With Folded Hands... And Searching Mind

Foreword by Robert Silverberg. Cover art by Hubert Rogers.

The ambitious program to collect the short fiction of Grand Master Jack Williamson continues! The 15 tales in this penultimate volume cover Williamson's entry into the US Army in 1942 through to his very successful effort to integrate into the post-WWII science fiction market.

Featured is the 1948 3-part serial "...And Searching Mind," which Williamson re-wrote into his most famous work, The Humanoids. Other classics in this volume include the first "Humanoids" story, "With Folded Hands..."; "Breakdown," set in the same universe as his novel co-authored with James Gunn, Star Bridge; and his much-reprinted classic, "The Equalizer." Appearing in either book-form or hardcover for the first time are "Cold Front Coming," "Hocus-Pocus Universe," "The Hitch-Hiker's Package," and "You Can't Beat a Marine." Also included is Williamson's afterword with his recollections on the genesis of these tales and the World War II-era science fiction field.

As with previous volumes in this series, the full-color endpapers reproduce the original magazine covers (with artwork by pulp masters including Hubert Rogers, Earle K. Bergey and Frank R. Paul) of the stories herein, and the binding is designed to match the 1940s editions of Williamson's works published by Fantasy Press. The book is smythe-sewn, bound in full cloth, and printed on acid-neutral paper, with full-color endpapers reproducing the original pulp magazine cover art.

With a foreword by legendary author, editor, and long-time friend of Williamson (and fellow Science Fiction Grand Master), Robert Silverberg, With Folded Hands... And Searching Mind represents the changing state of mid-20th Century American Science Fiction and continues the documentation of Williamson's unparalleled career.

Contents:

• "Foreword" by Robert Silverberg
• "Backlash"  (Astounding Science Fiction, Aug '41)
• "Breakdown"  (Astounding Science Fiction, Jan '42)
• "Conscience, LTD."  (Unknown, Aug '43)
• "Cold Front Coming"  (Blue Book, Jun '45)
• "The Equalizer"  (Astounding Science Fiction, Mar '47)
• "With Folded Hands..."  (Astounding Science Fiction, Jul '47)
• "...And Searching Mind"  Astounding Science Fiction, Mar, Apr, May '48)
• "The Moon and Mr. Wick"  (Comet, Sum '50)
• "The Cold Green Eye"  (Fantastic, Mar/Apr '53)
• "Hocus-Pocus Universe"  (Science Stories, Oct '53)
• "Operation Gravity"  (Science Fiction Plus, Oct '53)
• "The Hitch-Hiker's Package"  (Fantastic Universe, May '54)
• "Guinevere for Everybody"  (Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, 1954)
• "You Can't Beat a Marine"  (El Portal, May '56)
• "Beans"  (The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Nov '58)
• "Afterword" by Jack Williamson