The Edgar Pangborn Megapack Read online

  Table of Contents

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  The MEGAPACK® Ebook Series

  WEST OF THE SUN

  PART ONE: A.D. 2056

  PART TWO: THE YEAR ONE

  PART THREE: THE YEAR TEN

  THE GOOD NEIGHBORS

  ANGEL’S EGG

  THE MUSIC MASTER OF BABYLON

  THE TRIAL OF CALLISTA BLAKE

  WILDERNESS OF SPRING

  PART ONE

  PART TWO

  PART THREE

  COPYRIGHT INFO

  The Edgar Pangborn MEGAPACK® is copyright © 2016 by Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved. Cover art copyright © grandeduc / Fotolia.

  * * * *

  The MEGAPACK® ebook series name is a trademark of Wildside Press, LLC. All rights reserved.

  A NOTE FROM THE PUBLISHER

  Edgar Pangborn (1909-1976) was an American writer of science fiction, mysteries, and historical fiction. He was born in New York City to Harry Levi Pangborn, an attorney and dictionary editor, and Georgia Wood Pangborn, a noted writer of supernatural fiction. Along with his older sister Mary, Edgar was homeschooled until 1919 and then educated at Brooklyn Friends School. He began music studies at Harvard University in 1924, when he was still only 15 years old, and left in 1926 without graduating. After that he studied at the New England Conservatory of Music, but did not graduate from that school, either. On leaving he publicly abandoned music, shifting his creative focus to writing. His first novel, a mystery called A-100: A Mystery Story, was published under the pseudonym “Bruce Harrison” in 1930. It was not an auspicious or notably successful debut, and showed none of the emotional or stylistic characteristics that became the hallmark of his later work.

  Over the next 20 years he wrote numerous stories for the pulp detective and mystery magazines, always under pseudonyms. He also spent three years (1939–1942) farming in rural Maine, and three years (1942–1945) doing his World War II military service in the Pacific with the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

  It was not until the early 1950s that Edgar “suddenly appeared” within the science fiction and mystery fields, publishing a string of high-quality, high-profile stories under his own name in prominent magazines like Galaxy Science Fiction, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. His work helped to firmly establish a new “humanist” school of science fiction, and inspired a subsequent generation of writers, including Peter S. Beagle and Ursula K. Le Guin, who has credited Pangborn and Theodore Sturgeon with convincing her that it was possible to write worthwhile, humanly emotional stories within science fiction and fantasy.

  In the 1960s Pangborn also began painting semi-professionally in oils, and exhibited portraits, nudes, and landscape paintings at local and regional art shows. He continued to write in all genres, however, until he died in Bearsville, New York on February 1, 1976.

  Twenty-seven years later, in 2003, he was named winner of that year’s Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award.

  Unfortunately, we don’t have access to much of his pseudonymous early pulp work, and much of his later work has copyright restrictions. The stories in this volume are representative of his best work—indeed, West of the Sun is a minor classic of science fiction—and I encourage you to seek out more, such as the science fiction novel, A Mirror for Observers.

  Enjoy!

  —John Betancourt

  Publisher, Wildside Press LLC

  www.wildsidepress.com

  ABOUT THE SERIES

  Over the last few years, our MEGAPACK® ebook series has grown to be our most popular endeavor. (Maybe it helps that we sometimes offer them as premiums to our mailing list!) One question we keep getting asked is, “Who’s the editor?”

  The MEGAPACK® ebook series (except where specifically credited) are a group effort. Everyone at Wildside works on them. This includes John Betancourt (me), Carla Coupe, Steve Coupe, Shawn Garrett, Helen McGee, Bonner Menking, Sam Cooper, Helen McGee and many of Wildside’s authors…who often suggest stories to include (and not just their own!)

  RECOMMEND A FAVORITE STORY?

  Do you know a great classic science fiction story, or have a favorite author whom you believe is perfect for the MEGAPACK® ebook series? We’d love your suggestions! You can post them on our message board at http://wildsidepress.forumotion.com/ (there is an area for Wildside Press comments).

  Note: we only consider stories that have already been professionally published. This is not a market for new works.

  TYPOS

  Unfortunately, as hard as we try, a few typos do slip through. We update our ebooks periodically, so make sure you have the current version (or download a fresh copy if it’s been sitting in your ebook reader for months.) It may have already been updated.

  If you spot a new typo, please let us know. We’ll fix it for everyone. You can email the publisher at [email protected] or use the message boards above.

  The MEGAPACK® Ebook Series

  If you enjoyed this ebook, check out Wildside Press’s MEGAPACK® series…

  THE GOLDEN AGE OF SCIENCE FICTION

  1. Winston K. Marks

  2. Mark Clifton

  3. Poul Anderson

  4. Clifford D. Simak

  5. Lester del Rey (vol. 1)

  6. Charles L. Fontenay

  7. H.B. Fyfe (vol. 1)

  8. Milton Lesser (Stephen Marlowe)

  9. Dave Dryfoos

  10. Carl Jacobi

  11. F.L. Wallace

  12. David H. Keller, M.D.

  13. Lester del Rey (vol. 2)

  14. Charles De Vet

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  19. Charles De Vet (Vo. 2)

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  21. Edward Wellen

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  23. Richard Wilson

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  25. Raymond Z. Gallun

  26. Homer Eon Flint

  27. Stanley G. Weinbaum

  28. Edward Wellen

  29. Katherine MacLean

  30. Roger Dee

  31. Sam Merwin

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