QUARK/

Entry updated 23 October 2014. Tagged: Publication.

Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com

USOriginal-Anthology series from Paperback Library 1970-1971, edited by Samuel RDelany and the poet MarilynHacker – they were married 1961-1980 – and subtitled "A Quarterly of Speculative Fiction".QUARK/ was the most overtly experimental andNew-Wave of the anthology series of the early 1970s, and provoked some hostility in the sf world. It attempted an ambitious, graphically sophisticated package; but some of the illustration was substandard and the design tended to be irritating rather than innovative, with such counterproductive features as the appearance of authors' names only at the end of each story and, for the second volume (because of a production oversight), the omission of a contents page.QUARK/ (the slash is part of the title, which is always in capitals) featured good work by HilaryBailey, Thomas MDisch, R ALafferty, Ursula KLe Guin, JoannaRuss and LarryNiven whose rather out-of-place story "The Fourth Profession" (in the fourth and last volume) was nevertheless the one most sf fans praised. The series lasted only four quarterly issues:QUARK/1 (anth1970),QUARK/2 (anth1971),QUARK/3 (anth1971) andQUARK/4 (anth1971). It sold well, but the hostile critical reaction caused the publisher to close it down. [MJE/PN/MA]