The Very Best of F & SF v1

PREVIOUS ANTHOLOGIES
FROM
Fantasy & Science Fiction

Edited by Anthony Boucher and J. Francis
McComas

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction
(1952)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Second Series (1953)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Third Series (1954)

Edited by Anthony Boucher

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Fourth Series (1955)

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Fifth Series (1956)

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Sixth Series (1957)

The Best from Fantasy & Science Fiction:
Seventh Series (1958)

The Best from Fantasy & Science: Fiction:
Eighth Series (1959)

Edited by Robert P. Mills

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Ninth Series (1960)

A Decade of Fantasy and Science Fiction (1960)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Tenth Series (1961)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Eleventh Series (1962)

Edited by Avram Davidson

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Twelfth Series (1963)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Thirteenth Series (1964)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Fourteenth Series (1965)

Edited by Edward L. Ferman

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Fifteenth Series (1966)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Sixteenth Series (1967)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Seventeenth Series (1968)

Once and Future Tales from The Magazine of
Fantasy and Science Fiction (1968)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Eighteenth Series (1969)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: Nineteenth Series (1971)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: 20th Series (1973)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: 22nd Series (1977)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: 23rd Series (1980)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: A 30 Year Retrospective (1980)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: 24th Series (1982)

The Best Fantasy Stories from The Magazine
of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1986)

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: A 40th Anniversary Anthology (1989)

Oi, Robot: Competitions and Cartoons from
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1995)

Edited by Edward L. Ferman and Robert P.
Mills

Twenty Years of The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction (1970)

Edited by Edward L. Ferman and Anne
Devereaux Jordan

The Best Horror Stories from The Magazine
of Fantasy & Science Fiction (1988)

Edited by Edward L. Ferman and
Kristine Kathryn Rusch

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: A 45th Anniversary Anthology (1994)

Edited by Edward L. Ferman and
Gordon Van Gelder

The Best from Fantasy & Science
Fiction: The 50th Anniversary Anthology (1999)

Edited by Gordon Van Gelder

One Lamp: Alternate History Stories from
Fantasy & Science Fiction (2003)

In Lands That Never Were: Swords &
Sorcery Stories from Fantasy & Science Fiction (2004)

Fourth Planet from the Sun: Tales of Mars
from Fantasy & Science Fiction (2005)

THE VERY BEST OF FANTASY & SCIENCE
FICTION:

60
^TH
ANNIVERSARY ANTHOLOGY

COPYRIGHT © 2009 by GORDON VAN GELDER

THE EVENTS PORTRAYED IN THIS BOOK ARE
FICTITOUS, AND

ANY RESEMBLANCE TO REAL PEOPLE OR EVENTS IS
STRICTLY

COINCIDENTAL. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED,
INCLUDING THE RIGHT TO

REPRODUCE THIS BOOK, OR PORTIONS THEREOF,
IN ANY FORM.

INTERIOR DESIGN & COMPOSITION BY JOHN
COULTHART

COVER DESIGN BY BRYAN CHOLFIN

COVER ART BY DAVID HARDY

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: JACOB
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ISBN 13: 978-1-892391-91-9

ISBN 10: 1-892391-91-0

PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY
WORZALLA

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

This
book is dedicated to

the
memory of Aunt Pat,

who
was there at the start,

and
to Zoe,

who
will be there for the future

ACKNOWLEDGMENT IS MADE FOR PERMISSION TO

PRINT THE FOLLOWING MATERIAL:

“Of Time and Third Avenue” by Alfred
Bester. Copyright © 1951 by Alfred Bester. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
October 1951. Reprinted by permission of the author’s estate and The Pimlico
Agency, Inc.

“All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury.
Copyright © 1954, renewed 1982 by Ray Bradbury. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
March 1954. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agents, Don
Congdon Associates.

“One Ordinary Day, with Peanuts” by Shirley
Jackson. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy &
Science Fiction
, January 1955. Reprinted in
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories of Shirley Jackson,
copyright © 1997 by the Estate of Shirley Jackson. Used by
permission of Bantam Books, a division of Random House, Inc.

“A Touch of Strange” by Theodore Sturgeon. Copyright
© 1958 by Mercury Press, Inc. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
January 1958. Reprinted by permission of Ralph Vicinanza, Ltd.

“Eastward Ho!” by William Tenn. Copyright ©
1958 by Mercury Press, Inc. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy
& Science Fiction,
October 1958. Reprinted
by permission of the author. (October 1958)

“Flowers for Algernon” by Daniel Keyes. Copyright
© 1959, © 1987 by Daniel Keyes. First published in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
April 1959. Reprinted by permission of William Morris Agency LLC, on behalf of
the author.

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut.
Copyright © 1961 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. First published in
The
Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction,
October 1961. Reprinted in Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.,
copyright © 1961 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.. Used by permission of Dell Publishing, a
division of Random House, Inc.