Last and First Tales - by Samuel R Delany (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Sci-fi Grand Master Samuel R. Delany presents a career and genre-spanning anthology of stories: innovative, erotic, provocative, and unforgettable.

From the publication of his first novel The Jewels of Aptor to his 1975 bestseller Dhalgren and beyond, Samuel R. Delany has been a fearless and unique figure in American letters. Curated by the author, Last and First Tales gathers Delany's twenty-first century short fiction alongside previously unavailable work dating back to his earliest, startlingly precocious experiments in prose. Here you will find queer sexual awakenings; a future in which race and gender have evolved in strange new ways; newly emended versions of Delany's classic stories; and myriad other reminiscences, inquiries, and transgressions.

As Junot Diaz writes in his foreword, "In Last and First Tales a reader will find the entire breadth of Delany's remarkable sixty-five-plus-year oeuvre. All the singularities of talent, of insight, of compassion, all the rigorous intellectual and aesthetic surveys, the endless restless erudition and curiosity . . . I can think of no better survey of the labyrinth that is Delany's work."

Review Quotes

Praise for Samuel R. Delany

Named an SFWA Grand Master of Science Fiction
Winner of the 2022 World Fantasy Award
Winner of the 2021 Anisfield-Wolf Award
Winner of the 2008 Stonewall Book Award
Winner of the 1970 and 1989 Hugo Award
Winner of the 1966, 1967, and 1968 Nebula Award

"The most interesting writer of science fiction writing in English today." --The New York Times Book Review

"Delany's prismatic output is among the most significant, immense and innovative in American letters." --Jordy Rosenberg, The New York Times

"Delany has a fearsomely stocked intellect, and a wider range of experience than most writers can even imagine. . . . He is brilliant, driven, prolific." --The Nation

"Immensely sophisticated as literature . . . eminently readable and gorgeously entertaining." --Washington Post Book World

"In Delany, each work is in dialogue with the next, the fiction illuminating the nonfiction, which in turn re-illuminates the fiction." --Kenneth R. James, Tor

"Samuel R. Delany . . . is the best science-fiction writer in the world." --A.J. Budrys, Galaxy Magazine

"In his novels, criticism, [and] letters, Samuel R. Delany left an indelible mark upon the last century, and there's little doubt he'll continue to do the same in the present one." --Elizabeth Hand, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction

"The wit, sensitivity, penetration, playfulness and the incandescent intelligence . . . characterize Delany and his extraordinary work." --Junot Díaz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

"Samuel R. Delany [is] one of the most important literary figures of our time." --Nisi Shawl, author of Everfair

About the Author

In 2016, Samuel R. Delany was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame. Filmmaker, novelist, and critic, he is the author of the award-winning books Babel-17 and Dark Reflections, as well as Nova, Dhalgren, and the Return to Nevèrÿon series. A retired professor, he lives in Philadelphia with his partner Dennis.