Note: The title of the story is a reference to the fictional novel "The Core" described in "The Return of Tyme", a humorous story by A. Fedor and Henry Hasse ("Wonder Stories", August 1934). In the 1934 story, "The Core" was a "terrific galactic novel" submitted to one B. Lue Pencil, the editor of the fictional "Future Fiction" SF magazine. (There was no magazine with that title in 1934). When Robert A. W. Lowndes took over at the real "Future Fiction" (started in 1939) in August 1941, he asked C. M. Kornbluth (then writing as S. D. Gottesman) to write "The Core" so that he could publish it in the real "Future Fiction". It couldn't be a book length novel since "Future Fiction" only published complete works, so it ended up as a novelette. By the time the novelette was ready to be published in the April 1942 issue, "Future Fiction" had changed its name to "Future Combined with Science Fiction". (Source: Lowndes' explanation in the "Station X" department in the April 1942 issue of "Future Combined with Science Fiction".)