. In the North of Manhattan      3. George Washington Hill      4. An Irreverent Puck      5. The Mutant Title and the Fifth Convention      6. The Pirate and the Garbageman      7. An Interview with S.D. Gottesman      8. Cecil Corwin and the Fiction Avalanche      9. The Ineluctable Modality      10. The Ogre and the Literary Cabal      11. Before the Bodies Were Buried      12. The Detective Ace and the Flying Saucer      13. The Little Black Story      14. The New Face of Science Fiction      15. The Little Mother of Science Fiction      16. Vogting Old Van      17. Pack the Venus Ship with Connies      18. Launch of an Angry Novelist      19. The Miracle-Year of 1953      20. The Easy (Equals Bad) Way      21. The Sparrow in the Badminton Game      22. The Satellite of Mass Control      23. Tioga House      24. Hypertensive Year      25. The Death of Science Fiction      26. The Magical Number and the Magic Crutch      27. Two Celestial Lane      28. The End of the Modern      29. In the Age of the Masses      Part II. The Split Personality in the Fiction30. Everybody Knows Joe      31. The Bureau Chief, the Hermaphrodite, and the Marching Morons      32. The Fugue State and the Lonely Man      33. The Silly Season and Maggie’s Wrong Pressing      34. Kornbluth, Klass, and the Moral Stance      Chapter Notes      Bibliography      Index

“a highly recommendable book that is an excellent read”—Operaphile; “This book is an important contribution to our understanding of mid-twentieth-century sf...Rich has done an admirable job researching the man’s life and times”—Science Fiction Studies; “outstanding...thoughtfully written, well-researched and fully annotated...indispensable”—Scientifiction; “a more thorough examination of Kornbluth is probably not possible”—Critical Mass.