Mutant

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A fix-up novel.

Henry Kuttner's 1953 novel of a despised community of telepaths hiding from society carries echoes of the Holocaust and the postwar DP communities. Kuttner, the most inventive and gifted short story writer in all of the science fiction, bridged this novel from five novelettes in ASTOUNDING: four were published that atomic year, 1945.

"When there were no telepaths men were used to being alone. But I couldn't remember a time when I'd been locked in the bony prison of my skull, utterly and absolutely cut off from all other men. Deafness or blindness wouldn't have mattered as much. They wouldn't have mattered at all - to a telepath."

Originating after the great Blow-up, they were a sub-species of the human society. Because of their hairless bodies they were known as the Baldies, telepaths all linked to each other by thought and sensation - objects of suspicion to the rest of mankind.

The survivor is alone. But still he can remember how it was - two hundred years ago...

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Updated 04/26/2025

Category: Science Fiction

Release date: 1953

Henry Kuttner

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) was an American author of science fiction, fantasy and horror. His wife was the science fiction author C. L. Moore.

Henry Kuttner used several pseudonyms: Lawrence O'Donnell, Kelvin Kent, C. H. Liddell, Henry Kuttner, Lewis Padgett, Hudson Hastings, Keith Hammond, Peter Horn, Scott Morgan, Will Garth, Woodrow Wilson Smith, Paul Edmonds, Edward J. Bellin, James Hall and Robert O. Kenyon.

Henry Kuttner was born in Los Angeles, California in 1915. His father, whose Jewish parents had come from Prussia and lived in San Francisco since 1859, was a bookseller; the parents of his mother, were from Great Britain. Kuttner grew up in relative poverty following the death of his father. As a young man he worked for the literary agency of his uncle in Los Angeles before selling his first story, ”The Graveyard Rats”, to Weird Tales in early 1936. This Lovecraftian horror story has since been often anthologized.

Kuttner worked in close collaboration with his wife, C. L. Moore. They met through their association with the ”Lovecraft Circle”, a group of writers and fans who corresponded with H. P. Lovecraft. Their work together spanned the 1940s and 1950s and most of the work was credited to pseudonyms, mainly Lewis Padgett and Lawrence O'Donnell.

L. Sprague de Camp, who knew Kuttner and Moore well, has stated that their collaboration was so intensive that, after a story was completed, it was often impossible for either Kuttner or Moore to recall who had written which portions. According to de Camp, it was typical for either partner to break off from a story in mid-paragraph or even mid-sentence, with the latest page of the manuscript still in the typewriter. The other spouse would routinely continue the story where the first had left off. They alternated in this manner as many times as necessary until the story was finished.

Marion Zimmer Bradley is among many authors who have cited Kuttner as an influence. Her novel The Bloody Sun is dedicated to him. Roger Zelazny has talked about the influence of The Dark World on his Amber series. Kuttner's friend Richard Matheson dedicated his 1954 novel I Am Legend to Kuttner, with thanks for his help and encouragement. Ray Bradbury likewise dedicated Dark Carnival, his first book, to him, calling him one of his hardest-working and most patient teachers. William S. Burroughs's novel The Ticket That Exploded contains direct quotes from Kuttner regarding the ”Happy Cloak” parasitic pleasure monster from the Venusian seas.

Henry Kuttner spent the middle 1950's getting his masters degree before dying of a heart attack in Los Angeles in 1958.