The second edition of The Phoenix Pick Anthology of Classic Science Fiction is a collection of speculative fiction from across the nineteenth century, and into the early twentieth, that showcases many of the genre's earliest achievements. Each of the stories included in this volume has stood the test of time, many of the themes reflected by their authors still relevant to us today. They will move you, they will make you think, but better still, these words from the past will fill you with a sense of wonder for the future. THE BIRTH MARK (1843) by Nathaniel Hawthorne THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR (1845) by Edgar Allan Poe THE BELL TOWER (1855) by Herman Melville THE TALE OF NEGATIVE GRAVITY (1884) by Frank R. Stockton TO WHOM THIS MAY COME (1889) by Edward Bellamy IN THE YEAR 2889 (1889) by Jules Verne IN THE YEAR TEN THOUSAND (1892) by William Harben THE DAMNED THING (1893) by Ambrose Bierce THE RAY OF DISPLACEMENT (1903) by Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford THE EMPIRE OF THE ANTS (1905) by H. G. Wells FINIS (1906) by Frank Lillie Pollock THE MACHINE STOPS (1909) by E. M. Forster AS EASY AS A.B.C (1912) by Rudyard Kipling THE RED ONE (1918) by Jack London FRIEND ISLAND (1918) by Francis Stevens DAGON (1919) by H. P. Lovecraft FESSENDEN'S WORLDS (1937) by Edmond Hamilton THE BLUE GIRAFFE (1939) by L. Sprague de Camp THEY (1941) by Robert A. Heinlein THE FIRST SCIENCE FICTIONS: Afterword by Paul Cook