Future Perfect: American Science Fiction of the 19th Century H. Bruce Franklin

New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1966. 401 pages. Second (revised) edition, 1968. Paperback edition (Galaxy Books, Oxford University Press), 1968. Expanded and revised edition (hardback and paperback), Oxford University Press, 1978. Expanded and revised edition (paperback), New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-0-8135-2152-1.
 
 

"This book comes as a revelation." 

--Isaac Asimov

 

 
 
 

"Professor Franklin's book stands in a class by itself." 

--P. Schuyler Miller, Analog

 

 
 
 

"A lovely big book that delightfully demonstrates that `to move into past visions of the future or past is to shift our own consciousness in time in extraordinary ways.'" 

--Anthony Boucher, New York Times

 

 
 
 

"This combined anthology and critical essay of/on 19th Century American science fiction is witty, informative, literate, imaginative, well-selected, and--fresh." 

--Judith Merrill, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

 

 
 
 

"The serious reader, the collector, and the student of literature will find it a worthy addition to his library." 

-- L. Sprague de Camp, Science

 

 
 
 

"H. Bruce Franklin has done a major service. . . . I hope a lot of contemporary science fiction specialists read his book; it will do them a world of good. Professor Franklin has struck a powerful blow for the cause of regaining our lost unity." 

--Poul Anderson

 

 
 
 

"The essays are brilliant and challenging; the fiction, delightful and entertaining. A reader could not ask for much more." 

--Los Angeles Times

 

 
 
 

"The book is an authentic find, a worthwhile addition to the libraries of all science fiction aficionados, as well as to those of readers interested in the history of America's literature of the imagination." 

--Groff Conklin

 

 
 
 

"Engineers tend to be avid readers of science fiction, and in trying to imagine the impact this book will have on them, I can only recall that Joseph Conrad kept A. R. Wallace's book, Malay Archipelago, on his night table for eight years. . . . Franklin's own critical essays, which make up a quarter of the book, will provide countless hours of cogitation and rumination for anyone interested in the history, nature, and value of science fiction, or, putting it more specifically, for anyone who has a fancy to indulge in artistic speculation about automata, marvelous inventions, medicine men, the psyche, and space and time travel." 

-- Walter James Miller, Engineer

 

 
 
 

"Franklin's study is a kind of tour de force." 

--San Francisco Examiner

 

 
 
 

"In the age of the unperson and the mini-thought, this book suggests some dizzying possibilities." 

--The Irish Times (Dublin)

 

 
 
 

"Future Perfect is a marvelous book, and a necessary one for both the s-f fan without strong literary interests and for the student of literature." 

--The Pilot

 

 
 
 

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