Charles E. Fritch 12 min read

A struggling science-fiction writer, real name concealed for good reason, has a confession he must get off his chest, a fantastic thing that began the day a certain letter arrived.

Charles E. Fritch's 1952 story is a wry, metafictional first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, self-aware golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where a hard-up pulp author's own life takes a turn as fantastic as anything he ever tried to sell.

In its time

Published in 1952, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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