Harry Warner 19 min read

In a future where people live to 175, a mere 125-year-old visits the doctor, sadly certain something is wrong.

Harry Warner's 1956 story sets its wry social SF in a world of vastly extended lifespans, where Mr. Stallings feels old at an age the physician considers hale. Gentle, ironic magazine SF about longevity and expectation. Read it for a genial golden-age tale that quietly reimagines what 'old' means.

In its time

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

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Paul Orban