''Tales from the White Hart'' is a collection of short stories by
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
writer
Arthur C. Clarke, in the "club tales" style.
Thirteen of the fifteen stories originally appeared across a number of different publications. "Moving Spirit" and "The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch" were first published in this book and hence presumably were written specifically for it. "The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch" rounds off the cycle of stories and explicitly mentions their book publication.
The
White Hart
The White Hart (" hart" being an archaic word for a mature stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who probably derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. It may also have been a ...
is a pub (modelled on the White Horse, New Fetter Lane, just north of
Fleet Street
Fleet Street is a major street mostly in the City of London. It runs west to east from Temple Bar at the boundary with the City of Westminster to Ludgate Circus at the site of the London Wall and the River Fleet from which the street was na ...
, once the weekly rendezvous of science fiction fans in London till the mid 50s, when they moved to the Globe pub in Hatton Garden) where a character named Harry Purvis tells a series of
tall tale
A tall tale is a story with unbelievable elements, related as if it were true and factual. Some tall tales are exaggerations of actual events, for example fish stories ("the fish that got away") such as, "That fish was so big, why I tell ya', it n ...
s. Incidental characters inhabiting the White Hart include science fiction writers
Samuel Youd
Sam Youd (16 April 1922 – 3 February 2012), was a British writer, best known for science fiction written under the name of John Christopher, including the novels ''The Death of Grass'', ''The Possessors'', and the young-adult novel series ...
(also known as John Christopher),
John Wyndham
John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...
(John Beynon), and Clarke himself in addition to the narrative voice as his pseudonym Charles Willis.
The style and nature of the stories was inspired by the
Jorkens
Joseph Jorkens (usually referred to simply as Jorkens) is the lead character in over 150 short stories written between 1925 and 1957 by the Irish author Lord Dunsany, noted for his fantasy short stories, fantastic plays, novels and other writin ...
stories of the writer
Lord Dunsany
Edward John Moreton Drax Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany (; 24 July 1878 – 25 October 1957, usually Lord Dunsany) was an Anglo-Irish writer and dramatist. Over 90 volumes of fiction, essays, poems and plays appeared in his lifetime.Lanham, M ...
, whom Clarke admired and with whom he corresponded, a fact humorously acknowledged by Clarke in his introduction to the first Jorkens omnibus volume.
According to Clarke's preface to the book, the book was his third collection of short stories, which were written between 1953 and 1957 in such diverse spots as New York, Miami, Colombo, London and Sydney.
One additional story from the White Hart 'universe', "
Let There Be Light
"Let there be light" is an English translation of the Hebrew (''yehi 'or'') found in Genesis 1:3 of the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew Bible. In Old Testament translations of the phrase, translations include the Greek phrase (''genēth ...
", is reprinted in ''Tales of Ten Worlds''.
Clarke and
Stephen Baxter collaborated on one final White Hart story, "Time, Gentlemen, Please" for a 2007 limited edition from
PS Publishing
PS Publishing is an independent book publisher based in Hornsea, UK.
Background
PS Publishing was founded in 1999 by Peter Crowther.[Let There Be Light
"Let there be light" is an English translation of the Hebrew (''yehi 'or'') found in Genesis 1:3 of the Torah, the first part of the Hebrew Bible. In Old Testament translations of the phrase, translations include the Greek phrase (''genēth ...](_ ...<br></span></div>, issued for the book's 50th anniversary. ()
" does not appear in that edition.)
Contents
The collection, originally published in paperback in 1957 by Ballantine Books, includes:
*Preface
*"
Silence Please"
*"
Big Game Hunt
"Big Game Hunt" is a science fiction short story by the British writer Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956. This story describes the efforts of an eccentric professor to study the electrical circuitry of the brain. Afte ...
"
*"
Patent Pending
"Patent pending" (sometimes abbreviated by "pat. pend." or "pat. pending") or "patent applied for" are legal designations or expressions that can be used in relation to a product or process once a patent application for the product or process ...
"
*"
Armaments Race
An arms race occurs when two or more groups compete in military superiority. It consists of a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and t ...
"
*"
Critical Mass
In nuclear engineering, a critical mass is the smallest amount of fissile material needed for a sustained nuclear chain reaction. The critical mass of a fissionable material depends upon its nuclear properties (specifically, its nuclear fissi ...
"
*"
The Ultimate Melody
"The Ultimate Melody" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1957. The story describes the work of a physiologist who attempts to discover the connections between music and the rhythms of th ...
"
*"
The Pacifist"
*"
The Next Tenants
''The Next Tenants'' is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956 and included in several collections of Clarke's writings, including '' Tales from Planet Earth'' and ''Tales from the White Hart''. ...
"
*"
Moving Spirit
"Moving Spirit" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1957. The story within a comic story is narrated by Harry Purvis, who is called to assist a scientist relative of his in a trial. The sci ...
"
*"
The Man Who Ploughed the Sea
"The Man Who Ploughed the Sea" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1957. The story within a story is narrated by Harry Purvis, who recalls a holiday spent submarining off of the Florida K ...
"
*"
The Reluctant Orchid
"The Reluctant Orchid" is a science fiction short story by British writer Arthur C. Clarke, first published in 1956, and later anthologized in'' Tales from the White Hart''. Like the rest of the collection, it is a frame story set in the fi ...
"
*"
Cold War
The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...
"
*"
What Goes Up"
*"
Sleeping Beauty
''Sleeping Beauty'' (french: La belle au bois dormant, or ''The Beauty in the Sleeping Forest''; german: Dornröschen, or ''Little Briar Rose''), also titled in English as ''The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods'', is a fairy tale about a princess cu ...
"
*"The Defenestration of Ermintrude Inch"
Reception
''Galaxy'' reviewer Floyd C. Gale praised the collection as "as light and frothy a conglomeration of sidesplitters as it has been my good fortune to read."
["Galaxy's 5 Star Shelf", '']Galaxy Science Fiction
''Galaxy Science Fiction'' was an American digest-size science fiction magazine, published in Boston from 1950 to 1980. It was founded by a French-Italian company, World Editions, which was looking to break into the American market. World Editi ...
'', June 1957, p.108
Citations
General sources
*
*
External links
*
{{Arthur C. Clarke
1957 short story collections
Ballantine Books books
White Hart
The White Hart (" hart" being an archaic word for a mature stag) was the personal badge of Richard II, who probably derived it from the arms of his mother, Joan "The Fair Maid of Kent", heiress of Edmund of Woodstock. It may also have been a ...
Short story collections by Arthur C. Clarke