Return to Answer

As you recall the cover being "a deep blood red", it was probably the second printing that you saw.

The second story (universal solvent), as noted in a comment by DavidW, seems to be "Varieties of Technological Experience", a 1978 short story by Barry N. Malzberg, which was the answer to an old question, Looking for a sci-fi story about a prisoner and a universal solvent. Of course that 1978 story was not in Conklin's 1946 anthology.

P.S. Conklin's The Best of Science Fiction was not exactly the first hardcover SF anthology, but it was certainly a notable early landmark in the history of SF anthologies; maybe you could call it the first important one. Quoting The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

But the usually accepted candidate as first sf anthology is Adventures to Come (anth 1937) edited by J Berg Esenwein. It was also sf's first Original Anthology i.e., its stories were all previously unpublished – but they were by unknowns (it has been speculated that Esenwein wrote them all under one-off pseudonyms), and it seems the anthology had no influence at all. Much more important was The Other Worlds (anth 1941) edited by Phil Stong, a hardcover publication reprinting stories by Harry Bates, Lester del Rey, Henry Kuttner, Theodore Sturgeon and many other well-known writers from the sf magazines. The first notable paperback anthology was The Pocket Book of Science-Fiction (anth 1943) edited by Donald A Wollheim, eight of whose ten stories are still well remembered, an extraordinarily high batting average considering that more than half a century has since elapsed. Also relevant at this point is Wollheim's Omnibus volume The Portable Novels of Science (omni/anth 1945), comprising three novels and one novella.

The year that presaged the advancing flood was 1946, when two respectable hardcover publishers commissioned huge anthologies, both milestones. In February 1946 came The Best of Science Fiction (anth 1946) edited by Groff Conklin, containing 40 stories in 785pp, and in August came Adventures in Time and Space (anth 1946) edited by Raymond J Healy and J Francis McComas, containing 35 stories in 997pp. The latter was the superior work and even today reads like a roll of honour, as all the great names of the first two decades of Genre SF parade past. But Conklin's book is not to be despised, including as it does Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (November 1944 Astounding), Robert A Heinlein's "Universe" (May 1941 Astounding) and Murray Leinster's "First Contact" (May 1945 Astounding) (see First Contact).

As you recall the cover being "a deep blood red", it was probably the second printing that you saw.

The second story (universal solvent), as noted in a comment by DavidW, seems to be "Varieties of Technological Experience", a 1978 short story by Barry N. Malzberg, which was the answer to an old question, Looking for a sci-fi story about a prisoner and a universal solvent. Of course that 1978 story was not in Conklin's 1946 anthology.

P.S. Conklin's The Best of Science Fiction was not exactly the first hardcover SF anthology, but it was certainly a notable early landmark in the history of SF anthologies; maybe you could call it the first important one. Quoting The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

But the usually accepted candidate as first sf anthology is Adventures to Come (anth 1937) edited by J Berg Esenwein. It was also sf's first Original Anthology i.e., its stories were all previously unpublished – but they were by unknowns (it has been speculated that Esenwein wrote them all under one-off pseudonyms), and it seems the anthology had no influence at all. Much more important was The Other Worlds (anth 1941) edited by Phil Stong, a hardcover publication reprinting stories by Harry Bates, Lester del Rey, Henry Kuttner, Theodore Sturgeon and many other well-known writers from the sf magazines. The first notable paperback anthology was The Pocket Book of Science-Fiction (anth 1943) edited by Donald A Wollheim, eight of whose ten stories are still well remembered, an extraordinarily high batting average considering that more than half a century has since elapsed. Also relevant at this point is Wollheim's Omnibus volume The Portable Novels of Science (omni/anth 1945), comprising three novels and one novella.

The year that presaged the advancing flood was 1946, when two respectable hardcover publishers commissioned huge anthologies, both milestones. In February 1946 came The Best of Science Fiction (anth 1946) edited by Groff Conklin, containing 40 stories in 785pp, and in August came Adventures in Time and Space (anth 1946) edited by Raymond J Healy and J Francis McComas, containing 35 stories in 997pp. The latter was the superior work and even today reads like a roll of honour, as all the great names of the first two decades of Genre SF parade past. But Conklin's book is not to be despised, including as it does Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (November 1944 Astounding), Robert A Heinlein's "Universe" (May 1941 Astounding) and Murray Leinster's "First Contact" (May 1945 Astounding) (see First Contact).

As you recall the cover being "a deep blood red", it was probably the second printing that you saw.

The second story (universal solvent), as noted in a comment by DavidW, seems to be "Varieties of Technological Experience", a 1978 short story by Barry N. Malzberg, which was the answer to an old question, Looking for a sci-fi story about a prisoner and a universal solvent. Of course that 1978 story was not in Conklin's 1946 anthology.

P.S. Conklin's The Best of Science Fiction was not exactly the first hardcover SF anthology, but it was certainly a notable early landmark in the history of SF anthologies, maybe you could call it the first important one. Quoting The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

But the usually accepted candidate as first sf anthology is Adventures to Come (anth 1937) edited by J Berg Esenwein. It was also sf's first Original Anthology i.e., its stories were all previously unpublished – but they were by unknowns (it has been speculated that Esenwein wrote them all under one-off pseudonyms), and it seems the anthology had no influence at all. Much more important was The Other Worlds (anth 1941) edited by Phil Stong, a hardcover publication reprinting stories by Harry Bates, Lester del Rey, Henry Kuttner, Theodore Sturgeon and many other well-known writers from the sf magazines. The first notable paperback anthology was The Pocket Book of Science-Fiction (anth 1943) edited by Donald A Wollheim, eight of whose ten stories are still well remembered, an extraordinarily high batting average considering that more than half a century has since elapsed. Also relevant at this point is Wollheim's Omnibus volume The Portable Novels of Science (omni/anth 1945), comprising three novels and one novella.

The year that presaged the advancing flood was 1946, when two respectable hardcover publishers commissioned huge anthologies, both milestones. In February 1946 came The Best of Science Fiction (anth 1946) edited by Groff Conklin, containing 40 stories in 785pp, and in August came Adventures in Time and Space (anth 1946) edited by Raymond J Healy and J Francis McComas, containing 35 stories in 997pp. The latter was the superior work and even today reads like a roll of honour, as all the great names of the first two decades of Genre SF parade past. But Conklin's book is not to be despised, including as it does Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (November 1944 Astounding), Robert A Heinlein's "Universe" (May 1941 Astounding) and Murray Leinster's "First Contact" (May 1945 Astounding) (see First Contact).

As you recall the cover being "a deep blood red", it was probably the second printing that you saw.

The second story (universal solvent), as noted in a comment by DavidW, seems to be "Varieties of Technological Experience", a 1978 short story by Barry N. Malzberg, which was the answer to an old question, Looking for a sci-fi story about a prisoner and a universal solvent. Of course that 1978 story was not in Conklin's 1946 anthology.

P.S. Conklin's The Best of Science Fiction was not exactly the first hardcover SF anthology, but it was certainly a notable early landmark in the history of SF anthologies; maybe you could call it the first important one. Quoting The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction:

But the usually accepted candidate as first sf anthology is Adventures to Come (anth 1937) edited by J Berg Esenwein. It was also sf's first Original Anthology i.e., its stories were all previously unpublished – but they were by unknowns (it has been speculated that Esenwein wrote them all under one-off pseudonyms), and it seems the anthology had no influence at all. Much more important was The Other Worlds (anth 1941) edited by Phil Stong, a hardcover publication reprinting stories by Harry Bates, Lester del Rey, Henry Kuttner, Theodore Sturgeon and many other well-known writers from the sf magazines. The first notable paperback anthology was The Pocket Book of Science-Fiction (anth 1943) edited by Donald A Wollheim, eight of whose ten stories are still well remembered, an extraordinarily high batting average considering that more than half a century has since elapsed. Also relevant at this point is Wollheim's Omnibus volume The Portable Novels of Science (omni/anth 1945), comprising three novels and one novella.

The year that presaged the advancing flood was 1946, when two respectable hardcover publishers commissioned huge anthologies, both milestones. In February 1946 came The Best of Science Fiction (anth 1946) edited by Groff Conklin, containing 40 stories in 785pp, and in August came Adventures in Time and Space (anth 1946) edited by Raymond J Healy and J Francis McComas, containing 35 stories in 997pp. The latter was the superior work and even today reads like a roll of honour, as all the great names of the first two decades of Genre SF parade past. But Conklin's book is not to be despised, including as it does Sturgeon's "Killdozer!" (November 1944 Astounding), Robert A Heinlein's "Universe" (May 1941 Astounding) and Murray Leinster's "First Contact" (May 1945 Astounding) (see First Contact).