In 1970, Avon Books published a landmark anthology, “Science Fiction Hall of Fame,” featuring 26 classic short stories that represent landmark tales of the genre. The stories were voted on by the members of the new (at the time, in the late 1960s) organization Science Fiction Writers of America. In this series, I will be joined by a panel of guests to break down these stories and talk about the authors in the book.

In this episode, I am joined by Patrick B. Sharp Professor of Liberal Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. He is the Faculty Director of EagleCon, SFAM conference Cal State LA's convention devoted to exploring and advocating for diversity in SF across media. He is the author of Darwinian Feminism and Early Science Fiction: Angels, Amazons, and Women (New Dimensions in Science Fiction) and co-editor of Sisters of Tomorrow (with Lisa Yaszek) and Audrey Taylor is an Assistant Professor of English at Colorado State-Pueblo. She received her PhD from Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, England. Her specialty is genre fiction, particularly fantasy, and science fiction. Her first book, Patricia A. McKillip and the Art of Fantasy World-Building, came out in 2017 and she is at work on a second monograph on SF author Anne McCaffrey.

We talk about Judith Merrill and her 1948 classic “Only a Mother.” We go deep into the author’s history, the origin and the meaning of the story, Did Merrill intentionally write this story to needle John W. Campbell, and more.