Walter J. Sheldon 8 min read

Genial Professor Lyman Dane's course is famous for easy credits and nonstop wit, but as his fellow teachers could warn you, one sure way to live dangerously is to become a practical joker.

Walter J. Sheldon's 1958 story is a wry first-contact and military-SF tale. Clever, fun golden-age SF. Read it for a genial story where a celebrated campus prankster's love of jokes collides with a genuine cosmic emergency, in a light, well-turned golden-age piece that mixes academic humor with an unexpected message from the void.

In its time

Published in 1958, during the 1950s, post-war optimism meets cold war anxiety.

Reading it

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