DAVID HARTWELL

(signed)

AGE OF WONDERS

Exploring the World of SF

Walker (1st US printing) (1984)

Book is VERY GOOD or better, with old price mark on front flyleaf.  Jacket has folds on back and on back flap.  

David G. Hartwell has been editing science fiction and fantasy for over twenty years. In that time, he has worked with acclaimed and popular writers such as Robert A. Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Frank Herbert, Roger Zelazny, Robert Silverberg, Gene Wolfe, Nancy Kress, L.E. Modesitt, Terry Bisson, Lisa Goldstein, and Philip Jose Farmer, and discovered hot new talentes like Kathleen Ann Goonan and Patrick O'Leary. Now in Age of Wonder, Hartwell describes the field he has loved, worked in, and shaped as editor, critic, and anthologist.

Like those other American art forms, jazz, comics, and rock 'n' roll, science fiction is the product of a rich and fascinating subculture. Age of Wonder is a fascinating tour of the origins, history, and culture of the science fiction world, written with insight and genuine affection for this wonder-filled literature, and addressed to newcomers and longtime SF readers alike.

Some commentaries on line:

Finally, someone who has the love of a reader, and the brain of a literary critic. I mean that as a complement as this book came closer than anything I've reading in explaining mainstream literary criticism disdain for and ignoring of science fiction. The books age means it cannot comment on the explosion of fantasy that happened in the late 1990 to the present, nor the weird fact that most fantasy is now geared toward teens, and I would have liked to have heard his analysis, but as a book explaining the history of the genre's somewhat ignoble roots, nothing matches it.

Wonderful overview of the genre from the Twenties to the Seventies! Excellent!

I recommend it as probably the best study so far on science fiction fandom, mainly because it is the only one. Other books make reference to the subculture; only Hartwell dedicates an entire book to it. If you've ever wondered why fans are as they are, this might be your answer.

______________________