The Man with the Strange Head and Other Early Science Fiction Stories, Breuer ed. Page. Yes. When I first put a hold on this, I missed that all the works were by the same writer. I don’t know whether that would have changed my decision to read it, but I’m glad it turned out as it did. The stories were written between 1927 and 1940, with well over half prior to 1932, making this pretty early indeed as modern sf goes. One of the “stories”, Paradise and Iron, is a novel in its own right, and one of my favorite works in the volume. Several of its themes are revisited elsewhere in Breuer’s work, but it was a creditable piece for a time before Colossus, much less ENIAC.
I was forced by its sheer tedium to skip Page’s introduction, though I did refer to it to see what he had to say about the history of each story. I was interested that he described a Breuer story as “less bigoted” in its treatment of immigration/integration panic than some other works of the time (Page doesn’t seem certain whether the story is using alien invasion as a metaphor, but it sure seemed like it to me). I’m a little tempted to see if I can find any David H Keller, to see what would be more bigoted than this:

The Earth women liked the Martians, who though weak, were good-looking and certainly had an effective way with the ladies.…

or

“I have the highest respect for the individual Martian gentlemen whom I know personally.… But such Martians are exceptions.”

or

“The children of these bi-racial unions are the worst outcasts of all, accepted by neither race.… They are physically unfit for labor and are not accepted among the intellectual classes; they sink into the utmost depths of degradation. I shudder to think of them. What shall we do with them?”

The dialog, of course, expresses a character’s view, but nothing in the narration challenges that view.