Jason Sanford brought the updated (2006) version of Earl Kemp’s Who Killed Science Fiction? (for which he won a Hugo in 1961) to our attention, by way of giving him an excuse to say:
“I challenge everyone who moans about the coming death of science fiction short stories to read through this amazing piece of SF history. I think you’ll find that many of the arguments and issues being raised today are the same ones being raised back then, which leads me to suspect that forty years from now people will still be writing and publishing SF short fiction–and moaning about the genre’s coming death.”
I read Kemp’s piece ages ago (well before the update, well after it was originally written) and re-read it on Jason’s suggestion.
I’ll not take sides in the particular fight Jason is picking right now (oh, ok, I will: short fiction IS dying and magazine short fiction is going even faster). Instead, I’ll ask two of my own:
How many of the names of the writers and editors Kemp solicited responses from in 1961 do you recognize?
How many of them have you read something by?
