Henry Kuttner, who published not only under his real name but also under a dozen pseudonyms, is considered one of the four or five leading American science fiction writers of the 1940s. Legendary genre magazines such as Future, Thrilling Wonder, Planet Stories, and Weird Tales were more than willing to accept works he wrote himself or co-authored with his wife, renowned science fiction and fantasy master Catherine Lucille Moore; It happened that an entire issue of the magazine was devoted to Kuttner’s work. Almost everything created by this author has a touch of genius, but he was especially successful in the “small literary form”: stories about the mutants Hogben, about the eccentric inventor Gallegher and many others, flavored with inimitable humor, instilled in several generations of readers a persistent love of fantasy. Almost all works , included in this collection, are published in Russian for the first time or in a new translation. The stories “A God Called Crewe” and “The Children’s Hour” were awarded the Hugo Award.