Picture Bride

Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.2

Word count: 9.6K words
Chapters: 1

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Picture Bride by Joseph SamachsonAuthor: Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 23, 2016

Editor's review

Picture Bride is a short work by Joseph Samachson, released free of charge by Project Gutenberg. Samachson was a biochemist by profession who also wrote science fiction for pulp magazines, a background that often lends his stories a concern with human nature and emotion beneath their strange premises. Judging from the title and the author's consistent creative bent, this piece belongs to the fantasy strand of American popular literature: a short, tightly paced story that serves as a good entry point into the shape of mid-twentieth-century English-language genre fiction. The Gutenberg edition is an English-language ebook, so the barrier to reading lies in the language rather than the length. It is best suited to extensive reading practice in English, or as a case study for research on early science fiction and pulp magazine literature. Because the text is brief, readers should not expect an expansive world-building; instead, pay attention to how the author completes the setup and the twist within a limited space.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy mid-twentieth-century English-language short science fiction and fantasy
Intermediate to advanced English learners who want to practice extensive reading with short original English texts
Students or enthusiasts studying American pulp magazine literature and the early development of science fiction
Readers accustomed to reading free public-domain English books on e-readers

Not a good fit for

Deep science fiction readers seeking a full-length novel with expansive world-building
Beginners who still find English reading difficult and need Chinese comparison or annotations
Readers who prefer contemporary themes and recent works

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the plot direction, then go back to the setup details at the beginning to appreciate how the author plants clues.
Mark unfamiliar words but don't look up every one; after finishing a section, deal with the key words that affect comprehension.
Read it alongside other short stories from the same period collected by Project Gutenberg to observe common features of pulp magazine writing.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a short story?

According to Project Gutenberg's catalog information, this is a short work by Samachson; the ebook is small and can usually be finished in one or two hours, suitable for fragmented time or a single sitting.

How difficult is the English?

The text is mid-twentieth-century English popular fiction. The sentence structures are not complex, but it includes colloquial expressions and some period-specific vocabulary. Readers with college-level English reading ability who are used to reading original short stories should generally get through it smoothly.

Why are the author's birth and death years listed in the author information?

Project Gutenberg's cataloging of public-domain books lists authors' birth and death years; this is standard information for verifying copyright status and author identity, helping readers and researchers locate authors accurately in bibliographic systems.

Is it suitable for studying the history of science fiction?

It can serve as supplementary material. Samachson belongs to the group of authors who published in pulp magazines; this piece is short and suitable as a case study, but one short story alone is not enough to draw overall conclusions. It is best used alongside other works from the same period and historical sources.

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About the author

Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980 Author

Joseph Samachson (1906–1980) is an author about whom little biographical information is publicly available, yet whose works show considerable variety in subject matter. The library holds 13 of his works, including Picture Bride, A Feast of Demons, The Weather on Mercury, Unwelcomed Visitor, Bedside Manner, The Hunters, Runaway, and Dead Man's Planet. Judging from these titles, his writing ranges across science fiction and fantasy, alien environments, strange visitors, and suspenseful human situations, often advancing the narrative through vividly imagined premises and combining imagination with the appeal of popular storytelling. Because public sources are limited, his nationality, full life story, and the concrete course of his writing career remain unknown; the existing entry relies chiefly on the titles and thematic features of these works to present his profile as a writer, offering readers a reference point when approaching his work.