Jr. L. J. Stecher 13 min read

'If you were in my shoes, if you don't mind stretching a point, what would you do?' So begins a very unusual letter to an advice columnist from someone called Alfred the Magnificent.

L. J. Stecher Jr.'s 1958 story frames a wry social-SF tale as a plea to an agony aunt from a most extraordinary correspondent. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a delightful story whose humble letter-writer turns out to be anything but ordinary.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Martinez