Thank you to everyone who helped with this anthology through sharing information, engaging in discussion, or in other ways. In particular, thanks to our editor, Tim O’Connell, and to the rest of the crew at Vintage. Additional thanks to the likes of Matthew Cheney and Eric Schaller for their generosity with their time and knowledge of the field. Thank you to Adam Mills, Lawrence Schimel, Vida Cruz, Maxim Jakubowski, Anil Menon, Yoshio Kobayashi, Edward Gauvin, Jaroslav Olsa Jr., and Karin Tidbeck for additional research and to all the readers out there who have shared their favorite stories with us over the years.
Sadly, a good friend and an invaluable source of information on Russian and Ukrainian SF, Vladimir Zhenevsky, passed away last year, shortly after delivering his translation and research for author notes to us. Vlad was beloved by many and we will endeavor to ensure he is not forgotten. We consider him to be the patron saint of The Big Book of Science Fiction, along with Judith Merril, to whom we have dedicated this anthology.
We would also like to thank the editors, living and dead, who have worked tirelessly, out of a deep love of SF, to bring stories to readers through their magazines and anthologies. Any list is of necessity incomplete, but in particular we would like to acknowledge the work of Judith Merril, David G. Hartwell, Franz Rottensteiner, Damon Knight, Donald A. Wollheim, Terry Carr, Grania Davis, John Joseph Adams, Ellen Datlow, Frederik Pohl, Alisa Krasnostein, Groff Conklin, Cristina Jurado, Robert Silverberg, Isaac Asimov, Jonathan Strahan, Harlan Ellison, Hugo Gernsback, Michael Moorcock, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Terri Windling, Sheila Williams, Sheree R. Thomas, Alberto Manguel, Gardner Dozois, and Gordon Van Gelder.
We owe a deep debt of gratitude to all our translators, who helped bring new stories or new translations into the public eye. Thank you Daniel Ableev, John Chu, Gio Clairval, Brian Evenson, Sarah Kassem, Larry Nolen, James Womack, Marian Womack, and Vlad Zhenevsky. We would also like to acknowledge the other translators of stories acquired in their original English-language form and all translators—past, present, and future—who, although not always recognized, continue to meet the challenge of presenting wonderful fiction written by others to a new audience of appreciative readers.
This book would not have been possible without the assistance, guidance, support, and love of the genre of several people we want to thank: Jason Sanford, John Glover, Dominik Parisien, Richard Scott, Fábio Fernandes, Merrilee Heifetz, Ken Liu, Lauren Rogoff, Vaughne Hansen, and Sara Kramer. We also want to acknowledge Bud Webster’s assistance over the years in tracking down estates of writers. We are saddened deeply by his recent passing. We are also at a loss over the death of David G. Hartwell. We spent many hours together arguing about and sharing our love of fiction. He was generous with his time, and he will be sorely missed by many.
It is impossible to list everyone, but know that even if you are not named here, we appreciate your contribution.
Finally, thanks to our intrepid agent, Sally Harding, and everyone at the Cooke Agency.