The first in a six-volume series, Volume 1: Threshold contains all of Zelazny's short works from his early years through the mid 1960s—a period of experimentation and growth that flowered into gems such as "A Rose for Ecclesiastes," "The Graveyard Heart," "The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth," and "He Who Shapes." The stories in this series are enriched by editors' notes and Zelazny's own words, taken from his many essays, describing why he wrote the stories and what he thought about them in retrospect.
Table of Contents
Intros
- 11 Out of Nowhere (by Robert Silverberg)
- 17 Before Amber (by Carl B. Yoke)
Stories
- 29 A Rose for Ecclesiastes
- 71 And the Darkness Is Harsh
- 73 Mr. Fuller's Revolt
- 77 Youth Eternal
- 81 The Outward Sign
- 85 Passion Play
- 93 The Graveyard Heart
- 153 Horseman!
- 157 The Teachers Rode a Wheel of Fire
- 163 Moonless in Byzantium
- 169 On the Road to Splenoba
- 179 Final Dining
- 189 The Borgia Hand
- 193 Nine Starships Waiting
- 231 Circe Has Her Problems
- 239 The Malatesta Collection
- 249 The Stainless Steel Leech as by Harrison Denmark
- 255 The Doors of His Face, the Lamps of His Mouth
- 289 A Thing of Terrible Beauty as by Harrison Denmark
- 297 Monologue for Two as by Harrison Denmark
- 303 Threshold of the Prophet
- 313 A Museum Piece
- 325 Mine Is the Kingdom as by Harrison Denmark
- 345 King Solomon's Ring
- 367 The Misfit
- 373 The Great Slow Kings
- 381 Collector's Fever
- 385 The Night Has 999 Eyes
- 391 He Who Shapes
Articles
- 489 Sundry Notes on Dybology and Suchlike
- 495 "...And Call Me Roger": The Literary Life of Roger Zelazny, Part 1
Curiosities
- 527 Conditional Benefit
- 533 Hand of the Master
- 537 The Great Selchie of San Francisco Bay
- 541 Studies in Saviory
Poetry
- 68 Braxa
- 69 Ecclesiastes' Epilogue
- 70 Bok
- 76 Diet
- 80 Slush, Slush, Slush
- 84 TheAgnostic's Prayer
- 90 On May 13, 1937
- 92 The Cactus King
- 152 Our Wintered Way Through Evening, and Burning Bushes Along It
- 152 In the Dogged House
- 152 Future, Be Not Impatient
- 152 Flight
- 162 Sense and Sensibility
- 196 The World of Stat's a Drunken Bat
- 238 The Cat Licks Her Coat
- 246 From a Seat in the Chill Park
- 247 Rodin's "The Kiss"
- 248 To His Morbid Mistress
- 254 Old Ohio Folkrag
- 296 How a Poem Means
- 300 Concert
- 302 Iceage
- 308 Hart Crane...
- 309 Southern Cross
- 311 I Used to Think in Lines That Were Irregular to the Right
- 324 Hybris, or The Danger of Hilltops
- 342 St. Secaire's
- 344 In Pheleney's Garage
- 366 The Black Boy's Reply to William Butler Yeats
- 372 Rite of Spring
- 388 Decade Plus One of Roses
- 486 See You Later, Maybe...
Michael Whelan
