E Pluribus Unicorn

First edition
Cover art by A. M. Jauss

E Pluribus Unicorn is a collection of fantasy and science fiction stories by Theodore Sturgeon, published in 1953 by Abelard.

Contents

• "Essay on Sturgeon" by Groff Conklin
• "The Silken-Swift"
• "The Professor's Teddy-Bear"
• "Bianca's Hands"
• "Saucer of Loneliness"
• "The World Well Lost"
• "It Wasn't Syzygy"
• "The Music"
• "Scars"
• "Fluffy"
• "The Sex Opposite"
• "Die, Maestro, Die!"
• "Cellmate"
• "A Way of Thinking"

Reception

New York Times reviewer Basil Davenport noted that while "Sturgeon's poetic sensitivity sometimes leads him to overwriting, . . . at his best it gives his work an emotional depth which is all too rare in this field."^[1] Boucher and McComas gave the collection a lukewarm review, describing it as "a hodgepodge" mixing "Grade A Sturgeon stories" with "a good many one can see no particular reason for collecting"; still, they concluded that Unicorn was "a book belonging in any fantasy library." ^[2] P. Schuyler Miller praised the collection as "one of the finest short story collections by any writer in the field."^[3]

References

1. "In the Spaceman's Realm," The New York Times Book Review, November 29, 1953, p.53
2. "Recommended Reading," F&SF, February 1954, p.94.
3. "The Reference Library", Astounding Science Fiction, August 1954, pp.152-53