Jump to content

Wandering Stars

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wandering Stars: An Anthology of Jewish Fantasy and Science Fiction
First edition
Cover artistMark Rubin
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublisherHarper & Row
Publication date
January 1974
Publication placeUnited States
Pages239
ISBN0-06-010944-0
Followed byMore Wandering Stars 

Wandering Stars is an anthology of Jewish fantasy and science fiction, edited by American writer Jack Dann, originally published by Harper & Row in 1974. It represented, according to the book cover, "the first time in science fiction that the Jew - and the richness of his themes and particular points of view -- will appear without a mask." In his introduction, "Why Me?", Isaac Asimov discussed how many Jewish science fiction writers prior to that time had used gentile pen names in order to get published: "Many of the Jewish pulp writers, however, used pen names as a matter of sound business. A story entitled "War Gods of the Oyster-Men of Deneb" did not carry conviction if it was written by someone named Chaim Itzkowitz." He then goes on to discuss the pen names of various Jewish writers included in this book. Wandering Stars is therefore of historical significance as the first science fiction anthology where Jewish writers openly identified themselves as such.[citation needed]

It was followed by a second anthology, More Wandering Stars, also edited by Jack Dann, published by Doubleday in 1981.

Contents

[edit]
[edit]

Further reading

[edit]
  • Cohen Ioannides, Mara Wendy. "Judaism and Extraterrestrials: Theological Lessons from Science Fiction." The Journal of Popular Culture 52, no. 5 (2019): 1200-1217.