I want a book that collects all “The Reference Library” columns that P. Schuyler Miller wrote for Astounding/Analog (1951-1975). I can’t find such a volume to buy. Because the individual issues of Astounding are available to read online at the Internet Archive, I figured I’d systematically read them there. However, I got the idea that maybe other people would want to read “The Reference Library” too. So this page is an experiment, a proof-of-concept, to see if I can create an organized and efficient front-end to Miller’s reviews at the Internet Archive.

I hope this page inspires an editor and publisher to collect P. Schuyler Miller’s writing on science fiction like Ritch Calvin did for The Merril Theory of Lit’ry Criticism: Judith Merril.

Miller wrote longer reviews than his peers, often with an introductory essay. Miller’s reviews are a wonderful way to observe the development of science fiction in the 1950s as the publication of science fiction shifted from pulp magazines to hardback books and paperbacks.

These reviews are easiest to read online when you make the viewer full-screen (button at the bottom right of the Internet Archive window).

1951

• No Science in Science Fiction – October
• Prelude to Space – November
• Collectively Speaking – December

1952

• Over My Shoulder – January
• What’s New? – February
• Junior Division Division – March
• By Way of Introduction – April
• The “Classics” – May
• Reader’s Choice – June
• Editor’s Choice – July
• Editor’s Choice II – August
• Strum und Drang – September
• Matters of Fact – October
• Junior Division – November
• Paradise Sought – December

1953

• The Basic Science-Fiction Library – January
• People and Polls – February
• Primers and Spacemen – March
• Science Fiction and Fictitious Science – April
• First Reader – May
• “Modern Science Fiction” – June
• Man, the Improbable – July
• Off the Cuff … – August
• Surveying British Science Fiction – September
• Man in Space – October
• Lines – November
• “One World” – December

1954

• “One World” Part 2 – January
• One Man’s Science Fiction – February
• One More World – March
• They Still Fly – April
• Beside Physics – May
• Anti-Science – June
• The Return of Tom Swift – July
• Stapledon Revisited – August
• Practicing and Preaching – September
• Revelation and Heresy – October
• Junior Department – November
• Human Engineering – December

1955

• Lost Adventure – January
• “Serious” Stuff – February
• S-F in 3-D – March
• Conan and the Lensmen – April
• For Your Pocket – May
• Evolution’s End – June
• Mars Ascendant – July
• The Good Old Days – August
• Friend in Court – September
• Take My Word for It – October
• Croquet Players – November
• Yet! and Such – December

1956

• The Suit Merchants – January
• Futures – February
• Frauds and Telepaths – March
• Reader’s Second Choice – April
• The Men of Space – May
• The Man the Fans Forgot – June
• They’re Moving In – July
• The Chosen and the World – August
• Whodunit? – September
• Verdict of You All – October
• Second-Guessing the Poll – November
• “Antipodeal” Wonders – December

1957

• UFO “Snufu” – January
• A Field Theory of Psi – February
• Scalpel and Roses – March
• Atomic Fission – April
• Every Man Is an Island – May
• Across the Tracks – June
• Three Men – July
• Psience or Psilliness – August
• They Say … – September
• … What Do They Say? – October
• Science Fiction – November
• Straws in a Hot Wind – December

1958

• The Merits of Merritt – January
• A Look in the Mirror – February
• Time and Time Again – March
• Law for the Prophets – April
• Kid Stuff – May
• Reach— – June
• Where We Stand – July
• From Numenor to Edgestow – August
• Alter Egos – September
• How We Seem – October
• The Bright Young Men – November
• The Sheep and the Goats – December

1959

• Of Time and the Writer – January
• The Juveniles – February
• The Gentlemen Amateurs – March
• Grim New World? – April
• Who Says? – May
• Is It SF? – June
• Catastrophes – July
• Judgment of Its Peers – August
• The Next Time – September
• Over There – October
• The Mad Scientists – November
• Spokesmen for Space – December

In 1960 Astounding changed it’s name to Analog. Issues of Analog are not currently available at the Internet Archive. However, I’m listing Miller’s remaining columns in case they become available in the future.

1960

• A Trend to Integration – January
• Nominations, Please – February
• The “Wiswell” Syndrome – March
• Tinkering – April
• May
• Two from the Twenties – June
• July
• New Respectability – August
• Our Lively Satellite – September
• Time Traveler’s Stories – October
• Three Roads to Hell – November
• Premature Funeral – December

1961

• Facts and Fancies – January
• Three for the Telly – February
• Tomorrows – March
• Sexing It Up – April
• A Surfeit of Classics – May
• Great Stuff – June
• Building Universes – July
• August
• Multiple Standards – September
• Wonderful – October
• Verne on Wide Screen – November
• Buried Technology – December

1962

• For the Juniors – January
• Who’s Next? – February
• Tour De Force – March
• What is Man? – April
• Meat – May
• June
• July
• August
• Dealer’s Choice – September
• Dated Classics – October
• The Return of E.R.B. – November
• The People’s Science FICTION – December

1963

• The Winners – January
• February
• Third Quadrant? – March
• Portrait of a Planet – April
• The Wolfcriers – May
• Crazy Kid Stuff – June
• Then and Now – July
• Three Debutantes – August
• Grab Bag – September
• Makers and Shapers – October
• Terraforming – November
• PBI – December

1964

• The Universe Our Stage – January
• Ground Rules – February
• They Still Fly – March
• The Macmillan Classics – April
• Outsiders – May
• T.W.T.Y.T.W. – June
• Metamorphosis – July
• Magic and Mechanism – August
• September
• Soviet Science Fiction II – October
• Nowhere to Go? – November
• Backlash – December

1965

• January
• Force Feeding Utopia – February
• One Man’s “Astounding” – March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

1966

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• The Good Old Days – September
• Roots – October
• So Say You All (Reader’s Poll) – November
• Open Primary – December

1967

• A Couple of “Firsts” – January
• The Last Lensman – February
• Velikovsky Revisited – March
• Year of the Impasse – April
• Lark Song – May
• June
• Glimpse of the Past – July
• August
• Those Grand Old Days – September
• Swinger and Dad – October
• The Best Short Stories – November
• The Road to “1984” – December

1968

• Junior Division – January
• Whose Rules? – February
• The Winners – March
• Ex TV – April
• Whose Revolution? – May
• Deadpan – June
• More from the U.S.S.R. – July
• Appraisals – August
• The Series – September
• More from the Soviet – October
• Lafferty – November
• Odyssey of an Idea – December

1969

• Christmas Stocking – January
• The Sound and Fury – February
• The Old-Time SF – March
• April
• The Indexes – May
• Quantitative Thought – June
• The Mainliners – July
• Fanfare – August
• Project Wildfire – September
• The Cart and the Horse – October
• Four-Letter Science Fiction – November
• Rhodan – December

1970

• To Buy a Book – January
• February
• Convention Addenda – March
• The Anderson Universe – April
• The Resurrection of Buck Rogers – June
• Two by Boyd – July
• August
• Criteria – September
• A Soviet “New Wave?” – October
• Under the Moons of Munsey – November
• All the Award – December

1971

• January
• February
• March
• April
• Two Insiders – May
• Lem -June
• Five from All Over – July
• The Nebula Awards – August
• Through the Curtain – September
• The Best SF Short Stories – October
• The Great “Oldies” – November
• Where We Are – December

1972

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• The Nebula Awards – September
• October
• November
• December

1973

• January
• February
• March
• April
• May
• June
• July
• August
• September
• October
• November
• December

1974

• January
• February
• March
• April

JWH