R. R. Winterbotham 17 min read

The first alien to visit Earth is mobbed like a movie star, and unimpressed by the 'barbaric planet.'

R. R. Winterbotham's 1956 story trails Olbu, an interstellar visitor who mastered English overnight and endures adoring crowds and broadcast interviews with dry condescension. A comic first-contact piece that turns the mirror on humanity's celebrity culture and provincial self-importance. Read it for genial magazine-era satire about how we'd really greet a visitor from the stars.

In its time

Published in 1956, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

17 min read (a short story, a single idea, delivered and gone).

Illustrated by

Ed Emshwiller