George O. Smith 1 hr 15 min read

Twenty years as private secretary to William Wrightwood have prepared Miss Peters for anything, except the furious arrival of Steve Hagen, storming into the private office with an accusation.

George O. Smith's 1951 story is a sharp dystopian and social-SF tale about fanaticism. Clever, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a taut story exploring the difference between rational and irrational hatred, where a private confrontation opens onto larger questions of zealotry and manipulation, in shrewd, character-driven golden-age SF.

In its time

Published in 1951, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

1 hr 15 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).