Our Fair City
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"Our Fair City" is a fantasy short story by Robert A. Heinlein, originally printed in Weird Tales, January 1949. The story involves an old parking lot attendant, his pet whirlwind (named Kitten), and a muckraking newspaper columnist who decide to "clean up" their city's corrupt government by running the whirlwind for political office.
Reception
[edit]Alexei Panshin has called it an "amiable trifle",<ref name=Panshin>Heinlein in Dimension: 1949, published 1968; archived at Panshin.com</ref> while Brian Stableford has described it as an example of "preliminary de-historicization followed by re-accommodation to American pragmatism".<ref name=Stableford>News of the Black Feast and Other Random Reviews, by Brian Stableford; published 2009 by Wildside Press</ref>
Origins
[edit]Heinlein biographer William H. Patterson Jr. noted that Heinlein wrote the story in four days in October 1947, inspired by L. Ron Hubbard's decision to name a dust devil which was frequently present outside Heinlein's apartment.<ref name=Patterson>Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century: Volume 1: Learning Curve 1907-1948, by William H. Patterson Jr.; published August 17, 2010 by Macmillan Publishers</ref>