Harry Lorayne 18 min read

The world's newspapers have heralded it for months, the first personal visit from outer space, and now sixty thousand people crowd the Interspace Airport to greet Mr. Kramvit of Planet Six.

Harry Lorayne's 1957 story is a wry first-contact and social-SF satire. Clever, pointed golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where humanity's grand welcome for its first alien visitor takes an unexpected turn, and the 'poors' of the title deliver a sharp comment on wealth, status, and pride.

In its time

Published in 1957, 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

Paul Orban