Dear Mr. Robinette:
I do not know what your regular fees are, but I hope that the inclosed will cover your services to me of last July.
Since leaving New York I have had several jobs. I pushed a hack (as we say) in Chicago, and I tried out as pitcher on a bush-league baseball team. Once I made my living by knocking over rabbits and things with stones, and I can still throw fairly well. Nor am I bad at swinging a club like a baseball bat. But my lameness makes me too slow for a baseball career.
I now have a job whose nature I cannot disclose because I do not wish to be traced. You need pay no attention to the postmark; I am not living in Kansas City, but had a friend post this letter there.
Ambition would be foolish for one in my peculiar position. I am satisfied with a job that furnishes me with the essentials, and allows me to go to an occasional movie, and a few friends with whom I can drink beer and talk.
I was sorry to leave New York without saying goodbye to Dr. Harold McGannon, who treated me very nicely. I wish you would explain to him why I had to leave as I did. You can get in touch with him through Columbia University.
If Dunbar sent you my hat as I requested, pit .re mail it to me, General Delivery, Kansas City. Mo. My friend will pick it up. There is not a hat store in J town where I live that can fit me.
With best wishes, I remain,
Yours sincerely, Shining Hawk
alias Clarence Aloysius Gaffney
Book information
THE WHEELS OF IF
turned—and Allister Park spun from our own New York through a dizzying succession of alternate worlds to New Belfast... biggest city in the Bretwaldate of Vinland, the country that might have been if some historical crises had turned out the other way
Park's frantic efforts to get back to his own if-world turn Vinland upside down—and create a marvelously inventive and entertaining classic of SF.
In addition to this famous novel, this collection includes "The Gnarly Man," "Hyperpilosity," and four other stories in the inimitable De Camp manner.
L. SPRAGUE de CAMP was born in New York in 1907. After working for a correspondence school and co-authoring a standard book on inventions, he became a star of the golden age of SF with his stories in Unknown and Astounding. Of recent years he has been more active in nonfiction and historical novels, and has edited several fantasy anthologies. SF fans who utter the war-cry "Yngvi is a louse!" at odd times are often unaware that it comes from a de Camp story.
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THE WHEELS
OF IF
And Other Science-Fiction
L. SPRAGUE DE CAMP
A BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOK
PUBLISHED BY BERKLEY PUBLISHING CORPORATION
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To my valued colleague, collaborator and friend
FLETCHER PRATT
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Copyright 1949 by L. Sprague de Camp
All rights reserved
Published by arrangement with the author
BERKLEY MEDALLION EDITION, OCTOBER, 1970
SBN 425-01893-8
The Wheels of If, copyright 1940, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Unknown Fantasy Fiction, October 1940
The Best-Laid Scheme, copyright 1941, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, February 1941
The Warrior Race, copyright 1940, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, October 1940
Hyperpelosity, copyright 1938, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, April 1938 The Merman, copyright 1938, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, December 1938
The Contraband Cow, copyright 1942, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Astounding Science-Fiction, July 1942
The Gnarly Man, copyright 1939, by Street & Smith Publications, Inc., for Unknown, June 1939
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS
are published by-
Berkley Publishing Corporation
200 Madison Avenue New York, N. Y. 10016
BERKLEY MEDALLION BOOKS ® TM 757,375
Printed in the United States of America