Malzberg wrote in The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton that 'Clifton was an innovator in the early 1950s and such an impressive innovator that his approach has become standard among science fiction writers. This experience formed much of Clifton's attitude about the delusions people have of themselves, but also the greatness of which they are capable.īarry N. The story has been compared favorably to Kuttner and Moore's ' Mimsy Were the Borogoves,' which was published in Astounding magazine nine years earlier.Ĭlifton worked for many years as a personnel manager and interviewed 'over 200,000' people according to a personal letter he wrote to Judith Merril, quoted in The Science Fiction of Mark Clifton.

From Clifton's correspondence we know that Gold 'editorially savaged' the story, which appeared in severely truncated or altered form. Clifton gained his greatest success with his novel They'd Rather Be Right (also known as The Forever Machine), co-written with Riley, which was serialized in Astounding during 1954, and which was awarded the Hugo Award.Ĭlifton's other most popular short story is 'Star Bright,' the first of three appearances in Horace Gold's Galaxy (July 1952), about a super-intelligent toddler with psychic powers. He began publishing in May 1952 with the widely anthologized story 'What Have I Done?'.Ībout half of his work falls into two series: the 'Bossy' series, about a computer with artificial intelligence, was written either alone or in collaboration with Alex Apostolides or Frank Riley and the 'Ralph Kennedy' series, which is more comical, and was written mostly solo, including the novel When They Come From Space, although there was one collaboration with Apostolides. Mark Clifton (1906–1963) was an American science fiction writer, the co-winner of the second Hugo Award for best novel. Hugo Award, Cordwainer Smith Rediscovery Award When They Come From Space, They'd Rather Be Right, 'Star Bright'

They'd Rather Be Right by Mark Clifton