The Man Who Sold the Moon (short story collection) explained

The Man Who Sold the Moon
Country:	United States
Language:	English
Release Date:	1950
Media Type:	Print (hardback)
Pages:	299
Oclc:	1933095

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

Boucher and McComas praised the 1950 edition as Heinlein "at his superlative best".^[1] 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.^[2] 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".^[3]

General and cited references

• Book: Chalker, Jack L. . Jack L. Chalker

. Jack L. Chalker . Mark Owings . 1998 . The Science-Fantasy Publishers: A Bibliographic History, 1923–1998 . Westminster, MD and Baltimore . Mirage Press . 593.

Notes and References

1. "Recommended Reading," F&SF, February 1951, p.59
2. "Books", F&SF, April 1960, p.99
3. "Book Reviews", Astounding Science Fiction. March 1951, p.144-45