eated the memorable super lock-picker Giles Habilula as the major
attraction in a rousing trio of space operas_, The Legion of Space, The
Cometeers _and_ One Against the Legion. _When grim realism was the order
of the day, he produced_ Crucible of Power _and when they wanted
extrapolated theory in present tense, he assumed the disguise of Will
Stewart and popularized the concept of contra terrene matter in science
fiction with_ Seetee Ship _and_ Seetee Shock. _Finally, when only
psychological studies of the future would do, he produced_ "With Folded
Hands ..." "... And Searching Mind."

The Cosmic Express _is of special interest because it was written during
Williamson's A. Merritt "kick," when he was writing little else but, and
it gave the earliest indication of a more general capability. The
lightness of the handling is especially modern, barely avoiding the
farcical by the validity of the notion that wireless transmission of
matter is the next big transportation frontier to be conquered. It is
especially important because it stylistically forecast a later trend to
accept the background for granted, regardless of the quantity of
wonders, and proceed with the story. With only a few thousand
scanning-disk television sets in existence at the time of the writing,
the surmise that this media would be a natural for westerns was
particularly astute._

_Jack Williamson was born in 1908 in the Arizona territory when covered
wagons were the primary form of transportation and apaches still raided
the settlers. His father was a cattle man, but for young Jack, the ranch
was anything but glamorous. "My days were filled," he remembers, "with
monotonous rounds of what seemed an endless, heart-breaking war with
drought and frost and dust-storms, poison-weeds and hail, for the sake
of survival on the_ Llano Estacado." _The discovery of_ AMAZING STORIES
_was the escape he sought and his goal was to be a science fiction
writer. He labored to this end and the first he knew that a story of his
had been accepted was when he bought the December, 1929 issue of_
AMAZING STORIES. _Since then, he has written millions of words of
science fiction and has gone on record as follows: "I feel that
science-fiction is the folklore of the new world of science, and the
expression of man's reaction to a technological environment. By which I
mean that it is the most interesting and stimulating form of literature
today."_

Mr. Eric Stokes-Harding t