Pandora's Box

by E.C. Tubb

Genres: Science Fiction; Sci-fi Action & Adventure; Space Opera

Synopsis

Written under the working title of "The Spore Menace" in 1954, Pandora's Box was not actually published until 1996. Many of the ideas in this novel are seminal, even prophetic. Tubb was one of the very first sf writers to realize the potential danger to Earth from alien organisms. He appreciated that whilst technology may change, Man's nature remains the same and Pandora's Box spins a fascinating tale based on that most basic human emotion - greed!

Release date: October 2, 2013

Publisher: Gateway

Print pages: 103

Sample

by Philip Harbottle

The decade following the Second World War changed the face of science fiction publishing in the United Kingdom. During 1945-55, there was a veritable explosion in the number of sf novels and magazines being published. Post-war paper rationing and austerity measures meant that most of these publications were cheaply produced. Basing their opinions on appearances, sf historians and academics have virtually ignored the original books published during this period.

The first non-fiction book to treat the period in any depth was THE MULTI-MAN, a bio-bibliographic study of John Russell Fearn, which I wrote and published in 1968. In it, I identified the many firms springing up as “mushroom” publishers, a term which has since become the accepted sobriquet for genre publishing in post-war Britain. Since then, I have published two further books, VULTURES OF THE VOID (1992) and BRITISH SF PAPERBACKS AND MAGAZINES, 1949-56 (1994), published by the Borgo Press. These books (written with Stephen Holland) revealed that mixed in with the hackneyed rubbish of the fly-by-night publishers, were some highly collectable gems—the early works of talented writers whose only outlets were the mushroom publishers. And at the forefront of this small group of talented British writers was Edwin Charles Tubb.

Tubb’s first short story, “No Short Cuts,” was published in the Summer 1951 issue of NEW WORLDS. In a recent interview published in PAPERBACK PARADE (#44), Tubb recalled how, as a young would-be novelist, he broke into the pocket book market. “I used to go to a pub with other writers and fans, to the White Horse in London. One chap there, Dave Griffiths, told me: ‘Don’t worry, boy, I’m a reader for Curtis Warren. You just let me have your novel. I’ll put it in under my own name, they’re bound to take it, and I’ll pay you’” Tubb wrote three novels which he passed to Griffiths, and they were duly published by Curtis Warren under their house bylines: SATURN PATROL as by King Lang (October 1951), PLANETFALL as by Gil Hunt (November 1951) and ARGENTIS as by Brian Shaw (February 1952). “I actually got paid for the first one—still waiting for the other two!”

Although published under house names, they were immediately recognizable as the work of one talented author. They had action, colour, and—a quality totally absent from contemporary novels—a vivid realism. Amidst the clamour of strange machines and alien menaces, Tubb never forgot he was writing about human beings. His characters react in a logical and human manner to their surroundings and problems.

Before long, Tubb was being head-hunted by numerous other publishers. These included Hamilton & Co. (Stafford) Ltd., Scion Ltd., Milestone Ltd., and others. Now, his work was being published under his own name (“E.C. Tubb”) or a personal pseudonym of his own choosing. In an interview with me in 1970 (printed in full in VULTURES OF THE VOID) Tubb was very frank about his earliest work. He pointed out that the mushroom publishers had a production schedule to maintain, and their habit of using their own house names “behind which the author lost both identity and responsibility” created a situation which “encouraged carelessness in writing and laid the emphasis on speed of production rather than quality.”

By 1954, however, Tubb had thoroughly learned his craft, and his publishers, anxious to retain him, improved their terms. His first novel to Curtis Warren had earned just 27 Pounds—for all rights. This had increased to 56 Pounds, for English rights only. “By this time,” Tubb recalls, “I was consciously trying to write the best material I could within the limits of the medium. The demand was always for fast, quick entertaining action—in fact, the mixture as before—but now it could be smoother, with greater attention paid to detail and characterization.”

Now firmly established as a full-time writer, Tubb was at the peak of production, writing for every one of Britain’s sf magazines, and his novels were being issued from several publishers simultaneously. PANDORA’S BOX (under the working title of “The Spore Menace”) was written in May 1954, and was quickly followed by a shorter novel, THE TEMPLE OF DRA VHEERA (at only 30,000 words it was intended for the “Tit-Bits” novella series). Married with a family, Tubb was about to move into a larger house. But then came a sudden collapse of the market for paperback novels.

Tubb recalled its effects on him: “For fear of being prosecuted for selling obscene material, the sellers simply refused to accept anything from these publishers. So your gangsters and your sf and westerns wouldn’t sell: end of boom! And that hit me very hard at the time, because I’d just bought a house. I was left with a mortgage and no job and no (book) publishers, which meant I had to scurry around like the proverbial blue-arsed fly to get a job, and keep the wolf from the door.”

In fact, Tubb continued to write for the still-viable UK magazine market, and also began to sell to the American magazines. It would be in America that he would later gain his greatest success as a novelist, with his “Earl Dumarest” series. But in the meantime, what had become of his two unpublished novels written for the mushroom publishers?

Attending a British science fiction convention not long afterwards, Tubb was introduced to Anna Steul, a German literary agent. She told him of an emerging European market, where a number of British 1950s sf paperbacks were beginning to enjoy a new lease of life in translation. John Russell Fearn’s “Vargo Statten” novels had started the trend, appearing regularly in France since 1952. Steul thereafter acted as Tubb’s German agent, and he gave her his typescripts of both unpublished novels. “The Space Menace” eventually found a German publisher, but “The Temple of Dra Vheera”, due to its awkward short novel length, did not. However, many of Tubb’s already published novels were reprinted in German translations, and Tubb went on to appear in other European countries. As I wrote in VULTURES OF THE VOID: “The success of “Statten” opened the door for E.C. Tubb, who went on to blaze an even brighter trail across Europe. Every single one of his many Scion, Panther, Curtis and Milestone novels saw one or more translations, long after their original English publishers have disappeared.” But for English and American readers, it seemed that they were destined never to see—or even know about—Tubb’s two “lost” novels. But fate was ready to take a hand.

In the 1970s—probably stimulated by the success of the Star Wars movies—there was another surge of interest amongst European publishers for the old-style adventure novels of the 1950s, particularly in Italy. As agent for John Russell Fearn’s widow I was contacted by Italian editors and publishers who still remembered the success of the “Vargo Statten” novels 20 years earlier. I was asked to supply copies of his novels for new translations. One of the more enterprising Italian editors—Antonio Bellomi of Milan—learned of my enthusiasm for Tubb’s work. He enquired through me if copies of Tubb’s early novels were available, and I was pleased to assist. I arranged for the first Italian editions of ALIEN LIFE, WORLD AT BAY, and ATOM-WAR ON MARS. I mentioned to Ted that I was also selling some of Fearn’s unpublished novels, such was his posthumous popularity. Did he, I wondered, have any unpublished older material? It was then that he told me of the existence of his two unpublished novels, and after an intensive search he managed to locate his only surviving carbon copies, which he loaned me.

I adjudged the novels to be highly suitable, and photocopied them with the intention of sending them to Italy. But just at that moment, Tubb’s “Dumarest” series was optioned by a prestigious Italian publisher, Mondadori. At the request of Tubb’s then agent, Les Flood, the novels were never sent, because their appearance from smaller publishers might have undermined his negotiations to place Dumarest in the higher paying market.

We now come to the present time. Enter Gary Lovisi, head of the Gryphon Publications imprint in New York. Gary had been running articles by me on the 1950s British sf scene in his magazine PAPERBACK PARADE. He decided that it would be a good idea to reprint the set of four Fearn novels chronicling the Burroughs-like adventures of his hero Clay Drew, an Earthman who became Emperor of Mars. These were published by Gryphon in August 1995, and prompted me to visit Gary in New York, when I was in the U.S.A. on holiday. I gave copies of the Tubb novels to Gary, and commended them as deserving of publication. Gary knows a good novel when he sees it (when he is not writing his own!) and it is thanks to his perspicacity—and the kind co-operation of Ted Tubb—that you are now holding this copy of PANDORA’S BOX. For U.S. fans it represents, as it says on the cover, “First Publication of a Lost SF Classic!”

And speaking of the cover, it is by no accident that it has been painted by the great Ron Turner. It was specially commissioned for two reasons: one, Turner himself was the chief artist for the 1950s pocket book companies that would have published PANDORA’S BOX in 1954, had it then appeared, and two, because Turner is a damn fine artist at any time. His reuniting with Tubb is something that will delight all sf fans and collectors, and is the icing on the cake.

And what of the “cake”—PANDORA’S BOX? This is no hoary relic of a bygone era. As previously noted, by 1954 Tubb had begun to develop the style and themes which he was to perfect into a unique blend of vigorous action and human insight, exemplified in his famous “Dumarest of Terra” series. Many of the ideas in this novel are seminal, even prophetic. Tubb was one of the very first sf writers to realize the potential danger to Earth from alien organisms. With the establishment of inter-planetary contacts and space travel on a commercial basis, it is logical and necessary that strict quarantine and Customs Controls are brought into play, and ruthlessly enforced. This has been universally overlooked by other writers. And whilst many of Tubb’s contemporaries in the 1950s saw the Earth of the future as a bland semi-utopia, Tubb appreciated that whilst technology may change, Man’s nature remains the same. PANDORA’S BOX spins a fascinating tale based on that most basic human emotion—greed! Extrapolated into an interplanetary setting, it makes for a great novel. Enjoy it!

Trouble came with the first delivery. Nothing much, a normal . . .