"Vault of the Beast" – the first s-f story written by A. E. van Vogt (1940)

A. E. van Vogt’s first published story was the celebrated Black Destroyer, that appeared in the August 1939 edition of Astounding Science Fiction.

But Black Destroyer was not actually van Vogt’s first science-fiction story [1]: that distinction goes to this one, a remarkably inventive and dramatic space-adventure tale that he had submitted to the Astounding magazine in 1938.

Its publication was however delayed for editorial reasons, as a shape-changing alien had featured in Who Goes There?, a story published in Astounding’s August issue of that year written by John Campbell, the newly-appointed editor pf the magazine, who wanted to let some time pass before airing the theme again, so it was put back to the August 1940 slot, where it became van Vogt’s fifth published story.

This is the full text of this zippy and wide-ranging golden-ager, complete with the original Astounding artwork by Edd Cartier.

(10,300 words)

An e-book is available for downloading below.

Vault of the Beast (e-book)