Sam McClatchie 24 min read

On the field, a magnificent young runner scores with effortless grace, the first 'Boy America,' watched and groomed for years, the pride of a nation that has raised him for a special purpose.

Sam McClatchie's 1953 story opens on athletic glory before its dystopian social-SF premise emerges. Sharp, unsettling golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a celebrated golden boy's triumph masks a disturbing truth about the society that made him.

In its time

Published in 1953, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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

Illustrated by

Dan Adkins