The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast - Vintage Sci-Fi Short Stories

When you think of science fiction the word controversy doesn’t normally come to mind, but today’s author stirred up more than his share of controversy in the 1940s.Born Richard Sharpe Shaver in Berwick Pennsylvania in 1907 he claimed to have worked in a factory in 1932 when a welding gun, ‘by some freak of its coil's field atunements’ was allowing him to hear the thoughts of the men working around him. If that’s not weird enough he also said he telepathically received record of a torture session conducted in caverns deep within the earth. When retelling the story of how he first learned of this cavern world, Shaver's stories didn’t remain consistent.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareShaver said he quit his job and became a hobo. He was hospitalized briefly for psychiatric problems in 1934, but there does not appear to have been a clear diagnosis.  For almost 10 years after that we don’t know what happened to him or where he lived. Then in 1943 he wrote a letter to Amazing Stories magazine claiming to have discovered an ancient language. When the editor wrote back to him, Shaver wrote that extremely advanced prehistoric races had built cavern cities inside the Earth before leaving the Earth for another planet, but leaving some of their offspring behind. The editor of the magazine, Ray Palmer, took Shavers 10,000 word response about these cavern dwellers, rewrote the manuscript and “I Remember Lemuria!” was published in the March 1945 edition of Amazing Stories. The issue sold out and elicited quite a response. The magazine editor, Ray Palmer, said that tens of thousands of letters were sent to Amazing Stories saying that Shavers story was true. How popular was Richard S. Shaver? Well the “Shaver Mystery” as his work was known, appeared in the June 1947 issue of Amazing and the entire magazine featured his stories and only his stories. Shaver had his share of critics who were quick to point out that the author was suffering from several of the classic symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia.Today’s science fiction short story was written after the “Shaver Mystery” stories had ended and contains no references to alien cave dwellers or their offspring. From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in April 1953, Paradise Planet by Richard S. Shaver…Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast Alice saw the Beachcomber as a glorious hunk of man; Maxwell saw him as a super being from the future. Tragically, he was both!... That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

How does a plumber, construction worker, carpenter, power plant engineer, shipyard welder and longshoreman become a science fiction writer? Rog Phillips seems like the kind of guy you’d want to sit down and have a beer with, a hard-working blue-collar guy. Born in 1909 in Spokane Washington, Roger Phillip Graham wasn’t only a man with many different jobs, he was also a man of many names. In fact, Phillips had more pseudonyms than any sci-fi writer that we’ve discovered so far. Twenty of them!Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareHe wrote more than 160 short sci-fi stories published in the 1940s and 50s, and 3 more in the early 60s. His first published work was a detective story, "Murder Note," credited to Charles Mann. “Murder Note” appeared in the Winter 1943 issue ofThe Masked Detective. Raymond Palmer, the editor of Amazing Stories started Rog on his science fiction career with a $500 advance in 1945 for his first story, "Let Freedom Ring! That was a hefty sum in 1945, worth more than $7,000 today.Today’s story can be found in the March 1952 edition of If Worlds of Science Fiction, you can find it on ebay for $12.99. The Old Martians by Rog Phillips.Phillips, the blue-collar guy, turned sci-fi writer once taught a writing course to prisoners at San Quentin.He died of heart failure in California in 1966 days after his 57th birthday.Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast It was a nice little world; everything about it reminded Steve of Earth—except for the people. They looked as human—as steel could make them!... Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll join us next week onThe Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thank you for listening to The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast and thanks for your reviews and ratings. Special thanks to our new listeners in The Canary Islands, Iceland, Finland, South Africa, the Czech Republic and New Zealand. If we haven’t mentioned your city, state or country send an email to scott@lostscifi.com and please let us know where you’re from.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareYou’ve heard of the man who had everything, well today’s author is the man who did everything! He accomplished far more in his life than most, yet he was a high school dropout. Born in November 1919 in New York, as is often the case, this science fiction author started out as a sci-fi fan. Along with Isaac Asimov, C.M. Kornbluth, and others he formed a group known as the Futurians which broke off from the Greater New York Science Fiction Club. The author once said and I quote, “We changed clubs the way Detroit changes tailfins, every year had a new one, and last year's was junk.” He would form lasting relationships with members of the group and many of them rose to sci-fi success. Frederik Pohl’s work was first published in 1937 and he began his career as a literary agent that same year. He was Isaac Asimov’s agent, the only one he ever had, then he started editing not one, but two magazines, Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. He was only 20! His stories often appeared in these magazines but never under his own name. Stories he wrote with C.M. Kornbluth were credited to S. D. Gottesman or Scott Mariner, other stories were credited to Paul Dennis Lavond or, as is the case with today’s story James MacCreigh. Then came World War II. Pohl served as an Army weatherman in Italy. After the war he wrote advertising copy, became a literary agent again, and started writing a lot, quite often with his friend C.M. Kornbluth.He would become an editor for two magazines again, this time, Galaxy and If, Worlds of science Fiction. Pohl won more than his share of awards, a Hugo for best magazine in 1966, 1967 and 1968. In 1976 he won the Nebula award given by the group now known as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He won another Nebula the next year and a Hugo in 1978. There are simply too many awards to mention them all. He wrote more than 65 novels, more than 150 short stories and he kept writing. His last collaborative effort was 2008’s The Last Theorem with Arthur C. Clarke and he won his last Hugo in 2010!Let’s go back in time more than 72 years ago to the pages of Planet Stories magazine and listen to the words from a Sci-Fi Superstar, Let The Ants Try by Frederic Pohl...In 1936 Pohl and around a dozen other sci-fi enthusiasts gathered in the back room of a bar in Philadelphia for what many regard as the world’s first science fiction “convention.”Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast They opened the ruins to tourists at a dollar a head but they reckoned without The Old Martians. Thanks for listening and we hope you’ll join us next week onThe Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast continues to grow all over the world and we have you to thank for that. In the last few weeks we’ve added new listeners in Germany, Greece, Spain, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India and in the US, Mesa, Phoenix, Midland Texas, Birmingham and Montgomery Alabama and the big island of Hawaii. There are many more. Wow! Thanks for listening and sharing the Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareRay Douglas Bradbury was an American author and screenwriter and one of the most celebrated 20th-century American writers. Born on August 22nd, 1920, in Waukegan, Illinois. His mother, Esther, was a Swedish immigrant and his father, Leonard, was of English ancestry. He was given the middle name Douglas after the actor Douglas Fairbanks, one of the biggest stars in Hollywood during the 1910s and 1920s.The Bradbury family lived in Tucson Arizona for a year from 1926 to 1927 then it was back to Waukegan. They tried Tucson again from 1932 to 1933 and then on to Los Angeles in 1934. The 14-year-old loved Hollywood and met radio star George Burns. Most people know of Ray Bradbury the writer, but did you know his first paid gig as a writer came when the 14-year-old sold a joke to Burns to use on the Burns and Allen radio show which ran from 1933 to 1950, when Burns and Allen then transitioned to television.Bradbury was an avid reader of H. G. Wells, Jules Verne, Edgar Allan Poe and Edgar Rice Burroughs. In 1936 at a secondhand book store, young Ray learned about a weekly meeting of the Los Angeles Fiction Society and at 16 he joined their Thursday-night get together. The teenager would sell newspapers on a street corner and then roller skate to the meetings!The avid sci-fi enthusiast wrote his first published sci-fi story in 1938, Hollerbochen’s Dilemma. Bradbury would later say about his first story, "no one enjoyed my story" and "I think it was terrible myself". Keep in mind he was only 17. However, in 2014, Hollerbochen’s Dilemma was nominated for the 1939Retro-Hugo Award for Best Short Story.Although Ray Bradbury lived a long and successful life he died two years before the nomination at the age of 91 on June 5th 2012 in Los Angeles. Was Ray Bradbury destined for success and fame? Well, to answer that question we share the words from Ray Douglas Bradbury himself. In his 1938 Los Angeles High School Yearbook he wrote, likes to write stories, admired as a thespian and headed for literary distinction! That’s amazing. There’s much more we could share with you about the legendary author, but we’ll save it for another Ray Bradbury short story in future episodes of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. Okay, I couldn’t help myself, one more thing… to say he was prolific would be a gross misrepresentation of the facts, Bradbury wrote more than 30 books and more than 600 short stories. Today’s story comes from the Summer 1944 edition of Planet Stories, which was sold for 20 cents. Turn with me to page 51 for Morgue Ship by Ray Bradbury…Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast features another short science fiction story from an author we’ve heard from before, but if you’re scouring past episodes for Darius John Granger you won’t find him.Darius John Granger was actually a pen name for Stephen Marlowe which was also a pen name for Brooklyn New York born Milton Lesser. You’ll find his story Pariah in Episode 11. Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareBy the way over the next 10 episodes of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast you’ll hear from 10 different authors and we haven’t showcased their work in any previous episodes. Special thanks to Jack from the UK. Jack sent us an email and shared with us a screenshot of his 5-star rating and review, the first on Apple Podcasts UK, which said Fabulous podcast. Really enjoy listening from the UK. Jack. Thanks Jack! Jack’s email said, “I’ve been listening to the podcast and really enjoying it, thanks so much for your hard work! Big love from England."Today’s story comes from the February 1956 edition of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, which is on sale now on Amazon for only $5, which, considering the price of other magazines we’ve seen, is a really good deal.As a private eye I get a lot of screwball cases, but nothing to match my own; my wife and kid trying to kill me—and neither aware of it! FromImagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, in February 1956, our story starts on page 50, enjoy Stop, You’re Killing Me! by Darius John Granger...Would you please subscribe to The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast and please rate and review wherever you listen to us? Your review helps others decide to check us out, so thank you in advance for your review, and we’ve got 10 free lost sci-fi audiobooks for you if you rate and review the podcast and send us a screenshot to scott@lostscifi.com.Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, This was Burnett's last trip. Three more shelves to fill with space-slain warriors—and he would be among the living again. Ray Bradbury!  That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today’s episode of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast features another short science fiction story from one of our favorite authors, William Morrison, whose real name was Joseph Samachson.Two of Morrison’s stories can be heard in episode 13, Unwelcomed Visitor and Spoken For.Welcome to our new listeners in Spain, Portugal, Hungary, Denmark, India, Madagascar, South Africa, New Zealand, Canada and the US. We appreciate you, and your comments and suggestions, and we’d love to hear from you. Send us an email anytime, scott@lostscifi.com.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareTask of Kayin originally appeared in 1953 but was also published in the Australian magazine Science Fiction Monthly in February 1957. It’s believed to be the last issue of the magazine from the land down under which lasted a short three years. Morrison wrote over 80 short sci-fi stories many of which were translated into French, Portuguese, Italian, German and Russian and then republished. If you enjoy his work, as I do, you will happy to know that you will hear many more William Morrison stories in future episodes of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.From out beyond the second sun he came; a fugitive froma dead and sterile world… from the July 1953 edition of Planet Stories Magazine, let’s turn to page 4 and enjoy Task of Kayin by William Morrison...Please subscribe to The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast and please rate and review wherever you listen to us. Your review helps others decide to check us out, so thank you in advance for your review.Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, As a private eye I get a lot of screwball cases, but nothing to match my own; my wife and kid trying to kill me—and neither aware of it! Time Travel anyone? That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ed Morris didn’t know what sales technique was until the fasrad invaded his life…There are pushy salesmen and then there are PUSHY salesmen who refuse to give up… until they make the sale! Turn with me to page 71 in Future Science Fiction magazine in June 1954 for Sales Pitch by Philip K. Dick...We’ve got new listeners around the globe in New Zealand, Portugal, Hungary, Poland the US, Canada and many other places around the world. Thank you for listening and for sharing The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareToday we once again hear the words from one of the greats in science fiction. A man whose work wasn’t appreciated enough when he was alive but is celebrated today, Philip K. Dick. Dick struggled with anxiety and drug addiction throughout much of his life. In 1982 he called his therapist and said he was going blind. He was told to go to the emergency room but instead he stayed home. He was found unconscious and suffered a stroke on the way to the hospital. When his family was told there was no brain activity, he was removed from life support. Philip K. Dick died March 2nd, 1982.This is the 3rd Philip K. Dick short sci-fi story we’ve featured on our podcast. In Episode 11 you’ll hear The Eyes Have It and Episode 1 contains The Hanging Stranger. Rest assured there will be more.Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, From out beyond the second sun he came; a fugitive froma dead and sterile world ... seeking solace, friends, ahome, on Earth—a planet of even greater terrors…Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Do you remember the 1974 Hollywood blockbuster, The Towering Inferno? The movie starred Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner and Richard Chamberlain. So what does that have to do with the author of our lost sci-fi short story? Well, after writing sci-fi for more than two decades Frank M. Robinson switched gears and started writing disaster novels with a partner. And one of those novels “The Glass Inferno” was used to create the Hollywood movie with a budget of $14 million that did more than $200 million at the box office. Robinson received a hefty payday.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareBorn in Chicago, Illinois on August 9th, 1926 it’s been said that Robinson was the son of a check forger. In his teens he was a copy boy for International News Service and then became an office boy for Ziff-Davis publishing, which published the sci-fi magazine Amazing Stories and later added Fantastic Adventures. Robinson attended Beloit College and earned a master’s degree in journalism at Northwestern University. He served two tours of duty in the U.S. Navy as a radar technician during World War II and the Korean War.His career as a science fiction writer started in 1950 and with 10 stories published in 1951 his career took off.From the pages of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in June 1955, WANTED: One Sane Man by Frank M. Robison...Robinson wrote 11 novels starting with The Power in 1956 and ending in 2004 with the release of The Donor. He passed away on June 30th, 2014 at the age of 87.Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Ed Morris didn’t know what sales technique was until the fasrad invaded his life…There are pushy salesmen and then there are PUSHY salesmen who refuse to give up… until they make the sale!Another vintage science fiction short story from legendary author Philip K. Dick. That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our first author Russell Robert Winterbothamwas born on August 1st, 1904 in Salina, Kansas, population 6,000 or so when he was born. He began writing short fiction in 1935 and continued until 1958 with a short break from the mid 40s to the early 50s. In all he wrote almost 60 short stories that were published in If Worlds of Science Fiction, Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy, Planet Stories and others.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareHe published stories as Russ Winterbotham and R. R. Winterbotham. His next to last novel Planet Big Zeroreleased in 1964 is the only known work using the name Franklin Hadley.If you are old enough you may remember the Big Little Books which began in 1935. By the time Russ Winterbotham started writing for Racine, Wisconsin based Whitman publishing they had changed the name to Better Little Books. Winterbotham’s first Better Little Book was 1940s Maximo the Amazing Superman which can be purchased for $50 on Abebooks.com. He also wroteMaximo the Amazing Superman and the Crystals of Doom, Maximo the Amazing Superman and the Supermachine, Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron and Captain Midnight and the Secret Squadron vs the Terror of the Orient.Like last weeks author Joseph Samachson, also known as William Morrison, Winterbotham was a comic strip writer. Chris Welkin, Planeteer was distributed by the Newspaper Enterprise Association from 1952 to 1964. It was created by Winterbotham along with cartoonist Art Sansom. Two TV pilot episodes were created for Chris Welkin, Planeteer but it was never picked up, however, you’ll find both episodes on YouTube. Quite the career!From Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in September 1954 Three Spacemen Left To Die! by Russ Winterbotham...Winterbotham’s writing career came to an end with the 1966 release of his last novel “The Lord of Nardos”. He passed away 5 years later on June 9th, 1971 in Bay Village, Ohio. He was 66 years old.We’ve already heard from our second author, Alan E. Nourse. You can hear his short sci-fi story The Fifty-Fourth Of July on Episode 5 of The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast. From the pages of Imagination Stories of Science and Fantasy in October 1952 Wanderlust by Alan. E. Nourse...Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Personnel Incorporated bragged that they could supply a man for any job. Maxwell doubted this, needing a space pilot for the first Lunar trip. Now, if he had just asked for a lunatic...That’s next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve got two short science fiction stories for you today on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast with at least one lost sci-fi short story in every episode.Support the show - https://www.buymeacoffee.com/scottsV Merch - https://lostscifi.creator-spring.com/ Sign up for our newsletterhttps://dashboard.mailerlite.com/forms/266431/102592606683269000/shareWe’ve already narrated 5 sci-fi stories written by William Morrison and many more are on the way. We had no idea that William Morrison was born Joseph Samachson on October 13, 1906, in Trenton, New Jersey, the son of Russian Jewish parents.This guy has an incredible bio.  He graduated from Rutgers University, then earned a Ph.D. in chemistry from Yale at the age of 23. He was an assistant professor at the College of Medicine, at the University of Illinois. He also headed a laboratory in metabolic research at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Chicago. Samachson worked as a research chemist for the American Molasses Company until 1938, leaving to become a "freelance technical writer".Then in 1941 his first short sci-fi story was released. Writing as William Morrison, for reasons unknown, "Bad Medicine"appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories magazine in February 1941. He would go on to write about 80 short sci-fi stories over the next 17 years. If that’s not enough, he started writing for DC Comics sometime around 1942. Contributing to stories for both Batman and Superman, he even created a character of his own. That character would appear in the 4-hour epic, Zach Snyder’s Justice League released in 2021. Played by veteran Hollywood actor Harry Lennix, the character Samachson created 66 years earlier appeared on the big screen. John Johns, aka Martian Manhunter is a shapeshifter stranded on Earth originally from Mars. Martian Manhunter first appeared in the November 1955 issue #225 of Detective Comics. A copy of issue #225 sold 5 years ago for an amazing $120,000! You can find a copy on eBay right now at the bargain Buy It Now Price for only $34,995. Joseph Samachson also found time to write scripts for a science fiction television series that aired on the DuMont Television Network. Captain Video and His Video Rangers aired from 1949 to 1955. If you’re curious you can watch several full-length episodes on YouTube.Samachson received special thanks credits in Zach Snyder’s Justice League and The Lego Batman movie. A legendary sci-fi writer himself, Frederik Pohl once remarked that Samachson was "one of the most shamefully neglected writers in the history of science fiction." That’s high praise. Samachson died of complications from Parkinson's disease on June 2, 1980 in Chicago.Xhanph was the fully accredited ambassador from Gfun, and Earth's first visitor from outer space.History and the amenities called for a tremendous reception. But earth people are funny people....Taken from the pages of “If Worlds of Science Fiction” in October 1954, Unwelcomed Visitor by William Morrison...Please participate in our podcast survey https://podcastsurvey.typeform.com/to/gNLcxQlk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.