SOURCE: "A Variety of Excellence," in The Best of Frederik Pohl, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1975, pp. ix-xvi.

In the following excerpt of his introduction to The Best of Frederik Pohl, Del Rey gives an overview of Pohl's literary career, highlighting some of his best short stories.

Nothing is easy to categorize about the life and works of Frederik Pohl. His stories vary more in length, attitude, type and treatment than those of any other writer I know. About the only point of similarity is the high level of excellence to be found in everything from his short-shorts to his novels. To make things more difficult for a biographer, he has been one of the leaders in almost every activity that in any way relates to the broad field of science fiction.

Even his career as a writer falls into two widely separated periods which seem totally unrelated to each...