Unbegotten Child

Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney), 1915-1979Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 19K 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.Unbegotten Child by Winston K. MarksAuthor: Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney), 1915-1979,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Apr 27, 2010

Editor's review

Unbegotten Child is a short work by Winston K. Marks, made available as a free eBook by Project Gutenberg. Marks was active in mid-twentieth-century American popular fiction and genre literature, and this work is short enough to read in one sitting. Based on available information, it is a short story in American literature; the synopsis does not elaborate on its specific plot or setting, so its generic direction should not be presumed. Its reading value lies mainly in the low-cost access it offers to a short work by a genre writer and in observing that writer's narrative pacing and approach to conception. For readers who enjoy short science fiction or popular fiction, it can be a light reading experiment; for researchers, it can serve as supplementary material for understanding this writer's short-form output. Note that the electronic edition is in the original English and that information is limited; readers should enter with open expectations and not measure its capacity by the standards of a full-length novel.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who enjoy short genre fiction and want to finish a piece quickly
Readers interested in mid-twentieth-century American popular fiction
Beginners seeking low-cost access to public-domain English short stories
People with fragmented time who prefer single-piece reading

Not a good fit for

Readers expecting the length of a full-length novel and complex character arcs
Researchers needing a systematic understanding of the author's entire body of work
Beginners who have significant difficulty reading English originals

Reading tips

Set aside a single short session to read it through and maintain a continuous sense of the plot's progression.
Before reading, learn about the genre-literature background of the author's time to better grasp the writing approach.
After reading, review the key turns and sort out how the short story is conceived and concluded.
If English reading is difficult, read a synopsis first and then work through the original section by section.

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 work long? How long does it take to read?

Based on available information, it is a short work, not long, and suitable to finish in a single short session. The exact page count varies with the electronic edition's layout, but overall it suits being scheduled as a single reading task rather than planned at the pace of a full-length novel.

Can I read this without having read the author's other works?

Yes. This is an independent short work and does not depend on prior reading. However, the author was active in mid-twentieth-century American popular genre literature; knowing that background first will make it easier to grasp the narrative interest and writing characteristics.

Is this book suitable as research material for genre literature?

It can serve as supporting material. It is one short work by this author and reflects part of his output, but a single piece is not enough to support systematic study of the author as a whole. For research on mid-twentieth-century American popular short fiction, it can be included as a sample alongside other works for comparison.

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About the author

Marks, Winston K. (Winston Kinney), 1915-1979 Author

Winston K. Marks (1915–1979) was an American science fiction writer, born Winston Kinney Marks. Public information about his life and education is limited, and what is known comes mainly from his published work. The library holds 15 of his works, including "...So They Baked a Cake," "The Mind Digger," "Tabby," "Mate in Two Moves," "Unbegotten Child," "Brown John's Body," "Backlash," and "Breeder Reaction." These are mostly short science fiction stories dealing with technological ethics, human weakness, and social absurdity. They often use a light, humorous tone to frame a cool-headed look at technology out of control and the human condition; some titles are also classified under inspirational growth. He was active during the mid-twentieth-century boom of American science fiction magazines, and his stories appeared in popular science fiction periodicals, exerting some influence on later short-form science fiction writing.