Imagine

Look at this first...


No, probably not. But it's an intriguing thought, isn't it?

Henry Hasse published a story in the August 1936 edition of Amazing Stories magazine entitled He Who Shrank. If you haven't read it, you can track it down in one of several anthologies, specifically Before the Golden Age and Giants, both compiled by Issac Asimov.

He Who Shrank was one of the very earliest stories that I read for my own enjoyment, (if I remember correctly, in fact, Before the Golden Age was the first book my father ever handed to me), and it sparked my imagination in a way nothing else had ever done. The long-term impact that story had on my developing young mind is impossible to calculate.

Over the twenty-eight years that followed, I have read thousands of science fiction stories--some good, some not--but that one still stands out in my mind as the first story that made me stop and simply... ponder. Consider possibilities. And it made me ravenous for more such stories. That is a priceless gift; the only way to express thanks for such a gift is to pass it on.