Spoken For

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

2.7

Word count: 15K words
Chapters: 2

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.Spoken For by Joseph SamachsonAuthor: Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 3, 2016

Editor's review

Samachson was a twentieth-century American science fiction author, and Spoken For is a public-domain short story in the Project Gutenberg collection. It is short and serves as a sample of early science fiction magazine style: direct setups, brisk pacing, usually built around one core idea, with characters serving the plot. For Chinese readers its value lies mainly in genre-historical reference—observing how science fiction around the golden age handled social themes such as "possession" and "belonging," and how the short form achieves a turn within limited space. The English is of moderate difficulty with uncomplicated syntax, suitable for extensive reading. The electronic edition is easy to access and search, but lacks an editor's introduction and background notes, so readers must supply the author and magazine context themselves.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Genre readers curious about mid-twentieth-century American short science fiction
English learners seeking light extensive-reading material
Science fiction history enthusiasts studying early magazine texts
Readers of short stories on commutes or in fragments of time

Not a good fit for

Deep science fiction readers expecting long-form worldbuilding and complex character arcs
Beginner English readers who need a Chinese translation or detailed notes
Readers uncomfortable with early science fiction pacing and preferring contemporary styles

Reading tips

Read through once for plot, then revisit key turning points to see how the author completes the setup in a short space.
Read it within the lineage of early short science fiction, comparing narrative pacing with magazine works of the same era.
For extensive reading in English, avoid checking every word; proceed paragraph by paragraph, then organize new vocabulary.
After reading, write a hundred-word summary to test whether you grasped the core idea and the ending's reversal.

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 in Chinese?

No. It is an English-language short science fiction story, suitable for readers with some English reading ability.

Is it long, and is it suitable as an introduction to science fiction?

It is fairly short and workable as a single-story introduction, but it is an early work whose narrative style differs from contemporary science fiction, so adjust expectations accordingly.

Do I need to know the author's background to read it?

Not necessarily. The story reads independently; to understand its place in science fiction history, consult separate material on the author and magazines of the period.

Does the electronic edition have notes or an introduction?

Generally it has no systematic notes or introduction; readers must supply background themselves or read it alongside other sources.

Comments

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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.