The Addicts

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

2.8

Word count: 20K words
Chapters: 3

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.The Addicts by Joseph SamachsonAuthor: Samachson, Joseph, 1906-1980,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 17, 2016

Editor's review

The Addicts is an English short work by Joseph Samachson, made freely available as an ebook by Project Gutenberg and classified under American and Canadian literature as a public-domain text. Its first value is accessibility: readers can encounter at no cost a sample of mid-twentieth-century American popular science fiction and genre writing, and observe how authors of the period handled themes of addiction, dependence, and human weakness. The work is short and usually tightly paced, making it useful as supplementary reading on the development of genre fiction and as intermediate-level extensive reading material for English learners. It is worth reading in the context of the author's era, noting the tastes of pulp-magazine writing and its methods of characterization. Note that the Gutenberg page is primarily a point of access to the text, not a scholarly edition, so it should not be treated as a definitive research text. Overall, a small book suited to fragmented reading time and to broadening one's range of English genre reading.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers seeking free English public-domain genre fiction
Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American popular literature
Self-learners needing intermediate-level English extensive reading material
Those who like short works and read in fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Readers wanting systematic scholarly annotation or research editions
Readers who prefer long, fully developed narratives and complex world-building
Readers not yet comfortable with English originals who need a Chinese translation

Reading tips

Read once for plot, then a second time to note how the author portrays dependence and addiction.
Read it alongside other public-domain genre short stories of the same period to sense the pulp style.
Guess unfamiliar words from context and look them up after each section, preserving reading rhythm.
After finishing, write a few sentences of your own judgment, then check whether the opening setup supports it.

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

In what language is this book written, and how difficult is it?

The original is in English, a work in the American and Canadian literature category collected by Project Gutenberg. It is short, and the language is generally popular genre writing; readers with some English foundation can finish it with a dictionary, with little burden of technical terminology.

Is the Gutenberg version a collated scholarly edition?

No. Project Gutenberg provides free electronic texts mainly to make public-domain works more accessible, usually without scholarly annotation or collation notes. For citation or deeper study, check other editions.

Do I need to know the author's life first?

Not necessarily. The work stands on its own, and reading the text first makes it easier to enter the plot. If the period interests you afterward, you can learn about the publishing environment of mid-twentieth-century American popular literature.

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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.