Five Lost Sci-Fi Short Stories from the 1950s

The Hanging Stranger written by Philip K. Dick Ed had always been a practical man, when he saw something was wrong he tried to correct it. Then one day he saw it hanging in the town square. From the lamppost something was hanging. A shapeless dark bundle, swinging a little with the wind. Like a dummy of some sort. What the hell was it?

The Water Eater written by Winston Marks Most experiments were dropped because they failed--and some because they worked too well! I just lost a weekend. I ain't too anxious to find it. Instead of fishing or bowling or poker or taking the kids down to the amusement park over Saturday and Sunday, I've been losing sleep over an experiment.

Death Star written by James McKimmy Jr. For twenty long unholy years Hurtz, the pilot, dreamed of retirement ... and found his "acre of heaven" on a Death Star. Hurtz went through the automatic motions of preparing himself for their landing on the small unnamed planet, but each thing he did was a wasted motion because it was really the boy, Jones, who was going to put the rocket down.

The Mind Digger written by Winston Marks There was a reason why his scripts were smash hits--they had realism. And why not? He was reliving every scene and emotion in them! The ream of neatly typed pages on my desk would have fooled any agent, editor or producer like myself, on Broadway.

The Martians and The Coys written by Mack Reynolds Lem didn't like guarding the still while Paw and the boys went feuding. He wanted to get a shot at some Martins too! Yup, he sure did... We proceeded with care toward the clearing on the edge of which our scouts had detected the Earthlings, and carefully approached from behind the one specimen we saw there.

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