“The Place of the Gods”

Submitted by LT_Sargent on Sat, 11/12/2016 - 20:18
Title“The Place of the Gods”
Year for Search1937
AuthorsBenét, Stephen Vincent(1898-1943)
Secondary TitleSaturday Evening Post
Volume / Edition219.5
Pagination10-11, 59-60
Date PublishedJuly 1937
KeywordsMale author, US author
Annotation

After an unexplained catastrophe called the Great Burning, a religious society has developed with strict taboos on travel to certain areas thought of as the place of the gods. Since metal is scarce and has been scavenged from most areas where travel is permitted, one man goes into the forbidden areas and discovers the ruins of the previous civilization.
Additional Publishers

Rpt. without the illus. as “By the Waters of Babylon.” In his Thirteen O’Clock: Stories of Several Worlds (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, [1937]), 3-20; in The Pocket Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim (New York: Pocket Books, 1943), 1-16; in The Post Reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), 103-17; in Fantasy Voyages: Great Science Fiction from The Saturday Evening Post. Ed. Vincent Miranda (Indianapolis, IN: Curtis, 1979), 103-17 with an editor’s note on 104; and in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 247-49 with an editor’s note on 247.
Info Notes

The author changed the title when choosing selections for Thirteen O’Clock (Charles A. Fenton,  Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters, 1898-1943 [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971]. 336). Under this title, it was adapted as a one-act play by Brainard Duffield (1917-79), Stephen Vincent Benét's By the Waters of Babylon. A Play in One Act. Chicago: Dramatic Pub. Co., 1971. Said to have been written in response to the bombing of Guernica (Izzo, David Garrett. “Benét, Stephen Vincent.” The Literary Encyclopedia). 
Title Note

Rpt. as “By the Waters of Babylon.” 
Illustration

Illus. Henry C. Pitz. 
Holding Institutions

PSt
Author Note

(1898-1943)
Full Text

1937 Benét, Stephen Vincent (1898-1943). “The Place of the Gods.” Illus. Henry C. Pitz. Saturday Evening Post 210.5 (July 1937): 10-11, 59-60. Rpt. without the illus. as “By the Waters of Babylon.” In his Thirteen O’Clock: Stories of Several Worlds (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, [1937]), 3-20; in The Pocket Book of Science Fiction. Ed. Donald A. Wollheim (New York: Pocket Books, 1943), 1-16; in The Post Reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), 103-17; in Fantasy Voyages: Great Science Fiction from The Saturday Evening Post. Ed. Vincent Miranda (Indianapolis, IN: Curtis, 1979), 103-17 with an editor’s note on 104; and in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 247-49 with an editor’s note on 247. The author changed the title when choosing selections for Thirteen O’Clock (Charles A. Fenton, Stephen Vincent Benét: The Life and Times of an American Man of Letters, 1898-1943   [Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1971, 336]). Under this title, it was adapted as a one-act play by Brainard Duffield (1917-79), Stephen Vincent Benét's By the Waters of Babylon. A Play in One Act. Chicago: Dramatic Pub. Co., 1971. PSt

After an unexplained catastrophe called the Great Burning, a religious society has developed with strict taboos on travel to certain areas thought of as the place of the gods. Since metal is scarce and has been scavenged from most areas where travel is permitted, one man goes into the forbidden areas and discovers the ruins of the previous civilization. Said to have been written in response to the bombing of Guernica (Izzo, David Garrett. “Benét, Stephen Vincent.” The Literary Encyclopedia).