The Classic Philip José Farmer, 1952–1964

Winner of the Hugo Award as ”The Best New Writer of 1952” for his first published novel, The Lovers, Philip José Farmer was and still is known as a science fiction pioneer, and he is certainly one of the most critically acclaimed and widely read SF authors at work today. His ground-breaking stories swept away the taboos of the 1950s and opened up science fiction to an exploration of sexuality, both human and alien, and complex moral and religious issues that had been barely touched upon before in this genre. This collection of short fiction spans the first twelve years of Farmer's published writing. Here you will encounter such gems as ”Mother”, the story of a homesick young man who adopts a bizarre alien as his parent and protector; ”The Alley Man”, about the last living Neanderthal and a twentieth-century woman's strange attraction to him; and the disturbing ”My Sister's Brother”, in which the humanlike beauty of an alien creature tests an Earthman's deepest prejudices when he discovers the true nature of her sexuality. All these stories reveal a sensitivity in dealing with provocative themes that marks their author as an outstanding innovator and a serious writer of science fiction at its best and most thoughtful.