Language English Publication date Winter 1949 Publication type Periodical literature | Published in The Arkham Sampler Originally published 1949 Country United States of America | |
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Media type Print (Magazine, Hardback & Paperback) Genres Short story, Science Fiction Similar A E van Vogt books, Science Fiction books | ||
"Dear Pen Pal" is a science fiction short story by A. E. van Vogt.
Contents
Summary
The one-sided dialog takes the form of correspondence from Skander, an alien, to an unnamed human whose replies are not presented. Skander spends some time in the first letters describing his home planet of Aurigae II, a hot planet circling a star in Auriga. Later, Skander admits that he is a criminal, incarcerated for conducting illegal scientific experiments. Desiring to see his pen pal, he sends several photographic sheets that can be exposed if the user simply thinks about a picture being taken.
The last letter is from the unnamed human back to Skander. The human is now in Skander's body. He realized long ago that Skander was trying to scam him, and immediately took the "photographs" to the Earth authorities. They informed him they were a form of consciousness transfer device that Skander was attempting to use to escape from prison. Learning this, the human went through with the process anyway.
He hopes that Skander will enjoy the short time that he has left, trapped in a dying wheelchair-bound body.
Publication history
The story was originally published in The Arkham Sampler (1949) and has been published in many collections and anthologies, such as Destination: Universe!, Far Boundaries and such, the most recent being The Arkham Sampler: A Facsimile Edition (2010, ISBN 1-55246-927-1). It was also published in Urania #1480 in 2003.
Variant titles
It has also been translated into Italian ("Pianeta Aurigae", "Caro Corrispondente"), Dutch ("Beste Correspondentievriend"), French ("Correspondence"), and German ("Lieber Brieffreund").