Five Classic Retrospective Anthologies Worth Tracking Down

Anthologies that show that while certain magazines may be dead, they are
not forgotten.

https://www.tor.com/2023/10/18/five-classic-retrospective-anthologies-worth-tracking-down/
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James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Classic Retrospective Anthologies Worth Tracking Down
>
> Anthologies that show that while certain magazines may be dead, they are
> not forgotten.
>
Baen came out with a _Galaxy: The Best of My Years_ not too long after the end of the magazine.

I suppose it might have seemed petty if Pohl and Gold had made it a series. But with the number of autobiographies or memoirs that came out in that period, that would have been the time for editors to get retrospective.

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-Jack

James Nicoll wrote:
> Five Classic Retrospective Anthologies Worth Tracking Down
>
> Anthologies that show that while certain magazines may be dead, they are
> not forgotten.
>
> https://www.tor.com/2023/10/18/five-classic-retrospective-anthologies-worth-tracking-down/

Weird Tales, during its life, death, and undeath seems to have gathered retrospectives.

My antennae attuned to such things, I perked up when elsewhere I saw an anthology titled _Weird Legacies_ by Mike Ashley. Yes, it is drawn from Weird Tales, including stories from the first and from the 1970s incarnation. A "fan" anthology? Although Ashley is a professional, did he have any professional relationship or acknowledgement from the owners of Weird Tales?

The Edmund Hamilton story here also appeared in _Worlds of Weird_ by Leo Margulies, which title is also calculated to set alarm bells ringing. Margulies is an editor of various magazines[1], but not Weird Tales. According to the Wikipedia article on the magazine, he had purchased the rights to it in the '60s. Four anthologies: _The Unexpected_, _The Ghoul Keepers_, the less coy _Weird Tales_ joined _Worlds of Weird_ as perhaps market tests or fund raisers. He was publisher of the '70 resurrection, and provided editorial interference to Sam Moskowitz.

The article lists six more anthologies drawn exclusively from this magazine, all with (or consisting of) "Weird Tales" in the title, so should be easier to find.

[1] His anthologies include _From Off This World_ selected from Startling Stories, to which I don't know his connection. After my own heart, though, it is a selection from Startling Stories' reprint feature!

He is also editor of what may have been an anti-retrospective anthology. _My Best Science Fiction Story_ has Asimov's choice being "Robot AL-76 Goes Astray". I want to read his explanation in the "Why I Selected..." introduction in the book, but elsewhere he explained that he was told not to select one from Campbell's Astounding. From isfdb.org, I see they have a Campbell *from* Astounding --Tremaine's Astounding, you could say (a Paul Ernst story is also from Tremaine's). Also, Hubbard's "The Professor Was a Thief" and Sturgeon's "Thunder and Roses" are from Astounding under Campbell, so I guess it was not a ban applied to all authors.

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-Jack