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  That’s the situation, as well as I’ve been able to work it out. As the plot develops, Warneke and the girl he has met at Quill River become trapped themselves in the Public Enemy Program, in some such way is this:

  There was another engineer, who was employed to doctor the tapes and to put in the unconscious suggestions that sold soap flakes. He got fed up with the job, and planned to go to Senator Hansen, a liberal politician who is fighting to break up the psionics monopoly and put it under legal control. He removed from the company safe a number of the original undoctored tapes—including interviews between the head of the company and the political puppets that are about to be elected by voters under psionic compulsion. Before he could reach Hansen, however, Blinn was murdered by Candella—because his change of loyalties had been discovered. The tapes, the loss of which was not immediate discovered, have been left in the hands of the heroine—who is the secretary of the producer, Frinkel.

  The girl, Jenny Grant, has hidden these tapes. She is afraid to do anything with them. She is terrified. She is afraid of Candella, who has picked her for one of his future stars. She can’t help picking up the Public Enemy broadcasts, and the unconscious suggestions in that are such as to turn the gangster, who is already bad enough, into a sort of monstrous and implacable figure of evil.

  When J. Marshall Sharry—the head of the company—finds that she knows where the tapes are, it becomes necessary to make her Candella’s new star—so that a pick-up can be turned to her mind, and the tapes found. The trouble is, that in her terror, she has forgotten the tapes entirely, so that even the machine can’t read the secret from her mind.

  Warneke, in the meantime, is finding out the truth, exploring the trap which he comes to realize is of his own making, looking for a way out. He comes across Hansen’s name—he has been aloof from politics before—finally gets in touch with Hansen, learns that the tapes exist and that they are a lever which might be used to topple the company political machine in the forthcoming election—the people will vote wisely, when they have been told the truth. The problem is to get the truth and get it told.

  Warneke learns the nature of his trap but fails to escape it. He is forced to enter the Public Enemy Program as the champion of Jenny Grant—even though he knows that all the odds will be in favor of Candella, who has been promising for some time to kill him.

  (This battle between Warneke and Candella, while directed by the producer, Frinkel, and intended for broadcast, is kept as far as possible within the frame of the real situation and developed as a logical outcome of the rivalry between them that has existed from the first. Frinkel is on hand to point out that this is in the fine old tradition of shows about show business.)

  In the end, despite the odds, Warneke does kill Candella. This victory turns out to be a defeat for him, however. Sharry, in fact, had been wanting to get Candella out of the way—the man was getting ideas. And with Candella dead, Jenny Grant loses her fear. She remembers the tapes and where she hid them. The machine picks up her thoughts. Sharry finds the tapes, which might have destroyed him, and burns them. It is election eve, and he is triumphant. He expects his puppets to go in, and Hansen’s forces to be defeated. Another challenger is being readied to enter Public Enemy, and kill Warneke.

  But there is another record of the tapes—in Jenny’s mind. With his skill as a psionic engineer, Warneke is able to broadcast that record of the truth. He is able to present Sharry to the world, stripped of the lies and unconscious suggestions that have made a public hero of him. The election goes the other way.

  I’ve been working on this for nearly a month now, and I’m still not entirely satisfied with the plot. It still seems a little loose and vague. Yet I believe that the thing holds possibilities of real interest—among other things, it might be made into a good satiric picture of the entertainment industries. I spent last week making tentative starts on the actual narrative without ever getting past page six.

  I’d be very glad for any comments you can make about this. How can it be sharpened and improved? If written, what are the chances of a sale? (One way or another, I’ve got to make some money. I need some good commercial advice.)

  Please let me hear from you.

  With all the best to Judy.

  Cordially Yours,

  Jack Williamson

  From the Frederik Pohl Correspondence collection, Special Collections Research Center, Syracuse University Libraries at Syracuse University.

  ***

  Andre Norton

  (photo by Beth Gwinn)

  Alice Mary Norton was born in Cleveland, Ohio in 1912, and began her writing career early. Due to her love of writing fiction in what used to be a male-dominated market, she decided to write under pseudonyms that would not betray her gender. She would ultimately choose Andre.

  She was a prolific author, and as she became so popular as Andre Norton in the literary world she legally changed it to Andre Alice Norton in 1934.

  While she wrote in mainstream on occasion, she usually wrote genre fiction, and in 1983 she was honored with the Grand Master Award by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, the sixth to receive the price, after Robert A. Heinlein, Jack Williamson, Clifford D. Simak, L. Sprague de Camp, and Fritz Leiber.

  She would also become the first woman to receive the Gandalf Grand Master of Fantasy and the Nebula Grand Master Award.

  She was best known for her novel Witch World (1963), which spawned dozens of sequels and spinoffs set in that world. Her novel The Beast Master was adapted into a movie in 1982 starring Marc Singer and Tanya Roberts, but Andre was displeased with the treatment of the tiger used in the film, which had been dyed black to look like a panther. Having a strong love for cats (with many domestic cats living in her house) and for animals in general, she asked her name to be removed from the credits of the movie. She vowed never again to work with Hollywood.

  Late in her life she established the High Hallack Library for writers studying the genre. She had amassed over ten thousand manuscripts (including unpublished texts) and videos before closing the library in 2004 due to failing health.

  By the time she passed away in 2005 she had written over two hundred novels and many more short stories, and had co-written quite a few in her later years with female fantasy authors who built their success on the wake of Andre’s pioneering career.

  … My first book published, The Prince Commands, was issued during my very early twenties. I simply had an alphabetical list of publishers and sent it to the first on the list—who took it. The field was not so crowded then and one did not need an agent. I submitted the finished manuscript not an outline—this is what I did for years. This particular title was an adventure story, not sf or fantasy.

  Now my agent uses an outline idea and perhaps a couple of chapters in a submission.

  Witch World [1963] grew from a short story idea concerning a Crusader, which I had set down in notes but never developed.

  [Port of Dead Ships] was one of the full length novels which appeared in the omnibus entitled Storms of Victory [1991] which was one of the Witch World books.

  It does not read exactly as the printed copy does since once I begin to write I often change the plot. My characters seem to take over and carry on as they please rather than as I intended and I do not argue with them.

  … This is, of course, what was submitted to the publisher before the book was written.

  —Andre Norton

  (2 Oct 2003 and 6 April 2004)

  Port of Dead Ships

  Plot

  Simon, Jaelithe, Kemoc, Orsya (Kemoc’s Krogan Wife) and Koris meet with Sulcars asking for aid against what they believe may be either renewed Kolder trouble or Black power. Several Sulcar ships had disappeared and months later found derelict with no evidence of what happened to the crews—apparently they were abandoned voluntarily—they had all set sail in the beginning for the far south which was largely unexplored.

  The Estcarpians agree to help, but the Witches, no
longer holding government control, refuse to have anything to do with it. A seeress who is part Sulcar, plus Jaelithe, agrees to come. The seeress as part Sulcar is so refused witchship. While they are discussing this matter another Sulcar ship is reported in, bringing with it a derelict which is like no ship ever seen in Estcarp before. They go to investigate this. The Sulcars finding the ship also report volcanic disturbances under the sea which they had fled. Simon sees this is a ship of his own World. They explore it and discover that everything is as it was left, apparently by a crew who had departed hastily and some time ago. Find only ship’s cat on board. Charts on board are all of Simon’s world.

  Four ships sail for the south. Kemoc and Orsya and seeress are on first vessel, and Simon and Jaelithe on another. They will keep in touch by mind touch. Five days out they run into a storm which parts the ships and drives the one with Kemoc south very swiftly. In fact the Sulcars are worried that they seem to be caught in a current from which they can not break free. Seeress tries, backed by Kemoc, to reach other ship. Not able to do so. Falconer on board as marine sends his bird—no better luck.

  Seeress keeps trying and then announces that they seem to be enclosed in an unnatural “silence”.

  They see islands which appear to have risen from the sea not too long before. The water about the ship is warm. At night farther away they see a glow which might come from a volcano. Orsya returns from one of her needful swims to say there is a surprising lack of all sea life—she can not pick up any trace of living things.

  Ship continues to be drawn forward. They see land ahead which is larger than any island they have passed. There a large bay opens out and the Sulcars manage to get loose from the current and reach that.

  The bay is crowded with ships, some looking very old, many of them strange in shape. The Sulcars manage to anchor at the edge of this collection. Kemoc, Orsya, and seeress are all aware of strange energy at work, but it does not register as either good or evil. The Sulcars decide to try to get ashore and hunt a source of water. No sign of any life—sea birds missing.

  They explore one ship and have a feeling they are being watched. Ashore are some very ancient buildings but there appears to be no way to enter these. No doors nor windows.

  Seeress visits what the Sulcars believe to be a fairly recently caught ship. She tries to sense any residue of happening aboard. Can pick up only fear which does not appear to have any one source. Orsya and Kemoc in water find evidence of more and more ships, some long sunk.

  Finally, they find a war ship of a different type. Skeletons on board and evidence of a battle. Only one where they have found evidence of any bodies. Seeress says men were dead before ship came here—already a derelict.

  Fire seen at night leads them to climb the cliffs above the bay. Think there is more volcanic action farther south and out to sea. Are worried about waves which might come from such a disturbance.

  On the morning after they see the approach of a Sulcar ship and with it another ship of a different type. They discover the Sulcar one which has Simon and Jaelithe on board. Mind contact tells them that there is life on board the strange vessel also. They get together and from the Sulcar ship see a boat lowered from the other vessel and six men in it. They hail them but men pay no attention. Orsya and Kemoc swim out. They can not make mind touch but do get aboard the boat and discover the men seem to be in a trance. They try to wake them but there is no way. Men are totally strange in appearance and clothing. Simon, Sulcars, and Jaelithe come to them. Strive to grapple the other boat but it is carried on so forcibly that their boat is also dragged along. Jaelithe and the seeress try to concentrate on one man but he seems insane and throws himself into the sea.

  Simon tells them this is a ship from apparently the same space-time as he had come from. The boat touched a big rock and the men arise and crowd by the Sulcars and the others going ashore. They follow.

  There is a waterway like a cannel [sic.] and the men throw themselves in this and swim. Kemoc and Orsya are ready to follow when the seeress falls into a like trance with the men and goes after them. They come to a huge cavern but by a wall in which there are a number of niches. The men from the ship and the seeress climb up and settle themselves in these. There are huge piles of bones rising out of the water before each niche showing that this must have happened many times before. Jaelithe, Simon, Sulcars and Falconers come by boat. Jaelithe probes the seeress and says that there is some type of installation here which runs on human energy—it does not work smoothly but is able at times to pick up ships or people from other time streams and draw these to it for fuel. It then causes the volcanic action—but it is irregular.

  Jaelithe, Simon, Kemoc, Orsya and several of the Sulcars unite power and succeed in breaking the ties the installation has on its latest fuel. The men from the ships fall dead but the seeress is saved. This all is the result they discover of one of the Dark Adepts’ experiments at Gate opening and it had not only opened on Simon’s world but on others also.

  The installation shut down is in the blank buildings and Simon oversees the taking of explosives from several derelicts from his own time and blowing it up. They explore and take curiosities from the ships, planning to return. But Simon and the Sulcars make sure that there is no vestige left of other world weapons which might cause future trouble. He says this explains the mystery of the Devil’s Triangle in his own world.

  Jaelithe, Orsya and the seeress work to make sure there can be no way of using any of the energy for Dark Purposes.

  ***

  Robert A. Heinlein

  (photo by Dd-b, taken at the 1976 World Science Fiction Convention in Kansas City, MO, USA, at which Heinlein was the guest of honor. Courtesy Wikipedia.)

  Robert A. Heinlein, born in 1907, had attempted two careers before he took up writing fiction. He joined the Navy first, but due to health issues he was forced to choose something else. He tried politics, but after a failed campaign that left him broke, he came across a contest notice from the magazine Thrilling Wonder Stories asking for new and unpublished writers. Heinlein was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, a fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, and H. G. Wells. Badly in need of an income, he decided to try his luck.

  He felt that the story he wrote in the days that followed, “Life-Line,” was too good for a writing contest. So he took a risk and targeted a stronger magazine: Astounding Science Fiction. It was 1939, and John W. Campbell, the famed editor of Astounding, picked it up. It was a breakthrough, and Heinlein continued writing and submitting to Astounding and other magazines with increasing success. Over the next few years he was published with A. E. van Vogt, Lester del Rey, Theodore Sturgeon, L. Sprague de Camp, Clifford D. Simak, L. Ron Hubbard, Isaac Asimov, and the seasoned father of “space opera,” E. E. “Doc” Smith. His new career had been established, and it skyrocketed. He and his fellow authors launched what is now known as the Golden Age of Science Fiction.

  Wrapping his stories around the experience of his first two careers and indoctrinating them with social commentary in the style of H. G. Wells but in his own political voice, he found a niche that suited him and his readers. He became the first to win the award of Grand Master by the Science Fiction Writers of America in 1975, having written the critically acclaimed novels Farmer in the Sky, Double Star, Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Starship Troopers, Stranger in a Strange Land, Glory Road, The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, and Time Enough for Love, all of which were nominated for, or won, a Hugo Award (some retroactively).

  Heinlein participated in writing the movie Destination Moon in 1950, loosely based on his young adult novel Rocketship Galileo. Heinlein was also a technical consultant on the movie. Destination Moon became a science fiction classic, and under Heinlein’s scrutiny raised the bar for technical effects, helping to win the movie an Academy Award for Visual Effects.

  By the time of his death in 1988 he became known as one of the “Big Three” in the Golden Age of Science Fiction, along with Arthur C. Clarke and
Isaac Asimov, the latter about whom Heinlein once said, “There is a writer with the real stuff.” *

  * From a letter dated 31 March 1941 to Frederik Pohl about Asimov’s short story “Heredity” published in Astonishing Stories magazine, alongside Heinlein’s short story “Beyond Doubt.” —CSH

  The following letters introduce the novella Lost Legacy and other stories when Robert A. Heinlein worked with Frederik Pohl, his editor, toward publication. I found these letters in the special collections at the Syracuse University Library and mailed them to Pohl asking permission to publish them in 2004. Pohl thoroughly enjoyed the nostalgia, as it had been sixty-four years since he had had these discussions! Pohl remarked, in response to re-reading the letters, “I was astonished to find that Bob Heinlein once told me I could make editorial changes in his work myself. He changed his mind about that, all right.”

  I could find no formal synopses or outlines, but Heinlein’s stories were summarized in these letters. They are mildly abridged. The author and his editor also discussed payments, revisions, and a pseudonym, most of which I edited out as it was irrelevant to this book, though it made for an interesting read. But it’s worthy to note that Heinlein chose to submit Lost Legacy and a few other works under the pen name of Lyle Monroe. Pohl wanted to use the Heinlein name which had already been nicely established by late 1940, but Heinlein wanted more money for that, and Pohl chose not to afford it.

  Lost Legacy was first published in Super Science Stories as Lost Legion by Lyle Monroe. It appeared subsequently in several collections, including Assignment in Eternity, and would later in fact bear the Heinlein name. “Beyond Doubt” by Lyle Monroe and Elma Wentz was first published in Astonishing Stories in April, 1941, and would later be republished in Isaac Asimov’s anthology, Election Day 2084: Science Fiction Stories About the Future of Politics. Patterns of Possibility was first published as Elsewhen in Astounding Science Fiction in September, 1941 and also would get collected into Assignment in Eternity. “Pied Piper” by Lyle Monroe was first published in Astonishing Stories in March 1942 and would not be republished until 2005 in Off the Main Sequence: The Other Science Fiction Stories of Robert A. Heinlein. “My Object All Sublime” by Lyle Monroe was first published in Future Combined with Science Fiction Stories in 1942, also collected into the Off the Main Sequence anthology.