Alan Edward Nourse 17 min read

What drives a man to the stars on a life of high adventure and grave peril, and can a girl's love keep him home? Thousands stand in the rain as a small bronze casket comes down from the ship.

Alan E. Nourse's 1953 story frames a stirring space-opera tale around a hero's costly triumph and return. Poignant, adventurous golden-age SF. Read it for a story about the pull of the frontier, the price of glory, and the love left waiting on Earth.

In its time

Published in 1953, 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

W. E. Terry