Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson [Hardcover]

Zenna Henderson (Author), Mark Olson (Author), Priscilla Olson (Author), Elizabeth Finney (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1995

A collection of all of Henderson's stories of the People (interstellar refugees), including one "Michal Without," which is published here for the first time. Cover art by Elizabeth Finney.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The People, the best-known creations of the late SF writer Henderson, are humanoid refugees who have landed in 19th-century America after the destruction of their own planet. Their abilities?telepathy, levitation and other apparently magic talents?help them survive, yet mark them as different. This useful and enjoyable collection reprints all of the People stories, including four that didn't appear in Henderson's two People books (Pilgrimage: The Book of The People; The People: No Different Flesh) and one that is new to print. One of the few female writers during SF's earlier years, Henderson provides a warm, emotional voice, prefeminist yet independent, examining issues of identity, loneliness, nostalgia and caring. The People stories, written between 1952 and 1975, also present a strong regional sensibility, depicting a rural Southwest as alien and charming as the People's own planet. Some may find these stories too sentimental, but their emotional integrity and deeply moral core will?as Priscilla Olson's too-short introduction points out?please many.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Henderson's People stories reached the peak of their popularity when they inspired the 1972 TV movie The People, starring William Shatner. First composed in the 1950s and 1960s, the stories, including the previously unpublished "Michal Without," are here collected for the first time. For the uninitiated, the People are members of a race of humanlike, psychically gifted extraterrestrials who become stranded on Earth after their starship crashes during a space migration they refer to as the Crossing. Bound together by a series of vignettes about one human's encounter with the People, the 28 stories chronicle the People's adventures from the crash to their settlement in rural Arizona and their problems using their levitational and mind-reading skills in human society while seeking a new planet to replace the home they left behind. These tales may seem mawkish and dated by today's more sophisticated sf standards, yet they retain their raw emotional power thanks to Henderson's masterfully lucid prose. They will always occupy an important place in sf history for their treatment of parapsychological themes. Carl Hays

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 582 pages
• Publisher: NESFA Press; 1st edition (May 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0915368587
• ISBN-13: 978-0915368587
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 6 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (63 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #262,405 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An underrated Golden Age SF master, February 12, 2000

By 

faience (Murrells Inlet, SC USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson (Hardcover)

Henderson is less well-known than many of the Golden Age masters of sci fi, but her work stands alongside the best of them. Her 'People' stories are the gentlest of her work (If you can find any of her other short stories, anthologized in the out-of-print 'Holding Wonder' and 'The Anything Box,' you'll see her weirder side), but they have superior power to make you see the universe in a new way. Like several other reviewers, I found them during a grim teenage time, and they helped more than I can say.

The 'Booklist' reviewer accuses them of being too 'mawkish' but in fact, the sweetness and enlightenment of 'The People' is well-tempered by very 'human' flaws. Their racial memories include horrendous persecution, and prompt them to try and quelch their childrens' telepathic and other gifts in a way that seems repressive and cruel to an outsider...until she learns the reason. The stories show a people evolving, making mistakes and learning from them, even as they help various physically and emotionally crippled humans toward a new vision. It's WONDERFUL to have these stories back in print! Now all we need is for the publisher to gather Henderson's other (non-People) stories, and get them back out there, too!

36 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Teacher, please tell us more!, April 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson (Hardcover)

That is what I wrote to Zenna several years ago, and I was saddened to receive a letter from her sister, saying that Zenna had been "called back to the Presence" a few years earlier. She had the ability to weave magic into her stories, and to make the reader feel and know what was happening. From Perdita and Low, to Lucine, to Valancy and the rest, Zenna made her characters come alive, and gave the feeling that these were not imaginary people, but real ones. These were not made-up events, but she was describing life somewhere in this world that was as it *should* be. Another reviewer said that there would be less suicide if more teens would read these stories, and I agree wholeheartedly. I know they changed my outlook on life. A special thanks to the compilers of "Ingathering" for their work!And please, AMAZON, keep this one in stock forever!

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Dream Life, March 11, 2005

By 

J. A. Eyon "Little Raven" (Seattle - USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ingathering: The Complete People Stories of Zenna Henderson (Hardcover)

Be warned that in reading Zenna Henderson's fantasy stories about "The People", they are so naturalistic and convincing that you may find yourself believing you have the gifts: that you can levitate, send telepathic messages, heal with psychic force. When you realize that it's just a dream inspired by the stories, you may wander around in a half-daze, wishing your life were like those stories: that you really did have the gifts, that you endured hardships in the same stoic way, and that you would find safe haven and welcoming arms somewhere in the American Southwest. I know because for weeks after reading one of her collections, I kept thinking that I could levitate -- and I was already an adult!