"Before the Golden Age: A Science Fiction Anthology of the 1930s" is an anthology of 26 science fiction stories published in pulp magazines before 1939 (the beginning of the Golden Age of SF), edited by science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920-1992). It also includes "Big Game", a short story written by Asimov in 1941 and never sold. The anthology was first published in April 1974.
The anthology was inspired by a dream Asimov had on the morning of April 3, 1973. In his dream, Asimov had prepared an anthology of his favorite science fiction stories from the 1930s and was delighted to get a chance to read them again. After waking, he told his fianceé Janet Jeppson about the dream, and she suggested that he actually do such an anthology. Doubleday agreed to publish the anthology, and Asimov's friend Sam Moskowitz provided him with copies of the relevant science fiction magazines. Asimov completed work on the anthology on May 10.
The stories were selected by Asimov, and the main selection criterion was the degree to which they influenced him when he was growing up in the 1930s. The prefatory material and individual introductions to the stories fill in the details about the early life of the child prodigy, which effectively makes the volume an autobiographical prequel to his earlier collection "The Early Asimov."
The anthology was first published as a large hardcover by Doubleday in 1974 and re-issued as three smaller paperbacks by Fawcett Books the following year. The series was re-issued multiple times in the period of 1975-1984 in sets of either three or four paperbacks. As of 2014, it is out of print.
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