His Share of Glory

The Complete Short Science Fiction of C. M. Kornbluth

by Cyril Kornbluth

His Share of Glory contains all the short science fiction written solely by Cyril M. Kornbluth. Many of the stories are SF "classics," such as "The Marching Morons," "The Little Black Bag," "Two Dooms," "The Mindworm," "Thirteen O'Clock," and, of course, "That Share of Glory". His Share of Glory includes all of Kornbluth's solo short science fiction, fifty-six works of short SF in all, with the original bibliographic details including pseudonymous by-line. The introduction is by noted SF writer and life-long friend and collaborator of C. M. Kornbluth—Frederik Pohl.

Table of Contents

• Cyril by Frederik Pohl
• Editor's Introduction by Timothy Szczesuil
• That Share of Glory
• The Adventurer
• Dominoes
• The Golden Road (as by Cecil Corwin)
• The Rocket of 1955 (as by Cecil Corwin)
• The Mindworm
• The Education of Tigress McCardle
• Shark Ship (a.k.a. Reap the Dark Tide)
• The Meddlers
• The Luckiest Man in Denv (as by Simon Eisner)
• The Reversible Revolutions (as by Cecil Corwin)
• The City in the Sofa (as by Cecil Corwin)
• Gomez
• Masquerade (as by Kenneth Falconer)
• The Slave
• The Words of Guru (as by Kenneth Falconer)
• Thirteen O'Clock (as by Cecil Corwin)
• Mr. Packer Goes to Hell (as by Cecil Corwin)
• With These Hands
• Iteration
• The Goodly Creatures
• Time Bum
• Two Dooms
• Passion Pills
• The Silly Season
• Fire-Power (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• The Perfect Invasion (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• The Adventurers
• Kazam Collects (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• The Marching Morons
• The Altar at Midnight
• Crisis! (as by Cecil Corwin)
• Theory of Rocketry
• The Cosmic Charge Account
• Friend to Man
• I Never Ast No Favors
• The Little Black Bag 1951 RetroHugo Nominee!
• What Sorghum Says (as by Cecil Corwin)
• Ms. Found in a Chinese Fortune Cookie
• The Only Thing We Learn
• The Last Man Left in the Bar
• Virginia
• The Advent on Channel Twelve
• Make Mine Mars
• Everybody Knows Joe
• The Remorseful
• Sir Mallory's Magnitude (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• The Events Leading Down to the Tragedy

Early "to spec" stories:

• King Cole of Pluto (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• No Place to Go (as by Edward J. Bellin)
• Dimension of Darkness (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• Dead Center (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• Interference (as by Walter C. Davies)
• Forgotten Tongue (as by Walter C. Davies)
• Return from M-15 (as by S. D. Gottesman)
• The Core (as by S. D. Gottesman)

Cyril M. Kornbluth

Cyril M. Kornbluth (1923-1958), known for his cynical, humorous, and insightful character-based stories, was among the most talented of the Futurians (a group of SF writers and fans in the late 1930s, who profoundly influenced the course of the Science Fiction field). He began writing professionally at the age of 15. As an infantryman in WW II, he fought at the Battle of the Bulge, for which he received the Bronze Star. Attended the University of Chicago before becoming a news wire-service reporter. Rising to become bureau editor, before quitting in 1951 to write full-time. He died of a heart attack at the age of 35.

Kornbluth's output was split between collaborations — mostly longer work — and his own pieces which tended to be shorter and more concise. Kornbluth's unique voice can be heard most clearly in his solo works, which have been frequently reprinted, but never before collected into a single definitive volume.

A prolific writer both in the SF field and other genres. He wrote over a hundred stories and twenty-eight books, by himself and with others. Well known for his collaborations, such as the Gunner Cade stories with Judith Merril, but more extensively with Frederik Pohl he wrote several books including Critical Mass, Gladiator-At-Law and The Space Merchants and many stories, "Best Friend," "The Castle on Outerplanet," "The Engineer," "A Gentle Dying," "Gravy Planet," "Mars-Tube," "Mute Inglorious Tam," and in 1973 their short story "The Meeting" won the Hugo-award.

Praise for C. M. Kornbluth:

"For brilliant conceptions and literate use of words, for exciting imagination and characters to make it real, the science-fiction field is fortunate in many talented writers—but none better than he [C. M. Kornbluth]." Frederik Pohl

"He...quickly established himself as a brilliant short-story writer." Brian Stableford, Encyclopedia of Science Fiction

"Cyril Kornbluth was, by the way, perhaps the most brilliant and certainly the most erratic of the Futurians. He was perhaps more brilliant than I was, and he was certainly more erratic than I." Isaac Asimov

"Kornbluth must have been born with a lexicon in his mouth." Damon Knight

"Cyril has been one of the best writers in the business for a long time." James Blish

"In the early forties, Kornbluth became a living legend before he reached the age of twenty. In the span of approximately two years, or at the most two-and-a-half, he produced a phenomenal number of stories." Alva Rogers, Requiem for Astounding

"...an author who came to epitomize the Galaxy of the 1950's." David L. Rosheim, Galaxy Magazine: The Dark and the Light Years

Printing History

Hardcover, acid-free paper, 6" x 9", xvi+674 pp., ISBN: 0-915368-60-9, 1500 copies, $27.00, January 1997 ("official" date April 1997 for the purposes of library review journals).

LC card number: 95-067735.