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Table of Contents:

• 7 - First Lesson - (1956) - short story
• 18 - Stickeney and the Critic - (1953) - short story
• 24 - Stair Trick - (1952) - short story
• 29 - Minister Without Portfolio - (1952) - short story
• 37 - Birds Can't Count - (1955) - short story
• 45 - The Word - (1953) - short story
• 50 - The Day of the Green Velvet Cloak - (1958) - short story
• 61 - Winning Recipe - (1952) - short story
• 65 - Letters from Laura - (1954) - short story
• 71 - The Last Prophet - (1955) - short story
• 79 - Mr. Sakrison's Halt - (1956) - short story
• 86 - The Wild Wood - (1957) - short story
• 95 - The Little Witch of Elm Street - (1956) - short story
• 104 - A Day for Waving - (1957) - short story
• 116 - The Gay Deceiver - short story
• 124 - A Red Heart and Blue Roses - short story

Stickeney is not precisely a human, but a supernormal being who is amiable enough if well fed and kept away from visiting literary firemen. As was to be expected, Miss Clingerman understands Stickeney and his prejudices; completely unexpected is the deadpan hilarity with which she tells Stickeney's heartrending story.

This short story appears in the collections:

• A Cupful of Space (1961), by Mildred Clingerman
• The Clingerman Files (2017), by Mildred Clingerman

This novelette originally appeared in the February 1953 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is available free on Luminist.

Widely acclaimed as one of the first successful female science fiction authors, Mildred Clingerman returns with the exciting follow up to her 1961 science fiction collection, A Cupful of Space. Her stories tend to wed a literate tone to subject matters whose ominousness is perhaps more submerged than the horrors under the skin made explicit in the work of Shirley Jackson, but equally as deadly.

Clingerman's new anthology, The Clingerman Files, includes all of her originally published stories; The Day of the Green Velvet Cloak, Mr. Sakrison's Halt, Wild Wood, The Little Witch of Elm Street and many other favorites. Also included are previously unpublished works; Top Hand, Tribal Customs, The Birthday Party, Fathers of Daughters and many more soon to be favorites. The key to her stories is that they appear simple and straightforward, but each takes a twist or turn that, even when you're tempted to guess where they're heading, they take you there in a way you would never have bargained on. Other writers of the period tried to make big splashes. Clingerman, it seems, prided herself in concealing her effects within her masterfully constructed sentences. They barely make a ripple on the surface; all their power and drive lurk deep down below.

So many of her stories are alive with the underpinning notion that the cosmological vistas we spy at the end ends of telescopes and various other means of measurement belong to the very same universe under our feet. We're not apart from the universe, we're a part of it. Nearly every story here is alive with that sensibility, in the truest sense of that word. In every sentence there is a note (a gentle one, but insistent) of silent rebellion, a surreptitious snarl, entreating you to see that not the everyday, but an undiscovered marvel. May these eloquent rebellions be undiscovered no longer.

Welcome to the world of Mildred Clingerman!

Table of Contents::

• Memories of Mildred - essay by Kendall Clingerman Burling
• Mildred Clingerman: The Science of Magic and the Magic of the Commenplace - essay by Richard Chwedyk
• First Lesson - (1956) - short story
• Stickeney and the Critic - (1953) - short story
• Stair Trick - (1952) - short story
• Minister Without Portfolio - (1952) - short story
• Birds Can't Count - (1955) - short story
• The Word - (1953) - short story
• The Day of the Green Velvet Cloak - (1958) - short story
• Winning Recipe - (1952) - short story
• Letters from Laura - (1954) - short story
• The Last Prophet - (1955) - short story
• Mr. Sakrison's Halt - (1956) - short story
• The Wild Wood - (1957) - short story
• The Little Witch of Elm Street - (1956) - short story
• A Day for Waving - (1957) - short story
• The Gay Deceiver - (1961) - short story
• Red Hearts and Blue Roses - short story (variant of A Red Heart and Blue Roses 1961)
• Little Girl - short story
• Tutti Frutti Delight - short story
• The Stray - short story
• The Man Who Stole Tomorrow - short story
• Grandma's Refuge - short story
• Sorrow for the Need - short story
• You Remember Charles? - short story
• Size 5 1/2 B - short story
• Apologia - short story
• The Tea Party - short story
• The Vine - short story
• Tribal Customs - short story
• A Window for Mr. Stevens - short story
• The Man Eater - short story
• The List - short story
• The Telling Day - short story
• Threading a Closed Loop - short story
• Top Hand - short story
• A Time to Be Bold - short story
• The Birthday Party - short story
• A Stranger and a Pilgrim - short story
• On the Nicer Side - short story
• The Fathers of Daughters - short story
• Watermelon Weather - short story
• A Note from Eleanor - short story
• All Stories by Mildred Clingerman Bibliography - essay by uncredited

This is about a wealthy bore whose only distinction was that he knew the forgotten cause of - but Mrs. Clingerman lets her story develop and reveal itself so easily that a blurb has no business even stating the theme.

This short story appears in the collections:

• A Cupful of Space (1961), by Mildred Clingerman
• The Clingerman Files (2017), by Mildred Clingerman
• The Best from Fantasy and Science Fiction, Fifth Series (1956), edited by Anthony Boucher

This novelette originally appeared in the August 1955 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction is available free on Luminist.

A warm and gay story of magic in a quiet residential neighborhood, with a child-heroine who is all too literally bewitching,

This short story appears in the collections:

• A Cupful of Space (1961), by Mildred Clingerman
• The Clingerman Files (2017), by Mildred Clingerman

This story originally appeared in the April 1957 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.