In 1950 Everett F. Bleiler and T. E. Dikty picked the following 1949 science fiction short stories for their second annual anthology The Best Science Fiction Stories – 1950:

• “Private Eye” by Henry Kuttner (Astounding, January 1949)
• “Doomsday Deferred” by Will F. Jenkins (Saturday Evening Post, 9/24/49)
• “The Hurkle is a Happy Beast” by Theodore Sturgeon (The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949)
• “Eternity Lost” by Clifford Simak (Astounding, July 1949)
• “Easter Eggs” by Robert Spencer Carr (Saturday Evening Post, 9/24/49)
• “Opening Doors” by Wilmar H. Shiras (Astounding, March 1949)
• “Five Years in the Marmalade” by Robert W. Krepps (Fantastic Adventures, July 1949)
• “Dwellers in Silence” by Ray Bradbury (Planet Stories, Spring 1949)
• “Mouse” by Fredric Brown (Wonder Stories, June 1949)
• “Refuge for Tonight” by Robert Moore Williams (Blue Book Magazine, March 1949)
• “The Life-Work of Professor Muntz” by Murray Leinster (Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun 1949)
• “Flaw” by John D. MacDonald (Startling Stories,  January 1949)
• “The Man” by Ray Bradbury (Thrilling Wonder Stories, February 1949)

Astounding Science Fiction is no longer dominating. Why no stories from the Big 3 (Heinlein/Asimov/Clarke)? Robert A. Heinlein, probably the most popular science fiction writer at the time had five stories published in 1949 – “Our Fair City,” “Gulf,” “The Long Watch,” “Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon,” and “Delilah and the Space Rigger.” I’ve read the Heinlein wanted too much money to reprint his stories, or maybe Bleiler and Dikty just didn’t like Heinlein or felt he didn’t need the exposure.

If Heinlein wasn’t the most popular science fiction writer in 1949, then Ray Bradbury might have been because two of his stories were selected, and in 1984, Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg picked another for their anthology The Great SF Stories 11 (1949):

• “The Red Queen’s Race” by Isaac Asimov (Astounding, January 1949)
• “Flaw” by John D. MacDonald (Startling Stories, January 1949)
• “Private Eye” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (Astounding, January 1949)
• “Manna” by Peter Phillips (Astounding, February 1949)
• “The Prisoner in the Skull” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (Astounding, February 1949)
• “Alien Earth” by Edmond Hamilton (Thrilling Wonder Stories, April 1949)
• “History Lesson” by Arthur C. Clarke (Startling Stories, May 1949)
• “Eternity Lost” by Clifford D. Simak (Astounding, July 1949)
• “The Only Thing We Learn” by C. M. Kornbluth (Startling Stories, July 1949)
• “Private – Keep Out!” by Philip MacDonald (The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949)
• “The Hurkle is a Happy Beast” by Theodore Sturgeon (The Magazine of Fantasy, Fall 1949)
• “Kaleidoscope” by Ray Bradbury (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949)
• “Defense Mechanism” by Katherine MacLean (Astounding, October 1949)
• “Cold War” by Henry Kuttner and C. L. Moore (Thrilling Wonder Stories, October 1949)
• “The Witches of Karres” by James H. Schmitz (Astounding, December 1949)

I’ve bolded the four stories that both collections picked. Asimov/Greenberg did add an Asimov and Clarke, but no Heinlein. And our system found even another Ray Bradbury story and picked a Heinlein:

If you look close, only four stories have had citations from the 21st-century, and only two, “Gulf” by Heinlein, and “Dark They Were, and Golden-Eyed” by Bradbury are remembered by fans recently. Our Classics of Science Fiction project shows how stories are slowly forgotten.

But what about how I felt reading these 1949 stories in 2019? To be honest, I’m struggling to retain them in memory. Most were just okay, even time-wasters. The story that really stuck out for me was “Alien Earth” by Edmond Hamilton, which I’ve already written about. Plus, Hamilton was writing about trees in 1949 that foresees such books as The Hidden Life of Trees (2015) by Peter Wohlleben and The Overstory (2019) by Richard Powers that just won the Pulitzer Prize.

The Ray Bradbury stories still work after all these years. In fact, my admiration for Bradbury is growing. His 1940s stories say so much about that decade and still, they seem relevant in the 2010s.

Most of the 1949 science fiction short stories were fun or clever but will probably offer little to modern readers.

One story, “Private Eye” by Kuttner and Moore, was very impressive but didn’t move me. Paul Fraser at SF Magazines really admired “Private Eye.” I want to reread it in the future because I think it will impress me more with a second reading. I wished someone would do an audiobook of Kuttner/Moore’s collected stories because they dominated the 1940s SF, yet I seldom enjoy their stories like I think I should. I’ve always loved “Vintage Season” but most of their stories seem to be more intellect than heart.

I thoroughly enjoyed “Opening Doors” by Wilmar Shiras, her sequel to “In Hiding” an all-time favorite of mine, but it didn’t have the impact of the first story and doesn’t stand on its own very well.

What Heinlein stories would I include. “Gulf” is a major story, but it’s subject major is something I find distasteful. I also found the novel Friday, which is a sequel to “Gulf” to be even more distasteful. I guess my favorite Heinlein for 1949 would be “Nothing Ever Happens on the Moon” – a two-part story from Boys Life. (Part 1, Part 2).

Bleiler and Dikty seem to have more stories from the first half of 1949, and Asimov and Greenberg more from the second half. Both looked at several magazines, getting away from Astounding is everything feeling. I’m not sure if I could find other stories worth anthologizing. Nor do I think I could pick enough 1949 SF stories to fill a whole book that’s I’d recommend to modern readers.

Starting last year I began reading the annual best-of-the-year SF anthologies in order. I began with the year 1939. Now that I’ve just finished 1949, it means I’ve covered the whole decade of the 1940s. I’m developing a sense that science fiction is evolving. But I will have to write about that at another time. I’ve started on the 1950 volumes, and the first four stories are already more exciting than any in 1949. My hunch is the 1950s will be the most exciting decade for science fiction.

James Wallace Harris, 6/12/19