The Cosmic Express

By JACK WILLIAMSON

Introduction by Sam Moskowitz

The year 1928 was a greatyear of discovery for AMAZINGSTORIES. They were uncoveringnew talent at such a great rate,(Harl Vincent, David H. Keller,E. E. Smith, Philip Francis Nowlan,Fletcher Pratt and Miles J.Breuer), that Jack Williamsonbarely managed to become one ofa distinguished group of discoveriesby stealing the cover of theDecember issue for his first storyThe Metal Man.

A disciple of A. Merritt, he attemptedto imitate in style, moodand subject the magic of thatlate lamented master of fantasy.The imitation found great favorfrom the readership and almostinstantly Jack Williamson becamean important name on thecontents page of AMAZING STORIES.He followed his initial successwith two short novels, TheGreen Girl in AMAZING STORIESand The Alien Intelligence inSCIENCE WONDER STORIES, anotherGernsback publication. Both ofthese stories were close copies ofA. Merritt, whose style and methodJack Williamson parlayed intopopularity for eight years.

Yet the strange thing about itwas that Jack Williamson wasone of the most versatile sciencefiction authors ever to sit downat the typewriter. When thevogue for science-fantasy alteredto super science, he created thememorable super lock-pickerGiles Habilula as the major attractionin a rousing trio of spaceoperas, The Legion of Space, TheCometeers and One Against theLegion. When grim realism wasthe order of the day, he producedCrucible of Power and when theywanted extrapolated theory inpresent tense, he assumed thedisguise of Will Stewart andpopularized the concept of contraterrene matter in science fictionwith Seetee Ship and SeeteeShock. Finally, when only psychologicalstudies of the futurewould do, he produced "WithFolded Hands ..." "... AndSearching Mind."

The Cosmic Express is of specialinterest because it was writtenduring Williamson's A. Merritt"kick," when he was writinglittle else but, and it gave theearliest indication of a more generalcapability. The lightness ofthe handling is especially modern,barely avoiding the farcicalby the validity of the notion thatwireless transmission of matteris the next big transportationfrontier to be conquered. It isespecially important because itstylistically forecast a later trendto accept the background forgranted, regardless of the quantityof wonders, and proceed withthe story. With only a few thousandscanning-disk television setsin existence at the time of thewriting, the surmise that thismedia would be a natural forwesterns was particularly astute.

Jack Williamson was born in1908 in the Arizona territorywhen covered wagons were theprimary form of transportationand apaches still raided the settlers.His father was a cattleman, but for young Jack, theranch was anything but glamorous."My days were filled," he remembers,"with monotonousrounds of what seemed an endless,heart-breaking war withdrought and frost and dust-storms