Road to Science Fiction: From Gilgamesh to Wells

James Gunn is Emeritus Professor of English at University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS.

...provides one of the most comprehensive views of the field and should be required reading for all students of sf. It has withstood the test of time, with classic stories....Gunn's headnotes and introductions remain provocative, even years later. The Road to Science Fiction can be read as an historical document, one that says much about Gunn, his mind, and his take on sf as it does about the state of sf from its roots to its full maturity as a genre.

• Chapter 1 IntroductionChapter 2 The First Voyage to the MoonChapter 3 From A True Story—by Lucian of SamosataChapter 4 Strange Creatures and Far TravelingChapter 5 From The Voyages and Travels of Sir John Mandeville—AnonymousChapter 6 The Good Place That Is No PlaceChapter 7 From Utopia—by Thomas MoreChapter 8 The New Science and the Old ReligionChapter 9 From The City of the Sun—by Tommaso CampanellaChapter 10 Experience, Experiment, and the Battle for Men's MindsChapter 11 From The New Atlantisby Francis BaconChapter 12 A New Look at the Heavens and Another Trip to the MoonChapter 13 Somnium, or Lunar Astronomy—by Johannes KeplerChapter 14 Commuting to the MoonChapter 15 From A Voyage to the Moon—by Cyrano de BergeracChapter 16 The Age of Reason and the Voice of DissentChapter 17 From "A Voyage to Laputa"—by Jonathan SwiftChapter 18 Imaginary Voyages in the Other DirectionChapter 19 From The Journey to the World Underground—by Ludvig HolbergChapter 20 Visitors From SpaceChapter 21 Micromegas—by Francois Marie Arouet de VoltaireChapter 22 Science and Literature: When Worlds CollideChapter 23 FromFrankenstein—by Mary ShelleyChapter 24 Science as SymbolChapter 25 Rappaccini's Daughter—by Nathaniel HawthorneChapter 26 Anticipations of the FutureChapter 27 Mellonta Tauta—by Edgar Allen PoeChapter 28 Expanding the VisionChapter 29 The Diamond Lens—by Fitz-James O'BrienChapter 30 The Indispensable FrenchmanChapter 31 From Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the SeaChapter 32 From Around the Moon—by Jules VerneChapter 33 Lost Civilizations and Ancient KnowledgeChapter 34 From She—by H. Rider HaggardChapter 35 The New FrontierChapter 36 From Looking Backward—by Edward BellamyChapter 37 New Magazines, New Readers, New WritersChapter 38 The Damned Thing—by Ambrose BierceChapter 39 A Flying StartChapter 40 With the Night Mail—by Rudyard KiplingChapter 41 The Father of Modern Science FictionChapter 42 The Star—by H.G. WellsChapter 43 About the Editor