The Twelfth Golden Age of Science Fiction MEGAPACK™: David H. Keller, M.D. Read online

  Contents

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  The MEGAPACK™ Ebook Series

  A BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

  FREE AS THE AIR

  THE FLYING FOOL

  THE IVY WAR

  THE YEAST MEN

  THE RAT RACKET

  THE PSYCHOPHONIC NURSE

  THE LIVING MACHINE

  THE REVOLT OF THE PEDESTRIANS

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  The Golden Age of Science Fiction MEGAPACK™: David H. Keller, M.D. is copyright © 2014 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  * * * *

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  David H. Keller, M.D. (1880-1966) was indeed a medical doctor (a psychiatrist—and the first to write science fiction). He most often published under his real name (with M.D. after it), but he also published work as Monk Smith, Matthew Smith, Amy Worth, Henry Cecil, Cecilia Henry, and Jacobus Hubelaire.

  His work was embraced early on by Hugo Gernsback, who published Keller’s first science fiction story, “The Revolt of the Pedestrians” (included here) in Amazing Stories in 1928. Gernsback was impressed by Keller’s quality of writing, unique insight, and ability to address sophisticated themes beyond the commonplace technological predictions or lurid alien encounters typically found in early pulp stories. He encouraged Keller’s writing and would later call these distinctive short stories “Keller yarns.”

  John Clute wrote that Keller was “deeply involved in the last capacity in World War I and its consequences, his work focusing on shell shock; he was one of relatively few American sf writers to have anything like the direct experience of War That Will End War that marked so many British authors, a fact that may help explain his abiding cultural pessimism, often expressed in stories where a thin, almost literal veneer of civilization is peeled off to reveal the excrescence within.”

  As with many pulp writers, especially those born in the 19th Century, his works are not always politically correct. Critics have pointed out his strong right-wing views, hostility to feminists (occasionally bordering on mysogeny) and African Americans. He was indeed a product of a different era.

  His later works tended more toward fantasy and horror (and are regarded by critics as his very best works). He was an early proponent of H.P. Lovecraft and wrote a number of articles on Lovecraft’s work, whose influence can be seen in some of his horror stories. Another influence was James Branch Cabell; Keller’s “Tales of Cornwall” sequence, about the Hubelaire family, is clearly a result of his reading Cabell’s Jurgen and its sequels.

  This volume concentrates on Keller’s science fiction and science-fantasy works. We are planning a companion volume of his fantasy and horror.

  Enjoy!

  —John Betancourt

  Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidepress.com

  ABOUT THE SERIES

  Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK™ ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

  The MEGAPACK™ ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, A.E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

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  THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION

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  A BIOLOGICAL EXPERIMENT

  Originally appeared in Amazing Stories, June 1928.

  The first assistant librarian of the Congressional Library rushed trembling into the office of his superior and, reaching the librarian’s desk, he said, “The books have been tampered with! Ten of them are gone!”

  The librarian, who had taken thirty civil service examinations and been promoted thirty times in order to reach his present position, refused to be flustered by the news, and sharply reprimanded the subordinate for his unnecessary excitement.

  “Make a list of the missing books, and report the facts to me. You know the routine method of doing things in this department. In the future please adhere to it.”

  “But there’s no precedent for this, sir. It’s the first time that any books have been missing for several hundred years. You know that the rooms are never opened and the books never touched—and there’s another thing. The assistant watchman in charge of the books for the past year failed to report for duty and his monoplane is gone.”

  “Make an official report of the entire matter and I’ll investigate it. In the meantime, I’ll thank you if you’ll leave the room and allow me to continue my studies of mass education.” There was a finality in his voice that definitely closed the discussion.

  * * * *

  Though it was only eight o’clock in the morning, a young woman was out walking on the lawn of her sister’s country estate. Now and then she looked anxiously at the sky where the large passenger planes were humming their way toward distant cities. She paid little attention to these, but finally a smile replaced her anxious expression, as a small monoplane came hurtling down from the blue and landed skillfully on the lawn. A young man jumped out and ran toward her and as he ran he cried, “I have the books, Elizabeth! I have the books!”