Credits    Navigation      philipdick.com     Novels    Short Stories     References

FIRST PUBLICATION

•      Galaxy, Dec 1963 {ill. by Lutgens}

HISTORY:

    After completing DR. BLOODMONEY in early Feb 1963 Dick turned his hand once again to the writing of short stories. The first of these to arrive on Feb 27, 1963 was "If There Had Never Been A Benny Cemoli."

    "If There Had Never Been A Benny Cemoli" was sold to Galaxy and published under the grammatically modified title "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" in the Dec 1963 issue.

    This story has been fairly anthologized over the years, first in THE EIGTH GALAXY READER (1965) then in Ace Books’ 1969 PKD collection THE PRESERVING MACHINE. It was also included in the PKD collection THE BEST OF PHILIP K. DICK in 1977. There are other anthology appearances before publication in volume 4 of THE COLLECTED STORIES in 1987 and one more in 1992: THE GREAT SF STORIES 25, edited by Isaac Asimov and Martin Greenburg.

    The name and perhaps some of the character of George Stavros appears in this story. Here, although his first name is not specified, Stavros is a Greek chef and covert government hero.

    Of the story PKD wrote in 1976:

    I have always believed that at least half the famous people in history never existed. You invent what you need to invent. Perhaps even Karl Marx was invented, the product of some hack writer. In which case --

    "If There Were no Benny Cemoli" is a story of a devastated Earth trying to rebuild but invaded by the ex-colony of Proxima Centaurus who, United Nations-like, think they can do a better job of reconstruction. The Centaurans are also interested in war crimes and wish to locate the people who started the war which ruined Earth. But, those once in power are usually always in power – and they don’t wish to be discovered.

    "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" earns ó ó ó ó ó

Other magazine and Anthology appearances.    More Cover Pix Here:

1965		THE EIGHTH GALAXY READER, Doubleday, hb, ?,?,? (?) {Ed. Pohl}
1965c		THE EIGHTH GALAXY READER, Pan, pb, 1965c, ?, ? (?) {Ed. Pohl}
1969		THE PRESERVING MACHINE, Ace, pb, 67800, Apr 1969, 317pp, $0.95 (Leo and Diane Dillon) [CG: - A146]
1977		THE BEST OF PHILIP K. DICK, Ballantine, pb, 25359, 1977, ?,?(?)
1979		THE 13 CRIMES OF SCIENCE FICTION, Doubleday, hb, ?,? (?) {Ed. Asimov, Greenburg, Waugh}
1984		MACHINES THAT THINK, Rinehart & Winston, hb,1984,?,? (?) {Ed. Asimov, Greenberg, Warrick, Holt} ISBN: 0-140-07194-6
1987		THE COLLECTED STORIES OF PKD
1991		WAR WITH THE ROBOTS, Wings, ?, ?, 1991, ?,? (?) {Ed. Asimov}{reedition of MACHINES THAT THINK?}
1992		THE GREAT SF STORIES 25 (1963), DAW, pb, ?,? (?) {Ed. Asimov, Greenberg}

NOTES:

CSVol4 376

I have always believed that at least half the famous people in history never existed. You invent what you need to invent. Perhaps even Karl Marx was invented, the product of some hack writer. In which case -- {PKD 1976}

Ken Lopez: "If There Were No Benny Cemoli" in Galaxy, Dec 1963 (1^st). VG. Signed by the author and also by Jack Vance. Rubbed; still very good in wrappers. $145

Credits    Navigation      philipdick.com     Novels    Short Stories     References