Faithfully Yours

Tabakow, Lou, 1915？-1981Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 39K words
Chapters: 4

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.Faithfully Yours by Lou TabakowAuthor: Tabakow, Lou, 1915?-1981,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Feb 10, 2008

Editor's review

Faithfully Yours is a short work by Lou Tabakoff published in the mid-twentieth century, made accessible again through Project Gutenberg's digitization. From available sources, it falls under American and Canadian literature as a science fiction magazine-era piece, and the value of such texts often lies in showing the narrative rhythm and imaginative mode of the era's popular genre fiction: short in length, quick to engage, with a distinct premise, suitable for observing how early science fiction short stories balanced cutting-edge concepts with popular taste. For readers studying the history of genre literature or doing extensive reading of English short stories, it is a lightweight sample with period flavor. Note that public-domain digitized versions lack modern editorial introductions; readers should approach it with a genre-history perspective, understanding it within the context of contemporaneous magazines and authors, rather than judging it by the completeness of a novel.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century English-language science fiction short stories
Students studying early science fiction magazines and genre literary history
Intermediate learners seeking short stories for English extensive reading practice
Collectors of public-domain science fiction texts from Project Gutenberg

Not a good fit for

Science fiction readers who prefer full-length world-building
Beginners who need modern editorial notes and background introductions
Readers with low tolerance for old-fashioned popular prose

Reading tips

Read through once to grasp the story's direction, then revisit the opening to see how foreshadowing and premise are set up.
Read it alongside other magazine short stories from the same period, comparing theme choices and narrative conventions.
For English extensive reading, avoid looking up every word; keep the rhythm first, then handle unfamiliar words on a second pass.

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

What is the length and reading difficulty of this work?

As a magazine-era short story, it is not long and can be finished in one or two sittings. English difficulty is moderate, with mostly popular narrative sentences and occasional period expressions; basic reading ability is enough to get started, making it suitable as extensive reading material rather than close study.

Does the Project Gutenberg version include an author introduction or notes?

Public-domain electronic texts from Project Gutenberg usually contain only the work's main text and basic publication information, without modern scholarly annotations or detailed author biography. To learn about the author and publication background, consult genre bibliographies or periodical research separately and combine that with reading the text.

Is it suitable as introductory reading for science fiction literary history?

It can serve as a supplementary sample but not as the sole introductory material. It is better used after reading an overview of science fiction history and understanding the magazine-era context, to concretely experience how that generation wrote short stories. Reading it alone tends to yield only story impressions and makes it hard to establish historical coordinates.

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About the author

Tabakow, Lou, 1915？-1981 Author · American

Lou Tabakow (1915?–1981) was an American science fiction author active in the science fiction circles of the mid-twentieth century. Public records offer limited information about his dates of birth and death and his early life; even the exact year of his birth remains uncertain and is usually given as around 1915. Few of his works survive, and only one, Faithfully Yours, is held in the collection. The available material suggests that his writing was closely connected with the American science fiction magazines and fandom of the period, and that he was one of the writers moving within the science fiction readership and author community of that era. Because his works and the related criticism are limited, scholarly and reader understanding of his style, thematic preferences, and literary influence remains incomplete; public information is limited, making a more detailed assessment difficult.