Clifford Donald Simak (August 3, 1904 - April 25, 1988) was an American science fiction writer. He was honored by fans with three Hugo Awards and by colleagues with one Nebula Award. The Science Fiction Writers of America made him its third SFWA Grand Master, and the Horror Writers Association made him one of three inaugural winners of the Bram Stoker Award for Lifetime Achievement. This collection has these great stories: Empire, Cosmic Engineers, Galactic Chest, Ring Around the Sun, The World That Couldn't Be, Hellhounds of the Cosmos, The Street That Wasn't There, Project Mastodon.