ISFDB:Research Assistance/Archive 01

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Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction February 1962

Could someone check the Feb 1962 issue of F&SF and see whether the title of the Avram Davidson story is ...the Alley off Eye Street or ...the Alley off of Eye Street? (WimLewis 20:36, 16 Mar 2007 (CDT))

TOC - "The Hovel on the Alley off Eye Street"
Actual title on the story (page 13) - "The Singular Events Which Occurred In The Hovel On The Alley Off Eye Street"
Swfritter 22:14, 16 Mar 2007 (CDT)
Thanks! That's even more confusing than I expected. And I'm guessing that the story The Singular Events.... is also a variant title of this same work. Should ISFDB list all these various titles (TOC plus the story itself)? My inclination would be yes, but I think I'll defer to a more experienced editor at this point.


Fantastic Dec 1977

Could someone check the Dec 1977 issue of Fantastic and see whether the Avram Davidson story is about an angry Throat or an angry Thoat? (WimLewis 20:36, 16 Mar 2007 (CDT))

The title as given in the contents page and on the story is "Hark! Was That the Squeal of an Angry Throat?" but that phrase, as quoted in the story itself (last paragraph) has "thoat" instead, which is clearly an intentional Burroughs reference (he mentions banths, too). So it looks like a misprinted title. I think we'd record this as a variant. Mike Christie (talk) 09:42, 18 Mar 2007 (CDT)


New Worlds March 1952

Since I won't have access to my collection until the end of the month, could someone please check if "The Circle of the White Horse" appeared in New Worlds, March 1952 (Vol 5, No 14 as by "Frank Edward Arnold" or as by "Francis Arnold"? According to Contento, it was eventually reprinted as by "Francis Arnold", but I'd like to double check before we create a Variant Title. TIA! Ahasuerus 14:05, 10 Mar 2007 (CST)

It was as by "Francis Arnold". Mike Christie (talk) 09:44, 18 Mar 2007 (CDT)
Thanks, I have merged/VT'd the Titles and created a pseudonym for the two forms of Arnold's name. Ahasuerus 17:32, 18 Mar 2007 (CDT)


2 Laumer stories

Could somebody with access to 1960s digests check whether "Thunderhead" appeared in the April 1967 issue of Galaxy and whether "The Last Command" appeared in the January 1967 issue of Analog? Contento and "Knight of Delusions" disagree on these points. TIA! Ahasuerus 20:54, 10 Mar 2007 (CST)

My Galaxy April 1967 issue contains "Thunderhead" Rudam 03:17, 11 Mar 2007 (CST)
Thanks! It looks like the Tor reprint was in error, probably due to some kind of curse associated with "Night of Delusions" :) Ahasuerus 13:16, 11 Mar 2007 (CST)
And "The Last Command" is indeed in Analog, January 1967, for what it's worth at this late date. Dave (davecat) 15:26, 27 Dec 2007 (CST)
It's never too late! I have updated the Note field in the story record, thanks :) Ahasuerus 16:51, 27 Dec 2007 (CST)


If September 1963

Could somebody check what this issue of If has to say about the story "The Customs Lounge" and especially its author, E. A. Proulx? The name looks like it could belong to E. Annie Proulx, the award winning writer of various non-SF books in recent years, but it doesn't seem to match her biography. Ahasuerus 02:31, 17 Mar 2007 (CDT)

Sorry, there's no bio information at all. I also checked the July issue, in case there was a note about upcoming stories, but there's no reference there either. That's a fairly uncommon name; I checked the ancestry.com listings for "Proulx" in the 1930 US census, and there are 2,163. So "E.A. Proulx" is likely to be the same person. I also posted a note to the Wikipedia talk page for Annie Proulx to see if anyone knew anything about the story. Mike Christie (talk) 09:57, 18 Mar 2007 (CDT)
According to this bookseller, it's the same person:
136. (PROULX, Annie). "The Customs Lounge" in Worlds of If, Vol. 13, No. 4. (New York): (Galaxy Publishing), 1963. A two-page science fiction story by E.A. Proulx, whose first book (nonfiction) was published in 1980 and whose first collection of fiction was published in 1988, when she was 53 years old. Pages acidifying; spine end chipped; very good in wrappers. An extremely early piece of writing by this Pulitzer Prize- and National Book Award-winning author, preceding her first book of fiction by 25 years.
I guess we can document it as such in the ISFDB and change the data if new information comes up. Thanks! Ahasuerus 13:28, 18 Mar 2007 (CDT)

Nebula Award Stories 10

This pub contains "If the Stars are Gods" 505871 by "Gordan Eklund" and Benford. Can someone check whether this is a misprint or an entry error? --WimLewis 01:12, 10 Apr 2007 (CDT)

The December 1976 Berkley Medallion paperback has "If the Stars Are Gods" (capital Are) by Gordon Eklund and Gregory Benford. Copyright (c) 1974 by Terry Carr in the acknowledgements. If the Stars Are Gods (no quotes) by GORDON EKLUND AND GREGORY BENFORD on the title page, and GORDON EKLUND and GREGORY BENFORD If the Stars Are Gods at the head of the story on p.11

All of them Gordon, not Gordan —The preceding unsigned comment added by MA Lloyd (talk • contribs) 18:47, 9 May 2007

Miscellaneous suspicious title pairs (1)

I want somewhere to note down titles that look suspiciously like variants, misprints, or errors, but which I don't have the resources to investigate. In some cases it seems to me that someone will need to compare the actual text of the stories, but maybe there are other references that could explain these one way or the other.

  • Karen Joy Fowler
    • What I Didn't See: without quotes and with quotes --WimLewis 00:37, 29 Mar 2007 (CDT)
      • The quotation marks seem to be an error. See the story on scifi.com, which is the actual publication for [1]. (Of course, we'd have no way of knowing whether they changed the title on the website or not, if I hadn't printed out a copy to read on the bus when the story first appeared, which also lacks quotation marks....) Jefe 18:06, 15 May 2007 (CDT)
  • Roger Zelazny
    • Unicorn Variation 40831 vs. Unicorn Variations 485891. I can verify it's plural in My Favorite Fantasy Story, and the story introduction implies that it was written in the early 80's (like the singular version). However, the copyrights page in MFFS gives it a copyright year of 1991. --WimLewis 22:23, 7 Apr 2007 (CDT)
      Unicorn Variation, the story, was published in either 1981 or 1982, my copy of Unicorn Variations, the Collection, is from 1983 and has the exact date, but it's currently lent out so I can't check the exact date. It was the Hugo winner in 1982 for novelette. CoachPaul 08:08, 10 Apr 2007 (CDT)
      My copy of My Favorite Fantasy Story has a story named "Unicorn Variations" (about 15 pages)! --WimLewis 00:22, 11 Apr 2007 (CDT)
      According to the Zelazny website "http://zelazny.corrupt.net/". they are the same story. The "Unicorn Variations" is a misspelling, and is misspelled in the following pubs.
      • "Hugo and Nebula Award Winners from Asimov's Science Fiction" Sheila Williams 1995.
      • "The Fantasy Hall of Fame" Robert Silverberg 1998.
      • "My Favorite Fantasy Story" Martin Greenberg August 2000.
CoachPaul 00:39, 11 Apr 2007 (CDT)
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