The Man Who Sold the Moon (short story collection)
Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox book
The Man Who Sold the Moon is the title of a 1950 collection of science fiction short stories by American writer Robert A. Heinlein.
The stories, part of Heinlein's Future History series, appear in the first edition as follows:
- Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr., editor of Astounding Science Fiction
- Foreword by Robert A. Heinlein
- "Let There Be Light" (1940; originally published in Super Science Stories)
- "The Roads Must Roll" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
- "The Man Who Sold the Moon" (1950; first appearance is in this collection)
- "Requiem" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
- "Life-Line" (1939; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
- "Blowups Happen" (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
Early paperback printings omitted "Life-Line" and "Blowups Happen", as well as Campbell's introduction.
Reception
[edit]Boucher and McComas praised the 1950 edition as Heinlein "at his superlative best".<ref>"Recommended Reading," F&SF, February 1951, p.59</ref> In his "Books" column for F&SF, Damon Knight selected The Man Who Sold the Moon as one of the 10 best science fiction books of the 1950s.<ref>"Books", F&SF, April 1960, p.99</ref> P. Schuyler Miller said that "Heinlein is a master of concealed technology ... no other writer [has] worked out the scientific minutiae of his settings so fully or so unobtrusively", praising as well Heinlein's skill at crafting "the human engineering details of each situation".<ref>"Book Reviews", Astounding Science Fiction. March 1951, p.144-45</ref>