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#111 SF’s greatest partnership? Three novels by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbluth (1952 - 1959)
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This special feature episode focuses on three novels written in partnership by Frederik Pohl and Cyril M. Kornbbluth - The Space Merchants (1952), Gladiator-at-Law (1955), and Wolfbane (1959). Each unique in their own way, these three books are classics of the genre in the 1950s. They are the products of a special partnership between two writers who complemented each other perfectly.
Significantly, all three books were originally serialised in Galaxy magazine, which at the time was edited by H.L. Gold. In this sense, the three books represent some of the high watermarks of magazine SF in the exciting, productive 1950s. All three were also published in book form by Ballantine, then a new company which was helping to build a market for SF novels, which had never existed prior to the '50s.
The partnership ended early due to the untimely death of Kornbluth in 1958. Soon afterwards, H.L. Gold stepped down from Galaxy, and left Pohl to take over from him. These three novels, then, arrived at a time of tremendous change in the genre. In this episode, I try to do them some justice - especially Gladiator-at-Law and Wolfbane, which I feel deserve the classic status already afforded to The Space Merchants.
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