Charles L. Fontenay 10 min read

It happens, by a stroke of poetic something-or-other, the morning after the stormy meeting of the Traskmore censorship board, where Richard J. Montcalm marshaled his forces against evil and laxity.

Charles L. Fontenay's 1957 story is a sharp, ironic first-contact and social-SF tale. Clever, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a story where a small town's crusading censor meets an alien visitor bearing a priceless gift, and the narrow-minded reception of the marvelous carries a sting.

In its time

Published in 1957, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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