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    Problem in solid
    Problem in solid
    Problem in solid
    Ebook40 pages30 minutes

    Problem in solid

    By George O. Smith and John Betancourt

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Martin Hammer should have been prepared for anything. As the world’s foremost producer of motion pictures, he should have taken any situation from earthquake to fatherhood without a qualm or a turned eyebrow. But Hammer had not seen everything—yet.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWildside Press
    Release dateJul 31, 2022
    ISBN9781479478859
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      Book preview

      Problem in solid - George O. Smith

      Table of Contents

      COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

      INTRODUCTION, by John Betancourt

      PROBLEM IN SOLID by George O. Smith

      COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

      Copyright © 2022 by Wildside Press LLC.

      Originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1947.

      Published by Wildside Press LLC.

      wildsidepress.com | bcmystery.com

      INTRODUCTION,

      by John Betancourt

      George Oliver Smith (1911–1981) was an American science fiction author. He should not be confused with the prolific George H. Smith, another American author who also published (among other things) a significant body of science fiction work.

      Smith primarily wrote work set in space, including the novels Operation Interstellar (1950), Lost in Space (1959), and Troubled Star (1957). However, he is remembered chiefly for two works: the Venus Equilateral series of short stories about a communications station in space, designed to relay messages between Earth and Venus, and the novel The Fourth R (also published as The Brain Machine), about an education device that creates a five-year-old super-boy, who must escape those who wish to capture him long enough to grow up an extract his revenge.

      Most of the Venus Equilateral stories were collected in Venus Equilateral (1947), a small press hardcover. In 1976, the complete series was assembled in The Complete Venus Equilateral. It’s an outstanding classic that holds up surprisingly well.

      The title of The Fourth R is, of course, a play on the 3 Rs of education—reading, ’riting, and ’rithmatic—but what that fourth R is, I will leave you to discover.

      Smith was most active as a writer in the Golden Age of the 1940s and 1950s, with his primary market in the 1940s being the top magazine in the field—John W. Campbell’s Astounding Science Fiction. Many authors make bad career moves, and Smith was no different—in 1949, editor Campbell’s first wife, Doña, left Campbell for Smith. Of course, that affected what had been an excellent author/editor working relationship. Smith did not appear again in Astounding until 1959, after a decade has passed. In the meantime, he published fiction in other magazines, like Startling Stories and Thrilling Wonder Stories, and began writing books.

      After 1960, Smith’s job began making more demands on his time, and his output dropped. He was given the First Fandom Hall of Fame award in 1980 and remained a member of the literary banqueting club the Trap Door Spiders, which served as the basis of Isaac Asimov’s fictional group of mystery-solvers, the Black Widowers.

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