Ralph Banks editor of Popular Crafts Monthly, was a short stocky man with a round pink face, a crisp crew cut, an intensely energetic manner. When a letter from the Smithsonian Institute came across his desk it caught his attention, A Practical Man's Guide by Jack Vance, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast.

John Holbrook Vance, better known as Jack Vance, was born and raised in California. Vance struggled to make ends meet as a young man and worked a number of jobs to survive, a bell-hop, in a cannery, and on a gold dredge, before entering the University of California, Berkeley where he studied mining engineering, physics, journalism and English. He worked for a while as an electrician in the naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He left that job about a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

He started writing science fiction in the 1940s and his first published story was “The World-Thinker” in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the summer of 1945. He would go on to write about 50 short stories in the 40s, 50s and 60s and numerous novels.

Our story written by the highly acclaimed author is featured in the second edition of Space Science Fiction Magazine, Volume 1 Number 2 in August 1957. And there would be no more Space Science Fiction Magazine. Two issues and that’s it. If you’re interested, you can pick up a copy of the August 57 Space Science Fiction Magazine on Ebay for $35. Turn to page 102 for A Practical Man's Guide by Jack Vance...