title: Turbulent Years: The 60s
author: Editors of Time Life Books
description: Time-Life book: history of the 1960's in words and pictures.
zlib_text: 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  The Masks of Time
  
  
  by Robert Silverberg
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  INTRODUCTION
  
  
  It was the late winter of 1967 and I was preoccupied with a need to prove to
  the science fiction community that I was a reformed character. Back in the
  1950’s, at the outset of my career, I had allowed some early discouragements
  in the marketplace to turn me into a purveyor of mass-produced claptrap; I had
  written (and sold) untold reams of stuff with titles like “Guardians of the
  Crystal Gate” and “Thunder over Starhaven,” unreconstructed zap-zap pulp
  adventure fiction. This phase lasted roughly from 1955 to 1958, after which I
  repented of my literary sins and resolved to write no more formula sf; but I
  wrote enough in those few years to tarnish my escutcheon for eons to come.
  When I returned to science fiction in the mid-1960’s, it was with considerably
  less cynicism and higher ideals, but I faced the severe problem of overcoming
  my earlier reputation and getting readers (and editors) to tak