Damon Knight : Orbit


science fiction awards database
Paperback Authorities <— Anthologies —> Carr: Anthologies

In 1966, Damon Knight -- an established author and critic since the 1950s, and editor of reprint anthologies since 1962 -- launched Orbit, with plans to publish two volumes a year. Knight's introduction states, "all I had in mind was to try to put together a collection of unpublished stories good enough to stand beside an anthology of classic science fiction." Early volumes had brief story introductions, but by volume 5 the stories were presented without any editorial adornments. The series ran 13 volumes in hardcover from Putnam's with paperback reprints from Berkeley, all but the first with abstract Paul Lehr cover art. With volume 12 biographical notes on the authors reappeared, collected into an "Arcs & Secants" section at the end.

The series changed publishers to Harper & Row with volume 14, and additional features appeared: book reviews and sections called "They Say" and "The Memory Machine" that quoted essays or stories without comment. Without paperback editions, Knight explains in his farewell introduction to volume 21, the series was unprofitable and finally expired. That same farewell reflects on the series' ambitions, the authors he discovered and the stories that won awards, and also some famous stories that he had rejected, perhaps to his regret.

Orbit published science fiction more literary, and often subtle or indirect, compared to what the magazines were publishing in the mid-1960s; by the time the series ended, the New Wave had come and gone and the field had grown more diverse.

Knight frequently published several favorite authors, including R.A. Lafferty ("All Pieces of a River Shore," "Continued on Next Rock"), his wife Kate Wilhelm (Nebula-winner "The Planners," "Baby, You Were Great," "Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang"), and Gene Wolfe ("The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories," "The Fifth Head of Cerberus," "Seven American Nights"). Nebulas also went to Richard McKenna's "The Secret Place," Robert Silverberg's "Passengers," and Richard Wilson's "Mother to the World."

Most included authors: R.A. Lafferty and Kate Wilhelm (19 each), Gene Wolfe (18), James Sallis (9), then Brian W. Aldiss, Gardner Dozois, and Joanna Russ (6 each).

  • Orbit 1, (Putnam's, 1966) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 2, (Putnam's, 1967) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 3, (Putnam's, 1968) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 4, (Putnam's, 1968) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 5, (Putnam's, 1969) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 6, (Putnam's, 1970) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 7, (Putnam's, 1970) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 8, (Putnam's, 1970) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 9, (Putnam's, 1971) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 10, (Putnam's, 1972) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 11, (Putnam's, 1973) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 12, (Putnam's, 1973) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 13, (Putnam's, 1974) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 14, (Harper & Row, 1974) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 15, (Harper & Row, 1974) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 16, (Harper & Row, 1975) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 17, (Harper & Row, 1975) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 18, (Harper & Row, 1976) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 19, (Harper & Row, 1977) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 20, (Harper & Row, 1978) [isfdb]
  • Orbit 21, (Harper & Row, 1980) [isfdb]



Combined Contents by Author and Title


Brian W. Aldiss
  • Castle Scene with Penitents -- Vol. #12
  • Full Sun -- Vol. #2
  • Live? Our Computers Will Do That for Us -- Vol. #15
  • Serpent Burning on an Altar -- Vol. #12
  • Woman in Sunlight with Mandolin -- Vol. #12
  • The Young Soldier's Horoscope -- Vol. #12
  • Poul Anderson
  • Home -- Vol. #1
  • Eleanor Arnason
  • Ace 167 -- Vol. #15
  • Going Down -- Vol. #19
  • The House by the Sea -- Vol. #16
  • Charles Arnold
  • Spring Came to Blue Ridge Early This Year -- Vol. #13
  • John Barfoot
  • Chrystallization of the Myth -- Vol. #11
  • Coils -- Vol. #13
  • House -- Vol. #17
  • The Smell of the Noose, The Roar of the Blood -- Vol. #21
  • C. Davis Belcher
  • The Price -- Vol. #5
  • Richard Bireley
  • Binary Justice -- Vol. #16
  • Michael Bishop
  • In the Lilliputian Asylum: A Story in Eight Poems & an Introduction -- Vol. #15
  • The Windows in Dante's Hell -- Vol. #12
  • James Blish
  • How Beautiful with Banners -- Vol. #1
  • Terrence L. Brown
  • The Synergy Sculpture -- Vol. #20
  • Edward Bryant
  • Dune's Edge -- Vol. #11
  • Going West -- Vol. #13
  • Jody After the War -- Vol. #10
  • Pinup -- Vol. #12
  • Shark -- Vol. #12
  • Doris Pitkin Buck
  • Why They Mobbed the White House -- Vol. #3
  • Carol Carr
  • Inside -- Vol. #8
  • Look, You Think You've Got Troubles -- Vol. #5
  • Stepan Chapman
  • Autopsy in Transit -- Vol. #17
  • Burger Creature -- Vol. #12
  • A Right-Handed Wrist -- Vol. #20
  • Troika -- Vol. #13
  • Graham Charnock
  • The Chinese Boxes -- Vol. #8
  • Michael Conner
  • Vamp -- Vol. #19
  • Jean Cox
  • Fame -- Vol. #6
  • Ronald Anthony Cross
  • The Birds Are Free -- Vol. #20
  • John M. Curlovich
  • Quite Late One Spring Night -- Vol. #17
  • Jack Dann
  • The Drum Lollipop -- Vol. #11
  • Whirl Cage -- Vol. #10
  • Avram Davidson
  • Goslin Day -- Vol. #6
  • Rite of Spring -- Vol. #8
  • The Roads, the Roads, the Beautiful Roads -- Vol. #5
  • Grania Davis
  • Young Love -- Vol. #13
  • Hank Davis
  • To Plant a Seed -- Vol. #11
  • Thomas M. Disch
  • 5 Eggs -- Vol. #1
  • The Asian Shore -- Vol. #6
  • The Pressure of Time -- Vol. #7
  • Sonya Dorman
  • The Living End -- Vol. #7
  • Splice of Life -- Vol. #1
  • Time Bind -- Vol. #13
  • Gardner Dozois
  • A Dream at Noonday -- Vol. #7
  • Flash Point -- Vol. #13
  • Horse of Air -- Vol. #8
  • A Kingdom by the Sea -- Vol. #10
  • Machines of Loving Grace -- Vol. #11
  • Where No Sun Shines -- Vol. #6
  • Jeff Duntemann
  • The Steel Sonnets -- Vol. #17
  • Stuart Dybek
  • The Maze -- Vol. #17
  • George Alec Effinger
  • Biting Down Hard on Truth -- Vol. #15
  • Live, from Berchtesgaden -- Vol. #10
  • Things Go Better -- Vol. #11
  • Gordon Eklund
  • The Mother of the Beast -- Vol. #21
  • Harlan Ellison
  • One Life, Furnished in Early Poverty -- Vol. #8
  • Shattered Like a Glass Goblin -- Vol. #4
  • Raymond G. Embrak
  • Underwood and the Slaughterhouse -- Vol. #21
  • Carol Emshwiller
  • Abominable -- Vol. #21
  • Al -- Vol. #10
  • Animal -- Vol. #4
  • Debut -- Vol. #6
  • Woman Waiting -- Vol. #7
  • Dennis Etchison
  • Black Sun -- Vol. #13
  • Philip José Farmer
  • Don't Wash the Carats -- Vol. #3
  • Father's in the Basement -- Vol. #11
  • Moshe Feder
  • Sandial -- Vol. #16
  • Lelia Rose Foreman
  • Hope -- Vol. #21
  • Mel Gilden
  • What's the Matter with Herbie? -- Vol. #12
  • Felix C. Gotschalk
  • The Family Winter of 1986 -- Vol. #18
  • The Man with the Golden Reticulates -- Vol. #17
  • The Veil Over the River -- Vol. #19
  • Charles L. Grant
  • Everybody a Winner, the Barker Cried -- Vol. #13
  • In Donovan's Time -- Vol. #16
  • The Summer of the Irish Sea -- Vol. #11
  • Joe Haldeman
  • Counterpoint -- Vol. #11
  • Charles L. Harness
  • Probable Cause -- Vol. #4
  • Rita-elizabeth Harper
  • The Survivors -- Vol. #21
  • Gustav Hasford
  • Heartland -- Vol. #16
  • Steve Herbst
  • Creation of a Future World in the Tracer -- Vol. #13
  • Old Soul -- Vol. #11
  • Richard Hill
  • To Sport with Amaryllis -- Vol. #7
  • Lee Hoffman
  • Lost in the Marigolds (by LH & Robert E. Toomey, Jr.) -- Vol. #9
  • Liz Hufford
  • Tablets of Stone -- Vol. #8
  • John Jakes
  • Here Is Thy Sting -- Vol. #3
  • Langdon Jones
  • The Time Machine -- Vol. #5
  • Richard Kearns
  • Love, Death, Time, and Katie -- Vol. #21
  • Virginia Kidd
  • Flowering Season -- Vol. #1
  • R. A. Lafferty
  • All Pieces of a River Shore -- Vol. #8
  • And Name My Name -- Vol. #13
  • Bright Coins in Never-Ending Stream -- Vol. #20
  • Configuration of the North Shore -- Vol. #5
  • Continued on Next Rock -- Vol. #7
  • Dorg -- Vol. #10
  • Entire and Perfect Chrysolite -- Vol. #6
  • Fall of Pebble-Stones -- Vol. #19
  • Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread -- Vol. #15
  • Great Day in the Morning -- Vol. #17
  • The Hand with One Hundred Fingers -- Vol. #18
  • The Hole on the Corner -- Vol. #2
  • Interurban Queen -- Vol. #8
  • Old Foot Forgot -- Vol. #7
  • One at a Time -- Vol. #4
  • The Only Tune That He Could Play -- Vol. #21
  • Royal Licorice -- Vol. #14
  • The Skinny People of Leptophlebo Street -- Vol. #16
  • When All the Lands Pour Out Again -- Vol. #9
  • Philip Latham
  • The Dimple in Draco -- Vol. #2
  • The Rose Bowl—Pluto Hypothesis -- Vol. #5
  • Keith Laumer
  • In the Queue -- Vol. #7
  • Ursula K. Le Guin
  • Direction of the Road -- Vol. #12
  • The End -- Vol. #6
  • The Stars Below -- Vol. #14
  • Winter's King -- Vol. #5
  • Wallace MacFarlane
  • Gardening Notes from All Over -- Vol. #13
  • The Last Leaf -- Vol. #9
  • Philippa C. Maddern
  • "They Made Us Not to Be and They Are Not" -- Vol. #20
  • Robert E. Margroff
  • The Book (by REM & andrew j. offutt) -- Vol. #8
  • George R. R. Martin
  • Meathouse Man -- Vol. #18
  • Michael Mcclintock
  • Under Jupiter -- Vol. #19
  • Seth Mcevoy
  • Which in the Wood Decays -- Vol. #17
  • Vonda N. McIntyre
  • The Genius Freaks -- Vol. #12
  • Spectra -- Vol. #11
  • Richard McKenna
  • Bramble Bush -- Vol. #3
  • Fiddler's Green -- Vol. #2
  • The Secret Place -- Vol. #1
  • Jeff Millar
  • Toto, I Have a Feeling We're Not in Kansas Anymore -- Vol. #17
  • Jesse Miller
  • Phoenix House -- Vol. #16
  • Raylyn Moore
  • Fun Palace -- Vol. #17
  • A Modular Story -- Vol. #18
  • Kris Neville
  • Dominant Species -- Vol. #9
  • Kevin O'Donnell, Jr.
  • Night Shift -- Vol. #19
  • andrew j. offutt
  • The Book (by Robert E. Margroff & ajo) -- Vol. #8
  • William F. Orr
  • Euclid Alone -- Vol. #16
  • The Mouth Is for Eating -- Vol. #13
  • Alexei Panshin
  • Now I'm Watching Roger -- Vol. #10
  • Richard Peck
  • Gantlet -- Vol. #10
  • Doris Piserchia
  • A Brilliant Curiosity -- Vol. #16
  • Half the Kingdom -- Vol. #12
  • Idio -- Vol. #13
  • Naked and Afraid I Go -- Vol. #13
  • Pale Hands -- Vol. #15
  • Henry-luc Planchat
  • Prison of Clay, Prison of Steel -- Vol. #16
  • Charles Platt
  • New York Times -- Vol. #11
  • Frederik Pohl
  • I Remember a Winter -- Vol. #11
  • Tom Reamy
  • Under the Hollywood Sign -- Vol. #17
  • Kit Reed
  • Across the Bar -- Vol. #9
  • The Food Farm -- Vol. #2
  • Winston -- Vol. #5
  • Allison Rice
  • The Loolies Are Here -- Vol. #1
  • Keith Roberts
  • The Deeps -- Vol. #1
  • Stephen Robinett
  • Tomus -- Vol. #19
  • Kim Stanley Robinson
  • Coming Back to Dixieland -- Vol. #18
  • The Disguise -- Vol. #19
  • In Pierson's Orchestra -- Vol. #18
  • On the North Pole of Pluto -- Vol. #21
  • Grace Rooney
  • Teeth -- Vol. #13
  • Eileen Roy
  • The Greening -- Vol. #21
  • Joanna Russ
  • The Barbarian -- Vol. #3
  • Bluestocking -- Vol. #2
  • Gleepsite -- Vol. #9
  • I Thought She Was Afeared Till She Stroked My Beard -- Vol. #2
  • Reasonable People -- Vol. #14
  • The Second Inquisition -- Vol. #6
  • James Sallis
  • Binaries -- Vol. #9
  • The Creation of Bennie Good -- Vol. #6
  • Doucement, S'il Vous Plaît -- Vol. #11
  • A Few Last Words -- Vol. #4
  • The History Makers -- Vol. #5
  • Jim and Mary G -- Vol. #7
  • Letter to a Young Poet -- Vol. #3
  • My Friend Zarathustra -- Vol. #13
  • Only the Words Are Diferent -- Vol. #9
  • Pamela Sargent
  • The Novella Race -- Vol. #20
  • Josephine Saxton
  • Heads Africa Tails America -- Vol. #9
  • Carter Scholz
  • The Eve of the Last Apollo -- Vol. #18
  • Lyn Schumaker
  • And the TV Changed Colors When She Spoke -- Vol. #21
  • Robin Scott
  • Maybe Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, Was a Little Bit Right -- Vol. #6
  • Sydelle Shamah
  • Robert Fraser: The Xenologist as Hero -- Vol. #21
  • Kathleen M. Sidney
  • The Anthropologist -- Vol. #17
  • The Teacher -- Vol. #18
  • Robert Silverberg
  • Passengers -- Vol. #4
  • David J. Skal
  • Ambience -- Vol. #16
  • They Cope -- Vol. #11
  • When We Were Good -- Vol. #17
  • Lowell Kent Smith
  • Ernie -- Vol. #15
  • Norman Spinrad
  • The Big Flash -- Vol. #5
  • Leon E. Stover
  • What We Have Here Is Too Much Communication -- Vol. #9
  • Craig Strete
  • Who Was the First Oscar to Win a Negro? -- Vol. #18
  • Phillip Teich
  • Beings of Game P-U -- Vol. #19
  • Albert R. Teichner
  • Christlings -- Vol. #10
  • Fantasy's Profession -- Vol. #13
  • Theodore Thomas
  • The Doctor -- Vol. #2
  • The Weather on the Sun -- Vol. #8
  • Roderick Thorp
  • Sunburst -- Vol. #6
  • Robert Thurston
  • Good-Bye, Shelley, Shirley, Charlotte, Charlene -- Vol. #11
  • Jack and Betty -- Vol. #16
  • Punchline -- Vol. #9
  • Robert E. Toomey, Jr.
  • Lost in the Marigolds (by Lee Hoffman & RET) -- Vol. #9
  • Jacob Transue
  • This Corruptible -- Vol. #4
  • John Varley
  • Lollipop and the Tar Baby -- Vol. #19
  • The M&M Seen as a Low-Yield Thermonuclear Device -- Vol. #18
  • Rhondi Vilott
  • Persephone -- Vol. #21
  • Joan D. Vinge
  • Mother and Child -- Vol. #16
  • Tin Soldier -- Vol. #14
  • Vernor Vinge
  • The Impostor Queen -- Vol. #4
  • The Science Fair -- Vol. #9
  • Howard Waldrop
  • Mary Margaret Road-Grader -- Vol. #18
  • Edward Wellen
  • Down by the Old Maelstrom -- Vol. #11
  • Thom Lee Wharton
  • The Bystander -- Vol. #8
  • Kate Wilhelm
  • April Fool's Day Forever -- Vol. #7
  • Baby, You Were Great -- Vol. #2
  • A Brother to Dragons, a Companion of Owls -- Vol. #14
  • The Chosen -- Vol. #6
  • A Cold Dark Night with Snow -- Vol. #6
  • The Encounter -- Vol. #8
  • The Fusion Bomb -- Vol. #10
  • The Infinity Box -- Vol. #9
  • Ladies and Gentlemen, This Is Your Crisis -- Vol. #18
  • Moongate -- Vol. #20
  • On the Road to Honeyville -- Vol. #11
  • The Planners -- Vol. #3
  • The Red Canary -- Vol. #12
  • The Scream -- Vol. #13
  • Somerset Dreams -- Vol. #5
  • Staras Flonderans -- Vol. #1
  • State of Grace -- Vol. #19
  • Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang -- Vol. #15
  • Windsong -- Vol. #4
  • Richard Wilson
  • Mother to the World -- Vol. #3
  • Pip Winn
  • Right Off the Map -- Vol. #8
  • Gary K. Wolf
  • The Bridge Builder -- Vol. #14
  • Dissolve -- Vol. #11
  • Therapy -- Vol. #13
  • Gene Wolfe
  • Alien Stones -- Vol. #11
  • The Changeling -- Vol. #3
  • Continuing Westward -- Vol. #12
  • Eyebem -- Vol. #7
  • The Fifth Head of Cerberus -- Vol. #10
  • Forlesen -- Vol. #14
  • How the Whip Came Back -- Vol. #6
  • The Island of Doctor Death and Other Stories -- Vol. #7
  • Many Mansions -- Vol. #19
  • Melting -- Vol. #15
  • A Method Bit in "B" -- Vol. #8
  • Paul's Treehouse -- Vol. #5
  • Remembrance to Come -- Vol. #6
  • Seven American Nights -- Vol. #20
  • Sonya, Crane Wessleman, and Kittee -- Vol. #8
  • To the Dark Tower Came -- Vol. #19
  • The Toy Theater -- Vol. #9
  • Trip, Trap -- Vol. #2
  • Murray F. Yaco
  • Winning of the Great American Greening Revolution -- Vol. #14
  • Robert F. Young
  • Starscape with Frieze of Dreams -- Vol. #8

  • Copyright 2012 - 2024 by Mark R. Kelly and the Locus Science Fiction Foundation. All rights reserved.
    This page last updated Thursday 3 Sep 2020 at 10:23 PT