Tor, 2000, 432pp, $25.95 ISBN 0-312-866879-0
A volume like this must have one other major function: to introduce the readers of today to the "Grand Masters", either in the sense of the work of these authors, or in the type of SF they were writing. Anthologies have served this role at several times in the past: in the 1940s when editors such as Groff Conklin put out their massive volumes, and in the late 1960s when Kingsley Amis and Robert Conquest edited the Spectrum series. The main difference between then and now, though, is that those editors were introducing contemporary material to a wider world. Now the classics are having to be re-launched.
The SFWA came into being in the 1960s, but Fred Pohl has made his selection, largely, from the 1940s and 1950s. This isn't always true: for instance, Arthur C. Clarke's material includes "The Star" from 1952 and "A Meeting With Medusa" from 1972. On the other hand all the Asimov material is from the 1950s, though it does include "The Last Question" and "The Martian Way".
Andre Norton has both SF and fantasy included here, including the long "Were-Wrath" (1982), though it is clear she was writing SF such as "Mousetrap" (1952) and "All Cats Are Gray" (1953) long before.
It's odd to see how certain themes keep recurring. Such a one is the role of the scavenger ship, and the rogue-ish captains they have. That or something like it occurs in stories by Norton, Asimov and Clarke; while the related idea, that once mankind has made the leap out of Earth, then the whole galaxy will soon become a long-distance commuting space, is something that ties Asimov's "Martian Way" to Alfred Bester's "Fondly Fahrenheit".
"Fondly Fahrenheit" is an odd story, with a weird style of narrative. In his "Comment" Bester explains his intention. It is worth reading if only to go back and look at Norton's "Were-Wrath" again, where, despite a theme of telepathy, it is almost impossible to feel that anything has been transmitted or received by the reader. And by that comparison, ask which author might have achieved their desired effect on their readers.