The Other Worlds

{{Short description|1941 anthology edited by Phil Stong}} {{Infobox book |  | name = The Other Worlds | title_orig = | translator = | image = TOTWRLDS1941.jpg | caption = Dust-jacket from the first edition | author = Phil Stong, ed. | illustrator = | cover_artist = | country = United States | language = English | series = | genre = Science fiction<br>Fantasy<br>Horror | publisher = Wilfred Funk | release_date = 1941 | english_release_date = | media_type = Print (Hardback) | pages = 466 pp | oclc = | preceded_by = | followed_by = }} '''''The Other Worlds''''' is an anthology of science fiction, fantasy, and horror edited by Phil Stong. It was originally published by Wilfred Funk in 1941, with a lower-price edition following from Garden City Publishing a year later.<ref>[http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/title.cgi?34899 ISFDB bibliography]</ref> The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction describes it as "the first important sf Anthology".;<ref>[http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/stong_phil SF Encyclopedia]</ref> it remains in the collection of nearly 200 academic libraries in 2015.<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1188010 WorldCat listing]</ref>

==Contents== * "The Considerate Hosts", Thorp McClusky (''Weird Tales'' 1939) * "The Man in the Black Hat", Michael Fessier (''Esquire'' 1934) * "Naked Lady", Mindret Lord (''Weird Tales'' 1934) * "The House of Ecstasy", Ralph Milne Farley (''Weird Tales'' 1938) * "Escape", Paul Ernst (''Weird Tales'' 1938) * "The Adaptive Ultimate", Stanley G. Weinbaum (''Astounding'' 1935) * "The Woman in Gray", Walker G. Everett (''Weird Tales'' 1935) * "The Pipes of Pan", Lester del Rey (''Unknown'' 1940) * "Aunt Cassie", Virginia Swain (first publication) * "A God in a Garden", Theodore Sturgeon (''Unknown'' 1939) * "The Man Who Knew All the Answers", Donald Bern (''Amazing'' 1940) * "Adam Link’s Vengeance", Eando Binder (''Amazing'' 1940) * "Truth Is a Plague", D. W. O’Brien (''Amazing'' 1940) * "The Fourth-Dimensional Demonstrator", Murray Leinster (''Astounding'' 1935) * "Alas, All Thinking!", Harry Bates (''Astounding'' 1935) * "The Comedy of Eras", Henry Kuttner (''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' 1940) * "A Problem for Biographers", Mindret Lord (first publication) * "In the Vault", H. P. Lovecraft (''Weird Tales'' 1932) * "School for the Unspeakable", Manly Wade Wellman (''Weird Tales'' 1937) * "The House Where Time Stood Still", Seabury Quinn ''Weird Tales'' 1939) * "The Mystery of the Last Guest", John Flanders (''Weird Tales'' 1935) * "The Song of the Slaves", Manly Wade Wellman (''Weird Tales'' 1940) * "The Panelled Room", August Derleth (''Westminster Magazine'' 1933) * "The Graveyard Rats", Henry Kuttner (''Weird Tales'' 1936) * "The Return of Andrew Bentley", August Derleth and Mark Schorer (''Weird Tales'' 1933) ===Notes=== "The Comedy of Eras" originally appeared under the Kelvin Kent byline. "The Adaptive Ultimate" originally appeared under the byline "John Jessel". "John Flanders" is a pen name for the author more wifely known by his other pseudonym of Jean Ray.<ref>[http://www.philsp.com/homeville/isfac/t207.htm#A3767 Index to Science Fiction Anthologies and Collections]</ref>

==Reception== Kirkus Reviews described ''The Other Worlds'' as "[e]ntertainment from sources usually high-hatted by the literati," and noting that " The best of them are well written, with good plots and ideas; the rest smack of their [pulp] sources."<ref>[https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/phil-ed-stong/the-other-worlds/ ''Kirkus Reviews'', May 1, 1941]</ref> ''Unknown Worlds'''s pseudonymous reviewer recommended the anthology as "a lot of book for the money", noting that "it contains a number of good, forceful, entertaining stories.<ref name=Unknown>"Book Review", ''Unknown Worlds'', February 1942, p.112</ref> A reviewer for ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'' praised the book, saying "the average tale in this volume is of a very high order" while noting its editor's aversion to "interplanetary yarns".<ref>"Book Review", ''Thrilling Wonder Stories'', October 1941, p.13</ref> A reviewer in ''Future Science Fiction'' received the anthology quite unfavorably, calling it an "opus malodorous" and complaining that "most of the selections are weird stories of varying mediocrity."<ref>"Futurian Times", ''Future Science Fiction'', December 1941, p.90. The anonymous review was ascribed to Donald A. Wollheim by the ''Unknown Worlds'' reviewer.</ref>

Critic Brian Stableford noted that Stong had compiled "the first anthology of fantastic fiction to feature a significant sample of stories from the sf magazines" and that the editor has "deliberately excluded 'interplanetary fiction' from the showcase and included an editorial railing against the imbecility and intrinsic worthlessness of fiction of that sort."<ref>Brian Stableford, ''Narrative Strategies in Science Fiction'', Wildside Press, 2009, p.20</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Other Worlds}} Category:Science fiction anthologies Category:1941 anthologies Category:American anthologies