Sturgeon is Alive and Well...

223 Pages·1978·12.35 MB·English

by  Theodore Sturgeon

STUR6EON
ISA TIVEA NDW ELL...
a collectiono f short storiesb y
THEODORSET URGEON
6. n Puham'sS onsN, ewY ork
Copynghfi O rgTr Theodore Sturgeon
Publ,ished bg arrangement uith the au,tlwt
All rtghts resen>ed',T hi,s book, or parts thereof, mast mt be re-
proiluceil in ony fonn u:ithout permission. Published simul'
toneouslg in Canadn by Longmans Cenodn Lfunited, Toronto,
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
"To Hrnr AND rrru EAsEL," copyright rg54 Ballantine Books, Inc.
"SLow Scur.prr:ns," copyright @ rSZo Universal Publishing and Disbibut-
ing Corp.
"Ir's Youl" @ rg6g Knight Publishing Co{P.
"TANE C*ne "oopr yJnognhyt ," copynght @ rgZo Sirkay Publishing Co.
"CBAIE " copyright @ rgzo Sirkay Publishing Co.
"THE Gru Wrro Knrsw Wsat TmY MEANT," copyright @ rgZo Sirkay
Publishing Co.
"Jonnt's GAp," copynght @ rs6g Knfght Publishing Corp. ,
"fr Wes Notrnr.rc-Rner-r.vl" copynght @ rg6g Sirkay Publfshing Co.
"BnowNsuoEs," eopyright @ rg6g Knight Publishing Cory.
"IJNcr-s FnEMLrs," copynght @ rgzo Knight Publishing Co{P.
"THE Pe:rsnNs or Donwr," copynght @ rgzo Sirkay Publishing Co.
"SrrrcDE," copyright @ rgzo Knight Publishing Cory.
PruNTED IN TEE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
1 . . OnW the simplest go beyond
lucidities in season,
Wh.enh ungrg, eat, ulwn tired, sleeP,
and, looe for tw reoson."
To
JUDITH EISENSTEIN BAGAI
wlw keeps the faith

CONTENTS
FOREWORD u(
TO HERE AND THE EASEL 1
SLOW SCULPTURE
Jt-/
ITS YOUI 79
TAKE CARB OF JOEY 89
CRATE
101
THE GIRL WHO KNBW WHAT THEY MEANT r15
IORRY'S GAP I'25
IT WAS NOTHING-REALLYI L37
BROWNSHOES 153
UNCLE FREMMIS 165
THB PATTBRNS OF DORNE r83
SUICIDE 199

Foreword
Yes, I am alive and well.
Once to a perceptive friend I was bemoaning thu fac{ that
there was a gap in my bibliogaphy from rg4o to 1946. (Actually
some stories were published during that period, but only one
had been written after 1g4o.) What wonders I might have pro-
duced had I not been clutched up, I wailed: And he said no, be
of good cheer. He then turned on the whole body of my work a
kind of searchlight I had not been able to use, and pointed out
to me that the early stuff was all very well, but the stories were
essentially entertainments; \rdth few exceptions thuy lacked that
Somethingt o Say quality which marked the later outtrlut.I n other
words, the retreat, the period of silence,w as in no way a cessa-
tion, a stopping. It was a silent working out of ldeas, of convic'
tion, of profound selection. The fact that the process went on
uqrecognizeda nd beyond or beneath my control is quite beside
the point. The work never stopped.
fve held hard to that revelation in recent years, and no longer
go into transports of anguish when the typewriter stops. I do
other things instead, in absolute conffdencet hat when that silent
subterranean work is done, it will surface. When it does so, it
does with blinding speed-a short story, sometirnes,i n two hours.
But to say I wrote it in two hours is to overlook that complex,
steady,s ilent processinga nd reprocessingth at has been going on