The Mathematicians

By Arthur Feldman

Scott Meredith, born Arthur Scott Feldman (1923, New York City, NY – 1993, Manhasset, NY) was a prominent American literary agent, and founder of the Scott Meredith Literary Agency. His clients included famous and successful writers such as Richard S. Prather, Morris West, Norman Mailer, J.G. Ballard, Arthur C. Clarke, P.G. Wodehouse and Philip K. Dick.

He wrote some short fiction himself as a young man. In 1946 he founded the Scott Meredith Literary Agency with his brother Sydney Meredith. Their first client was P.G. Wodehouse. During his career, he innovated many of the basic practices of his field. Such innovations included attention to foreign rights, tie-ins with movies, and auctioning rights to publishers. This is one of his stories.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Start Classics
• Release date: May 12, 2014
• ISBN: 9781633550049

Reviews for The Mathematicians

[portialong · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

As with many anthologies, a mixed bag. Several good stories, a few rather lousy stories, and lots of "okay" stories. But, hey, at least they are short and there are certainly a LOT of them.

[emscape · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A diverse collection of tales. One is able to read 2 or 3 while smoking a cigarette. This book lived on the table in my smoking porch for the duration of my reading of it. I especially enjoyed how the editors placed the stories together in a semblance of order that is not easily noticed. For example, a story featuring a couple named Williams was followed by a story in which the hero is named Williams, then a story about the 'Perfect Woman' is followed by a story that includes another idea of a perfect woman. All the pieces pack a punch and are quick and entertaining. I also enjoyed the introductions as the Science Fiction Short-Short was a type of literature I was unfamiliar with prior to reading this book.

[bluesalamanders · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I'm not reviewing 50 stories. They're all short-short stories (their definition of short-short, anyway), between 500 and 3,000 words. I really like some of them (e.g., The Haunted Space Suit by Arthur C. Clarke, Stair Trick by Mildred Clingerman) and I don't like some others at all (e.g., Hilda by H. B. Hickey, The Rag Thing by David Grinnell).