Editing Contact (novel) (section)

==Publication history==
Reading science fiction and fantasy as a child inspired Sagan to become an astronomer. As an adult, he preferred realistic stories that helped readers understand real science and history, like [[Robert Heinlein]]'s "[[—And He Built a Crooked House—]]" and [[L. Sprague de Camp]]'s ''[[Lest Darkness Fall]]''. In 1978, Sagan predicted that because of science fiction, "I know many young people who would, of course, be interested, but in no way astounded, were we to receive a message tomorrow from an extraterrestrial civilization".<ref name="sagan19780528">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1978/05/28/archives/growing-up-with.html |title=Growing up with Science Fiction |last=Sagan |first=Carl |date=May 28, 1978 |work=The New York Times |access-date=December 12, 2018 |page=SM7 |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}}</ref> In 1981, [[Simon & Schuster]] gave Sagan a $2 million advance on the novel. At the time, "the advance was the largest ever made for a book that had not yet been written."<ref name="Davidson 1999">Davidson 1999.</ref> The first printing was 265,000 copies. In the first two years it sold 1,700,000 copies. It was a main selection of Book-of-the-Month-Club.<ref>Spence</ref>

Sagan's friend, physicist [[Kip Thorne]], gave Sagan ideas on the nature of wormholes when Sagan was developing the outline of the novel.<ref name=Tech>{{cite web | url = http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html | title = Contact – High Technology Lends a Hand/Science of the Soundstage | publisher = [[Warner Bros.]] | access-date = September 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010304211755/http://contact-themovie.warnerbros.com/cmp/technology.html |archive-date=March 4, 2001}}</ref>

Sagan named the novel's protagonist, Eleanor Arroway, after two people: [[Eleanor Roosevelt]], a "personal hero" of Sagan's wife, [[Ann Druyan]], and [[Voltaire]], whose last name was Arouet.<ref name="Davidson 1999"/> The character is based on the real-life SETI researcher [[Jill Tarter]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/tarter_profile_991112.html |title=Dr. Jill Tarter: Looking to Make 'Contact' |website=[[Space.com]] |access-date=October 27, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081005020231/http://www.space.com/peopleinterviews/tarter_profile_991112.html |archive-date=October 5, 2008 }}</ref>

The novel won the [[Locus Award for Best First Novel]] in 1986.