Ralph Banks editor of Popular Crafts Monthly, was a short stocky man with a round pink face, a crisp crew cut, an intensely energetic manner.

When a letter from the Smithsonian Institute came across his desk it caught his attention, A Practical Man's Guide by Jack Vance, that’s next on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.

Thanks to K Vomer for another 5-star rating and review on Apple Podcasts, “Very enjoyable! Lots of vintage sci-fi stories! Love the narrator’s voice. Also – he gives a little snippet about the history of the writer or what magazine it came from. It’s fun to hear what people have imagined for the future and what life on other planets would be like. Double thumbs up!” Thanks K Vomer! Your reviews and ratings are always appreciated.

John Holbrook Vance, better known as Jack Vance, was born and raised in California. Vance struggled to make ends meet as a young man and worked a number of jobs to survive, a bell-hop, in a cannery, and on a gold dredge, before entering the University of California, Berkeley where he studied mining engineering, physics, journalism and English. He worked for a while as an electrician in the naval shipyards at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. He left that job about a month before the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.

He started writing science fiction in the 1940s and his first published story was “The World-Thinker” in Thrilling Wonder Stories in the summer of 1945. He would go on to write about 50 short stories in the 40s, 50s and 60s and numerous novels.

One of his best-known titles, “The Dying Earth”, began as a collection of short stories in 1950 and eventually expanded to become a whole series of books set in a far-off future. He won numerous awards: among them three Hugo awards, a Nebula and a World Fantasy award for lifetime achievement. In 1997 he was made a Grand Master of sci-fi, by the ScienceFiction Writers of America.

A 2009 profile in the New York Times Magazine described Vance as "one of American literature’s most distinctive and undervalued voices."

Our story written by the highly acclaimed author is featured in the second edition of Space Science Fiction Magazine, Volume 1 Number 2 in August 1957. And there would be no more Space Science Fiction Magazine. Two issues and that’s it. If you’re interested, you can pick up a copy of the August 57 Space Science Fiction Magazine on Ebay for $35.

Turn to page 102 for A Practical Man's Guide by Jack Vance...

Next week on The Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, Wives always try to cure husbands of bad habits, even on lonely asteroids! The Addicts by William Morrison.

That’s next week onThe Lost Sci-Fi Podcast, with at least one lost vintage sci-fi short story in every episode.

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