In 1957, Poul Anderson did something no one else had done before. He put a "feline centaur" into a modern fiction. Well, his story was published in early 1957, so maybe it was in 1956 that inspiration struck. His novelette, "Call Me Joe," was published in the April 1957 issue of Astounding Science Fiction, then edited by the reknowned John Campbell.
"Call Me Joe" is a highly regarded work of SF. It was selected for The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume Two, which is where I read it in the 1970s.
The story revolves around a 1950s-vintage depiction of Jupiter and the bio-engineered lifeform humans create to explore it. These creatures, "Jovians," were remotely piloted by "esmen" using technology-based ESP, or psionics. The hero is a pilot who is paralyzed from the waist down. He finds that he enjoys life more as a Jovian than as a disabled person, and eventually moves his mind entirely into the Jovian, heading off to found a colony.
If that sounds suspiciously like the plot of a recent blockbuster movie, well, you're not alone. Some think James Cameron should have mentioned Anderson in the credits for Avatar.
The part that is of interest to us is the Jovian form. Here, read an excerpt:
"If you could imagine such a thing as a feline centaur with a thick prehensile tail ... The torso was squat, long-armed, immensely muscular; the hairless head was round, wide-nosed, with big deep-set eyes and heavy jaws, but it was really quite a human face."
Cover art from the April 1957 issue of Astounding is courtesy Abe Books.
