H B Fyfe's "The Wedge" (short story, first contact, free)

A sole human exploring a far away world in his scout-ship is captured by local aliens. Aliens are interested in learning about the capabilities of humans, so our hero plays a dumb animal...

Fact sheet.

First published: If, September 1960.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks. [via Becky@ClassicScienceFiction]
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

H B Fyfe's "Protected Species" (short story, first contact): Arrogant humans are humbled

It's not always logical, particularly the successful human harassment of local "ape men", but it has a beautiful ending.

Story summary.

Arrogant humans have arrived on a new world to colonize. A world with ancient ruins of some intelligent species no longer around. A world humans are in a hurry to civilize. They'll be humbled by the end of the story.

Collected in.

1. John W Campbell, Jr (ed)'s "The Astounding Science Fiction Anthology".

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, March 1951.
Among the stories from John Campbell's Astounding/Analog.
Rating: A.
Related: Stories of H B Fyfe.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", March 1952 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Where I am aware of a story elsewhere, I include that link too. Where I have a separate post on a story, link on title goes there. Links on author fetch more works of author.

1. [novelet] Robert A Heinlein's "The Year of the Jackpot".
2. [ss] H B Fyfe's "Manners of the Age"; download: "With everyone gone elsewhere, Earth was perfect for gracious living--only there was nothing gracious about it!"
3. [ss] Jerry Sohl's "The Seventh Order" aka "The 7th Order"; download: "History is filled with invincible conquerers. This one from space was genuinely omnipotent, but that never keeps humanity from resisting!"
4. [ss] Damon Knight's "Catch That Martian" (B); download: A "Martian" in New York is turning people into ghosts!
5. [serial - 3/3] Alfred Bester's "The Demolished Man".

Fact sheet.

Labeled: Vol 3 No 6.
Download whole issue from Internet Archive (does not include pages for 3 stories - "The Year of the Jackpot", "Catch That Martian", & "The Demolished Man").
Related: Fiction from Galaxy (whole issues only); old pulps.

New at Project Gutenberg (11 June 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. James Elroy Flecker's "The Last Generation" (1908); download: Probably a short novel.
2. H B Fyfe's "Manners of the Age"; download; Galaxy, March 1952: "With everyone gone elsewhere, Earth was perfect for gracious living--only there was nothing gracious about it!"
3. Kirby Brooks' "All That Goes Up"; download; Space Science Fiction, May 1953: "At fifty, a man should be too old to go around flying off the handle, or wandering around on the ceiling. But what could a man do when he had a son who insisted on being a genius?"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (1 June 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. Pearl Norton Swet's "The Medici Boots"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "The amethyst-covered boots had been worn by an evil wanton in medieval Florence--but what malefic power did they carry over into our own time?"
2. Ronal Kayser's "In the Dark"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "a tale of sheer horror that old Asa Gregg poured into the dictaphone".
3. Paul Compton's "The Diary of Philip Westerly"; download; Weird Tales, August-September 1936: "the terrible fear inspired by a man's horrendous reflection in a mirror".
4. David H Keller's "Tiger Cat"; download; Weird Tales, October 1937: "A grim tale of torture, and the blind men who were chained to pillars in an underground cave".
5. Gerald Vance's "Monsoons of Death"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Ward Harrison got himself into a barrel of trouble when he accepted a job at the Martian Observation Station. There were fearful "things" on Mars..."
6. Horace Brown Fyfe's "The Envoy, Her"; download; Planet Stories, March 1951: "The Emperor must be getting old, they thought, to deal so mercifully with the upstart Jursan Rebels--which was quite true. He was not too young to dream..."
7. Raymond Alfred Palmer's "The Hell Ship"; download; If, March 1952: "The passengers rocketed through space in luxury. But they never went below decks because rumor had it that Satan himself manned the controls of The Hell Ship."
8. Lyn Venable's "Time Enough at Last"; download; If, January 1953: "The atomic bomb meant, to most people, the end. To Henry Bemis it meant something far different--a thing to appreciate and enjoy."
9. Malcolm B Morehart's "Restricted Tool"; download; Imagination, January 1953: "Finders, keepers, is an unwritten law. But the gadget Clark accidentally found had a special set of rules governing its use by whom--and when!"
10. Waldo T Boyd's "The Salesman"; download; If, March 1953: "SALESMAN'S GUIDE, RULE 2: The modern 1995 customer who enters Tracy's Department Store is not always right, but as far as you are concerned, he is."
11. Richard Wilson's "Back to Julie"; download; Galaxy, May 1954: "The side-shuffle is no dance step. It's the choice between making time ... and doing time!"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.

New at Project Gutenberg (30 May 2010)

Links on author, publisher, or year fetch more matching fiction.

1. Henry Kuttner's "The Secret of Kralitz"; download; Weird Tales, October 1936: "the shocking revelation that came to the twenty-first Baron Kralitz".
2. Dwight V Swain's "Henry Horn's X-Ray Eye Glasses"; download; Amazing Stories, December 1942: "Henry Horn had a new invention; a pair of glasses that worked on the x-ray principle. But he didn't expect them to reveal Nazi secret agents and their works of sabotage!"
3. Roger Phillips Graham's "The Old Martians"; download; If, March 1952: "They opened the ruins to tourists at a dollar a head but they reckoned without The OLD MARTIANS".
4. Horace Brown Fyfe's "Let There Be Light"; download; If, November 1952: "No matter what the future, one factor must always be reckoned with--the ingenuity of the human animal."
5. Tom Leahy's "Tape Jockey"; download; If, March 1954: "Pettigill was, you might say, in tune with the world. It wouldn't even have been an exaggeration to say the world was in tune with Pettigill. Then somebody struck a sour note..."
6. Sam Merwin's "The Ambassador"; download; If, March 1954: 'All Earth needed was a good stiff dose of common sense, but its rulers preferred to depend on the highly fallible computers instead. As a consequence, interplanetary diplomatic relations were somewhat strained--until a nimble-witted young man from Mars came up with the answer to the "sixty-four dollar" question.'
7. Basil Wells' "Stalemate"; download; If, November 1954: "The rules of a duel between gentlemen are quite different from the rules of war between nations. Is it because gentlemen do not fight wars, or is it that men in war cease to be gentlemen?"

Related: Fiction from old "pulp" magazines.