The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl
"The Way the Future Was" is a memoir by Frederik Pohl, a significant figure in the science fiction genre, chronicling his life from his early years in the 1920s and 1930s through to 1977. Growing up in a poor family in Brooklyn, Pohl discovered a passion for reading through pulp magazines, which sparked his lifelong love for science fiction. He became involved in early fan organizations, notably the Futurians, alongside prominent figures like Isaac Asimov, shaping the development of the genre during the mid-twentieth century.
The memoir is structured chronologically, but its narrative is enriched with personal anecdotes, photographs, and reflections on Pohl's literary career and the evolution of science fiction fandom. While it captures the spirit of the science fiction community, especially in the 1930s and 1940s, some critiques note that it lacks depth regarding Pohl's own influential works and broader historical contexts. Pohl's narrative style and the episodic nature of his storytelling provide insights into his life and the cultural dynamics of the time, making it a noteworthy piece for those interested in the history of science fiction and Pohl's contributions to the field.
The Way the Future Was by Frederik Pohl
First published: 1978
Type of work: Memoir
Time of work: 1919-1977
Locale: Primarily New York City
Principal Personage:
Frederik Pohl , a writer and editor
Form and Content
Growing up in a poor family in the 1920’s and 1930’s meant that Frederik Pohl had to find entertainment in his surroundings—most of his youth was spent in Brooklyn—and in vicarious adventure. Pohl learned to read at an early age and soon discovered the pulp magazines of the period. These offered a wide variety of adventure and romance and, despite some atrocious writing, occasionally had good stories by capable writers. Secondhand copies, sold for a nickel or dime in used-book stores, were often within boys’ budgets, and a chance encounter with Science Wonder Stories Quarterly was the beginning of Pohl’s lifelong infatuation.
The catholicity of his interests did not translate into scholarly success, and he left Brooklyn Technical High School without graduating. He had, however, found that there were other science-fiction fans. His best friend, Dirk Wylie, provided more reading material and the idea that there might be others who shared their fascination. Their search for such people led them into the early organizations of science-fiction fans. The Science Fiction League, organized by Hugo Gernsback, editor of such magazines as Amazing Stories and Wonder Stories, was started to improve circulation; fan organizations grew by the mid-1970’s to include tens of thousands of people in a nationwide network.
Pohl was an eager member of the league from its beginning, but along with some other fans—notably Donald A. Wollheim, who was to become a major figure in the genre—he was quick to organize new groups. These clubs published amateur magazines (called “fanzines” by the cognoscenti), which provided Pohl with his first opportunities in publishing and editing. The most famous of the clubs which Pohl helped to organize, the Futurians, was founded in 1937. In addition to Pohl and Wollheim, the original Futurians included Cyril M. Kornbluth and Isaac Asimov. Later, Damon Knight became part of the group. These five were among the shapers of science fiction throughout the mid-twentieth century.
At nineteen Pohl was supporting himself by editing Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. Although these cheaply produced pulps did not last long, a career broken only by service in World War II was begun. After the war Pohl set himself up as a literary agent, and he handled the work of most of the major writers of science fiction. Less exploitative than most agents, he went broke.
Pohl was always a prolific writer; although slowed somewhat by the demands of his career as an agent, during the three decades after World War II he wrote many popular and critically acclaimed novels and stories. The best known, The Space Merchants (1953), written with his close friend and frequent collaborator, Cyril M. Kornbluth, is generally regarded as a classic. Pohl was also a very successful editor, both presenting original material and reprinting significant stories that had gone out of print—the latter activity was an important contribution for the growing audience attracted to science fiction. Pohl won four Hugos—the highest award given to science-fiction authors—before the publication of his memoirs: in 1966, 1967, and 1968 as best editor and in 1973 for the best short story for “The Meeting,” also written with Kornbluth.
The Way the Future Was is organized chronologically from the author’s birth in 1919 to 1977, but, perhaps reflecting his background in fiction, Pohl felt free to digress. The result, combined with the lack of an index, makes the book difficult to use as a reference tool. Personal anecdotes concerning the author’s loves and adventures, illustrated with photographs of Pohl and his family and friends, are woven into the biographical frame. The two central themes are Pohl’s literary career and the growth of fan organizations from the early clubs in New York and the first formal convention, which drew nine people, to the later meetings, which draw several hundred to several thousand and occur regularly all over the industrialized world.
Critical Context
Pohl’s career calls to mind Georges Clemenceau’s remark, “A man who is not a communist at twenty has no heart; a man who is still a communist at forty has no head.” A member of the Young Communist League in his youth, he has remained a champion of social justice, but the German-Soviet nonaggression pact of 1939 finished his infatuation with socialism. In his best work, Pohl is a subtle and effective critic of human foibles and society. Unfortunately, The Way the Future Was is far from his best. Ideas are sometimes treated superficially, and the book, which gives the impression of having been written in haste, degenerates into episodic reminiscences of prominent authors whom Pohl knew and the failure of his several marriages. Given Pohl’s place in the growth of science fiction, he was in a position to provide a much more valuable account of its development.
Pohl also glosses over his own work. He describes the development of ideas for a satire about the advertising industry which became The Space Merchants, but other influential works are ignored. For example, neither Drunkard’s Walk (1961) nor A Plague of Pythons (1965) is mentioned. Certainly a memoir is a personal document, but the more personal information is set into the context of the author’s times and the more his accomplishments are explicated the more valuable it becomes. Although Pohl did the former well in the first half of the book, context is lost in the second. He did not handle the latter well at any point.
The book is at its best both in style and in content when the author is describing the 1930’s and 1940’s. Pohl is able to convey the excitement of the young men— there were few women, at least within the group of fans and authors with whom Pohl was acquainted before World War II—who felt themselves to be part of a new movement. Although the first volume of Asimov’s autobiography, In Memory Yet Green (1979), covers some of the same ground, Pohl’s work provides different insights, particularly into the commercialization of the genre and into the work of an editor.
Bibliography
Aldiss, Brian W., and Harry Harrison, eds. Hell’s Cartographers: Some Personal Histories of Science Fiction Writers, 1976.
Aldiss, Brian W., and David Wingrove. Trillion Year Spree: The History of Science Fiction, 1986.
Knight, Damon. In Search of Wonder: Essays on Modern Science Fiction, 1967.
Platt, Charles. Dream Makers: The Uncommon People Who Write Science Fiction, 1980.
Rose, Mark. Alien Encounters: Anatomy of Science Fiction, 1982.
Smith, Nicholas D., ed. Philosophers Look at Science Fiction, 1982.
Wollheim, Donald A. The Universe Makers: Science Fiction Today, 1971.