Search Worlds Without End

Plots and intrigues and romances abound.
Smoke pictures, ghosts, and treasure chests to be found.
Magnifying monocles and hallucinogenic grapes--
the unvoiced dreams of the dregs of space.

Long John Tony Tyrone, the peg-legged historian, journeys there...
And marries a Princess with rainbow hair.

But the Ghost of Christopher Brannagan will not rest
Until mathematician Aloysius has put to the test
His theory concerning the Doomsday Equation
Which might save the planet from total devastation.
Or might not.

Contains two stories:

• Where Have You Been, Sandialotis
• The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny

In Where Have You Been, Sandialotis Constantine Quiche, the world's best detective, investigates the beautiful land "Sandaliotis", which extends 300 miles from Sardinia. What? You say there is no such land? Well it reappeared just very recently. But it has been there all along. There is a mysterious threat connected with this unusul appearance. Can Constantine Quiche unravel the mystery, save the world and seperate reality from illusion?

The other story, The Three Armageddons of Enniscorthy Sweeny, is the biography of Enniscorthy Sweeny magus, entrepeneur and composer of three important operas. In an otherwise peaceful albeit fast progressing century, Sweeny's operas are shocking in their vulgar violence and power.

'This, I believe, is the first autobiography of a machine,' writes Epikt, a Ktistec machine. In the resulting mindbending, at times hilarious, work of the imagination, the careful and attentive reader realizes that Epikt is not only presiding at its own birth at the Institute for Impure Science, but it is also addressing itself to the interpretation of mankind's most profoundly puzzling problems.

Aurelia was a fifteen year old girl from a very advanced world. She'd passed Starship Building easily enough but she'd slept through most of Celestial Navigation. That was how she ended up on a little back-water dump like Earth where her advanced powers seemed like miracles. Some thought she was the Messiah. Some though she was the devil. No one was prepared for the truth.

This short story originally appeared in the collection Heart of Stone, Dear and Other Stories (1983). It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Second Annual Collection (1985), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Hugo, Nebula and Ditmar Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in Orbit 7 (1970), edited by Damon Knight. It can also be foundin the anthologies World's Best Science Fiction: 1971, edtied by Terry Carr and Donald A. Wollheim, Nebula Award Stories Six (1971), edited by Clifford D. Simak and Imaginings: An Anthology of Visionary Literature: Volume One: After the Myths Went Home (2004) edited by Stefan Rudnicki. It is included in the collections Strange Doings (1972), Lafferty in Orbit (1991), and The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019).

There have always been the Twenty One Pillars of Rectitude who sustain the World: Seven Saints to insure the sanity of the world; Seven Technicians to insure its correct mechanical working; and Seven Scribbling Giants to write its scenarios and histories. The Saints and Technicians were always in plentiful supply. But not so the Scribbling Giants.

So when Atrox Fabulinus, the greatest of the Scribbling Giants, was most foully murdered with his own nine-foot-long goose feather quill, the World staggered with the collapse of its most sustaining pillar. Then the remaining Scribbling Giants (all of them very old and tired) cried out for replacements so they could go to their restful deaths.

This is the story of how the World, at the uneven changing of its supporting pillars, staggered and reeled.

It is also the story of the Group of Twelve, an Group remarkable for its creativity and elegance, and how it set out to sustain the World in its new days of tottering terror.

Whether the Group will be successful, indeed whether they have been successful, remains to be answered on the ninth day of the week, east of Laughter.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It was originally published in the anthology Orbit 6 (1970), edited by Damon Knight. It can also be found in the collections Strange Doings (1972) and Lafferty in Orbit (1991).

Sturgeon Award nominated novelette. It originally appeared in the collection Episodes of the Argo (1990). There are no other known publications available at this time.

Hugo Award winning short story. It orginally appeared in the anthology New Dimensions 2 (1972), edited by Robert Silverberg. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Best Science Fiction of the Year #2 (1973), edited by Terry Carr, Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Second Annual Collection (1973), edited by Lester del Rey, The Hugo Winners, Volume 3: (1970-75) (1979), edited by Isaac Asimov, Masterpieces: The Best Science Fiction of the Century (2001), edited by Orosn Scott Card. It is included in the collections Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982) and The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019).

Take a trip through a near-psychedelic reality, with seven very special people blending to create a higher form of humanity. A laughing man living alone on a mountaintop, guarding the world. The Returnees: men who live again and again, century after century. A dog-ape "Plappergeist," who can only be seen out of the corner of one's eye. And a young man named Foley, very much like you and me, who begins to find out about the above people and things, and how they are reshaping the world!

This short story originally appeared in the collection Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982). It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: First Annual Collection (1984), edited by Gardner Dozois.

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in If, July 1965. The story can aslo be found in the anthology World's Best Science Fiction: 1966, edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Terry Carr and the collections Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970) and The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019).

Contents:

• Introduction: Despair and the Duck Lady (by Michael Swanwick)
• Magazine Section
• You Can't Go Back
• By the Seashore
• The World as Will and Wallpaper
• Lord Torpedo Lord Gyroscope
• Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies
• Thieving Bear Planet
• Or Little Ducks Each Day
• Gray Ghost: A Reminiscence
• Le Hot Sport
• Cabrito
• Horns on Their Heads
• Berryhill
• Funnyfingers
• Ifrit

The stories contained in this volume demonstrate the unique and unpredictable imagination, style and vision that earned R.A. Lafferty the 1990 World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - (1991) - essay by Damon Knight
• Old Foot Forgot - (1970) - short story
• All Pieces of a River Shore - (1970) - short story
• Bright Coins in Never-Ending Stream - (1978) - short story
• Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread - (1974) - novelette
• The Hole on the Corner - (1967) - short story
• The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street - (1975) - short story
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970) - novelette
• Entire and Perfect Chrysolite - (1970) - short story
• Great Day in the Morning - (1975) - short story
• The Hand with One Hundred Fingers - (1976) - short story
• One at a Time - (1968) - short story
• Royal Licorice - (1974) - short story
• And Name My Name - (1974) - short story
• Fall of Pebble-Stones - (1977) - short story
• Configuration of the North Shore - (1969) - short story
• Dorg - (1972) - short story
• When All the Lands Pour Out Again - (1971) - short story
• Interurban Queen - (1970) - short story
• The Only Tune That He Could Play - (1980) - short story

This short story originally appeared in Amazing Stories, July 1985. It can also be found in the anthology The Year's Best Science Fiction: Third Annual Collection (1986), edited by Gardner Dozois. The story is included in the collection Iron Tears (1992).

Here at last are the finest of Lafferty's shorter works, stories about - * A man who found one day that he knew absolutely everyone in the world *A race who kept their most ancient ancestors on shelves in the basements * A speeded-up world where a man could earn and lose a dozen fortunes a night. * Friendly bearlike creature named snuffles who said he was God ...in all, twenty-one immensely enjoyable stories that will continue to delight you long after you've finished reading them.

Table of Contents:

• Nine Hundred Grandmothers [Habitable Worlds] (1966) - short story
• Land of the Great Horses [Institute for Impure Science] (1967) - short story
• Ginny Wrapped in the Sun (1967) - short story
• The Six Fingers of Time (1960) - novelette
• Frog on the Mountain [Paravata] (1970) - novelette
• All the People (1961) - short story
• Primary Education of the Camiroi [Camiroi] (1966) - short story
• Slow Tuesday Night (1965) - short story
• Snuffles [Habitable Worlds] (1960) - novelette
• Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne [Institute for Impure Science] (1967) - short story
• Name of the Snake [Habitable Worlds] (1964) - short story
• Narrow Valley (1966) - short story
• Polity and Custom of the Camiroi [Camiroi] (1967) - short story
• In Our Block (1965) - short story
• Hog-Belly Honey (1965) - short story
• Seven-Day Terror (1962) - short story
• The Hole on the Corner (1967) - short story
• What's the Name of That Town? [Institute for Impure Science] (1964) - short story
• Through Other Eyes [Institute for Impure Science] (1960) - novelette
• One at a Time (1968) - short story
• Guesting Time [Habitable Worlds] (1965) - short story

Three memorable creatures world jump in a meta-cosmic universe that orbits with nightmarish landscapes that thrive on anti-matter, anti-space, and anti-time. What mind and body searing challenges await the Pilger, Pilgrim, and Polder, who are really one man?

This short story originally appeared in Galaxy, May-June 1973. It can also be found in the anthologies The 1974 Annual World's Best SF (1974), edited by Donald A. Wollheim and Arthur W. Saha, Best SF: 1973 (1974), edited by Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss, and Best Science Fiction Stories of the Year: Third Annual Collection (1974), edited by Lester del Rey. The story is included in the collections Ringing Changes (1984) and The Man Who Made Models: The Collected Short Fiction Volume One (2013).

The golden planet of Astrobe, made in the image of Utopia, now faced a crisis which could destroy it forever; and yet, no one could understand it: In a world where wealth and comfort were free to everyone, why did so many desert the golden cities for the slums of Cathead and the Barrio? Why did they turn away from the Astrobe dream and seek lives of bone-crushing work, squalor and disease? The rulers of Astrobe didn't know, so they sought in mankind's past for a leader who could give them the answers. They brought to life the one man out of history who would most want to destroy Astrobe!

Table of Contents:

• Introduction - essay
• Parthen - (1973) - short story
• Old Foot Forgot - (1970) - short story
• Dorg - (1972) - short story
• Days of Grass, Days of Straw - (1973) - short story
• Brain Fever Season - (1977) - short story
• And Read the Flesh Between the Lines - (1974) - short story
• Old Halloweens on the Guna Slopes - (1975) - short story
• The Ungodly Mice of Doctor Drakos - (1973) - short story
• The Wooly World of Barnaby Sheen - (1973) - short story
• Rivers of Damascus - (1974) - novelette
• Among the Hairy Earthmen - (1966) - short story
• In Outraged Stone - (1973) - short fiction
• And Name My Name - (1974) - short story
• Sky - (1971) - short story
• For All Poor Folks at Picketwire - (1975) - short story
• Oh Whatta You Do When the Well Runs Dry? - short story
• And Some in Velvet Gowns - short story
• The Doggone Highly Scientific Door - short story
• Interurban Queen - (1970) - short story
• Been a Long, Long Time - (1970) - short story

It was the end of summer of the year 2035. The Global Village that was the World was ruled by a Kangaroo Court of Compassionate Aldermen who ordered assassinations when it was deemed to be for the common good. As a sign of their openness, they wre always experimenting to find new ways of looking at the World. Most of these experiments would fail; some of them would succeed to an extent; and others would succeed only too well, and so would have to be crushed in the shell for the good of the World.

The Lynn-Randal Experiment raised three children together almost from infancy. Of these three, Lord randal was human (though somewhat enhanced and tampered with). Axel belonge to the gargoyle-faced 'Golden People' ("God believes they are the most beautiful creatures he ever made,' a theologian said. 'and there will be hell to pay when he finds out that we don't agree'). And the third child was Inneal who often elicited the comment 'she's really something different, isn't she!' Yes, she was. All of these were super-mega-persons, which meant that they might be able to change the world itself. But why did they begin to change the Ocean first?

When these three were just short of ten years old, they were merged with other children of three other experiments and formed with them a Magic Dozen. Immediately they began to have an astonishing effect on the World. And the fate of the children themselves hung in the balance.

Was the experiment too successful? Was their effect on the World too dangerous? Would their group be, as other groups had been, adjudged to be a 'Serpent's Egg' that had to be crushed in the shell for the good of the World?

The Three Days of Summerset, the End of Summer, would give the answer.

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in the anthology New Dimensions 1 (1971), edited by Robert Silverberg. The story can also be found in the anthology Nebula Award Stories Seven (1972), edited by Lloyd Biggle, Jr.. It is included in the collections Golden Gate and Other Stories (1982), Ringing Changes (1984) and The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019).

Nebula Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in Galaxy Magazine, April 1965. The story can also be found in the anthologies The Ninth Galaxy Reader (1966), edited by Frederik Pohl, 11th Annual Edition: The Year's Best S-F (1966), edited by Judith Merril, A Day in the Life (1972), edited by Gardner Dozois, Bio-Futures (1976), edited by Pamela Sargent, The Road to Science Fiction 3: From Heinlein to Here (1979), edited by James Gunn, and Yesterday's Tomorrows (1982), edited by Frederik Pohl. It is included in the collections Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970), and The Best of R. A. Lafferty (2019).

Read the full story for free here.

Originally published as Ace Double H-56 with Pity About Earth by Ernest Hill.

Set in the far future, Space Chantey chronicles the adventures of Space Captain Roadstrum and his crew, on a journey through galaxies resonant with myth and peril as Roadstrum valiantly battles to return across the cosmos to Big Tulsa, the Capital of the World, and to his wife and young son Tele-Max.

Table of Contents:

• Rainbird - (1961)
• Camels and Dromedaries, Clem - (1967)
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970)
• Once on Aranea - (1972)
• Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas - (1962)
• The Man with the Speckled Eyes - (1964)
• All But the Words - (1971)
• The Transcendent Tigers - (1964)
• World Abounding - (1971)
• Dream - (1962)
• Ride a Tin Can - (1970)
• Aloys - (1961)
• Entire and Perfect Chrysolite - (1970)
• Incased in Ancient Rind - (1971)
• The Ugly Sea - (1960)
• Cliffs That Laughed - (1969)

Acclaimed as one of the most original voices in modern literature, Raphael Aloysius Lafferty has been awarded and nominated for a multitude of accolades over the span of his career, including the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Table of Contents:

• Not to Mention R. A. Lafferty: A Personal Introduction - essay by Neil Gaiman
• Introduction (Slow Tuesday Night) - essay by Michael Dirda
• Slow Tuesday Night - (1965) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Narrow Valley) - essay by Michael Swanwick
• Narrow Valley - (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Nor Limestone Islands) - essay by Michael Bishop
• Nor Limestone Islands - (1971) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Interurban Queen) - essay by Terry Bisson
• Interurban Queen - (1970) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Rump of Skunk and Madness; or, How to Read R.A. Lafferty - essay by Jack Dann
• Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne - (1967) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (In Our Block) - essay by Neil Gaiman
• In Our Block - (1965) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Ride a Tin Can) - essay by Neil Gaiman
• Ride a Tin Can - (1970) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Nine-Hundred Grandmothers) - essay by Patton Oswalt
• Nine-Hundred Grandmothers - (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Afterword (Nine-Hundred Grandmothers) - essay by Andy Duncan
• Introduction (Land of the Great Horses) - essay by Harlan Ellison
• Land of the Great Horses - (1967) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Afterword (Land of the Great Horses) - essay by Gregory Frost
• Introduction (Eurema's Dam) - essay by Robert Silverberg
• Eurema's Dam - (1972) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies) - essay by Kelly Robson
• Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies - (1978) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (The Primary Education of the Camiroi) - essay by Samuel R. Delany
• The Primary Education of the Camiroi - (1966) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Continued on Next Rock) - essay by Nancy Kress
• Continued on Next Rock - (1970) - novelette by R. A. Lafferty
• How I Wrote 'Continued on Next Rock': An Afterword - essay by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Sky) - essay by Gwenda Bond
• Sky - (1971) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Cliffs That Laughed) - essay by Gregory Feeley
• Cliffs That Laughed - (1969) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Seven-Day Terror) - essay by Connie Willis
• Seven-Day Terror - (1962) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Boomer Flats) - essay by Cat Rambo
• Boomer Flats - (1971) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Old Foot Forgot) - essay by John Scalzi
• Old Foot Forgot - (1970) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (The World as Will and Wallpaper) - essay by Samuel R. Delany
• The World as Will and Wallpaper - (1973) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Funnyfingers) - essay by Andrew Ferguson
• Funnyfingers - (1976) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Thieving Bear Planet) - essay by Jeff VanderMeer
• Thieving Bear Planet - (1982) - short story by R. A. Lafferty
• Introduction (Days of Grass, Days of Straw) - essay by Gary K. Wolfe
• Days of Grass, Days of Straw - (1973) - short story by R. A. Lafferty

The Puca were a peculiar lot. They often passed as human, but anyone who knew them well could spot the flickering of the ears, the green gleam in the eyes. What humans couldn't spot or follow was the otherworldly logic of their minds, a shatteringly profound logic that could (would?) doom mankind.

Worse still, the seven (or was it six?) Puca children were deadlier than their parents.

Time is money. Time heals all wounds. Given time, anything is possible. And now he had all the time in the world!

This novelette was originally published in If, September 1960. It was anthologized in The 6 Fingers of Time and Other Stories (1965) and The Others edited by Terry Carr (1969), and was collected in Nine Hundred Grandmothers (1970) and The Man Who Made Models (2013).

Read this story for free at Project Gutenberg.

Space Chantey

Set in the far future, Space Chantey chronicles the adventures of Space Captain Roadstrum and his crew, on a journey through galaxies resonant with myth and peril as Roadstrum valiantly battles to return across the cosmos to Big Tulsa, the Capital of the World, and to his wife and young son Tele-Max.

Pity About Earth

The old planet's gone, but her ways are still headline news...

Let us say that we have a green thing growing forever. Everything that is done is done by it. And on it we also have the red parasite crunching forever; and everything that is undone by that. It is required of each man that he rule over himself in justice, and that he rule over the world in justice. This has gone on forever, though it is hard to trace through garbled history. And it must still is hard to trace through garbled history. And it must still go on forever. For all your own life and for the life of all your children, you will carry on the green battle.

A constellation of persons or events will have precedent. It will not appear out of nothing; it's a converging of previous trails and persons. Before one set of adventures, there was always another set; and before those, still another set, back to the beginning of the world.

We pass from one set to another now, from the Green-Flame adventure to the Half-Sky adventure. We are still in the middle of the nineteenth century, that most unreal of centuries, looking for reality under stodgy and ridiculous surface.

R A Lafferty is a spinner of grand fantasies, a creator of fine lies, one of the great story tellers of science fiction. Here he tells us of an astonishing band of adventurers seeking the Devil himself. It is a tale of demons and changelings, monsters and mermaids - and of how it is not always serious to die the first time it happens...

Now read on...

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome to the first volume in a series that will run to a dozen volumes collecting all of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction. Whether it be well-known stories such as Narrow Valley or more obscure work such as The Man Who Made Models, all will be collected here in the Lafferty Library. Each volume will feature close to 100,000 words of Lafferty's fiction and each volume will feature an afterword by series editor John Pelan and a guest introduction by a notable author in the field of fantastic fiction.

This first volume includes an introduction by Michael Swanwick, an afterword by John Pelan, and photographs of R.A. Lafferty.

Table of Contents:

• Eight Words from the Most Wonderful Writer in the World: Introduction by Michael Swanwick
• The Man Who Made Models (1984)
• The Six Fingers of Time (1960)
• The Hole on the Corner (1967)
• Square and Above Board (1982)
• Jack Bang's Eyes (1983)
• All But the Words (1971)
• The Ungodly Mice of Doctor Drakos (1973)
• Frog on the Mountain (1970)
• Narrow Valley (1966)
• Condillac's Statue, or Wrens in His Head (1970)
• About a Secret Crocodile (1970)
• Days of Grass, Days of Straw (1973)
• The Ninety-Ninth Cubicle (1984)
• Thus We Frustrate Charlemagne (1967)
• Parthen (1973)
• The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street (1975)
• Rivers of Damascus (1974)
• The Man Who Made Myths: The Voyages of R.A. Lafferty: Afterword by John Pelan

Contents:

• Introduction by Harlan Ellison
• The Man with the Aura
• One at a Time
• Royal Licorice
• Land of the Great Horses
• Anamnesis
• Ginny Wrapped in the Sun
• Pleasures and Palaces
• Continued on Next Rock
• Gray Ghost: A Reminiscence
• Ride a Tin Can
• Hog-Belly Honey
• All Hollow Though You Be
• I Don't Care Who Keeps the Cows
• Old Halloweens on the Guna Slopes
• The Ultimate Creature
• Great Day in the Morning
• Scorner's Seat
• Afterword by John Pelan

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome to the third volume of the Lafferty Library, a series that will run to a dozen volumes and collect all of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction. This present volume features Lafferty classics such as Snuffles and Boomer Flats alongside obscure later works such as Calamities of the Last Pauper and the rare The Last Astronomer. From the raucous fun of The Hellaceous Rocket of Harry O'Donavan to the quietly evocative Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies to the disturbing The Funny Face Murders, the depth and breadth of R.A. Lafferty's wondrous imagination is on display once again. Enjoy seeing the world as you've never seen it before!

This third volume includes an introduction by Bud Webster, an afterword by John Pelan, and photographs of R.A. Lafferty.

Contents:

• The Man Underneath
• Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies
• Dream
• Boomer Flats
• The Hellaceous Racket of Harry O'Donovan
• You Can't Go Back
• Thou Whited Wall
• The Effigy Histories
• The Wooly World of Barnaby Sheen
• McGonigal's Worm
• Inventions Bright and New
• Snuffles
• What Big Tears the Dinosaur's
• The Last Astronomer
• Ifrit
• The Funny Face Murders
• Calamities of the Last Pauper
• Nine Hundred Grandmothers
• Through Other Eyes

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome to the fourth volume of the Lafferty Library, a series that will run to a dozen volumes and collect all of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction. This present volume features Lafferty classics such as Bank and Shoal of Time, The Cliff Climbers, Been a Long, Long Time, Ishmael into the Barrens and many more. The depth and breadth of R.A. Lafferty's wondrous imagination is on display once again. Enjoy seeing the world as you've never seen it before!

This volume includes an introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, an afterword by John Pelan, and photographs of R.A. Lafferty.

Contents:

• Introduction by Richard Lupoff
• The Man with the Speckled Eyes (1964)
• Primary Education of the Camiroi (1966)
• Polity and Custom of the Camiroi (1966)
• Funnyfingers (1976)
• For All Poor Folks at Picketwire (1975)
• Thieving Bear Planet (1982)
• The Transcendent Tigers (1964)
• Bank and Shoal of Time (1981)
• The Emperor's Shoestrings (1997)
• McGruder's Marvels (1968)
• Been a Long, Long Time (1970)
• Entire and Perfect Chrysolite (1970)
• The Cliff Climbers (1970)
• And Walk Now Gently Through the Fire (1972)
• Ishmael into the Barrens (1971)
• Afterword by John Pelan

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome to the fifth volume of the Lafferty Library, a series that will run to a dozen volumes and collect all of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction. As with all previous volumes, this collection, assembled by series editor John Pelan, brings together a delightful blend of the familiar, the esoteric, the known and the obscure. In this volume you'll find his well-known characters, such as The Men Who Knew Everything; represented here by "Mud Violet" and "Barnaby's Clock"; the wondrous Argos Mythos (considered by many to be among Lafferty's finest works), are featured with a rare treat, the novella "How Many Miles to Babylon?", which has never previously appeared in any R. A. Lafferty collection. We even feature an appearance by that most venerable of think-tanks, The Institute for Impure Science, with the novelette "Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread."

From the enthusiastic introduction by Michael Kurland and the titular novelette from 1978, and all the way back to Lafferty's second prose sale, "Adam Had Three Brothers," this volume also includes an interview conducted with Lafferty by Robert J. Whitaker and an afterword by series editor, John Pelan.

Contents:

• Introduction (essay by Michael Kurland)
• The Man Who Walked Through Cracks (1978)
• In Our Block (1965)
• Camels and Dromedaries, Clem (1967)
• Hands of the Man [Habitable Worlds] (1970)
• Among the Hairy Earthmen (1966)
• Barnaby's Clock [Men Who Knew Everything] (1973)
• Ewe Lamb (1985)
• How Many Miles to Babylon? [Argos Mythos] (1989) (variant of How Many Miles to Babylon)
• Incased in Ancient Rind (1971) (variant of Encased in Ancient Rind)
• Rang Dang Kaloof (1972)
• Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread [Institute for Impure Science] (1974)
• Le Hot Sport (1988)
• Mud Violet [Men Who Knew Everything] (1973)
• And Name My Name (1974)
• Adam Had Three Brothers (1960)
• Bequest of Wings (1978)
• Company in the Wings (1983)
• An Interview with R. A. Lafferty (1976) (interview by Robert J. Whitaker)
• And the Band Plays On... (essay by John Pelan)

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Welcome once again to the sometimes nightmarish, occasionally hilarious, always fascinating universe created by the incomparable R. A. Lafferty. The stories in this sumptuous volume are some of Lafferty's finest -- taut and terrifying, yet pungent with his uniquely cynical tone.

He stares down mercilessly at a world gone quietly mad. "The Man Who Never Was" treads across the thin line between reality and illusion, thickening the haze that separates who we are from who we pretend to be. "Maleficent Morning" is about undoing the unthinkable, a masterful take on themes that range from the myth of Aladdin's Lamp to the curse of "The Monkey's Paw." Coursing between nightmare and waking, its folksiness makes it all the more jarring.

"Groaning Hinges of the World" is a dark fable about a world overtaken by depravity, more relevant now than ever. "Long Teeth" is a strange brew of grue, gore, and greed, a corrosive narrative about the cyclical effect of avarice. "Day of the Glacier" is a prescient, literally spine-chilling account of a climatic catastrophe fueled by paranoia and militarism. "Three Shadows of the Wolf" is a suspenseful, fanciful, and undeniably moody mystery about the hunt for an elusive and very intelligent werewolf.

This special Centipede Press edition is graced with a poignant introduction by Neil Gaiman, a combination valentine and tribute to his favorite writer that incorporates an incisive interview Gaiman conducted with Lafferty. "I like almost all my short stories," Lafferty declared. He undoubtedly loved the ones contained between these covers. Dig in, and savor one of fantasy literature's most ferociously imaginative authors.

Contents:

• Introduction by Neil Gaiman
• The Man Who Never Was
• Something Rich and Strange
• Maleficent Morning
• What's the Name of That Town?
• Tongues of the Matagorda
• The End of Outward
• Oh Tell Me Will It Freeze Tonight
• Quiz Ship Loose
• Horns on Their Heads
• And Mad Undancing Bears
• Groaning Hinges of the World
• Long Teeth
• Slow Tuesday Night
• Rainbird
• Brain Fever Season
• Day of the Glacier
• Three Shadows of the Wolf
• Lord Torpedo, Lord Gyroscope
• Or Little Ducks Each Day
• Marsilia V
• Afterword by John Pelan

In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R.A. Lafferty garnered the admiration of authors and editors including Robert A.W. Lowndes, Harlan Ellison, A.A. Attanasio, Gene Wolfe, Michael Swanwick and many, many others. His body of short fiction is comprised of well over 200 stories and, despite his vast popularity, there was never a concerted effort made to produce a comprehensive collection of his short fiction, until now.

Come one, come all! Step foot inside the scintillating world of R.A. Lafferty, the unparalleled jester and satirist for all that's ponderous and preposterous. Known for his eccentric brand of tall tales, Lafferty is one of the few who's brave enough to make sense of the nonsensical, even at the cost of his equilibrium as well as our own.

As an authorial chameleon, Lafferty commands the role with poise, tact, and quizzical inventiveness. Go ahead and decipher "Posterior Analytics." An economics term, you ask? No! It's Lafferty's clever poke at the so-called experts who can't dig themselves out of trouble even with all the answers at their cortical tips. "In the Turpentine Trees" calls to mind the slow-drip ooze of resin from pine trunks. However, it's his way of defining the deity in the clouds, billions of years in the making, or simply chosen by default. And "Junkyard Thoughts" is much more than what's on top of mind in a waste lot. Marvel at Drumhead Joe, a lawman hot on the trail of a murderer, searching in all the right places, and in all the right personalities.

With a world gone completely mad, how could one not know? But did you know: Lafferty is slightly ahead of that curve? Check out "Mad Man" and observe as George Gnevni flips the switch from the mad maniac to sane lap dog only to lose his good standing. His replacement is always on standby. Gang warfare takes to the heavens in "And All the Skies are Full of Fish," where local kids show off their kinetic powers to a goading public. Just a typical day in the life of a Lafferty resident.

Remove the rose-colored glasses and glimpse the world through Lafferty's eyes. "All the Pieces of a River Shore" will have you seeing Dali. Not in dripping clocks but in roaming waterways that are too realistic to comprehend or even handle. In "Dorg" you may ask which comes first: cause or effect? Even with a prophetic but spooked cartoonist it doesn't matter. Not when the world begs him for more. And "One-Eyed Mocking-Bird" shows that too much knowledge is ripe for paradox but it's also perfect to stake a movement and its figurehead.

Featuring an insightful introduction by Scott Bradfield and a revealing interview with Lafferty lead by Ron Wolfe, this Centipede Press edition is yet another example of Lafferty's resounding influence. Falling under his spell is just a part of the game. You may lose your balance, but you'll both come out winners.

Contents:

• Introduction by Scott Bradfield
• And All the Skies Are Full of Fish
• Junkyard Thoughts
• Posterior Analytics
• In the Turpentine Trees
• Buckets Full of Brains
• Make Sure the Eyes Are Big Enough
• The Only Tune That He Could Play or Well, What Was the Missing Element
• Smoe and the Implicit Clay
• Once on Aranea
• Dorg
• Sodom and Gomorrah, Texas
• Name of the Snake
• Mad Man
• Aloys
• All Pieces of a River Shore
• Bird-Master
• Golden Trabant
• All the People
• Puddle on the Floor
• Magazine Section
• The Polite People of Pudibundia
• Holy Woman
• Nor Limestone Islands
• One-Eyed Mocking-Bird
• Interview with R. A. Lafferty