A.E. van Vogt & E. Mayne Hull Planets for Sale (1954)
Edna Mayne Hull was van Vogt's wife and secretary, in which capacity she apparently typed out a great many of his manuscripts. She also wrote her own science-fiction stories, mostly short, and with two novels to her name - although this one is actually a cluster of short stories bolted together as a fix-up. However, her actual authorship of this work is not undisputed. The general consensus seems to be that her husband added his name as a co-credit in the hope of generating sales by underscoring their association; and yet, it has been suggested that both Planets for Sale and The Winged Man were entirely his work.
It's been eight years since I read The Winged Man, and it was one of the first van Vogts I read. I recall it as a narrative suggestive of his involvement, but as I say it's been a while. The word on the proverbial street is that she wrote it and he tidied it up, or edited or something, and I don't recall anything to contradict this claim. Planets for Sale on the other hand is very clearly not the work of A.E. van Vogt, and anyone claiming otherwise really needs to read more van Vogt and pay attention to what he does. Aside from elements common to the work of a great many science-fiction writers of the fifties, this does nothing you might reasonably expect to find in a novel by Alfred Elton - none of the weirdly angular sentences, no dramatic random swerves, none of his common themes relating to general semantics or mind control, and certainly no trace of the dreamlike atmosphere which permeates his best work.
Planets for Sale is a story centered around the adventures of one of your typical Gernsback style science-heroes, but worse, he's actually a sort of science-business-hero, an interplanetary CEO who outwits them all in both the boardroom and on the field of combat as a host of secretaries stand around giggling about how terribly dishy he is. I have no idea what actually happened in this novel because it's one of the most boring, unimaginative things I've ever read; and there aren't actually any planets for sale anywhere in the story.
I know A.E. didn't always hit the bullseye, and truthfully some of his novels border on incomprehensible, but if you genuinely believe he could have written this, you're an idiot. That said, I believe we at least have an answer as to why he felt the need to slap his name on the cover.
Edna Mayne Hull was van Vogt's wife and secretary, in which capacity she apparently typed out a great many of his manuscripts. She also wrote her own science-fiction stories, mostly short, and with two novels to her name - although this one is actually a cluster of short stories bolted together as a fix-up. However, her actual authorship of this work is not undisputed. The general consensus seems to be that her husband added his name as a co-credit in the hope of generating sales by underscoring their association; and yet, it has been suggested that both Planets for Sale and The Winged Man were entirely his work.
It's been eight years since I read The Winged Man, and it was one of the first van Vogts I read. I recall it as a narrative suggestive of his involvement, but as I say it's been a while. The word on the proverbial street is that she wrote it and he tidied it up, or edited or something, and I don't recall anything to contradict this claim. Planets for Sale on the other hand is very clearly not the work of A.E. van Vogt, and anyone claiming otherwise really needs to read more van Vogt and pay attention to what he does. Aside from elements common to the work of a great many science-fiction writers of the fifties, this does nothing you might reasonably expect to find in a novel by Alfred Elton - none of the weirdly angular sentences, no dramatic random swerves, none of his common themes relating to general semantics or mind control, and certainly no trace of the dreamlike atmosphere which permeates his best work.
Planets for Sale is a story centered around the adventures of one of your typical Gernsback style science-heroes, but worse, he's actually a sort of science-business-hero, an interplanetary CEO who outwits them all in both the boardroom and on the field of combat as a host of secretaries stand around giggling about how terribly dishy he is. I have no idea what actually happened in this novel because it's one of the most boring, unimaginative things I've ever read; and there aren't actually any planets for sale anywhere in the story.
I know A.E. didn't always hit the bullseye, and truthfully some of his novels border on incomprehensible, but if you genuinely believe he could have written this, you're an idiot. That said, I believe we at least have an answer as to why he felt the need to slap his name on the cover.
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