Before the Golden Age

infobox Book |
name = Before the Golden Age
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption =
author = Isaac Asimov
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = USA
language = English
series =
genre = Science fiction anthology
publisher = Doubleday
release_date = April 1974
media_type = Print (hardcover and paperback)
pages = 986
isbn = 0385024193
preceded_by =
followed_by =

"Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s" is an anthology of 25 science fiction stories from 1930s pulp magazines edited by Isaac Asimov. It was first published in April 1974.

The anthology was inspired by a dream Asimov had on the morning of 3 April 1973. In his dream, Asimov had prepared an anthology of his favorite science fiction stories from the 1930s and was getting a chance to read them again. After waking, he told his fianceé Janet Jeppson about the dream, and she suggested that he actually do such an anthology. Doubleday agreed to publish the anthology, and Asimov's friend Sam Moskowitz provided him with copies of the relevant science fiction magazines. Asimov completed work on the anthology on 10 May.

The stories were selected by Asimov, and the main selection criterion was the degree to which they influenced him when he was growing up in the 1930s. The prefatory material and individual introductions to the stories fill in the details about the early life of the child prodigy, which effectively makes the volume an autobiographical prequel to his earlier collection "The Early Asimov". The anthology also includes "Big Game", a story written by Asimov in 1941 and never sold.

The stories collected in the anthology, although they range in quality from embarrassing to very good, are of a kind rarely anthologized and provide a unique historical and cultural retrospective of the genre.

The anthology was first published as a large hardcover in 1974 and re-issued as three smaller paperbacks the following year. As of 2006, it is out of print.

Contents

1931

* "The Man Who Evolved" by Edmond Hamilton
* "The Jameson Satellite" by Neil R. Jones
* "Submicroscopic" by Capt. S.P. Meek
* "Awlo of Ulm" by Capt. S.P. Meek
* "Tetrahedra of Space" by P. Schuyler Miller
* "The World of the Red Sun" by Clifford D. Simak

1932

* "Tumithak of the Corridors" by Charles R. Tanner
* "The Moon Era" by Jack Williamson

1933

* "The Man Who Awoke" by Laurence Manning
* "Tumithak in Shawm" by Charles R. Tanner

1934

* "Colossus" by Donald Wandrei
* "Born of the Sun" by Jack Williamson
* "Sidewise in Time" by Murray Leinster
* "Old Faithful" by Raymond Z. Gallun

1935

* "Parasite Planet" by Stanley G. Weinbaum
* "Proxima Centauri" by Murray Leinster
* "The Accursed Galaxy" by Edmond Hamilton

1936

* "He Who Shrank" by Henry Hasse
* "The Human Pets of Mars" by Leslie Frances Stone
* "The Brain Stealers of Mars" by John W. Campbell
* "Devolution" by Edmond Hamilton
* "Big Game" by Isaac Asimov

1937

* "Other Eyes Watching" by John W. Campbell
* "Minus Planet" by John D. Clark
* "Past, Present, and Future" by Nat Schachner

1938

* "The Men and the Mirror" by Ross Rocklynne