Rise and Fall of American Science Fiction, from the 1920s to the 1960s

Gary Westfahl, a professor emeritus at the University of La Verne, California, has authored, edited, or co-edited 31 books about science fiction and fantasy, and hundreds of articles and reviews. In 2003, he received the Science Fiction Research Association’s Pilgrim Award for his lifetime contributions to science fiction and fantasy scholarship.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I. The 1920s and Thereafter1. The Emergence of American Science Fiction and Its Impact on the World2. August 1928: Science Fiction’s Second Birthday3. Artists in Wonderland: Towards a True History of Science Fiction ArtPart II. The 1930s and Thereafter4. Pulp Science Fiction: A Student’s Guide5. Beyond Logic and Literacy: The Strange Case of Space Opera6. Five Ways to Conquer the Universe: The Forms of Space OperaPart III. The 1940s and Thereafter7. The Tall Dark Stranger and the Boy Next Door: A. E. van Vogt and Robert A. Heinlein8. The Three Golden Ages of Science Fiction9. Assemblers of Infinity: The Early History of Science Fiction AnthologiesPart IV. The 1950s and Thereafter10. Invasion of the Saucer Men: How the Universe of Science Fiction Expanded in the 1950s11. Hard Science Fiction: An Overview12. The “Big Three” Approaches to Juvenile Science Fiction and Why One Worked and the Others Did NotEpilog: The 1960s and Thereafter13. After Things Fell Apart: The Fragmentation of Science Fiction in the 1960s and 1970s14. Science Fiction Today: The Triumph of the MarketplaceConclusionChapter NotesBibliographyIndex

“Well done, informative, logically constructed, and entertaining. I believe this is the best book from this publisher that I’ve read this year”—Critical Mass