Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand

1984 Delany, Samuel R[ay] (b. 1942). Stars in My Pocket Like Grains of Sand. New York: Bantam Books. Rpt. New York: Bantam Books, 1990 with an “Afterword” by the author (376-85); Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2004 with the “Afterword” (349-56) and a “Foreword” by Carl Freedman (xi-xiv). An extract was originally published under the same title in Beyond This Horizon: An Anthology of Science Fact and Science Fiction. Ed. Christopher Carrell (Sunderland, Eng.: Ceolfrith Arts, 1973), 71-75; and a more substantial part was published as “from Stars in my pockets like grains of sand.” Illus. Jack Gaughan. TriQuarterly, no. 49 (Fall 1980): 131-61. PSt

Complex far future novel depicting various societies including eutopias and dystopias. The novel begins with a description of a dystopia from the point-of-view of a slave who remains a character throughout the novel. This was expected to be the first of two volumes, to be followed by The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities, which remains unpublished. An excerpt was published as “From The Splendor and Misery of Bodies, of Cities.” Review of Contemporary Fiction 16.3 (Fall 1996): 103-15; rpt. without the From in Out of the Ruins. Ed. Preston Grassman (London: Titan Books, 2021), 117-36. One of the characters, Vondramach Okk, appears in his “Omegahelm.” Illus. John Coffey, Distant Stars (New York: Bantam Books, 1981), 263-78; rpt. illus. John Coffey (New York: ibooks, 2004), 263-78; rpt. in his Driftglass/Starshards (London: Grafton, 1993), 312-26; and in his Aye and Gomorrah. Stories (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 260-72. African American author.