Reviews

Great Science Fiction by Scientists by Groff Conklin

heliopteryx's review

3.0

Story list with copyright date (this is what is listed in the book itself, I'm sure publication dates are floating around on the internet):

• What If... by Isaac Asimov, 1952
• The Ultimate Catalyst by Eric Temple Bell, 1939
• The Gostak and the Doshes by Miles J. Breuer, MD, 1930
• Summertime on Icarus by Arthur C. Clarke, 1960
• The Neutrino Bomb by Ralph C. Cooper, 1962
• Last Year's Grave Undug by Chan Davis, 1962
• The Gold Makers by J. B. S. Haldane, 1932
• The Tissue Culture King by Julian Huxley, 1927
• A Martian Adventure by Willy Ley, 1937
• Learning Theory by James McConnell, 1957
• The Mother of Necessity by Chad Oliver, 1955
• John Sze's Future by John R. Pierce, 1962
• Kid Anderson by Robert S. Richardson, 1956
• Pilot Lights of the Apocalypse by Louis N. Ridenour, 1946
• Report on Grand Central Terminal by Leo Szilard, 1952
• The Brain by Norbert Wiener, 1952

Overall, my favourites were The Ultimate Catalyst, a fun "mad scientist" story, The Mother of Necessity, about the meaning people derive from everyday life, and Kid Anderson, about boxing training and trying to understand others through their movements. 

These stories are a time capsule of the ideas people thought were interesting and compelling at the time. Most of them are still great fun to read, but some, such as the eugenicist Julian Huxley's, are a bit distasteful in a modern light. The Neutrino Bomb didn't make any sense to me, I am so far removed from the time it was written in. 

I had the distinct impression that the editor Groff Conklin is a bit of a snob, particularly when he writes that The Ultimate Catalyst is "the only [short story] worth reprinting" by the author. My dude, you're the one picking the stories!