Wooosh!

Yes! Bread Overhead, by Lieber.

First in Feb 58 Galaxy, reprinted in A Pail of Air in 1964.

Maybe not the best choice, but when I got that pile of old pulps home from the book shop and smelled that oxidizing paper... I became intoxicated, I guess.

To dogman.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Yes, definitely an attraction there. Reading stories for the first time - in their original vessel - sort of "Words of Other Days"...

Onward ....

This is probably far too well known, but I haven't seen this author quoted yet.

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Well, you know ... things come to me sometimes...

Familiar, but not clicking. Iridium and giant 'aerial' feel Golden-Age. Something by George O. Smith?

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Not George O. Smith. But you're heading in the right direction.

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Well, you know ... things come to me sometimes...

Farther back? How about John W. Campbell? Say, The Mightiest Machine?

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Nope, not Campbell either.
If my memory serves me (and that's questionable) this writer had his own constellation in an issue of MAD, (MAD Constellations, with such ones as "Alfred, the What-Me-Worry").
His name is well known, and he had an amazing career as a writer, editor and publisher. Here's another quote:

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Well, you know ... things come to me sometimes...

OK. early SF writer, editor,etc, who is not John Campbell. The only one who comes to mind is Hugo Gernsback. And the only story I can think of by him is Ralph 124C41+, but that's just a guess. I confess that I've never actually read it. ops:

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I am told you should consider yourself lucky (only read excerpts myself).

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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

You are correct, Mike. Smarter than Richard Seaton, stronger than Doc Savage (well, ... maybe ...), before warp drive, before coruscating beams of lambent radiation, there was ... (ta DA) - Ralph.

If you do get a chance to read it - I think you'll find that you really have to do it with the historical perspective in mind. Great literature it is not. But it is a kind of watershed for SF. And it has wonderfully bad science in it! Well, we know it's bad NOW...
Your turn, Mike.
And Oh, Yes... you get a steelonium container, FULL of Permagetol, just in case you .... ahh... well .... you have to read the story...

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Well, you know ... things come to me sometimes...

Why, thank you dogman. Would that be encased in inoson, with faidon decorations?

Lemme get my Lens out here and...

Offer a twofer. Two stories, twice the fun!



Either one wins, obviously.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

Bump? These are both from the early 60's. Both by authors whom I would think have become Grand Old Men. For the latter, the author collaborated from time to time, but did this novel solo.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I thought they were both Ringworld/Larry Niven so I have at least one (but probably both) wrong

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The rusted chains of prison moons are shattered by the sun

okay, I'm going to guess Bill Ransom, who used to collaborate w/Frank Herbert from time to time (and in fact wrote one story--and no, I don't know which one--under Frank Herbert's name, on account of Frank Herbert forgot he had a contract). but I've not gotten around to reading any of his books, which is just shameful, given that he teaches at my alma mater.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Neither of the above (or below, depending on how you display your list).

Clues?

For the first, scales.

For the second, randomness.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

The only thing that leaps to my mind for "Scales" is "A Fall of Moondust." And that's Randomness, for sure.

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"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

The first quote is from a Hugo-winning story. That may help a bit.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

OK. The second quote's author is also known as an editor as well as a writer. He wrote a biography of the early days of SF and the Futurians called The Way the Future Was.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

The second author often co-authored with C.M. Kornbluth.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

OK, I'll admit I googled the first one, but that was because I didn't feel like looking through my collections of Hugo winners. Of course, I should have guessed from the character's name that the author is Jack Vance, and, with the Hugo hint, that the story is "The Dragon Masters." I did confirm it by checking in the appropriate book. That was a tedious tale.

From the hint given, the second author is Fred Pohl, but I'm darned if I know the story. Not "Day Million"?

Fred

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"For shame, gentlemen, pack your evidence a little better against another time."
-- John Dryden, "The Vindication of The Duke of Guise" 1684

Oh, thank you, Nowhere Man! The first was Dragon Masters, as you said.

The second is Drunkard's Walk, by Pohl. Only a so-so story, but a great title.

Off my back, onto yours.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.