Let The Ants Try by Frederik Pohl Episode #20

You’ve heard of the man who had everything, well today’s author is the man who did everything! He accomplished far more in his life than most, yet he was a high school dropout. Born in November 1919 in New York, as is often the case, this science fiction author started out as a sci-fi fan. Along with Isaac Asimov, C.M. Kornbluth, and others he formed a group known as the Futurians which broke off from the Greater New York Science Fiction Club. The author once said and I quote, “We changed clubs the way Detroit changes tailfins, every year had a new one, and last year’s was junk.” He would form lasting relationships with members of the group and many of them rose to sci-fi success. 

Frederik Pohl’s work was first published in 1937 and he began his career as a literary agent that same year. He was Isaac Asimov’s agent, the only one he ever had, then he started editing not one, but two magazines, Astonishing Stories and Super Science Stories. He was only 20! His stories often appeared in these magazines but never under his own name. Stories he wrote with C.M. Kornbluth were credited to S. D. Gottesman or Scott Mariner, other stories were credited to Paul Dennis Lavond or, as is the case with today’s story James MacCreigh. 

Let’s go back in time more than 72 years ago to the pages of Planet Stories magazine and listen to the words from a Sci-Fi Superstar, Let The Ants Try by Frederic Pohl…

Listen to Let the Ants Try