A Martian Odyssey and Others is a collection of science fiction short stories by author Stanley G. Weinbaum. It was first published in 1949 by Fantasy Press in an edition of 3,158 copies. The stories originally appeared in the magazines Wonder Stories, Astounding and Thrilling Wonder Stories. The book you hold in your hands is a bit of that specialness.

Stanley G. Weinbaum is a figure who looms large in the history of SF: years before John W. Campbell began editing Astounding, he was writing stories that had much the same appeal. He came, in a real sense, out of nowhere – not literally, but close to it. Most of the folks writing SF in the first years of the genre were folks who’d write any sort of pulp fiction for the pulps: westerns today, confessions tomorrow, mysteries on Thursdays, and oh, yes, scientificition on weekends. Weinbaum started out trying to be a writer of that stripe – he managed to publish a women’s serial called The Lady Dances through the King-Features newspaper syndicate in 1933, as Marge Stanley. A serial that’s never been reprinted, much to universal regret.

But when the weekend came and he tried his hand at SF, something special happened… .