Robert Sheckley was an American writer. First published in the science-fiction magazines of the 1950s, his many quick-witted stories and novels were famously unpredictable, absurdist, and broadly comical.
Sheckley's first story, "Final Examination", was published in the May 1952 issue of Imagination
Robert Sheckley c. 1954
Sheckley's novel Immortality, Inc. was serialized in Galaxy Science Fiction in 1958 as "Time Killer"
Imagination was an American fantasy and science fiction magazine first published in October 1950 by Raymond Palmer's Clark Publishing Company. The magazine was sold almost immediately to Greenleaf Publishing Company, owned by William Hamling, who published and edited it from the third issue, February 1951, for the rest of the magazine's life. Hamling launched a sister magazine, Imaginative Tales, in 1954; both ceased publication at the end of 1958 in the aftermath of major changes in US magazine distribution due to the liquidation of American News Company.
Cover of the first issue by Hannes Bok
The first issue of Other Worlds, Imagination's stable-mate at Clark Publishing
Cover of Imagination, May 1954.
The December 1952 issue, illustrating the revised cover layout that began with the June 1951 issue. The artist is Malcolm Smith.