Slow Sculpture

“A consummate storyteller and someone whose stories had not only heart, but brains and depth.”
—Connie Willis, from the foreword

“One of the all-time masters of the sci-fi short story. This multivolume project to bring many of his classic tales back into print is long overdue.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Sturgeon’s often tender explorations of alien minds were as carefully worked out as Faulkner’s exploration of the mind of the idiot in The Sound and the Fury. His emphasis on psychology instead of blasters prepared the way for most modern masters of the science fiction genre.”
—Stephen King

“Sturgeon was, in several senses, the conscience of modern science fiction.”
—The New York Times

“Sturgeon’s stories have an emotional impact unmatched by almost any other writer.”
—Arthur C. Clarke

“One of the best writers in America … Sturgeon is a master storyteller certain to fascinate all sorts of readers, not only science fiction fans.”
—Kurt Vonnegut

“Intelligent, humane, tantalizing stories, every one of which evokes the sense of wonder. Sturgeon’s stories are treasures from Elfland.”
—Carl Sagan

“A terrific writer; I enjoyed every word he published.”
—Robert Heinlein

“Sturgeon wrote miraculous short stories.… He found his urgency directed in becoming the John Dos Passos, the William Faulkner, the Ring Lardner, the James Thurber, the Virginia Woolf of science fiction.”
—Jonathan Lethem

“The most literate and lyrical writer science fiction ever had.”
—Spider Robinson, from the afterword

Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985) was one of the most influential writers of the Golden Age of science fiction, and is ranked with classic contemporaries such as Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury, and Arthur C. Clarke. He received the International Fantasy Award for his novel More Than Human, which has been continuously in print since 1953, but is primarily known for his short stories. Sturgeon received both the Hugo and Nebula awards for his story “Slow Sculpture” (included in this volume) and was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

Sturgeon wrote several Star Trek episodes, one of which introduced the famous Vulcan hand greeting and the phrase “Live long and prosper.” James Blish wrote that Sturgeon was the “finest conscious artist science fiction ever produced.”

Sturgeon was a model for his friend Kurt Vonnegut’s memorable character Kilgore Trout, and his work was an acknowledged influence on important younger writers such as Harlan Ellison, Robert Silverberg, Brian W. Aldiss, Stephen King, Octavia Butler, and Jonathan Lethem, many of whom have written introductions for previous volumes of The Complete Stories of Theodore Sturgeon.

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