The People Maker

The People Maker February 1, 1959

A for Anything is a science fiction novel by Damon Knight. The author postulates the discovery, in the near future, of the "Gismo", a device that can duplicate anything-even another Gismo. Since all material objects have become essentially free, the only commodity of value is human labor, and the author suggests that a slave economy would be the inevitable result. The novel first appeared in 1959 as The People Maker (Zenith Books), based on a story in the November 1957 issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Knight subsequently revised the text, which was published by Berkley in 1961 as A for Anything. It is generally considered to be Knight's finest novel. Knight has said of this novel: "I chose the matter duplicator because I thought other authors had handled it badly."

Mass Market Paperback: 159 pages Publisher: Zenith Books; 1st edition (February 1, 1959)