H L Gold's "A Matter of Form" (novella, brain dump): When a man lived in a dog's body

A surgeon has discovered that the pineal gland at the brain's base is the source of an
animal's identity; surgically extract & transplant it in another animal's brain, & you've put the original in a new body. And he has a rich, old & seriously ill financier who wants a young man's body!

In one of the experiments, the surgeon exchanged the identity of a kidnapped man with a dog. Only the resulting man-in-dog's-body turned out to be more determined & resourceful than either the surgeon or his financier expected...

Fact sheet.

First published: Astounding, December 1938.
Rating: A.
Nominated for Retro Hugo Awards 1939 in novella category.
Among the stories from Astounding/Analog issues edited by John Campbell.
Related: Stories of H L Gold.

"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.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", June 1958 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Link on author fetches more stories of author.

1. [novella] Frederik Pohl's "Mars by Moonlight" (as by Poul Flehr): "Certainly they were criminals -- they were in a Martian penal colony. But what were their crimes -- & how much time would they serve?"
2. [novelet] Frederik Pohl's "The Gentlest Unpeople" aka "The Gentle Venusian": "Unswervingly considerate & ever so polite, they were helpful to a fault ... even if the fault happened to be a monster out of space!"
3. [novelet] Robert Sheckley's "The Minimum Man": "Perceveral had a nerve asking for nothing more than his own small cubicle & a bit to eat! He'd take the whole world or else!"
4. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "The Last Letter": "Who or what was the scoundrel that kept these couriers from the swift completion of their handsomely appointed rondos?"
5. [ss] Robert Sheckley's "The Gun Without a Bang" (as by Finn O'Donnevan).
6. [ss] Joseph Wesley's "Perfect Answer" (as by L J Stecher, Jr): "Getting there may be half the fun ... but it is also all of a society's chance of survival!"

Fact sheet.

The issue is labeled "Vol 16 No 2".
Download the magazine from Internet Archive (this copy is missing all stories but Flehr's, Leiber's & Stecher's).
Related: Fiction from Galaxy magazine (whole issues only), 1950s, "pulps".

"Galaxy Science Fiction", August 1958 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Links on author fetch more of author's fiction. If I have a longer post on a story, link on story title goes there.

Table of contents (best first, unread last).

1. [ss] J T McIntosh's "In Black & White" (B): A salesman launches a target audience towards a more prosperous future, so they can later feel the need for the product he's selling!
2. [ss] Daniel Keyes' "The Trouble with Elmo": An AI on the death row, with the help of its human operator, figures out a way to stay alive...
3. [novella] Theodore Sturgeon's "To Marry Medusa": "Problem: the human race is complex; answer: put the problem in a nutshell--& this was the organization that could do exactly that!"
4. [novelet] Poul Flehr's "Seven Deadly Virtues": "With fares so high & colonists so scarce, something had to be done to prevent frontier killings ... like ruthlessly enforcing the ..."
5. [ss] Charles Scatterfield's "Third Offence".

Fact sheet.

Download full text from Internet Archive (does not include the text of 3 stories - "To Marry Medusa", "Seven Deadly Virtues" & "Third Offence"; "In Black & White" has a few sentences missing near end).
Labeled: Vol 16 No 4.
Related: Fiction from Galaxy (whole issues only); fiction from "pulps"; fiction from 1950s.

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

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. Where I'm aware of an online copy of individual stories, I include those links too.

Table of contents.

1. [novella] F L Wallace's "Accidental Flight"; download: "Outcasts of a society of physically perfect people, they couldn't stay & they couldn't go home again -- yet there had to be some escape for them. Oddly enough, there was!"
2. [novelet] Damon Knight's "Ticket to Anywhere".
3. [ss] J T M'Intosh's "Katahut Said No": "When the machine ordered any course of action, the answer was always yes. Except when---"
4. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "The Moon is Green"; download: "Anybody who wanted to escape death could, by paying a very simple price -- denial of life!"
5. [ss] Lucius Daniel's "Martians Never Die"; download: "It was a wonderful bodyguard: no bark, no bite, no sting ... just conversion of an enemy!"
6. [ss] Peter Phillips' "She Who Laughs": "It's really a very simple story -- if you refuse to believe in ghosts & know that time is circular!"

Fact sheet.

Download full text from Internet Archive (does not include the text of Damon Knight's story).
Labeled: Vol 4, No 1.
Related: Fiction from Galaxy (whole issues only); fiction from "pulps".

"Galaxy Science Fiction", September 1954 (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Where I've read the story, my rating appears in brackets. Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

Table of contents (6 stories, best first, unread last).

1. [ss] Philip K Dick's "Shell Game" (B): A group of stranded spacemen somewhere is being repeatedly attacked by...
2. [novella] F L Wallace's "The Man Who Was Six": "There is nothing at all like having a sound mind in a sound body, but Dan Merrol had too much of one--& also too much of the other!"
3. [novelette] Clifford D Simak's "Dusty Zebra": "Who or what the trader was & where he came from, nobody knew--or cared--until one of his gadgets began to play dirty!"
4. [novelette] Daniel F Golouye's "Satan's Shrine": "No torment that had ever been inflicted on mankind was more feindish than Satan ... for he was worse than a devil ... he was a man!"
5. [ss] Arthur Sellings' "A Start in Life": "What a problem for a robot ... having all of the answers, but not knowing when to give them!"
6. [ss] Robert Sheckley's "Milk Run": "What are Smags, Firgels & Queels? Cats in a bag ... & Gregor was holding the bag!"

Fact sheet.

Download whole issue from Internet Archive. [via Michael@ClassicScienceFiction]
This issue is labeled Vol 8, No 6.
Related: Fiction fro Galaxy, pulps, 1950s.
Legend: ss = short story

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 3 No 2 (November 1951) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

Table of Contents.

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novelet] Frank Quattrocchi's "Sea Legs": "Rootless & footloose, a man in space can't help but dream of coming home. But something nobody should do is be on the validity of a homesick dream!"
2. [novelet] Bernard Wolfe's "Self Portrait": "In the credo of this inspiringly selfless cyberneticist, nothing was too good for his colleagues in science. Much too good for them."
3. Alan E Nourse's "Tiger by the Tail": Where do objects go when they vanish & can never be found again? Well, here's one answer you can't disprove!"
4. Ann Griffith's "Zeritsky's Law": "Why bother building a time machine when there's something much easier to find right in your own kitchen?"
5. Lloyd Williams' "Psychotennis, Anyone?": "If scientific advance changes our forms of courtship, can other sports be far behind? Not when telekinesis is finally perfected!"
6. [novel serial - part 3/3] Robert A Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters": "Beaten in every battle with the ghastly invaders, man has one single weapon left - his mind! But will that prove enough?"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 3 No 1 (October 1951) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

Table of contents.

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novelet] Isaac Asimov's "The C-Chute": "The spaceship had to be recaptured from the aliens, which meant that somebody had to be a hero. But who would that be ... & why?"
2. [novelet] William L Bade's "Ambition": "To the men of the future, the scientific goals of today were as incomprehensible as the ancient quest for the Holy Grail!"
3. [ss] Ralph Robin's "Pleasant Dreams": "Where better to probe for clues than in a criminal's dreams? But there are all sorts & shapes of dreams, including nightmares!"
   
   Note: Where I've used "probe", magazine uses "prove". With that, the sentence didn't make sense to me - so I "fixed" it.
4. [ss] Edward W Ludwig's "Spacemen Die at Home": "One man's retreat is another's prison ... it takes a heap of flying to make a hulk a home!"
5. [ss] Donald Colvin's "The Celestial Hammerlock": "This bigtime space promoter could get the Horsehead Nebula in a flying mare - but pinning a planetoid is tougher!"
6. [novel serial - part 2/3] Robert A Heinlein's "The Puppet Masters": "The one thing worse than fighting an enemy completely human or completely alien is - fighting one that is both!"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 9 No 3 (December 1954) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

Table of Contents.

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novelet] Robert Sheckley's "Skulking Permit": "Wanted: one man to do a totally impossible job. Salary: the knowledge that a planet's life depends on his being able to do it!"
2. [novelet] Roger Dee's "Assignment's End": "Alcorn's wild talent was miraculous ... he brought peace to everybody who came near him. Only one person was exempt - himself!"
3. [novelet] Evelyn E Smith's "Collector's Item": "Being trapped in the steaming h--l of Venus is no excuse for forgetting one's manners - but anyone abducted, marooned, tricked, kept from tea might crack under the strain!"
4. [ss] J T McIntosh's "Play Back": "There was never tomorrow, only yesterday - & to Bert Siddon, it was the ideal arrangement!"
5. [ss] Finn O'Donnevan's "Uncle Tom's Planet": "All up down the whole galactic plantation, there were no old folks at home - until the Aingoes came along!"
6. [ss] Jean M Janis' "Rough Translation": "Don't be ashamed if you can't blikkel any more. It's because you couldn't help framishing."
7. [ss] Mark Meadows' "Joy Ride": "Men or machines - something had to give - though not necessarily one or the other. Why not both?"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

H L Gold's "No Charge for Alterations" (novelette, free): A society that alters its members psychologically & physically, as needed!

Have a pretty & rebellious teenage daughter? Helpful doctor can alter her psychologically to kill rebellion, & can make her ugly so she won't spend time preening herself!!!

Have a husband you don't like the looks of? Doctor can alter him physically to make him visually appealing.

We'll see the reactions of young Dr Leo Hoyt, newly arrived on this grossly underpopulated world called Deneb, to "Ego Alter" & "Rephysical" technologies change from disgusting to necessary.

Fact sheet.

First published: Amazing Stories, April-May 1953.
Download full text from Project Gutenberg, Manybooks, Feedbooks.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H L Gold.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 9 No 4 (January 1955) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

"The Tunnel Under the World" is one of the most famous stories of the genre. Creepy, but with a very cool ending.

Text of a few of the stories is online elsewhere too; I link where appropriate.

Table of contents (6 stories, best first).

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. My rating is in brackets.

1. [novelet] Frederik Pohl's "The Tunnel Under the World" (A); download; advertising dystopia: "Pinching yourself is no way of seeing if you're dreaming. Surgical instruments? Well, yes - but a mechanic's kit is best of all!"
2. [novelet] Richard Stockham's "Perfect Control": "Why can't you go home again after years in space? There had to be an answer ... could he find it in time, though?"
3. [novelet] Theodore Sturgeon's "When You're Smiling".
4. [novelet] Robert Sheckley's "Squirrel Cage": "If your planet needs the services of a good exterminator, then call in AAA Ace - but not if it is overrun with anything like slegs!"
5. [ss] Evelyn E Smith's "The Vilbar Party"; download: '"Nuts to you" was what Narli knew Earthmen would tell him ... only it was frismil nuts!"
6. [ss] Jerry Sohl's "Brknk's Bounty"; download: "From a feature writer to a feature attraction - now there's a real boozes-to-riches success story!"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

"Galaxy Magazine", Vol 16 No 5 (September 1958) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

This magazine is online at Internet Archive in multiple formats.
Caution: I've linked it in the past, but without ToC. Regulars might already have a local copy.
Note: Galaxy seems to have changed its name from "Galaxy Science Fiction" to "Galaxy Magazine" some time in 1958. But the transition month listed by ISFDB is wrong.

Two very well known stories here - "The Ugly Little Boy" & "A Slight Case of Sunstroke", but both appear here under their less well known alternate titles. "Thing of Beauty" also seems to be widely anthologized, but I haven't personally read it yet.

Table of contents (6 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author fetch more fiction by author. For read stories, my rating is in brackets. For stories that have their own post, link on story title goes there.

1. [novella] Isaac Asimov's "Lastborn" aka "The Ugly Little Boy" (A): "A scientific experiment or not, the patient was her responsibility ... and all the more so for having died so many centuries ago!"
2. [ss] Arthur C Clarke's "The Stroke of the Sun" aka "A Slight Case of Sunstroke" (A): '"Kill the umpire!" the audience cried—and why shouldn't they? He was on the ball, wasn't he?'
3. [novelet] Rosel George Brown's "From an Unseen Censor": "You can't beat my Uncle Isadora—he's dead but he's quick — yet that is just what he was daring me to try and do!"
4. [novelet] Damon Knight's "Thing of Beauty": "There was the gizmo that could put Gordon Fish in the chips — or right in the soup — and he didn't know which he was ordering!"
5. [ss] Lloyd Biggle, Jr's "On the Double": "Failure was impossible — they had the one true formula: the victor belongs to the spoils!"
6. [ss] H L Gold's "Personnel Problem": "Mng engnr wanted: duties it, gravity ditto, unitd opptnty advcmt—as anythg but engnr!"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 7 No 5-A (February 1954) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

Includes "Project Hush", a story I talked of last week without a download link.

Table of contents (8 stories, best first, unread last).

Links on author name fetch more stories of author. If I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For stories I've read, my rating is in brackets.

1. [ss] William Tenn's "Project Hush" (A): "The biggest job in history & it had to be done with complete secrecy. It was - which was just the trouble!"
2. [novelet] James Blish's "Beep" (B): "Earth's Secret Service kept peace in the Galaxy efficiently - very efficiently. It was always there ... before trouble started!"
   
   
   Collected in "The Ascent of Wonder".
3. [novelet] Roger Dee's "Pet Farm": "The next worst thing to hell is being shanghaied into the Paradise of an alien planet!"
4. [novelet] H Chandler Elliott's "Inanimate Objection": "Attacking someone's systematized delusions can be a dangerous thing. You're liable to find that he is not as deluded as you are!"
   Note: This description sounds like Fritz Leiber's "Sanity"!
5. [novelet] J T M'Intosh's "Men Like Mules": "Never was there a more exasperating sales job ... Earth was dying & its inhabitants had to be talked or tricked into leaving!"
6. [ss] Arthur Sellings' "The Boys from Vespis": "It was just a frightful mistake - but try convincing the Earthgirls that it was!"
7. [ss] Kenneth Harmon's "The Passanger": "The classic route to a man's heart is through his stomache - & she was just his dish."
8. [ss] Fredric Brown's "Two Timer": It looks like a collection of 2 pieces of flash fiction titled "Experiment" & "Sentry".

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

Free fiction: Galaxy, September 1958

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.

Editor: H L Gold.
Among the authors: Isaac Asimov, Damon Knight, Arthur Clarke (his funny & very well known story about the crazy football match in South America, "A Slight Case of Sunstroke", but under a different title - "The Stroke of the Sun"), H L Gold.

Related: Fiction from Galaxy, old "pulps", 1950s.

Free fiction: Galaxy, August 1958

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.

"The pages for the stories 'To Marry Medusa' by Theodore Sturgeon, 'Seven Deadly Virtues' by Paul Flehr, and 'Third Offense' by Charles Satterfield; have been deleted from the files since the Copyright was renewed".

That leaves only two full stories, including one by Daniel Keyes.

Editor: H L Gold.

Related: Fiction from Galaxy; Old pulps.

Free fiction: Galaxy, June 1958

At Internet Archive in multiple formats.

"The pages for the stories 'The Gentlest Unpeople' by Frederik Pohl, 'The Minimum Man' by Robert Sheckley, and 'The Gun Without a Bang' by Finn O'Donnevan have been deleted from the files since the Copyright was renewed".

Editor is H L Gold.

Among the authors: Fritz Leiber.

Related: Fiction from Galaxy, 1950s; Old pulps.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 1 No 2 (November 1950) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents & review

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

This is the second ever issue of Galaxy; first issue is online too.

Included are two of the most famous stories of science fiction - "To Serve Man" & "Coming Attraction". Former is one of the most imitated stories at flash fiction length; later probably won't appeal to modern audiences. I think I've seen both "Misbegotten Missionary" & "To Serve Man" among the volumes comprising "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories".

Table of contents.

Links on author name fetch more stories from author. If I have a separate post on a story, link on story title goes there. For stories I've read, my rating is in brackets.

1. [serial novel - 2/3] Clifford D Simak's "Time Quary": "It was an attractive offer. All Sutton had to do was modify an idea to live in wealth. But he had died for the truth once before!"
2. [novelet] Fredric Brown's "Honeymoon in Hell": "One way to stop a battle is to give enemies something that they can really fight about!"
3. [novelet] Anthony Boucher's "Transfer Point": "It was a nasty plot Vyrko was involved in. The worst part was that he constructed it himself - & didn't get the end right!"
4. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "Misbegotten Missionary": "It was a lovable little creature, anxious to help solve troubles of the world. Moreover, it had the answer! But what man ever takes free advise?"
5. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "Coming Attraction" (C): "Women will always go on trying to attract men ... even when the future seems to have no future!"
   
   Collected in Robert Silverberg (Ed)'s "The Science Fiction Hall of Fame: Volume One, 1929-1964".
6. [ss] Damon Knight's "To Serve Man" (A): "Wonderful gifts should be accepted gracefully. But always the memories of Indian givers & Greek gift-bearers creates doubt!"

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 1 No 5 (February 1951) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

Scans of this magazine are online in CBR format as part of a larger package.

"The Fireman" was later expanded into Bradbury's well known novel, "Fahrenheit 451". I've personally read only the longer version, though I think I've seen the shorter original in one of the "Isaac Asimov Presents Great SF Stories" books.

Table of contents.

Link on author fetches more fiction by author.

1. [novella] Ray Bradbury's "The Fireman": "the world of the future WE are creating!"
   
   Not read.
2. [ss] Lester del Rey's "... And It Comes Out Here": "There is one fact no sane man can quarrel with ... everything has a beginning & an end. But some men aren't sane; thus it's not always so!"
   
   This is included in "The Best of Lester Del Rey".
   
   Not read.
3. [ss] Betsy Curtis' "The Protector": "There's a fortune in a boxer who feels no pain. This one didn't, except in odd ways..."
   
   Not read.
4. [ss] Clifford D Simak's "Second Childhood": "Achieving immortality is only half of the problem. The other half is knowing how to live with it once it's been made possible - & inescapable!"
   
   Not read.
5. [ss] Frank M Robinson's "Two Weeks in August": "The humblest events sometimes result from the most grandiose beginnings. You'd never imagine space travel starting this way, for instance!"
   
   Not read.
6. [novel serial - 2/3] Isaac Asimov's "Tyrann": "Rebellions are logically led by men who have nothing to lose. But this galactic conspiracy was staffed with noblemen who had nothing to gain & everything to lose if it succeeded!"
   
   Not read.

See also.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. Works of H L Gold.
3. Fiction originally published in the year 1951; during 1950s.
4. Old "pulp" magazines.

Legend: ss = short story.

"Galaxy Science Fiction", Vol 1 No 1 (October 1950) (ed H L Gold) (magazine, free): Annotated table of contents

First issue of Galaxy!

Scans of this magazine in CBR format are online as part of a larger package.

Table of contents.

Links on author fetch more fiction by author.

1. [novel serial 1/3] Clifford D Simak's "Time Quarry": "One life should be enough to give for humanity ... but humanity wanted Sutton to keep making sacrifices indefinitely!"
2. [novelet] Theodore Sturgeon's "The Stars are the Styx": "On Curbstone, going out meant a 6,000 year date!"
3. [novelet] Katherine MacLean's "Contagion": "Minos was such a lovely planet. Not a thing seemed wrong with it. Excepting the food, perhaps. And a disease that wasn't really."
4. [ss] Richard Matheson's "Third from the Sun": "Escaping a known danger is highly advisable ... if you can know the unknown danger ahead!"
5. [ss] Fritz Leiber's "Later Than You Think": "It's much later. The question is ... how late?"
6. [ss] Fredric Brown's "The Last Martian": "The worries of a drunk are strange indeed. This one feared his people were all dead on another world. Silly, of course. Only ..."
7. [ss] Isaac Asimov's "Darwinian Pool Room": "Creation's meaning is an awesome secret. Or may be not."

Related.

1. Fiction from Galaxy.
2. "Pulp" magazines.
3. Works of H L Gold.
4. Fiction from 1950s.

H L Gold's "The Man With English" (short story, humor): The man with "reversed" senses!

After operation following a nasty fall that resulted in a bone getting into his brain, Edgar Stone has his senses reversed! He sees in the dark & cannot when it is light, he tastes salt when it is sweet & sweet when it is salt, hot feels cold to him & cold hot, ...

Fun of the story has to do with this bad tempered man's interactions with others - his family & the doctor.

Notes.

I could not figure out how the story title relates to its contents.

See also.

While this is the first story I've seen with a man's senses "reversed", there are a couple of stories where a physical object is "reversed" after passing through four dimensional space:

1. Arthur Clarke's "Technical Error": An accident has a man reversed! He can now only eat food that is also reversed!
2. Anil Aggarwal's "The New Antibiotic" (download English translation): Interstellar shipment of medicines has them reversed in 3D when passing through hyperspace. So we now need an extra label on interstellar medical shipments: do not reverse!

Fact sheet.

First published: Star Science Fiction Stories, February 1953.
Rating: B.
Related: Stories of H L Gold.

Horace L Gold's "Trouble with Water" (novelette, fantasy, humor): Never pick a fight with a "water gnome"!

Among the most interesting fantasy stories I've yet seen - by anyone. Parts of it feel like something out of Indian mythology, but I've never seen this plot before. Author specifically refers to Irish folklore - so may be those familiar with that might want to comment further. Also, ample material for adapting to home story telling sessions with kids.

Author is "the founding editor of GALAXY SF", but this story is from "the maiden issue of UNKNOWN FANTASY FICTION" (according to Asimov's introduction to the story in Issac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories).

Story summary.

In a foul mood after a domestic argument with his wife, Greenberg is out fishing & ends up hooking the hat of a water gnome. Ensuing argument will get him cursed - "water & those who live in it will keep away from you."

Much of the story is of his troubles due to this. How does he row his boat back to shore while the water is refusing to touch his boat? Get into bathtub, & water leaves the tub! Try drinking water from a glass, & water spills! Though there are advantages too - like some welcome business when it rains, because there is no rain around his stall! Lot of acts like this.

He will finally be saved by an old woman familiar with Irish folklore about water gnomes - say sorry & hand the gnome some sugar (but without getting the sugar wet!) A bit of adventure finding the gnome again, but happy ending.

Notes.

1. This story suggests dowry was rather common in the US at the time the story was written, & worked almost the same way it works in India. I wasn't aware of woman's dowry in US.

Fact sheet.

First published: Unknown, March 1939.
Rating: A.
Related: All stories from 1930s.