Evelyn E. Smith 18 min read

Sometimes a job comes after the man, and this one comes after Gervase Schnee like a tiger, starting with a stranger congratulating him for news he hasn't even heard yet.

Evelyn E. Smith's 1955 story spins a wry first-contact and social-SF tale from an unwanted honor descending on a reluctant recluse. Clever, funny golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story about a man who is suddenly, alarmingly, the most sought-after fellow in the world.

In its time

Published in 1955, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Mel Hunter