"Ullward's Retreat" - Jack [John Holbrook] Vance (1916-2013) (Galaxy Magazine, 1958)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in his Future Tense (New York: Ballantine Books, 1964), 47-71; book rpt. as Dust of Far Suns (New York: DAW Books, 1981), 78-103. Story rpt. in The Moon Moth and Other Stories. Vol. 17 of The Complete Works of Jack Vance (Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2002), 91-121.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Wait" - Kit [Lilian Craig] Reed (1932-2017) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1958)
Dystopia set in an isolated Georgia town that enforces a ritual deflowering of eighteen-year-old girls.
Rpt. Illus. in Venture Science Fiction (U.K.), no. 26 (October 1965): 2-15; rpt. Venture Science Fiction (Australia), no. 26 (December 1965): 2-15. Rpt. with typographical variations as “To be Taken in a Strange Country.” In her Mister da V. And Other Stories (London: Faber and Faber, 1967), 11-31.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Alien Night" - Thomas N[icholas] Scortia (1926-86) (Science Fiction Adventures, 1957)
Flawed utopia in which immortality was available in twenty-five year increments with aliens experimenting on humans and multiple worlds. The blurb on the first page after the cover includes what could be a definition of a flawed utopia: “Utopia was no longer a beautiful dream but a horrifying reality. Perfection--pure, absolute and unchanging--was slowly mummifying the human race and the world had become a monstrous still life.”
Rpt. in Get Out of My Sky: Three Short Novels of Science Fiction. Ed. Leo Margulies (Greenwich, CT: Crest Book/Fawcett Publications), 1960), 129-176.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Atlas Shrugged - Ayn Rand [pseud.] (Random House, 1957)
The novel begins in an authoritarian dystopia in which most of the world is composed of collectivist "People's States". Over the course of the novel the U.S. is transformed into an individualistic, capitalist eutopia. The recurrent positive symbol throughout the book is the dollar sign. See also 1938 Rand.
Rpt. New York: New American Library, 1959. 35th anniversary ed. New York: Dutton, 1992. Rpt. New York: Plume, 2005. This is labeled "The Centennial Edition" on the cover and the copyright page, but it is simply a reprint of the 1992 edition. Given name of Alisa Rosenbaum was never used. A three-part film was announced. Part I was released in 2011 directed by Paul Johansson (b. 1964) a screenplay by John Aglialoro and Bryan Patrick O'Toole. Part II was released in 2012 directed by John Putch (b. 1961) with a screenplay by Duke Sandefur, Bryan Patrick O'Toole, and Duncan Scott.
Keywords: Female author; Russian author; US author

"The Burning World - Algis [Algirdas Jonas] Budrys (1931-2008) (Infinity Science Fiction, 1957)
Flawed libertarian utopia struggling with those who wanted power internally and external enemies.
Rpt. Medford, OR: Armchair Press, 2012 bound with Chester S. Geier (1921-90), Forever Is Too Long originally published in Fantastic Adventures (March 1947).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Citadel, Market and Altar: Emerging Society. Outline of Socionomy. The New Natural Science of Society - Spencer Heath (1876-1963) (The Science of Society Foundation, Inc, 1957)
A treatise that includes a chapter "Towards the Utopian Dream: A Hypothetical Distribution of National Income under Proprietary Public Administration" (175-89 plus a foldout table). The eutopia is based on modified free enterprise in which the people of a community are the owners of businesses and hire administrators to run them for their benefit.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Citizen of the Galaxy" - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1957)
A future dystopia where slavery is practiced on some planets, but every spaceship is a sovereign state.
Repub. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1957; and as vol. 20 of The Virginia Edition of his works. Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Community of the Future and The Future of Community - Arthur E[rnest] Morgan (1878-1975) (Community Service, Inc, 1957)
Description in essay form of a face-to-face community as a eutopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

A Constitution for the Brotherhood of Man. The United Communities Bill, and How It Came to Be Written - Anna Gtregson Loutrel (1903-1986) (Greenwich Book Publishers, 1957)
Constitution for a eutopia of industrial and agricultural communities, called “The United Communities Bill” (22-30), which was drawn up at the Newllano community and  in the U.S.  Senate on April 4, 1933, when it was referred to the Committee on Agriculture and Forestry and died in committee. The female author was a member of the community.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Dio" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (Infinity Science Fiction, 1957)
Flawed utopia in which immortality is achieved by indefinitely prolonging physical adolescence. Two classes develop, known as the players, who consume and enjoy, and the students, who are said to "remember" and do whatever planning is needed. The two classes normally have little to do with each other, but the novel is concerned with the relationship of a couple from the two classes, when the man is going through the lost experience of dying.
Rpt. in The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels. Comp. Robert Silverberg and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Arbor House, 1980), 548-81.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Doomsday Morning - C[atherine] L[ucille] Moore (1911-87) (Doubleday, 1957)
An authoritarian dystopia with the United States ruled by Comus or Communications U.S. in which  controls the media, education, and public relations. The novel focuses on the successful revolt against Comus and ends with the collapse of Comus.
Rpt. New York: Popular Library, 1987; and London: Gollancz, 2019.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Every Day is Christmas" - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Super Science Fiction, 1957)
Dystopian world in which subliminal advertising is aired twenty-four hours a day.
Rpt. in his Future Imperfect (New York: Bantam Books, 1964), 61-80.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Friends and Enemies” - Fritz [Reuter] Leiber [Jr.] (1910-92) (Infinity Science Fiction, 1957)
The story focuses on the dystopia created by fear of science, particularly atomic physics, and speculation about alternative ways of life.
Rpt. in If This Goes On. Ed. Charles Nuetzel (Beverly Hills, CA: Book Company of America, [1965]), 107-25; and in The Worlds of Fritz Leiber (New York: Ace Books, 1976), . Rpt. (Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1979), 199-218.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Gates of Ivory, The Gates of Horn - Thomas McGrath (1916-1990) (Mainstream Publishers, 1957)
Authoritarian dystopia with an emphasis on a corrupt legal system following the basic precept of the society, "One nation indivisible with efficiency and punishment for all" (25 Original emphasis).
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Green Kingdom - Rachel Maddux (1912-83) (Simon & Schuster, 1957)
Primitive, Arcadian eutopia with little social content. Much of the novel is concerned with the responses of and difficulties experienced by the five people who find and live in the Green Kingdom.
Rpt. with an "Introduction" (ix-xiv) by Nancy A. Walker. Nashville: University of Tennessee Press, 1993. Rachel Maddux Series Vol. 4.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Hometown" - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (1, 1957)
The Earth has been so damaged that most people live in sterile conditions on the moon and only visit the “Homeland” theme park that replicates a small town.
Rpt. in Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories. Ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1980); rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 315-315.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Language of Love" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1957)
The setting of the story is a future eutopian earth in which the entire landscape is carefully tended, it rains as needed in the middle of the night, and all animals are in zoos. The story is about an inarticulate young man learning the rational language of love of extinct aliens and its effects.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 369-80; in his The Masque of Mañana. Ed. Sharon L. Sbarsky (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2005), 375-84; and in Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley. Ed. Alex Abramovich and Jonathan Lethem (New York: New York Review Books, 2012), 253-65 with an “Introduction” to the collection by the editors (vii-xi).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"License" - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in his Seven Conquests (New York: Collier Books, 1969), 140-66. UK ed. as Conquests (London: Granada, 1981), 157-86.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Lone Star Planet" - H[enry] Beam Piper (1917-81); John J[oseph] McGuire (1917-1981) (Fantastic Universe, 1957)
A planet settled by Texans with an almost anarchist society. The workings of its political and legal systems are presented positively, although with satirical elements.
Rpt. as A Planet for Texans. New York: Ace Books, 1958. Ace Double bound with Andre Norton (1912-2005), Star Born; and as Lone Star Planet. New York: Ace Books, 1979 with no mention of McGuire. Bound with his Four-Day Planet, which was originally published New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1961.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Made to Order” - Frank Belknap Long [Jr.] (1901-94) (Future Science Fiction, 1957)
Dystopia of a future where computers choose marriage partners and deny the right to marry based entirely on genetic factors. Sex outside marriage prohibited.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Male Strikebreaker" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (The Original Science Fiction Stories, 1957)
A society with a rigid class structure based on inherited occupations. The story focuses on a man who inherits the job of running the machinery that recycles human waste and his position as an outcast.
Rpt. as "Strikebreaker." In his Nightfall and Other Stories (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), 268-81.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Master of Life and Death - Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) (Ace Books, 1957)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Mind Cage - A[lfred] E[lton] van Vogt (1912-2000) (Simon and Schuster, 1957)
The background of the novel is an authoritarian dystopia.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Morning After" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction Magazine, 1957)
Earth is a flawed utopia in which no one has to work and most things like food and entertainment is provided by politicians as part of their ongoing campaigns for election or re-election. People, though, are bored and the birth rate is going down while the suicide rate is going up.
Rpt. without the illus. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 259-78.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"My Lady Green Sleeves" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1957)
Dystopia. Class society based on occupation with the Civil Service, which includes Congress, at the top.
Rpt. in his The Case Against Tomorrow (New York: Ballantine Books, 1957), 111-50.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The New Americanism" - Robert [Winborne] Welch [Jr.] (1899-1985) (The New Americanism And Other Speeches and Essays, 1957)
Welch, the co-founder of The John Birch Society, calls this essay his utopia. In it he lays out a generally anti-government position.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Profession" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1957)
Dystopia. Imprinting knowledge directly into the brain leads to an uncreative society.
Rpt. in his Nine Tomorrows; Tales of the Near Future (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1959), 16-74; and in Alternative Communities: Magazine of the Alternative Communities Movement, nos. 18 - 20 (1984 - 85): 2-16; 2-13; 2-12.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sandra" - George P[aul] Elliott (1918-80) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1957)
Slavery in an alternative history United States in which slaves are available in department stores and your local corner store. The male protagonist buys a female slave, guaranteed good at housework and copulation.
Rpt.in A Treasury of Great Science Fiction. 2 vols. Ed. Anthony Boucher (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1959), 1: 370-79.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Saucer People - Ronald G. Garver (b. 1938) (Meador Publishing Co, 1957)
Eutopia of scientists with telepathy, which is used to operate machines as well as to communicate.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Sea People. A Fantasy - Julius C. Sizemore; Wilkie G. Sizemore (Exposition Press, 1957)
Vague and generally conservative eutopia stressing marriage and family life called Aquaria under the sea peopled by Americans of varied social and economic backgrounds. Telepathic. They are mutations who can live under water, but there are questions about what characteristics the future generation might have. Much of the novel focuses on the people drawn to Aquaria and why they choose it.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Short Reign of Pippin IV: A Fabrication - John Steinbeck (1902-68) (Viking Press, 1957)
Wide ranging political satire. France reestablishes the monarchy, and the king takes his position seriously so that he has to be deposed.
U.K. ed. London: Heinemann, 1957. Viking ed. rpt. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1977.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Shrouded Planet - [Robert] [Silverberg] (b. 1935); [Gordon Randall Philip David] [Garrett] (1927-87) (Gnome Press, 1957)
A first contact story set in a theocracy where change is unthinkable. A sequel is “The Dawning Light.” Illus. [Henry Richard] van Dongen (1920-2010). Astounding Science Fiction 59.1 - 3 (March - May 1957): 8-55, 106-49, 96-145. Rpt. New York: Gnome, 1959. 189 pp.; and ed. Hank Stine and illus. Barclay Shaw. Virginia Beach, VA: Starblaze Editions, 1981. 125 pp. A novella set on the same planet is “All the King’s Horses.” Illus. [Henry Richard] van Dongen (1920-2010). Astounding Science Fiction 60.3 (January 1958): 84-119.
Rpt. ed. Hank Stine and illus. Barclay Shaw. Virginia Beach, VA: Starblaze Editions, 1980. Originated as three novellas: “The Chosen People.” Illus. [Henry Richard] van Dongen (1920-2010). Astounding Science Fiction 57.4 (June 1956): 73-96; “The Promised Land.” Illus. [Henry Richard] van Dongen (1920-2010). Astounding Science Fiction 57.6 (August 1956): 6-38; and “False Prophet.” Illus. [Henry Richard] van Dongen (1920-2010). Astounding Science Fiction 58.4 (December 1956): 8-43.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Through a Glass Darkly - Kathleen Norris (1880-1966) (Doubleday, 1957)
Something like Heaven presented as a eutopia based on the ideas of Henry George (1839-97). For Henry George's explanation of the single tax, see his Progress and Poverty. An Inquiry Into the Cause of Industrial Depressions and Of Increase of Want With Increase of Wealth. The Remedy. San Francisco, CA: W.M. Hinton, 1879. Fiftieth Anniversary Ed. New York: The Robert Schalkenbach Foundation, 1929. Contrasted to the real world in the second half of the book.
UK ed. as Cheery. London: John Murray, 1958. Rpt. London: Kaye & Ward, 1970.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Tunesmith" - Lloyd Biggle Jr. (1923-2002) (If, 1957)
Dystopia where all art is in the form of commercials.
Rpt. in his The Metallic Muse (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972), 4-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Virgin Planet" - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Venture Science Fiction, 1957)
The story is set on a planet occupied only by women where a religion had developed around the expected return of men.
Repub. New York: Avalon, 1959. Rpt. New York: Warner Books, 1970.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Woman's World" - Robert Silverberg (b. 1935) (Imagination, 1957)
Dystopia of women dominating men.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“World of the Future 1. A Man of the World” - Les Cole (Venture Science Fiction, 1957)
The first of two stories regarding the dystopia that would develop after an atomic war. In this story the “civilized” man of the future learns that survival means killing. See also 1957 [Merril].
Rpt. Venture Science Fiction (British Edition), no. 1 (September 1963): 78-82.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“World of the Future 2. A Woman of the World” - [Judith (Josephine Juliet Grossman)] [Merril] (1923-97) (Venture Science Fiction, 1957)
The second of two stories regarding the dystopia that would develop after an atomic war. In this story the “civilized” woman of the future learns that survival means finding the strongest man. See also 1957 Cole.
Rpt. in Venture Science Fiction (British Edition), no. 1 (September 1963): 83-89.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; US author

"World of Women" - Harlan [Jay] Ellison (1934-2018) (Fantastic, 1957)
Dystopia describing a world where all men had been eliminated except for a few kept for breeding purposes on a neighboring planet. One man visits in disguise to find the reason, which turns out to be an insane leader, and once she is removed, normal relations will re-emerge.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“2066: Election Day” - Michael [Joseph] Shaara [Jr.] (1928-88) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1956)
In the future, the President of the United States is chosen through a battery of tests supervised by a computer. Anyone can take the tests. This has resulted in world peace and prosperity. The story is about when the computer no one is qualified.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Big Fix" - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (Infinity Science Fiction, 1956)
A man is taken, through the use of a drug, to a planet that seems eutopian but is based on “recruits” such as him fighting to the death. A man is taken, through the use of a drug, to a planet that seems eutopian but is based on “recruits” such as him fighting to the death.
Rpt. in his Time Out for Tomorrow (New York: Ballantine Books, 1962), 9-30; and in The Man Without a Planet and Other Stories. The Selected Stories of Richard Wilson Volume #2. Ed. John Phelan (Np: Ramble House/Dancing Tuatara Press, 2012), 275-298.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Census Takers” - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1956)
A brief dystopia set in a future U.S. with serious population problems divided into Census Areas in which a census is taken annually. It is from the viewpoint of an Area Commander, who appears to have a set limit to the population in the area. While not stated explicitly, it is implied that those are the limit are killed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Consumership" - Margaret [Neeley] St. Clair (1911-95) (Original Science Fiction Stories, 1956)
Dystopia in which children are taught to be consumers.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Country of the Kind" - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1956)
Eutopia of abundance, equality, and free love. But there is an individual who is a throwback to a time when people were violent, and the story is told by him. The problem for the eutopia is how to deal with such a person, and the solution is to give him a repulsive odor to identify him while leaving him free but with no one interacting with him at all. He is also conditioned to pass out when about to commit violence against a person.
Rpt. in Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Jack [Mayo] Dann and Gardner [Raymond] Dozois (New York: Random House, 1976), 34-50 with an editors' note (33-34); in A Science Fiction Omnibus. Ed. Brian Aldiss (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 409-22; and in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 412-15 with an editor’s note on 412.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Crossroads to Nowhere - [Delbert] Raymond Stark (1919-83) (Ward, Lock & Co, 1956)
Two societies develop after a future war. One is anarchist with social pressure ("the silence") as a means of social control. Most people are settled but Wastelanders are nomadic. The other is an urban authoritarian dystopia with technology but also with shortages.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Door Into Summer" - Robert A[nson] Heinlein (1907-88) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1956)
The novel is set in 1970 and 2000 and is primarily science fiction with a man who is frozen in 1970, wakes in 2000, time travels back to 1970, and returns to 2000 having resolved his 1970s problems in ways that will make his life in 2000 better. 2000 is generally presented positively and 1970 negatively but both have problems.
Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1957. Rpt. as vol. 5 The Virginia Edition of his works. Decatur, GA: Meisha Merlin, 2006 and separately Houston, TX: The Virginia Edition, 2008.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Doubting Thomas - Winston Brebner (1924-2004) (Rinehart, 1956)
Authoritarian bureaucratic dystopia that is effectively defeated by a clown who becomes so popular that the bureaucracy is forced to support him.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Drivers" - Edward William Ludwig (1920-90) (Worlds of If Science Fiction, 1956)
Dystopia with population and aggression control through killing on highways.
Rpt. in Hallucination Orbit: Psychology in Science Fiction. Ed. Isaac Asimov, Charles G. Waugh, and Martin H. Greenberg (New York: Farrar Strauss Giroux, 1983), 235-53; and in his The 7 Shapes of Solomon Bean and 14 Other Marvelous Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Los Gatos, CA: Polaris Press, 1983), 27-42.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Everybody's Happy But Me" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Imagination Science Fiction (Evanston, IL), 1956)
Drug dystopia.
Rpt. as "What To Do Till the Analyst Comes." In his Alternating Currents (New York: Ballantine Books, 1956), 143-54.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Executioner" - Algis [Algirdas Jonas] Budrys (1931-2008) (Astounding Science Fiction (New York), 1956)
Standard authoritarian dystopia except for the judicial system which is based on a trial by ordeal. If you survive, you were innocent.
Rpt. in Spectrum: A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest (London: Victor Gollancz, 1961), 84-120. U.S. ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 84-120.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Further Outlook - W[illiam] Grey Walter (1910-77) (Gerald Duckworth, 1956)
Egalitarian eutopia brought about through the development of cheap and abundant energy and a perfect form of contraception. Eugenics. This produces a society based as much on leisure as work.
Rpt. London: Science Fiction Book Club, 1957. US ed. as The Curve of the Snowflake. New York: W.W. Norton, 1956.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

The Golden Archer; A Satirical Novel of 1975 - Gregory Mason (1889-1968) (Twayne, 1956)
Satirical dystopia of an overly efficient U.S. state under the combined rule of church and state. The urban Catholics of the North and the rural Protestants of the South had joined forces and eliminated freedom of religion. Only New Orleans retains any freedom of worship. Efficiency is symbolized by an “Efficiency Calendar” in which each month starts on a Monday.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Golden Kazoo - John Schneider (1909-64) (Rinehart, 1956)
Satire on American presidential elections, which are run by ad men rather than politicians. The novel follows a specific future election.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gumption Island; A Fantasy of Coexistence - Felix M[uskett] Morley (1894-1982) (Caxton, 1956)
Conservative, capitalist eutopia founded on an island after a world-wide catastrophe caused by a "time-bomb" that temporarily separated the island in time from the rest of the U.S. with three years on the island being three days outside it. Includes a constitution.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"It's Cold Outside" - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (If Worlds of Science Fiction, 1956)
The story begins in a regimented New York City in which there is no rain because it has been diverted to where it will fill a reservoir. Any “Suggestion” of the City-State Council is, in effect, law. Children are grown in a laboratory from the egg and sperm of the parents because the Council “suggests” that parents don’t do it the old way. The focus of the story is a couples’ resistance to the entire system and their desire to escape to the outside.
Rpt. in Science Fantasy 8.22 (1957): 2-39; in his Those Idiots From Earth: Ten Science-Fiction Stories (New York: Ballantine Books, 1957), 115-60; and in The Man Without a Planet and Other Stories. The Selected Stories of Richard Wilson Volume #2. Ed. John Phelan (Ramble House/Dancing Tutara Press, 2012), 231-274.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Jackpot" - Clifford D[onald] Simak (1904-88) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1956)
Explorers of space hoping to find something that will make them a lot of money find a galactic university that teaches everything, beginning with honesty and honor, which leads most of the crew to want to share the knowledge with everyone.
Rpt. in Grotto of the Dancing Bear and Other Stories. The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Volume Four. New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 2016. EBook.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The "Lomokome" Papers - Herman Wouk (b. 1915) (Simon and Schuster, 1956)
Satire on the arms race in which the two countries of Lomokome and Lomadine practice "responsible war" because war is necessary for their economies and morale. Responsible war includes the regular announcement of war by a College of Judges followed by moving to a war economy, the invention but not building of new weapons, voluntary death by young men, the announcement of victory by the College of Judges, and the death of some of the leaders of the losers. Lomokome and Lomadine present themselves as very different but are quite similar. In the "Preface to the Paperback Edition," Wouk says that it was written in 1949 and that "Lomokome" is Hebrew for Utopia or Nowhere.
Rpt. New York: Pocket Books, 1968. Also published illus. Bernard Perlin in Collier's 137.4 (February 17, 1956): 69-84. The illustrations in the book and magazine versions are completely different but the texts are identical.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Love Incorporated" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Playboy, 1956)
Dystopia. Earth, exhausted of its natural resources, is a vacation planet selling true love (by hypnotizing the women), vicarious violence, and sexual perversion.
Rpt. as "Pilgrimage to Earth." Spectrum: A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest (London: Victor Gollancz, 1961), 209-20; U.S. ed. (New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1961), 209-20; in The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 7-18; and in his The Masque of Mañana. Ed. Sharon L. Sbarsky (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2005), 347-56.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Man of Family" - [Philip] [Klass] (1920-2010) (The Human Angle, 1956)
Overpopulation dystopia. Must have money and the right heredity to reproduce. The more money the more allowed children and losing money requires giving up a child.
Rpt. Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn. Volume 1 (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2001), 415-25 ("Afterword" 425).
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Man Who Japed - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Ace Books, 1956)
Dystopian satire on a future of required happiness through Moral Reclamation (Morec), a combination of religion and advertising.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Man Who Lived Forever - R[ichard] De Witt Miller; Anna Hunger. (Ace Books, 1956)
Dystopia. The human race versus machines in which one immortal man is essential for controlling the machines. The novel is mostly adventure.
Ace Double bound with Jerry [Gerald Allan] Sohl, [Sr] (1913-2002). The Mars Monopoly (1956). A shorter version by Miller only was published as "The Master Shall Not Die!" Astounding Science Fiction 21.1 (March 1938): 38-55.  U.K. ed. of The Man Who Lived Forever rpt. as Year 3097. [London]: Satellite, 1958.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

Mankind on the Run - Gordon R[upert] Dickson (1923-2001) (Ace Books, 1956)
Standard authoritarian dystopia with a rebel.
Rpt. as On the Run. New York: Ace Books, 1979.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Modest Proposal: A Vice-Presidential Speech in a Surrealist Future" - Peter [Robert Edwin] Viereck (1916-2006) (The Unadjusted Man: A New Hero for Americans. Reflections on the Distinction Between Conforming and Conserving, 1956)
Satire. U.S. Republican Vice President stating that conformity and fun will be legally required.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Naked Sun” - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1956)
Related to 1953 Asimov, “The Caves of Steel,” and the beginning and ending of the novel is set in few years in the future of that dystopia. Most of the novel is in a dystopia on the planet Solaria, which has eliminated almost all human contact.
Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1957. Rpt. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Crest, 1971; and in his The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel The Naked Sun (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957), 203-404.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Native Problem" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1956)
Humorous story which begins on a future earth that is a dystopia of conformity.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 279-99; and in his The Masque of Mañana. Ed. Sharon L. Sbarsky (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2005), 357-74; and in Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley. Ed. Alex Abramovich and Jonathan Lethem (New York: New York Review Books, 2012), 145-67 with an “Introduction” to the collection by the editors (vii-xi).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"New Arcadia" - L[yon] Sprague De Camp (1907-2000) (Future Science Fiction, 1956)
Three supposed utopias in conflict with each other. Two of the utopias are humans and represent a division within a colony called Nouvelle-Arcadie, settled by French-speaking Swiss pacifists. The split between the two groups was mostly based of two men each wanting power. The third utopia was a subgroup of advocates of violence settled from a pacifist planet.
Rpt. in his A Gun for Dinosaur And Other Imaginative Tales (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1963), 315-59.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Oil for the Light of the World - Frank [William] Hart (1891-1965) (Vantage Press, 1956)
A rich Texan builds a eutopian entertainment center (capitalism at its best and most humanitarian) and then helps spread his ideas throughout the United States. The eutopia becomes a subplot to a romance/adventure story.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Racer" - Ib Jørgen Melchior (1917-2015) (If This Goes On, 1956)
Dystopia in which five race drivers compete in a contest with the winner determined by finishing place combined with how many pedestrians they kill.
Originally published in Escapade (October 1956). Rpt. in Perry Rhodan , no. 97 (June 1976): 156-70 with a note by Forrest J. Ackerman on 154-56.
Keywords: Danish author; Male author; US author

"Rocket to Freedom" - Aileen [Lucia] Fisher (1906-2002); Olive Rabe (Patriotic Plays and Programs, 1956)
Dystopia. Three men escape what they see as restrictions on their freedoms in the U.S., which are in fact quite minor, and land on another planet that brainwashes its captives until they are in effect robots.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The Secret People - Raymond F[isher] Jones (1915-94) (Avalon, 1956)
Eugenic dystopia.
U.S. ed. as Deviates. Boston: Beacon, 1959.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Skills of Xanadu" - Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1956)
Xanadu is a eutopia at once primitive and technological, with the technology allowing a natural way of life. See the note at 1949 Sturgeon.
Rpt. in his The Golden Helix (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1979), 166-90; in his To Here and the Easel (London: Panther, 1975), 68-98; and in And Now the News. . . Volume 9. The Complete Short Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Ed. Paul Williams (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2003), 51-79.
Keywords: Male author; US author

To Live Forever - Jack [John Holbrook] Vance (1916-2013) (Ballantine Books, 1956)
Dystopia where immortality can be earned, but anyone trying to earn immortality becomes involved in a system of oversight that controls all aspects of life. The novel concerns a man who violates the rules and, in effect, gives people back their freedom.
Rpt. as "Clarges." In Gold and Iron Clarges The Languages of Pao. Vol. 7 of The Complete Works of Jack Vance (Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2002), 191-459. UK ed. as To Live Forever. London: Sphere, 1976.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Tomorrow and Tomorrow - [Evan] [Hunter] (1926-2005) (Pyramid, 1956)
Satire of Vicarion, for vicarious, Movement, or Vikes, based on drugs, control of advertising, film, and TV with the slogan "Make-believe is better than reality". People live a vicarious life with all sex vicarious rather than real. An invention makes it possible for each member of the audience to feel the sensations of those in the film. Realists, or Ree, fight back and physical confrontation verges on civil war. At the end a compromise seems possible.
Also entitled Tomorrow's World. New York: Avalon, 1956.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Woman's Work" - Garen Drussaï (1916-2009) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1956)
Dystopian satire focusing on door-to-door salesmen.
Keywords: Female author; US author

The World Jones Made - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Ace Books, 1956)
A man who can see a year into the future overthrows a government based on relativism. Both produce authoritarian dystopias.
An Ace Double bound with Margaret St. Clair, Agent of the Unknown (1956), an earlier version of which was published as "Vulcan's Dolls." Startling Stories 25.1 (February 1952): 10-73. Dick rpt. separately Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1979. UK ed. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1968. Rpt. London: Panther, 1970; and London: Victor Gollancz, 2003.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Worlds Without End” - Clifford D[onald] Simak (1904-88) (Future Science Fiction, 1956)
Dystopia in a future run by a number of guilds, one of which sells long term dreams with people then waking up hundreds of years in their future. Another guild has taken control of the dreams so that the people get different dreams than the one’s they chose, dreams that the guild hopes to use to its advantage.
Rpt. in New Folks Home and Other Stories. The Complete Short Fiction of Clifford D. Simak, Volume 6. New York: Open Road Media, 2016. EBook
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Age of the Tail - H[arry] Allen [Wolfgang] Smith (1907-76) (Little, Brown, 1955)
Humor. People grow tails and this changes personal relations and social structures.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Ark of Venus - Clyde B. Clason (1903-87) (Alfred A. Knopf, 1955)
An adventure novel about the colonization of Venus, which is necessary because Earth is an overpopulation dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Autofac" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1955)
Dystopia. Automated factories and a revolt that destroyed the factory. At the end the remnants of the factory begin to rebuild it.
Rpt. in his The Variable Man and Other Stories (New York: Ace Books, 1957), 182-210; in The Ruins of Earth: An Anthology of Stories of the Immediate Future. Ed. Thomas M[ichael] Disch (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1971), 57-80; in Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Ed. Patricia S. Warrick and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), 145-66; in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 4 The Days of Perky Pat (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 1-20, with the paperback edition having it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 4. The Minority Report (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1991), 1-20; and in Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (London: Gollancz, 2017). U. S. ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 183-213 with an “Introduction” by Travis Beacham (181-82).
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Before the Fact” - Zenna [Charlson] Henderson (1917-83) (Universe Science Fiction, 1955)
The story is set in a future eutopia of complete security, health, no government “except in a coordinating capacity” (61) in which the suicide rate is rising, and some people find boring. The story turns, though, on the idea that children’s games and rhymes anticipate the future and, in this case, suggest a dramatic change.
Rpt. in Believing: The Other Stories of Zenna Henderson. Ed. Patricia Morgan Lang (Framingham, MA: NESFA Press, 2020), 411-17.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Chromium Fence" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Imagination, 1955)
Robot perfection and unsuccessful revolt.
Rpt. in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 3 The Father-Thing (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 291-303. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 Second Variety (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1991), 291-303; and in The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Three: Upon the Dull Earth [1953-1954]. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 347-61.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Climbing Wave" - Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-99) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1955)
Anarchist eutopia with a balanced and sustainable attitude toward technology and the environment. Live in small communities. Traditional gender roles. The story is about the crew of a spacecraft that returns to the Earth after hundreds of years and their response to the situation they find.
Rpt. in Science Fantasy (U.K.) 7.19 (1956): 2-60; in If This Goes On. Ed. Charles Nuetzel (Beverly Hills, CA: Book Company of America, [1965]), 172-240; and in The Best of Marion Zimmer Bradley. Ed. Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Chicago, IL: Academy Chicago, 1985), 50-120.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Compleated Angler" - Mack [Dallas McCord] Reynolds (1917-83) (Startling Stories, 1955)
The background to the story is an overpopulated but seemingly technological eutopian future in which the last wild fish is caught.
Rpt. in his Compounded Interests (Cambridge, MA: The NESFA Press, 1983), 87-93.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Created He Them" - Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-81) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1955)
Post-nuclear war dystopia in which those few children born normal are taken to be raised by an authoritarian state. The story is told from the point of view of an abused wife and mother.
Rpt. in Daughters of Earth: Feminist Science Fiction in the Twentieth Century. Ed. Justine Larbalestier (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2006), 65-75; and in The End of the World and Other Catastrophes. Ed. Mike [Michael Raymond Donald] Ashley (London: British Library, 2019), 305-17, with an editor’s note on 303.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Crooked Man" - Charles Beaumont (1929-67) (Playboy, 1955)
Dystopia in which heterosexuality is illegal and heterosexuals are hunted. An operation is then required that makes everyone homosexual.
Rpt. in his Hunger, and Other Stories (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1958), 139-48; rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1959), 106-13; in his The Fiend (Chicago, IL: Playboy Press, 1971), 61-71; and in The Playboy Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Chicago, IL: Playboy Press, 1966), 274-85.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Deep in the Sky. A Science Fiction Novel - Helga Nielsen (Exposition Press, 1955)
Eutopia called Salomnia, with some problems, on a planet called Canta. Everyone must consult with the Board of Adaptation about appropriate work. All medical care free. No alcohol. No tipping. Technologically advanced. Another country on the planet is called Seva is in conflict with Salomnia.
Keywords: Danish author; Female author; US author

The Forbidden Kingdom - Elleston Trevor (1920-95) (Lutterworth, 1955)
Children’s story where there is a high technology enclave, but the story is mostly intrigue and adventure.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

"Franchise (with apologies to W. S. Gilbert)" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (If, 1955)
Satire. One individual chosen by computer to vote in any given election.
Rpt. in his Earth Is Room Enough; science fiction tales of our own planet (Garden City, NY: Doubleday & Co., 1957), 58-73; rpt. (New York: Bantam Books, 1959), 45-59; and in Election Day 2084: A Science Fiction Anthology on the Politics of the Future. Ed. Isaac Asimov and Martin H. Greenberg (Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books, 1984), 11-24.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Freeway" - Bryce Walton (1918-88) (If, 1955)
The story is set in a future in which some criminals and any nonconformist and condemned to stay in automated cars on freeways constantly traveling.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Girls from Planet 5 - Richard Wilson (1920-1987) (Ballantine Books, 1955)
Satire. Women rule the US and Texas is a man's state. Men take over again because the women had done a bad job.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gladiator-at-Law - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013); C[yril] M[ichael] Kornbluth (1923-58) (Ballantine, 1955)
Capitalist, corporate, machine dominated dystopia with the novel focusing on the struggle to bring down one large, corrupt corporation.
U.K. London: Victor Gollancz, 1964.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Granny Won't Knit" - Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1955)
Dystopia of extreme privacy. Children raised in crèches and sent to patriarchal, authoritarian families (one boy and one girl each). Some contrast to a eutopia of openness.
Rpt. in All About the Future. Ed. Martin Greenburg (New York: Gnome Press, 1955), 161-214; and in Bright Segment. Volume VIII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Ed. Paul Williams (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2002), 115-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Happy Clown" - Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-81) (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1955)
Flawed eutopia. The eutopia is consumer oriented and misfits are lobotomized to ensure that everyone fits in.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Hell's Pavement - Damon [Francis] Knight (1922-2002) (Lion Books, 1955)
Dystopia. Attempts to control violence through the implantation of an "analogue", a device that controls supposedly anti-social behavior. Legislation is passed to require such implants, except in the ruling class
Rpt. New York: Avon, 1980. Also entitled Analogue Men. New York: Berkley, 1962. Chapter 1 was published as "The Analogues." Astounding Science Fiction 48.5 (January 1952): 36-45. Parts are based on the story "Turncoat." Thrilling Wonder Stories 42.1 (April 1953): 10-48.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Hood Maker" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Imagination, 1955)
Dystopia in which everyone is surveilled regularly, and a hood is invented that blocks the surveillance.
Rpt. in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Two: Second Variety (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 237-48; in Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (London: Gollancz, 2017). U. S. ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 117-34 with an “Introduction” by Matthew Graham (114-16).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Inside Straight" - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1955)
A society with an economic system based on gambling proves a match for a society intent on conquest and leads to the abolition of war.
Rpt. in his Seven Conquests (New York: Collier, 1969), 93-116. UK ed. as Conquests (London: Granada, 1981), 105-31; and in The Collected Short Stories of Poul Anderson. Volume 4 Admiralty. Ed. Rick Katze (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2011), 128-45.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Life, Incorporated" - Alice Eleanor Jones (1916-81) (Fantastic Universe, 1955)
Eutopia where everyone knows their life span is visited by a thief from Earth who temporarily brings corruption.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Little Orphan Android" - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1955)
Dystopia in which androids and robots almost completely control humans and wipe human memories for disobedience. A small group of humans begin to educate themselves so that they can regain power over their lives. One theme is consumer androids developed to keep industrial society consuming goods at the highest possible level, which is similar to 1954 Pohl, "The Midas Plague."
Rpt. in his Future Imperfect (New York: Bantam Books, 1964), 17-45.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Long Tomorrow - Leigh [Douglass] Brackett (1915-78) (Doubleday, 1955)
After an atomic war the New Mennonites become powerful because they know how to survive on the land. They pass the thirtieth amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which reads "No city, no town, no community of more than one thousand people or two hundred buildings to the square mile shall be built or permitted to exist anywhere in the United States of America." Other religious groups are even more extreme than the New Mennonites. There is a small, threatened enclave that hopes to bring back the old technology.
Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1974.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Long Way Home" - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Astounding Science Fiction (New York), 1955)
Wide-ranging authoritarian dystopia with Anderson’s usual libertarian themes in opposition
Repub. London: Panther, 1975. US ed. New York: Ace Books, 1978. Abridged ed. as No World of Their Own. New York: Ace Books, 1955; and New York: Ace Books, 1955 as an Ace Double bound with Isaac Asimov's The Thousand-Year Plan. Original Title: Foundation, abridged from New York: Gnome, 1951; rpt. as The Long Way Home. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1975 with an "Introduction" (v-vi) by the author. The copyright page says that the book is a reprint of the Ace edition; Anderson's introduction says that it restores the Astounding Science Fiction version. Anderson's version is correct.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Looking Beyond - Lin Yutang (1895-1976) (Prentice-Hall, 1955)
Detailed conservative eutopia based on classical Greek models on an island in the mid-Pacific set in the early 21st century. Stress on traditional gender relations. Outside World War IV has ended, and the Democratic World Commonwealth tries to maintain peace.
UK ed. as The Unexpected Island. London: William Heinemann, 1955.
Keywords: Chinese author; Male author; US author

"Mistress of Viridis" - Margaret [Neeley] St. Clair (1911-95) (Universe Science Fiction, 1955)
Class based authoritarian dystopia primarily as background to a science-out-of-control story.
Repub. as The Green Queen. New York: Ace Books, 1956. Ace Double bound with Thomas Calvert McClary, Three Thousand Years (1954).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Mother of Necessity" - [Symmes[ Chad[wick] Oliver (1928-1993) (Another Kind, 1955)
Eutopia. Short story describing a future city called Fullcircle that incorporates the best of all previous city designs. It gradually replaces all previous social organizations.
Rpt. in Great Science Fiction By Scientists. Ed. Groff Conklin, 1962), 243-56 with an editor's note on 242; in Above the Human Landscape: A Social Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Willis E. McNelly and Leon E. Stover (Pacific Palisades, CA: Goodyear Publishing Co., 1972), 27-38; and in his A Star Above It and other stories. volume 1 of selected stories [Dust jacket title is A Star Above It: Selected Short Stories of Chad Oliver. Volume 1]. Ed. Priscilla Olson (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2003), 229-40.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"No Gun to the Victor" - Theodore [Rose] Cogswell (1918-87) (Imagination, 1955)
Dystopia of conditioning and violence.
Rpt. in Science-Fiction Monthly (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), no. 9 (May 1956): 87-88, 90-92, 94-98; in his Third Eye (New York: Belmont Books, 1968), 7-17; The First Theodore R. Cogswell Megapack®: 16 Classic Science Fiction Stories. Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2014. ebook; and rev as “Consumer’s Report.” Voyages: Scenarios for a Ship Called Earth. Ed. Rob Sauer (New York: Zero Population Growth and Ballantine, 1971), 250-62.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Not This August - C[yril] M[ichael] Kornbluth (1923-58) (Doubleday, 1955)
Dystopia of the U.S. under a combined Chinese and Soviet Communism, which is defeated in the last pages.
Garden City, NY Doubleday_
Keywords: Male author; US author

Point Ultimate - [Gerald Allan] [Sohl] [Sr.] (1913-2002) (Rinehart & Co, 1955)
A future America is conquered by Communists, creating an authoritarian dystopia. Much of the novel is about the revolt against it.
Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1959.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Preferred Risk - [Frederik George] [Pohl] [Jr.] (1919-2013]; [Leonard] [Knapp] (1915-93) (Simon & Schuster, 1955)
Insurance companies control the world.
Also published in Galaxy Science Fiction (New York) 10.3 - 6 (June - September 1955): 6-54, 104-43, 112-43, 100-43. Rpt. as by Pohl and Lester del Rey. New York: Ballantine Books, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Rafferty's Reasons" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Fantastic Universe (New York), 1955)
Dystopia in which people are required to do work that machines could do as well or better and are taught to do that work by the machines.
Rpt. in his Alternating Currents (New York: Ballantine Books, 1956), 83-96.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Reprieve from Paradise - H[arry] Chandler Elliott (1909-78) (Gnome, 1955)
Dystopia set after an atomic war. Extreme overpopulation is produced by an ethos that encourages reproduction, which means that the entire economy is directed at producing food. The majority of the people, called Freemen, are bred for docility and low intelligence. An underground movement with a hidden city at the South Pole aims to re-establish intelligence, and the people of the city are intelligent, revive science and human community, and, at the end of the novel, are in a position to create a better future for the entire world.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"The Servant Problem" - [Philip] [Klass] (1920-2010) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1955)
Satiric authoritarian dystopia in which each of a series of people believe that they have absolute power because they have power over the one who is apparently more powerful.
Rpt. in his The Human Angle (New York: Ballantine Books, 1956), 44-75; and in Immodest Proposals: The Complete Science Fiction of William Tenn. Volume 1 (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2001), 393-413 ("Afterword" 414).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Solar Lottery - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Ace Books, 1955)
Dystopia set in 2203 A.D. with power distributed and changed randomly. Corruption has developed and power is actually going to the few. Domination by industrial combines. The people are poor. Violence and fascination with death and cruelty. Rebellion.
Rpt. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1976. U.K. ed. London: Gollancz, 2003. The U.K. ed. World of Chance. London: Rich and Cowan, 1956 is substantially different and some experts say the changes were unauthorized while others say that Dick provided the publisher with what they asked as he had with the Ace Books edition.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Star Bridge - Jack [John Stewart] Williamson (1908-2006); James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Gnome Press, 1955)
Authoritarian dystopia in which a company controls the earth and the rebellion against it.
Keywords: Male author; US author

This Fortress World - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Gnome Press, 1955)
Mostly adventure but includes a dystopia with a dominant religion. The society has four classes, the nobility, the church, free-traders, and mercenaries, who are hired killers.
Abr. ed. New York: Ace Books, 1957.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“This Thing Called Love” - [Agnes] Carol[lyn] [Fries] Emshwiller (1921-2019) (Future Science Fiction, 1955)
In a future dominated by television, people are expected to fall in love with TV stars whose programs are designed specific to cater to them. In the story, a man wants love from his wife.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"A Ticket to Tranai" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1955)
A dystopia is a supposed eutopia because there are no laws. But all women are kept in stasis, taxation is by robbery, divorce is by murder, and governmental change is by assassination.
Rpt. in his Citizen in Space (New York: Ballantine Books, 1955), 108-47; in The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. Book One (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 241-77; and in his The Masque of Mañana. Ed. Sharon L. Sbarsky (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2005), 251-82.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Tunnel Under the World" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1955)
Dystopia of pervasive advertising in which a town is taken over by advertisers as a test market for their ads.
Rpt. in his Alternating Currents (New York: Ballantine Books, 1956), 112-43; Tomorrow, Inc. SF Stories About Big Business. Ed. Martin Harry Greenberg and Joseph D. Olander (New York: Taplinger, 1976), 36-66; in The Oxford Book of Science Fiction Stories. Ed. Tom Shippey (Oxford, Eng.: Oxford University Press, 1992), 247-77; and in A Science Fiction Omnibus. Ed. Brian Aldiss (London: Penguin Books, 2007), 242-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Twilight Years” - Kirk Drussaï (1919-2001); Garen Drussaï (1916-2009) (If, 1955)
The story takes place in a future where those over sixty are being killed by the young with such killings broadcast on television on a program “sponsored, as a Public Service, by the National Casket Company” (117).
Rpt. in The First World of If. Ed. James L. Quinn and Eva Wulff (Kingston, NY: Quinn Publishing Co., 1957): 102-.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

"Two-Handed Engine" - Henry Kuttner (1914-58); Catherine L[ucille] Moore (1911-87) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1955)
Dystopia of a machine-dominated society with the judicial system and police replaced by almost infallible machines.
Rpt. in their No Boundaries (New York: Ballantine Books, 1955), 123-49; in Criminal Justice Through Science Fiction. Ed. Joseph D. Olander and Martin Harry Greenberg (New York: New Viewpoints, 1977), 146-67, with an editors’ note on 146; and in Menace of the Machine: The Rise of AI in Classic Science Fiction. Ed. Mike [Michael Raymond Donald] Ashley (London: British Library, 2019), 267-97, with an editor’s note on 265.
Keywords: Female author; Male author; US author

The Urantia® Book (Urantia Foundation, 1955)
Mostly a spiritualist religious book which traces the history of the universe and then of the solar system and life within it and the development of that life. Spiritual beings oversaw human development and taught humans the life skills they needed for survival. A fall from grace of the spiritual beings is described. Then the history of humanity up to the coming of Christ is given. Paper 72 (808-20) by Melchizedek of Nebadon presents “Government on a Neighboring Planet” as a eutopia focusing on one fairly small, isolated continent. Other sections described the governmental and social structures of, among others, the Seraphim. See also William S[amuel Sadler, Jr. (1875-1963), A Study of the Master Universe: A Development of the Urantia Book. Chicago, IL: Second Society Books, 1968.
Keywords: US author

Utopia 1976 - Morris L[eopold] Ernst (1888-1976) (Rinehart & Co, 1955)
A detailed eutopia describing the life of 1976 which, although called a utopia, is written as a prophecy and said to be attainable in only twenty years. There is much on the current situation and change is brought about both by technology, particularly atomic energy, and changes in attitude. Birth control, which he says the Roman Catholic Church will strongly support, is essential. Much more leisure.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Whooping Crane - H[elen] C. Kreisheimer (1897-1972) (Pageant Press, 1955)
Dystopia of communism.
Keywords: Female author; US author

A World of Difference: A Modern Novel of Science and Imagination - [George] Robert [Acworth] Conquest (1917-2015) (Ward, Lock, 1955)
An apparent eutopia is threatened by the government's use of technology to control people psychologically.
Rpt. (although specially labeled "not a reprint") without the subtitle New York: Ballantine Books, 1964.
Keywords: English author; Male author; US author

“183rd Congress” - Roy H[anden] Millenson (1921-2017) (Science Fiction Adventures, 1954)
Satire on the future of the U.S. political system.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Academy": - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (If (Buffalo, NY), 1954)
Dystopia of a society organized around Sanity Meters. The Academy provides drug induced dreams as an alternative to psychosurgery.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 143-64.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Big Ball of Wax; A Story of Tomorrow's Happy World - [Edward] Shepherd Mead (1914-94) (Simon & Schuster, 1954)
An advertising dystopia. A satire on corporate power in which an invention that can broadcast sensations directly to the brain is used to enhance sales after its use initially caused them to drop.
UK ed. London: T.V. Boardman, 1955. Rpt. London: Mayflower Books, 1962.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Big Trip Up Yonder" - Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1922-2007) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1954)
Overpopulation dystopia.
Rpt. in Assignment for Tomorrow: An Anthology. Ed. Frederik Pohl (Garden City, NY: Hanover House, 1954), 123-46; in his Canary in a Cat House (Greenwich, CT: Gold Medal Books, 1962); and rev. as "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow." In his Welcome to the Monkey House. A Collection of Short Works (New York: Seymour Lawrence/Delacorte Press, 1968), 284-98. Rpt. (New York: Dell, 1970), 293-308.  Rpt. in Eco-Fiction. Ed. John Stadler (New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1971), 119-33; in Looking Ahead: The Vision of Science Fiction. Ed. Dick Allen and Lori Allen (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1975), 267-79, with an editor’s note on 267 and “Questions” on 278-79; in Novels & Stories 1950-1962 Player Piano The Sirens of Titan Mother Night Stories. Ed. Sidney Offit (New York: The Library of America, 2012), 748-62, with a Note on the Text (822) and Notes (833); and in his Complete Stories. Ed. Jerome Klinkowitz & Dan Wakefield (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2017), 884-94. PSt, Public
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Conquered Place - Robert Shafer (b. 1920) (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1954)
An authoritarian dystopia in which the US is occupied by an enemy.
Rpt. as The Naked and the Damned. New York: Popular, 1955.
Keywords: Male author; US author

An Earth Gone Mad - [Roger Dee] [Aycock] (1914-2004) (Ace Books, 1954)
Dystopia of mental submission to an authoritarian cult.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Fabulous Journey of Hieronymous Meeker - [Willy Johns] [Meeker] (Little, Brown, 1954)
Gulliver type on an unknown planet. There is one dystopian country of humanoid plants and one dystopian country of vicious, warlike giants. Another country is a satire on the United States in the early 1950s with specific reference to Senator Joseph McCarthy (1908-57) and his anti-Communist crusade. The novel ends with an inegalitarian eutopia in which each person takes on the physical characteristics of their position in society. The society recognizes no absolutes. Its aims to practice freedom from religion, from vegetarians, from temperance, from feminism, and from progress as well as freedom of difference and freedom of laughter. Its chief ideal is increasing awareness. Includes a discussion and rejection of the concept of utopia (304-07). The beginning of the novel and the Epilogue are set on a post-World War 4 physically devastated but overpopulated Earth dominated by the American Empire.
Keywords: Male author; US author

False Night - Algis [Algirdas Jonas] Budrys (1931-2008) (Lion Books, 1954)
Post-catastrophe (plague) survivalist dystopia as seen through different protagonists over a half century, with much of it concerned with conflicts among the protagonists.
A longer version published as Some Will Not Die, Here is Tomorrow. Evanston, IL: Regency Books, 1961. Further revised without the subtitle. Illus. Frank Kelley Freas. Norfolk, VA: Starblaze/Donning, 1978. Rpt. New York: Dell, 1979. Chapter 6 was originally published as “Ironclad.” Galaxy Science Fiction (New York) 7.6 (March 1954): 76-101.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Foster, You're Dead" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Star Science Fiction Stories, 1954)
Dystopia in which people are chosen for access to fallout shelters based on their ability to contribute to society.
Rpt. in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Three: The Father-Thing (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 221-37; in The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Three: Upon the Dull Earth [1953-1954] (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 265-84; in Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (London: Gollancz, 2017). U. S. ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 138-62 with an “Introduction” by Kalen Egan and Travis Sentell (135-37).
Keywords: Male author; US author

From a Christian Ghetto: Letters of Ghostly Wit, Written A.D. 2453 - [John] Geddes MacGregor (Longmans, Green, 1954)
Dystopia. Authoritarian with a heavy use of drugs. It is anti-religious and anti-intellectual with a limit of twenty minutes on any single subject in universities. Christianity is considered a disease, and Christians are limited to ghettos, tortured, and always liable to punishment. Presented through the letters from a Christian professor to his student. The teacher is martyred at the end.
Keywords: Male author; UK author; US author

“Frozen Foods 2000 AD” - Edwin William Williams (1908-1997) (Quick Frozen Foods, 1954)
A version of the sleeper wakes in which a man is accidentally knocked out in the 1950s and appears to awake in a 2000 quite different from that in Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888). In the ‘50s all the frozen food businesses are going broke from undermining each other. In 2000, they have combined through what is called an Impartial Industrial Authority, as have other industries. Essentially, each industry controls everything related to the industry, such as, for example, food is only available frozen and it is available everywhere. All work industries in tandem to create a society where cities are air conditioned, “the function of government is to serve industry, not run it” (104), minimum prices are set by law, and supply and demand was equalized. For analysis and context, see Justin Nordstrom, “A Frozen Fantasy for Cold War America.” Utopian Studies 34.2 (2023): 174-192.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Invasion from the Stratosphere" - Aileen [Lucia] Fisher (1906-2002); Olive Rabe (United Nations Plays and Programs, 1954)
Brief eutopia. An invading force of aliens, who were counting on the propensity of Earth's population for fighting each other, discovers a unified Earth starting to fight Earth's problems.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"It's Such a Beautiful Day" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Star Science Fiction Stories, 1954)
Future where people have cut themselves off from the natural world.
Rpt. in his Through a Glass, Clearly (London: New English Library, 1967), 7-27; and in Eco-Fiction. Ed. John Stadler (New York: Washington Square Press/Pocket Books, 1971), 178-201.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Laminated Woman" - Evelyn E. Smith (1927-2000) (Fantastic Universe, 1954)
Satire in which women regularly change their skin and hair color and body shape.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"The Last of the Masters" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Orbit Science Fiction, 1954)
Conflict between the last of the robots that had dominated an authoritarian system and the anarchist league that overthrew them.
Rpt. in Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Ed. Patricia Warrick and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), 103-28; in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 3 The Father-Thing (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 75-99. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 3 Second Variety (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1991), 75-99; in The Early Work of Philip K. Dick. Volume Two: Breakfast at Twilight & Other Stories. Series ed. Gregg Rickman ([Rockville, MD]: Prime Books, 2009), 97-131, with a note on the story on 283; in The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Three: Upon the Dull Earth [1953-1954]. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 93-122; and illus. Blair Gauntt in AnarchoSF: Science Fiction and the Stateless Society [Cover adds Volume 1]. Ed. Dana Rich (Victor, IA: Obsolete Press, 2014), 93-124.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Messiah - Gore Vidal (1925-2012) (E. P. Dutton, 1954)
Religious dystopia in which the religion, which has no belief in god or an afterlife, preaches that life is not worth living. The Messiah, a mortician, says that it is good to die and gains millions of followers. The history of the movement is told by one of its first supporters.
Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1954. U.K. ed. London: William Heinemann, 1955. 256 pp. Rpt. London: Panther, 1977. Rev. ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1965. Rpt. New York: Ballantine Books, 1979; which is rpt. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1980 with an “Introduction” by Elizabeth A. Lynn (v-xvi).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Midas Plague" - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1954)
Dystopia. The development of effective fusion power means that anything can be produced cheaply and the human race goes on a production and consumption binge. Over time consumption does not keep up with production, and laws are passed to require consumption. This results in a status system in which the poor must consume at a higher rate than the rich. The story is about a poor man who solves the problem by creating robots that can both produce and consume.
Rpt. in All About the Future. Ed. Martin Greenburg (New York: Gnome Press, 1955), 27-80; in Spectrum: A Science Fiction Anthology. Ed. Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest (London: Victor Gollancz, 1961), 13-67; in American Utopias: Selected Short Fiction. Ed. Arthur O. Lewis, Jr. New York: Arno Press and The New York Times, 1971. All items separately paged. In this case the text has been reset, there are no page numbers, and the illustrations in the original are not included; and in his Midas World (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1983), 5-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Progeny" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (If (Buffalo, NY), 1954)
Dystopia of children raised by robots.
Rpt. in his A Handful of Darkness (London: Rich and Cowan, 1955), 158-76; rpt. London: Panther, 1966), 127-43; and in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 Second Variety (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 93-107. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1992), 93-107.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Quickie" - Milton [S.] Lesser (1928-2008) (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1954)
Satire. Future eutopia of multiple, short-term marriages.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Rations of Tantalus" - Margaret [Neeley] St. Clair (1911-95) (Fantastic Universe, 1954)
An apparently eutopian society of near immortals that is controlled through the pills everyone takes daily, one of which controls their moods.
Rpt. as “The Rages.” In her Three Worlds of Futurity (New York: Ace, 1964), 76-113. Ace Double bound with her Message from the Eocene (1964).
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Rite of Passage" - [Symmes[ Chad[wick] Oliver (1928-1993) (Astounding Science Fiction (New York), 1954)
Two societies, both eutopias, although it is said that they are real and thus not utopias. One is technological and the other rejects technology and appears primitive but is in fact the more advanced.
Rpt. in his Another Kind (New York: Ballantine Books, 1955), 15-60; and in his Far From This Earth and other stories. Volume 2 of selected stories [Dust jacket title is Far From This Earth: Selected Short Stories of Chad Oliver. Volume 2]. Ed. Priscilla Olson (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2003), 249-84.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sales Pitch" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Future Science Fiction (US), 1954)
Inescapable automated sales pitches create a dystopia.
Rpt. in his The Golden Man. Ed. Mark Hurst (New York: Berkley, 1980), 254-269; in Robots, Androids, and Mechanical Oddities: The Science Fiction of Philip K. Dick. Ed. Patricia S. Warrick and Martin H[arry] Greenberg (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1984), 90-102; in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 3 The Father-Thing (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 175-87 with the paperback edition having it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 3 Second Variety (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1991), 175-87; in The Early Work of Philip K. Dick. Volume Two: Breakfast at Twilight & Other Stories. Series ed. Gregg Rickman ([Rockville, MD]: Prime Books, 2009), 190-207, with a note on the story on 286; in The Complete Stories of Philip K. Dick Volume Three: Upon the Dull Earth [1953-1954]. Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2012), 211-25; and in Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams (London: Gollancz, 2017). U. S. ed. (Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2017), 77-95, with an “Introduction” by Tony Grisoni (74-76).
Keywords: Male author; US author

Search the Sky - Frederik [George] Pohl [Jr.] (1919-2013); C[yril] M[ichael] Kornbluth (1923-58) (Ballantine, 1954)
Dystopia. Although humans have colonized space, they have degenerated and are in danger of dying out and few people care. One person is searching for the answer and by the end of the novel it becomes possible to rebuild a vigorous humanity.
UK ed. Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin, 1970. Rev. ed. New York: Baen Books, 1985. According to a note on the copyright page, this edition is substantially different from the earlier one.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Servant Problem" - T[helma] D. Hamm (1905-94) (Authentic Science Fiction Monthly, 1954)
Humorous dystopian story about a robot servant.
Keywords: Female author; US author

"Skulking Permit" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1954)
Satire. An agrarian eutopia wants to be civilized so they appoint a criminal. He fails.
Rpt. in his Citizen in Space (New York: Ballantine Books, 1955), 154-80; in The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. Book One (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 285-310; and in his The Masque of Mañana. Ed. Sharon L. Sbarsky (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2005), 181-202.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Small Town" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Amazing Stories (Chicago, IL), 1954)
A man creates an ideal small town for his basement train set, which becomes the reality in the town where he lives.
Rpt. in Amazing Stories 41.1 (April 1967): 130-45. Rpt. in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 Second Variety (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 341-53. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1992), 341-53.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Souvenir" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Fantastic Universe (New York), 1954)
Dystopia of conformity.
Rpt. in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Volume 2 Second Variety (Los Angeles, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood/Miller, 1987), 355-65. The paperback edition has it in The Collected Stories of Philip K. Dick. Vol. 2 We Can Remember It For You Wholesale (New York: Citadel Twilight, 1992), 355-65; and in The Early Work of Philip K. Dick. Volume One: The Variable Man & Other Stories. Series ed. Gregg Rickman ([Rockville, MD]: Prime Books, 2009), 378-92, with a note on the story on 409.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Subsistence Level" - [Robert] [Sheckley] (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1954)
Satirical story about the colonization of space depicted as hard work for the colonizers, but technology does almost all the work.
Rpt. in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley. Book Three (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 304-18.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Test" - Richard [Burton] Matheson (1926-2013) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1954)
Dystopia in which older people are required to take a test that checks intellectual, physical, and psychological competence. Those who fail must die.
Rpt. in If This Goes On. Ed. Charles Nuetzel (Beverly Hills, CA: Book Company of America, [1965]), 19-38.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"They'd Rather Be Right" - Mark [Irvin] Clifton (1906-63); [Frank Wilbert] [Ryhlick] (1915-1996) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1954)
A computer makes human beings telepathic and immortal, and the novel is concerned with the reactions of people to the new possibilities.
Repub. New York: Gnome Press, 1957. Rpt. Ed. Hank Stine. Illus. M. W. Carroll, Norfolk, VA: Starblaze Editions/Donning, 1981. Also published as The Forever Machine. New York: Galaxy, [1958]. Rpt. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1992.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"A Word for Freedom" - James E[dwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1954)
Dystopia of stratification and technological control. Contrast is provided by a practical joker.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Work-Out Planet" - R[aymond] E[ugene] Banks (1918-96) (If: Worlds of Science Fiction, 1954)
A future earth totally dedicated to work, learning, and culture is a dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Year of Consent - Kendall Foster Crossen (1910-81) (Dell Publishing Co, 1954)
Dystopia in which public relations experts have taken over the government and used their position to create a population that consents to anything. The few people who still maintain their individuality are surgically cured. The novel is concerned with a man who fights back.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Big Holiday" - Fritz [Reuter] Leiber [Jr.] (1910-92) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1953)
Eutopian holiday. There is one holiday each year lasting three days and stressing friendship, love, laziness, fun, and joy. No one can be concerned with money, success, hurry, worry, and glamour. Instituted because holidays had become profit centers and were no longer holidays.
Rpt. in The Best of Fritz Leiber (New York: Ballantine Books, 1974), 179-202; and in The Best of Fritz Leiber (Garden City, NY: Nelson Doubleday, 1974), 165-72.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Boy With Five Fingers” - James [Edwin] Gunn (1923-2020) (Startling Stories, 1953)
Short story set in a future where the people are all mutants brought about by past atomic wars told from the perspective of a boy who is normal by past standards, sees his future world as clearly better than the past, and is glad that their Basic Rule is that everyone has the right to be different.
Rpt. in Microcosmic Tales: 100 Wondrous Science Fiction Short-Short Stories. Ed. Isaac Asimov, Martin H. Greenberg, and Joseph D. Olander (New York: Taplinger Publishing Co., 1980); rpt. (New York: DAW Books, 1992), 271-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Calibrated People” - W[illiam] T[reval] Powers (1926-2013) (Universe Science Fiction, 1953)
The story is set in a highly structured future in which everyone becomes an adult at ten, and, at that point, if they meet its educational, physical, and psychological standards, chooses their future education and career.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Caves of Steel" - Isaac Asimov (1920-92) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1953)
Overpopulation dystopia as background to a murder mystery solved by a robot and a human. The "caves of steel" are the cities of the future. A related novel in 1956 Asimov, “The Naked Sun.”
Repub. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1954. Rpt. New York: New American Library, 1955. U.K. ed. London: T.V. Boardman, 1954; rpt. London: Panther, 1971. Also rpt. in his The Robot Novels: The Caves of Steel The Naked Sun. (Garden City: Doubleday, 1957), 1-202.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Crisis in Utopia" - Norman L[ouis] Knight (1895-1972) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1953)
Flawed utopia set in an overpopulated world that has generally dealt well with that problem facing the probability of an asteroid impact.
Rpt. in The Crucible of Power: Three Science Fiction Novels. Comp. Martin Greenberg (London: The Bodley Head, 1953), 155-236.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Defenders" - Philip K[indred] Dick (1928-82) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1953)
In a war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both sides retreat underground and allow their androids with artificial intelligence to conduct the war while working to send them more and more devastating weapons. An apparent anomaly leads to the discovery that the androids had been destroying the weapons and that there was no war and no devastation. In the end, the two sides agree to cooperate and hold out hope for a eutopian future.
Rpt. without the illus. in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 367-72 with an editor’s note on 367.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“Election Campaign” - William Campbell Gault (1910-95) (Universe Science Fiction, 1953)
The story is set in a post-war world where most of the population died as a result of power struggles, with the story about a small group of survivors and the reemergence of the struggle for power.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Fahrenheit 451 - Ray[mond Douglas] Bradbury (1920-2012) (Ballantine, 1953)
Authoritarian, anti-intellectual dystopia. Fahrenheit 451 is the burning point of paper. See 2007 Bradbury, “The Library” and 2010 Bradbury, “Long After Midnight” for related stories.
Serialized in Playboy 1.4 - 6 (March - May 1953): 6-9, 18, 24-25, 28, 35, 41-42, 44, 46-48, 50; 22-23, 28-329, 32-33, 36, 38, 43-44, 49; 19-20, 24, 32, 35-38,43-46, 48-50. A special 200 copy limited edition was bound in Johns-Manville Quintera (asbestos). New York: Ballantine Books, 1953. Rpt. without the asbestos binding New York: Simon & Schuster, 1967, with an “Introduction” by Bradbury (9-15); illus. Joseph Mugnaini. New York: Limited Editions Club, 1982. 40th Anniversary Edition. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1993. [50th anniversary ed.] New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003 includes Bradbury’s introduction to the 1967 edition (23-30), “Burning Bright,” his Foreword to the 1993 edition (11-21), and “A New Introduction” (5-9). Collector’s Edition illus. Joseph Mugnaini with an “Introduction” by Eric S. Rabkin (3-8). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1991. The [60th Anniversary Edition]. with the subtitle Fahrenheit 451--The temperature at which book paper catches fire and burns. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2013 has an ”Introduction” by Neil Gaiman (xi-xvi). Critical ed. in Novels & Story Cycles. Ed. Jonathan R. Eller (New York: Library of America, 2021), 231-361, with a Chronology of Bradbury’s life (843-61); a notes on the text (866-68); and textual notes (876-79), Bradbury’s “Day After Tomorrow: Why Science Fiction” (811-817), rpt. from The Nation 176 (May 2, 1953): 364-367; rpt. in The Nation, 150th anniversary edition (April 6, 2015): 101; and his “No Man Is an Island” (818-824), rpt. from his No Man Is an Island. Los Angeles, CA: National Women’s Commission of Brandeis University, 1952. An early version was published as “The Fireman.” Galaxy Science Fiction (New York) 1.5 (February 1951): 4-61; rpt. in Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451. Ed. Donn Albright and Jon[athan R.] Eller, Textual Ed. (Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Press, 2006), 415-84; and in his A Pleasure to Burn: Fahrenheit 451 Stories (Burton, MI: Subterranean Press, 2010), 203-71. Some other stories in this volume, many of which were originally or previously published in his Match to Flame: The Fictional Paths to Fahrenheit 451. Ed. Donn Albright and Jon[athan R.] Eller, Textual Ed. Colorado Springs, CO: Gauntlet Press, 2006, are related, some quite loosely, to Fahrenheit 451. See Tim Hamilton, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451. The Authorized Adaptation. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009 for a graphic novel version.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Flight into Yesterday - Charles Leonard Harness (1915-2005) (Bouregy and Curl, 1953)
An authoritarian dystopia set in Imperial America, which has an aristocracy, guilds, and an opposition movement, all with advanced technology.
U.K. The Paradox Men. London: Faber and Faber, 1954. U.S. ed. as The Paradox Men. New York: Ace Books, 1955. Rpt. New York: Crown, 1984. Collector’s Edition illus. Kent Bash with an “Introduction” by George Zebrowski (v-xi). Norwalk, CT: The Easton Press, 1992. An earlier version was published as “Flight into Yesterday.” Startling Stories (Springfield, MA) 19.2 (May 1949): 9-79.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Full Moon at Sweatenham. A Nightmare - J[ohn] K[eith] Stanford (1892-1971) (Faber & Faber, 1953)
Humorous dystopia. A Bookmakers' government was elected because they were the only ones in all of the U.K. with money after the previous governments collapsed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Green Millennium - Fritz [Reuter] Leiber [Jr.] (1910-92) (Abelard Press, 1953)
Dystopian satire in which the U.S. is ruled by the Federal Bureau of Loyalty, which has replaced most of the government bureaucracy, loosely cooperating, but also competing, with Fun, Inc., which controls the drug trade, gambling, and so forth. There is also a Federal Bureau of Morality.
Rpt. New York: Ace Science Fiction Books, 1953; and New York: Lion Books, 1954. U.K. ed. London: Abelard-Shuman, 1959, which is rpt. Boston, MA: Gregg Press, 1980 with an “Introduction” by Deborah L. Notkin (v-xi).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Halos, Inc." - Kendall Foster Crossen (1910-81) (Startling Stories, 1953)
Satire on advertising.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"My Old Venusian Home" - Kendall Foster Crossen (1910-81) (Startling Stories, 1953)
Satire on slavery.
Rpt. in Startling Stories (British Edition), no. 13 ([1953]): 57-63, 66; and in Science Fiction Yearbook, no. 3 (1969): 66-71, 86.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Nightsong" - W[illiam] T[reval] Powers (1926-2013) (Universe Science Fiction, 1953)
The story is set on a dystopian Venus after it has been settled from Earth with the first settlers enslaved by it came under the control of later settlers exploiting Venus’s resources.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Null-ABC" - H[enry] Beam Piper (1917-81); John J[oseph] McGuire (1917-1981) (Astounding Science Fiction (New York), 1953)
Dystopia. Future society where illiterates dominate a small group of literates.
Rpt. as Null-ABC. Holicong, PA: Wildside Press, 2006. Repub. in a different version as an Ace Double as Crisis in 2140. New York: Ace Books, 1957. Bound with an abbreviated edition of 1952 Kornbluth and Merril.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Occupation" - Edward William Ludwig (1920-90) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (New York), 1953)
Humans are invading a planet to colonize it. The inhabitants completely confuse the invaders by destroying their weapons and refusing to fight and finally agreeing to teach them how to live together peacefully.
Rpt. in New Worlds Science Fiction (London) 10.28 (October 1954): 61-68; and in his The 7 Shapes of Solomon Bean and 14 Other Marvelous Stories of Science Fiction and Fantasy (Los Gatos, CA: Polaris Press, 1983), 1-10.
Keywords: Male author; US author

One - David Karp (1922-99) (Vanguard, 1953)
Authoritarian dystopia that is very similar to 1949 Blair in that the bulk of the book is about the destruction and reconstruction of a personality to fit the ideology. Church of State; no use of "me," "my," "mine."
Also entitled Escape to Nowhere. New York: Lion Books, 1955.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Potemkin Village" - [Murray] Fletcher Pratt (1897-1956) (Startling Stories, 1953)
Totalitarian dystopia.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sam Hall" - Poul [William] Anderson (1926-2001) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1953)
Authoritarian dystopia with control by computers. The story focuses on the successful attempt to regain freedom.
Rpt. in The Liberated Future [cover adds the subtitle Voyages into Tomorrow]. Ed. Robert Hoskins (Greenwich, CT: Fawcett, 1974), 13-51; and in The Saturn Game. Volume Three. The Collected Stories of Poul Anderson (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2010), 117-40.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Sinister Journey" - Conrad [Michael] Richter (1890-1968) (The Saturday Evening Post (Philadelphia, PA), 1953)
Equality as dystopia. Dull, controlled, and boring.
Rpt. in The Post Reader of Fantasy and Science Fiction (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1964), 83-102; in The Saturday Evening Post Stories 1953 (New York: Random House, 1953), 213-28; and in Fantasy Voyages: Great Science Fiction from The Saturday Evening Post. Ed. Vincent Miranda (Indianapolis, IN: Curtis, 1979), 83-102 with an editor’s note on 84.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Syndic - C[yril] M[ichael] Kornbluth (1923-58) (Doubleday, 1953)
Dystopia. Militaristic government from the U.S. is relocated in Ireland. The Western U.S. is mob controlled while the Eastern U.S. is permissive.
Also published in Science Fiction Adventures 2.1 - 2 (December 1953 - March 1954): 6-60, 82-156. Rpt. London: Sphere, 1968; and New York: Tor, 1982, with an “Introduction to THE SYNDIC, by C.M. KORNBLUTH” by Frederik Pohl (7-10) and “A Personal Note” by H.L. Gold (248-56)..
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Touch of Your Hand" - Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1953)
Simple, small-town eutopia.
Rpt. in his A Touch of Strange (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1958), 84-127; in his Alien Cargo (New York: Bluejay, 1984); 191-226; and in A Saucer of Loneliness. Volume VII: The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon. Ed. Paul Williams (Berkeley, CA: North Atlantic Books, 2000), 15-60.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Transposed Man" - Dwight V[reeland] Swain (1913-92) (Thrilling Wonder Stories, 1953)
Flawed utopia. Human beings are the flaw in robot-like perfection.
Repub. New York: Ace Books, 1955. UK ed. London: Panther, 1957.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Ultimate City" - Richard [Presley] Tooker (1902-88) (Science Fiction Plus, 1953)
Anti-utopian story. Perfection brought about by using atomic power solely for its benefits is so boring that there is a plague of suicides. Some choose to start over with a primitive life.
Rpt. in Science Fiction Monthly (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), no. 1 ([September 1955]): 12-27.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The University of Utopia - Robert M. Hutchins (1899-1977) (University of Chicago Press, 1953)
Lectures presented at the University of Chicago in 1953 which both criticize contemporary university education in the U.S. and compare it to university education in what he calls Utopia.
2nd ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1964.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Utopia [upside down & backwards]" - J[ohn] S[cott] Campbell (Science-Fiction Plus, 1953)
Eutopia is produced through thought transmission so that all people can meld together. Strong suggestion that this is a dystopia.
Rpt. in Science-Fiction Monthly (Melbourne, VIC, Australia), no. 1 (September 1955): 31-45.
Keywords: Canadian author; Male author; US author

"Watchbird" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction, 1953)
Dystopia. A machine designed to identify murderers before they act is unable to make distinctions and kills anybody or anything that contemplates killing.
Rpt. in his Notions Unlimited (New York: Bantam Books, 1960), 27-46; in The Collected Short Fiction of Robert Sheckley Book Two (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 221-42; and in Store of the Worlds: The Stories of Robert Sheckley. Ed. Alex Abramovich and Jonathan Lethem (New York: New York Review Books, 2012), 73-96 with an “Introduction” to the collection by the editors (vii-xi). Rpt. separately as Watchbird. Eugene, OR: Pulphouse, 1990.
Keywords: Male author; US author

West of the Sun - Edgar Pangborn (1909-76) (Doubleday, 1953)
The establishment of a new society on a previously unexplored planet that has various alien societies, some at war with each other and the humans and some peaceful and helpful. Concerned with the integration of alien and human, ending the war among the aliens, and the creation of an ideal small community.
Rpt. New York: Dell, 1980.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Beautiful People" - Charles Beaumont (1929-67) (If Worlds of Science Fiction, 1952)
Dystopia in which all people are all made beautiful. One girl resists.
Rpt. as “The Beautiful Woman.” Nebula Science Fiction (Glasgow, Scot.) 1.3 (Summer 1953): 46-62. Broadcast adapted by John Tomerlin as “Number Twelve Looks Just Like You.” Twilight Zone. Season 5, Episode 17 (<st1:date day="24" month="1" w:st="on" year="1964">January 24, 1964</st1:date>).
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Big Planet" - Jack [John Holbrook] Vance (1916-2013) (Startling Stories, 1952)
Includes chapters that describe a eutopian city where all take turns being rich, being servants to the rich, and being workers. These are chapters 11-13 in both versions. See also 1975 Vance.
Repub. New York: Avalon, 1957. Rpt. New York: Ace Books, 1957. U.K. ed. London: Coronet, 1977. All these versions are abbreviated from the original manuscript. Unabridged U.S. ed. San Francisco, CA/Columbia, PA: Underwood-Miller, 1978. Unabridged U.K. ed. London: VGSF, 1989. Also rpt. in The Rapparee Big Planet Vandals of the Void. vol. 4 of The Complete Works of Jack Vance (Oakland, CA: Vance Integral Editions, 2002), 157-364.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Bring the Jubilee" - [Joseph] Ward Moore (1903-78) (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, 1952)
Alternative history in which the South wins the U.S. Civil War and creates a dystopia in the North.
Rpt. in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 441-75 with an editor’s note on 441. Repub. New York: Farrar, Straus and Young, 1953. U.K. ed. London: William Heinemann, 1955. Rpt. London: Victor Gollancz, 1987.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Category Phoenix" - [Lyle Ardetia Gifford] [Boyd] (1907-82); [William Clouser] [Boyd] (1903-83) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1952)
Class (category) based authoritarian dystopia. Privacy is outlawed.
Keywords: Male author; US author

City - Clifford D[onald] Simak (1904-88) (Gnome Press, 1952)
Pastoral, pacifist dogs pass down oral legends of a possibly mythical Man. In these legends, technology has ended city life and almost everyone has moved to the country. Cities become tourist attractions but not places to live.
Rpt. New York: Ace Books, [1958]; rpt. New York: Ace Books, [1967]. Stories originally published in Astounding Science-Fiction as “City.” 33.3 (May 1944): 136-57. U.K. ed. Astounding Science-Fiction (August 1944): 43-55; Rpt. in The Ghost of a Model T and Other Stories: The Complete Short Stories of Clifford D. Simak Volume Three. New York: Open Road, 2015. EBook; “Huddling Place” 33.5 (July 1944): 133-49; “Census” 34.1 (September 1944): 6-28; “Desertion” 34.3 (November 1944): 64-74; “Paradise” 37.4 (June 1946): 46-65; “Hobbies” 38.3 (November 1946): 49-77; and “Aesop” 40.4 (December 1947): 7-31; plus “The Simple Way” originally published as “The Trouble with Ants.” Fantastic Adventures 13.1 (January 1951): 48-63; rpt. Fantastic 15.6 (July 1966): 46-65. The book version includes notes on each of the eight tales. Later Simak wrote an additional story in the City series, “Epilog.” Astounding: The John W. Campbell Memorial Anthology. Ed. Harry Harrison (New York: Random House. 1973), 259-74.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Conditionally Human" - Walter M[ichael] Miller Jr. (1923-96) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1952)
Authoritarian dystopia. Experiments produce beings on the border between animal and human. Stresses the social effects of the experiments.
Rpt. in his Conditionally Human (New York: Ballantine Books, 1962), 7-66. U.K. ed. (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd., 1963), 7-66. Rpt. (London: Panther, 1966), 7-60; and London: Corgi, 1982), 7-61; and The Best of Walter M. Miller, Jr (London Gollancz, 1980), 207-65; rpt. as Dark Benediction (London: Gollancz, 2007), 207-65.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Cost of Living" - Robert Sheckley (1928-2005) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1952)
Dystopia. People go into debt for consumer goods and many sign over their children's, grandchildren's, etc. earnings for their lifetime to a credit agency.
Rpt. in his Untouched by Human Hands (New York: Ballantine Books, 1954), 12-23; in The Penguin World Omnibus of Science Fiction. An Anthology. Ed. , Brian W[ilson]. Aldiss and Sam Lundwall (Harmondsworth, Eng.: Penguin Books, 1986), 88-97; and in The Collected Short Stories of Robert Sheckley. Book One (Eugene, OR: Pulphouse Publishing, 1991), 17-26.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Defender of the Faith" - Alfred[o] [José Araña-Marini y] Coppel [Jr.] (1921-2004) (Science Fiction Quarterly, 1952)
War between the sexes.
Rpt. in Science Fiction Quarterly (British Edition), no 4 (November 1952): 59-67. C,
Keywords: Male author; US author

"The Demolished Man" - Alfred Bester (1913-87) (Galaxy Science Fiction (New York), 1952)
Police procedural set in a future society where telepathy is recognized, and telepaths are ranked according to ability with the most powerful telepaths holding the most important positions.
Repub. Chicago, IL: Shasta, 1953. Rpt. New York: New American Library, 1954, which is rpt. New York: Garland, 1975. U.K. ed. London: Sidgwick & Jackson, 1953.
Keywords: Male author; US author

The Devil's Advocate - [Janet Miriam] Taylor [Holland] Caldwell (1900-85) (Crown, 1952)
Authoritarian dystopia. The U.S. becomes weak through the adoption of the welfare policies of the New Deal and is ripe for takeover by a dictatorial system known as The Democracy. Constant wars. Extreme poverty. Surveillance. There is a underground movement known as the Minute Men, led from within The Democracy, that ultimately overthrows it.
Rpt. New York: Macfadden-Bartell, 1964; and New York: Pyramid, 1971.
Keywords: Female author; UK author; US author

"Dumb Waiter" - Walter M[ichael] Miller Jr. (1923-96) (Astounding Science Fiction, 1952)
Authoritarian dystopia in which an automated war continues long after the bombs are gone, and a computer-controlled city still enforces laws long out of date.
Rpt. in Science-Fiction Thinking Machines: Robots, Androids, Computers. Ed. Groff Conklin (New York: The Vanguard Press, 1954), 323-58.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Faq'" - George P[aul] Elliott (1918-80) (The Hudson Review, 1952)
A lost race story which the protagonist discovers is intended to be the perfect society, but which he ultimately finds boring and longs for pain and sorrow.
Rpt. in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction 21.5 (126) (November 1961): 29-39.
Keywords: Male author; US author

Gunner Cade - C[yril] M[ichael] Kornbluth (1923-58); [Judith (Josephine Juliet Grossman)] [Merril] (1923-97) (Simon and Schuster, 1952)
Dystopia. Future society that has become stultified in a caste structure. Shows the difficulty of convincing people that their ideology does not reflect the true state of affairs.
Also published in Astounding Science Fiction 49.1 - 3 (March - May 1952): 8-53; 114-60; 108-54. Rpt. in their Spaced Out: Three Novels of Tomorrow (Framingham, MA: The NESFA Press, 2008), 9-135. Abbreviated as an Ace Double bound with 1957 Piper and McGuire. New York: Ace Books, 1957. UK ed. London: Victor Gollancz, 1964.
Keywords: Canadian author; Female author; Male author; US author

"Incubation" - John D[ann] Macdonald (1916-86) (Future Tense: New and Old Tales of Science Fiction, 1952)
The story is set in a future where mechanization has gradually led to the acceptance by most people of the complete regimentation of daily life.
Keywords: Male author; US author

“The Last Days of Shandakor” - Leigh [Douglass] Brackett (1915-78) (Startling Stories, 1952)
The story is set on an inhabited Mars, and Shandakor is the eutopian city of Mars’s past, now in its last stages.
Rpt.  without the illus. in Sense of Wonder: A Century of Science Fiction. Ed. Leigh Ronald Grossman (Rockville, MD: Wildside Press, 2011), 346-52 with an editor’s note on 346.
Keywords: Female author; US author

Limbo - Bernard Wolfe (1915-85) (Random House, 1952)
Dystopia. After a world war that has destroyed most countries, the U.S. becomes the center for men voluntarily amputating limbs to stop them from waging war. The prosthetics are very advanced and are perceived as enhancing human abilities. War resumes anyway.
Rpt. Illus. London: Gollancz, 2016 xi + 413 pp. , with an “Introduction to Bernard Wolfe” by Harlan Ellison® (ix-xi) (Excepts had appeared in Again, Dangerous Visions. Ed Harlan Ellison. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1972; other excerpts originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times (September 23, 1974); and an “Introduction to Limbo by David Pringle (1-2) Originally published in Science Fiction: The 100 best novels: An English-Language Selection, 1949-1984. Ed. David Pringle (New York: Carroll & Graf, 1985); New York: Ace Books, [1963]; and New York: Carroll & Graf, 1987. U.K. ed. as Limbo ‘90. London: Secker & Warburg, 1953. 438 pp. A story that became part of the novel is “Self Portrait.” Illus. Martin Schneider. Galaxy Science Fiction 3.2 (November 1951): 58-83.
Keywords: Male author; US author

"Lion's Mouth" - Stephen Marlowe (1928-2008) (Fantastic Adventures, 1952)
Dystopia. After an alien invasion, children are brainwashed to become the enforcers of the alien rule. They regularly review people, including their relatives, and the story is about such a situation, but ends with some escaping and finding a better society being established in the countryside.
Rpt. in Looking Forward: An Anthology of Science Fiction. Ed. Milton [S.] Lesser (New York: The Beechhurst Press, 1953), 195-210.
Keywords: Male author; US author