My love a›air with science fiction started in ¡956 when I was four years old. Prior to that I had a fairly mundane child- hood. That changed abruptly when I saw Earth vs. the Flying Saucers at the Adler Theater in Marshfield, Wisconsin. When I walked (or floated) out of that theater, the power of the imagination had taken me over, infused in me a sense of wonder and awe, and left me craving more. The seeds of my imagination were well fertilized by that wonderful film and I have thanked my par- ents numerous times for taking me to see it.