Form: Novella
Year: 1974
Publication history:
- ???? : Born with the Dead/The Saliva Tree (pb) , Tor, 3
- ???? : Tous les chemins mènent à l'homme (pb) , Omnibus (France) (in French "Né avec les morts")
- 1974 : Born with the Dead (hc) , Random House, 267 pp.
- 1974 : Fantasy & Science Fiction April 1974 (m) , Mercury, 162 pp.
- 1975 : Born with the Dead (pb) , Vintage, 257 pp., ISBN 0-394-71447-4
- 1975 : Nebula Award Stories 10 (hc) , Harper & Row
- 1975 : The Best Science Fiction of the Year Vol. 4 (pb) , Ballantine
- 1977 : Born with the Dead (pb) , Coronet, 219 pp., 21297-7
- 1978 : Born with the Dead (hc) , Gollancz (UK), 267 pp., 01966-2
- 1978 : The Best of Robert Silverberg Volume 2 (hc) , Gregg, 2439-4
- 1979 : Born with the Dead (pb) , Berkley, 242 pp., ISBN 0-425-04156-5
- 1979 : Signaux du silence (pb) , Casterman (France), 242 pp., ISBN 2-203-22628-5, 27 (in French "Né avec les morts" tr. Alain Doremieux)
- 1980 : The Arbor House Treasury of Great Science Fiction Short Novels (tpb) , Random House, 768 pp., ISBN 0-87795-295-7
- 1981 : Science Fiction Hall of Fame [UK] Volume 4 (hc) , Gollancz (UK)
- 1984 : Born with the Dead (pb) , Bantam, 246 pp., ISBN 0-553-24103-6
- 1986 : Die Mysterien von Belzagor/Schadrach im Feuerofen/Mit den Toten geboren (pb) , Heyne (Germany) (in German "Mit den Toten geboren")
- 1988 : The Masks of Time/Born with the Dead/Dying Inside (pb) , Bantam, 561 pp., 27286-1
- 1989 : Worlds Imagined (hc) ,
- 1991 : L'Appel des ténèbres (pb) , Denoël (France), 320 pp., ISBN 2-207-30518-X, 518 (in French "Né avec les morts" tr. Alain Doremieux)
- 1992 : The Mammoth Book of Fantastic Science Fiction - Short Novels of the 1970s (pb) , Robinson
- 1998 : Voyage au bout de l'esprit (pb) , Omnibus (France), 904 pp., ISBN 2258049202 (in French "Né avec les morts")
- 1999 : L'Appel des ténèbres (pb) , Denoël (France), 316 pp., ISBN 2207248895 (in French "Né avec les morts" tr. Alain Doremieux)
- 2000 : Fictionwise (ol) , Fictionwise
- 2001 : Born with the Dead (ol) , Peanut Press
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Comments:
Written for a special Silverberg issue of F&SF. Winner of a Nebula Award for best novella, 1975.
In the 1990s, doctors have discovered how to "rekindle" dead people, re-animating the bodies and minds. But the "deads" are different, aloof, unconcerned with the matters of "warms"--those still alive--and mostly keep to the Cold Towns. Jorge Klein finds that he cannot let go of his dead wife Sybille, and seeks her out obsessively, following her around the globe. This is just not done, but Jorge can't stop himself. One interesting scene involves an African preserve set aside for vacationing deads, where they must leave the native animals alone and hunt instead genetically recreated extinct species--aurochs, ground sloth, quagga, passenger pigeon, dodo. Many aspects of the situation are explored, including the attitudes people of different cultures have towards death. Definitely one of the high points of Silverberg's career and the culmination of his "intense and intimate" writing of the 1970s.
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Science Fiction has a number of listings dealing with "Born with the Dead".
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