Journey to Infinity is a 1951

1951 in literature

The year 1951 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*E. E. Cummings and Rachel Carson are awarded Guggenheim Fellowships.*Flannery O'Connor is diagnosed with lupus....

 anthology of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories edited by Martin Greenberg

Martin Greenberg

Martin Greenberg is an American book publisher and editor of science fiction anthologies.-Biography:Greenberg married in 1941. He was in the U.S...

. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Astounding, Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories

Amazing Stories was an American science fiction magazine launched in April 1926 by Hugo Gernsback's Experimenter Publishing. It was the first magazine devoted solely to science fiction...

and Future.

Contents

• Foreword, by Martin Greenberg
  Martin Greenberg
  Martin Greenberg is an American book publisher and editor of science fiction anthologies.-Biography:Greenberg married in 1941. He was in the U.S...
  
  
• Introduction, by Fletcher Pratt
  Fletcher Pratt
  Murray Fletcher Pratt was an American writer of science fiction, fantasy and history, particularly noted for his works on naval history and on the American Civil War.- Life and work :...
  
  
• "False Dawn", by A. Bertram Chandler
  A. Bertram Chandler
  Arthur Bertram Chandler was a British-Australian science fiction author. He also wrote under the pseudonyms George Whitley, George Whitely, Andrew Dunstan, and S.H.M....
  
  
• "Atlantis", by Edward E. Smith, Ph.D.
  E. E. Smith
  Edward Elmer Smith, Ph.D., also, E. E. Smith, E. E. "Doc" Smith, Doc Smith, "Skylark" Smith, and Ted was a food engineer and early science fiction author who wrote the Lensman series and the Skylark series, among others...
  
  
• "Letter to a Phoenix", by Fredric Brown
  Fredric Brown
  Fredric Brown was an American science fiction and mystery writer. He was born in Cincinnati.He had two sons: James Ross Brown and Linn Lewis Brown ....
  
  
• "Unite and Conquer", by Theodore Sturgeon
  Theodore Sturgeon
  Theodore Sturgeon was an American science fiction author.His most famous novel is More Than Human .-Biography:...
  
  
• "Breakdown", by Jack Williamson
  Jack Williamson
  John Stewart Williamson , who wrote as Jack Williamson was a U.S. writer often referred to as the "Dean of Science Fiction" following the death in 1988 of Robert A...
  
  
• "Dance of a New World", by John D. MacDonald
  John D. MacDonald
  John Dann MacDonald was an American crime and suspense novelist and short story writer.MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida...
  
  
• "Mother Earth", by Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov
  Isaac Asimov was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 90,000...
  
  
• "There Shall Be Darkness", by C. L. Moore
  C. L. Moore
  Catherine Lucille Moore was an American science fiction and fantasy writer, as C. L. Moore. She was one of the first women to write in the genre, and paved the way for many other female writers in speculative fiction....
  
  
• "Taboo", by Fritz Leiber
  Fritz Leiber
  Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...
  
  
• "Overthrow", by Cleve Cartmill
  Cleve Cartmill
  Cleve Cartmill was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy short stories. He is best remembered for what is sometimes referred to as "the Cleve Cartmill affair", when his 1944 story "Deadline" attracted the attention of the FBI by reason of its detailed description of a nuclear weapon...
  
  
• "Barrier of Dread", by Judith Merril
  Judith Merril
  Judith Josephine Grossman , who took the pen-name Judith Merril about 1945, was an American and then Canadian science fiction writer, editor and political activist....
  
  
• "Metamorphosite", by Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell
  Eric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...
  
  

Reception

Villiers Gerson, writing in Astounding Science Fiction, complained that nearly half the stories in the book were "second-rate", selected to fit in along thematic lines rather than for their own merit. The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

noted that the anthology presented "the science-fictional History of Man."