The Way the Future Was: A Memoir by Frederik Pohl
293 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published May 1979 by Ballantine Del Rey
I am starting to figure out that all these OG golden age Science Fiction authors wrote memoirs. I am starting to think if you read Astounding by Alec Nevala-Lee, Futurians by Damon Knight, and all their memoirs you might feel like you were around back in those days when Science Fiction was young and the genre was new. Let's not totally idealize those far-from-progressive days but it is nice to get all those people’s points of view.
Fredrick Pohl is a huge name in Science Fiction who won Hugo awards for both writing and editing. He worked for publishers and agents reading slush piles, he was an agent himself and took the reins of Galaxy magazine from the stewardship of Horce Gold considered one of the best SF magazine editors of the era. He wrote classic novels with CM Kornbluth like Space Merchants and his own classics in Gateway and Man Plus.
He is a big deal in Science Fiction, in the rest of the world he is a nerdy dude. His story is important to us. I listed all the things he has not just to explain why Pohl is important but why his story is important. Growing up in Depression-era Brooklyn is interesting enough but the story of how he found science fiction in the 20s is fascinating to me. Pohl was at the ground level of the genre itself so his story includes the first SF fan club meetings, and conventions, and stretches through the industry it became by the time of his memoir.
If you want to understand the growth and mechanics of the genre in the 20th century this book is an excellent place to start. It also has 16 pages of great pictures. This is a must-read for anyone interested in the history of Science Fiction.
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