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Fool's Paradise, by John Russell Fearn
BORGO PRESS BOOKS BY JOHN RUSSELL FEARN
1,000-Year Voyage
Account Settled
Anjani the Mighty: A Lost Race Novel (Anjani #2)
Black Maria, M.A.: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #1)
Bury the Hatchet
A Case for Brutus Lloyd
The Crimson Rambler: A Crime Novel
Death in Silhouette (Black Maria #5)
Don’t Touch Me: A Crime Novel
Dynasty of the Small: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Empty Coffins: A Mystery of Horror
The Fourth Door: A Mystery Novel
From Afar: A Science Fiction Mystery
Fugitive of Time: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
The G-Bomb: A Science Fiction Novel
The Genial Dinosaur (Herbert the Dinosaur #2)
The Gold of Akada: A Jungle Adventure Novel (Anjani #1)
Here and Now: A Science Fiction Novel
Into the Unknown: A Science Fiction Tale
Last Conflict: Classic Science Fiction Stories
Legacy from Sirius: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
The Man from Hell: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Man Who Was Not: A Crime Novel
Manton’s World: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
Moon Magic: A Novel of Romance (as Elizabeth Rutland)
The Murdered Schoolgirl: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #2)
One Remained Seated: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #3)
One Way Out: A Crime Novel (with Philip Harbottle)
Pattern of Murder: A Classic Crime Novel
Reflected Glory: A Dr. Castle Classic Crime Novel
Robbery Without Violence: Two Science Fiction Crime Stories
Rule of the Brains: Classic Science Fiction Stories
Shattering Glass: A Crime Novel
The Silvered Cage: A Scientific Murder Mystery
Slaves of Ijax: A Science Fiction Novel
Something from Mercury: Classic Science Fiction Stories
The Space Warp: A Science Fiction Novel
A Thing of the Past (Herbert the Dinosaur #1)
Thy Arm Alone: A Classic Crime Novel (Black Maria #4)
The Time Trap: A Science Fiction Novel
Valley of Pretenders
Vision Sinister: A Scientific Detective Thriller
Voice of the Conqueror: A Classic Science Fiction Novel
What Happened to Hammond? A Scientific Mystery
Within That Room!: A Classic Crime Novel
World Without Chance
THE GOLDEN AMAZON SAGA
1. World Beneath Ice
2. Lord of Atlantis
3. Triangle of Power
4. The Amethyst City
5. Daughter of the Amazon
6. Quorne Returns
7. The Central Intelligence
8. The Cosmic Crusaders
9. Parasite Planet
10. World Out of Step
11. The Shadow People
12. Kingpin Planet
13. World in Reverse
14. Dwellers in Darkness
15. World in Duplicate
16. Lords of Creation
17. Duel with Colossus
18. Standstill Planet
19. Ghost World
20. Earth Divided
21. Chameleon Planet (with Philip Harbottle)
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
Copyright © 1950 by John Russell Fearn
Copyright © 2008 by Philip Harbottle
Originally published in abridged form as Annihilation under the pen name, Vargo Statten.
Published by Wildside Press LLC
www.wildsidebooks.com
DEDICATION
For Arthur Philip King
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
From the theory briefly expressed in Chapter One, acknowledgments are due to Lyle Gunn’s article, “If the Earth’s Magnetic Field Failed” (1939).
INTRODUCTION, by Philip Harbottle
During World War II, there had been a boom in science fiction pulp magazines in America, but it wasn’t until after the war that hardcover book publishers began to take a serious interest in the medium. Specialist fan publishers like Fantasy Press had led the way, with first book editions of magazine serials and novels by the likes of E. E. Smith and Jack Williamson, Then Simon and Schuster published A. E. van Vogt’s The World of Null-A, and Doubleday and other major publishers also entered the field. The success (and quality) of Adventures in Time and Space, the 1946 landmark anthology edited by Raymond J. Healy and J. Francis McComas sparked other such collections of magazine science fiction. Amongst the earliest similarly sourced anthologies were A Treasury of Science Fiction (1948) edited by Groff Conklin, and My Best Science Fiction Story (1949) edited by Leo Margulies and Oscar J. Friend, which reprinted John Russell Fearn’s magazine stories “Wings Across the Cosmos” and “Wanderer of Time,” respectively.
Prior to these developments Fearn had ceased writing for the American sf markets in order to concentrate on British and Canadian publishers, but now he became a client of the leading American sf agency, Oscar Kline, helmed by Oscar J. Friend.
At Friend’s invitation Fearn wrote a new sf novel, Fool’s Paradise, aimed at American hardcover publication. Fearn put everything into it. As he wrote to his friend Walter Gillings, “I think the yarn is about one of the best I ever did. A world’s end story developed to its final inevitable conclusion and no last-minute handsome heroes saving things.…”
Eight months then went by, in which time Fearn had heard nothing from Friend concerning the novel, into which he’d put so much time and effort. In exasperation, he wrote to Friend, who replied that he had submitted it to several publishers, but without making a sale. He excused his long silence by merely saying that he didn’t write because “he’d had nothing to report.”
On 22nd October 1949 Fearn wrote to Gillings to say that he was withdrawing from Friend’s agency, and was transferring Fool’s Paradise and other material to the rival US Agency, Dirk Wylie (now being run by Frederik Pohl, for whom Gillings himself was the UK representative). “I’m writing Friend by airmail withdrawing from his agency. I can’t wait eight months between letters: it isn’t worth the candle.”
Pohl proved to be a much more active and enterprising agent than Friend, and quickly managed to place two Fearn novels in America, The Intelligence Gigantic and Liners in Time, and two unpublished novels to Ray Palmer’s planned new magazine, Other Worlds—A Martian Returns and Venusian Queen, only for all these deals to founder and fall through, without Fearn receiving any payment; nor did he accomplish anything