"The Ballad of Lost C'mell"

By John J Pierce

Cordwainer Smith unlike Weinbaum, was no overnight success. The original publication of 'Scanners Live in Vain', in William Crawford's Fantasy Book was so obscure that even its date, actually 1950, later came to be listed as 1948 - an error perpetuated even by the Science Fiction Writers of America in THE SCIENCE FICTION HALL OF FAME.

Few are aware, however that "Scanners" was actually written in 1945, and that it was submitted to FANTASY BOOK only after having
been rejected by every major magazine in the

field. Crawford's publication was as close to a "vanity press" as existed in science fiction – Dr. Linebarger did not receive a cent for the story.

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Document scaning and conversion provided by Peter Barker

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