The Fredric Brown Megapack

Table of Contents

COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

The Fredric Brown Megapack
is copyright © 2013 by the Estate of Fredric Brown. All rights reserved. For more information, contact Wildside Press. Cover art © AlienCat / Fotolia.

SPECIAL THANKS

Special thanks to Barry Malzberg, agent for the Fredric  Brown estate, for fascilitating this edition; and to David Datta for assistance with locating and scanning some of Fredric Brown’s short stories. This volume could not exist without them.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

“Arena” originally appeared in
Astounding Science Fiction
, June 1944. Copyright © 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

“Keep Out” originally appeared in
Amazing Stories
, March 1954.

“Happy Ending” originally appeared in
Fantastic Universe
, September 1957.

“Hall of Mirrors” originally appeared in
Galaxy Science Fiction
,
December 1953.

“Earthmen Bearing Gifts” originally appeared in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, June 1960.

“Imagine” originally appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, May 1955. Copyright © 1955 by Fantasy House, Inc.

“It Didn’t Happen” originally appeared in
Playboy
, October 1963. Copyright © 1963 by H.M.H. Publishing Company.

“Recessional” originally appeared in
Dude
, March 1960. Copyright © 1960 by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc.

“Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” (with Carl Onspaugh) originally appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
, June 1965. Copyright © 1965 by Mercury Press, Inc.

“Puppet Show” originally appeared in
Playboy
, November 1962. Copyright © 1962 by H.M.H. Publishing Company.

“Nightmare in Yellow” originally appeared in
Dude
, May 1961. Copyright © 1961 by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc.

“Jaycee” originally appeared in
The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction
. Copyright © 1955 by Fantasy House, Inc.

“Pi in the Sky” originally appeared in
Thrilling Wonder Stories
, Winter 1945. Copyright © 1945 by Standard Magazine, Inc.

“Answer” originally appeared in
Angels and Spaceships
. Copyright © 1954 by Fredric Brown.

“The Geezenstacks” originally appeared in
Weird Tales
, September 1943. Copyright © 1943 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company.

“Knock” originally appeared in
Thrilling Wonder Stories
, December 1948. Copyright © 1948 by Standard Magazines, Inc.

“Rebound” originally appeared in
Nightmares and Geezenstacks
. Copyright © 1961 by Fredric Brown.

“The Star Mouse” originally appeared in
Planet Stories
, February 1942. Copyright © 1942 by Love Romances Publishing Company, Inc.

“Abominable” originally appeared in
Dude
, March 1960. Copyright © 1960 by Mystery Publishing Company, Inc.

“Letter to a Phoenix” originally appeared in
Astounding Science Fiction
, August 1949. Copyright © 1949 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

“Not Yet the End” originally appeared in
Captain Future
, Winter 1941. Copyright © 1941 by Standard Publishing Company.

“Armageddon” originally appeared in
Unknown
, August 1941. Copyright © 1941 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

“Experiment” and “Sentry” originally appeared as “Two Timer” in
Galaxy Science Fiction
, February 1954.

“Of Time and Eustace Weaver” originally appeared in
Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine
. Copyright © 1964 by Davis Publications, Inc.

“Reconciliation” originally appeared in
Angels and Spaceships
. Copyright © 1954 by Fredric Brown.

“Nothing Sirius” originally appeared in
Captain Future
, spring 1944. Copyright © 1944 by Standard Publishing Company.

“Pattern” originally appeared in originally appeared in
Angels and Spaceships
. Copyright © 1954 by Fredric Brown.

“The Yehudi Principle” originally appeared in
Astounding Science Fiction
, May 1944. Copyright © 1944 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

“Come and Go Mad” originally appeared in
Weird Tales
. Copyright © 1949 by Popular Fiction Publishing Company.

“Etaoin Shrdlu” originally appeared in
Unknown Worlds
, February 1942. Copyright © 1942 by Street & Smith Publications, Inc.

“The End” originally appeared in
Nightmares and Geezenstacks
. Copyright © 1961 by Fredric Brown.

A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Fredric Brown (1906-1972) is perhaps best remembered for his use of humor and his mastery of the “short-short” form (these days called flash fiction)—stories of one to three pages, often with ingenious plotting devices and surprise endings. He was just as accomplished in the mystery field as in science fiction, and he won an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America for his first novel,
The Fabulous Clipjoint
.

I discovered Fredric Brown’s work in the mid 1970s through the wonderful
Science Fiction Hall of Fame
anthology series. The concept of the series was that each volume contained some of the greatest science fiction stories published before 1965, as voted on by the membership of the Science Fiction Writers of America (and then winnowed down by each volume’s editor). The theory being, of course, that science fiction writers ought to know the best of the best.

SFWA members selected Fredric Brown’s story “Arena,” which is in this collection, as one of the top 20 science fiction stories. (“Arena” was also adapted as an episode of the original
Star Trek
TV series—you will probably recognize it as soon as you start reading.) I have chosen to lead off
The Fredric Brown Megapack
with “Arena” because, for anyone new to Fredric Brown’s fantastic work, this story is an ideal starting point.

But if you are already familiar with Brown’s work, I hope you will find a few tales new to you here. For the others, you will doubtless enjoy revisiting the work of one of science fiction’s masters.

Enjoy!

—John Betancourt

Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

www.wildsidepress.com

ABOUT THE MEGAPACK SERIES

Over the last few years, our “Megapack” series of ebook anthologies has proved to be one of our most popular endeavors. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

The Megapacks (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt, Mary Wickizer Burgess, Sam Cooper, Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Bonner Menking, Colin Azariah-Kribbs, Robert Reginald. A. E. Warren, and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!).

A NOTE FOR KINDLE READERS

The Kindle versions of our Megapacks employ active tables of contents for easy navigation…please look for one before writing reviews on Amazon that complain about the lack! (They are sometimes at the ends of ebooks, depending on your reader.)

RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the Megapack series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://movies.ning.com/forum (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

TYPOS

Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

THE MEGAPACK SERIES

MYSTERY

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The Charlie Chan Megapack*

The Craig Kennedy Scientific Detective Megapack

The Detective Megapack

The Father Brown Megapack

The Girl Detective Megapack

The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

The Anna Katharine Green Mystery Megapack

The First Mystery Megapack

The Penny Parker Megapack

The Philo Vance Megapack*

The Pulp Fiction Megapack

The Raffles Megapack

The Sherlock Holmes Megapack

The Victorian Mystery Megapack

The Wilkie Collins Megapack

GENERAL INTEREST

The Adventure Megapack

The Baseball Megapack

The Cat Story Megapack

The Second Cat Story Megapack

The Third Cat Story Megapack

The Third Cat Story Megapack

The Christmas Megapack

The Second Christmas Megapack

The Classic American Short Stories Megapack, Vol. 1.

The Classic Humor Megapack

The Dog Story Megapack

The Doll Story Megapack

The Horse Story Megapack

The Military Megapack

The Russian Short Story Megapack

The Sea-Story Megapack

SCIENCE FICTION & FANTASY

The Edward Bellamy Megapack

The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

The Fredric Brown Megapack

The Second Fredric Brown Megapack

The Ray Cummings Megapack

The Philip K. Dick Megapack

The Dragon Megapack

The Randall Garrett Megapack

The Second Randall Garrett Megapack

The Edmond Hamilton Megapack

The C.J. Henderson Megapack

The Murray Leinster Megapack

The Second Murray Leinster Megapack

The Martian Megapack

The E. Nesbit Megapack

The Andre Norton Megapack

The H. Beam Piper Megapack

The Pulp Fiction Megapack

The Mack Reynolds Megapack

The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack

The Science-Fantasy Megapack

The First Science Fiction Megapack

The Second Science Fiction Megapack

The Third Science Fiction Megapack

The Fourth Science Fiction Megapack

The Fifth Science Fiction Megapack

The Sixth Science Fiction Megapack

The Seventh Science Fiction Megapack

The Eighth Science Fiction Megapack

The Robert Sheckley Megapack

The Steampunk Megapack

The Time Travel Megapack

The Weird Fiction Megapack

The Wizard of Oz Megapack

HORROR

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The Second Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The E.F. Benson Megapack

The Second E.F. Benson Megapack

The Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson Megapack

The Algernon Blackwood Megapack

The Second Algernon Blackwood Megapack

The Cthulhu Mythos Megapack

The Erckmann-Chatrian Megapack

The Ghost Story Megapack

The Second Ghost Story Megapack

The Third Ghost Story Megapack

The Haunts & Horrors Megapack

The Horror Megapack

The M.R. James Megapack

The Macabre Megapack

The Second Macabre Megapack

The Arthur Machen Megapack**

The Mummy Megapack

The Occult Detective Megapack

The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack

The Bram Stoker Megapack

The Vampire Megapack

The Weird Fiction Megapack

The Werewolf Megapack

WESTERNS

The B.M. Bower Megapack

The Max Brand Megapack

The Buffalo Bill Megapack

The Cowboy Megapack

The Zane Grey Megapack

The Lon Williams Weird Western Megapack

The Western Megapack

The Second Western Megapack

The Wizard of Oz Megapack

YOUNG ADULT

The Boys’ Adventure Megapack

The Dan Carter, Cub Scout Megapack

The Dare Boys Megapack

The Doll Story Megapack

The G.A. Henty Megapack

The Girl Detectives Megapack

The E. Nesbit Megapack

The Penny Parker Megapack

The Pinocchio Megapack

The Rover Boys Megapack

The Tom Corbett, Space Cadet Megapack

The Tom Swift Megapack

AUTHOR MEGAPACKS

The Achmed Abdullah Megapack

The H. Bedford-Jones Pulp Fiction Megapack

The Edward Bellamy Megapack

The E.F. Benson Megapack

The Second E.F. Benson Megapack

The Algernon Blackwood Megapack

The Second Algernon Blackwood Megapack

The B.M. Bower Megapack

The Max Brand Megapack

The First Reginald Bretnor Megapack

The Fredric Brown Megapack

The Second Fredric Brown Megapack

The Wilkie Collins Megapack

The Ray Cummings Megapack

The Guy de Maupassant Megapack

The Philip K. Dick Megapack

The Erckmann-Chatrian Megapack

The Jacques Futrelle Megapack

The Randall Garrett Megapack

The Second Randall Garrett Megapack

The Anna Katharine Green Megapack

The Zane Grey Megapack

The Edmond Hamilton Megapack

The Dashiell Hammett Megapack

The C.J. Henderson Megapack

The M.R. James Megapack

The Selma Lagerlof Megapack

The Murray Leinster Megapack***

The Second Murray Leinster Megapack***

The Arthur Machen Megapack**

The George Barr McCutcheon Megapack

The Talbot Mundy Megapack

The E. Nesbit Megapack

The Andre Norton Megapack

The H. Beam Piper Megapack

The Mack Reynolds Megapack

The Rafael Sabatini Megapack

The Saki Megapack

The Darrell Schweitzer Megapack

The Robert Sheckley Megapack