Collection On several occasions, Lafferty named his favorite stories. See footnotes.
· Commentary “I am reasonably happy with what I have written and with the reception it has had. But I can't think of any work or event that makes it to the 'greatest thrill' category. It's a little bit like asking a man who has loved his breakfast eggs for sixty years to name the most thrilling egg he ever ate. He might hesitate a bit and come out with something no better than: Oh, there was a really superior egg on June 9 of 1932, and another on February 8 of 1947, And in 1951 (it was either April 4 or April 5) I had two absolutely perfect eggs. But no, it would be presumptuous of me to name the most thrilling egg I ever ate. They were all so good!”—R. A. Lafferty, Interview by Tom Jackson, Lan's Lantern #39 (1991)
“The most neglected of my favorite short stories is 'Bird Master.' The reason for this was probably that it was published in a Chris Drumm booklet which reached maybe 500 readers, whereas many of the other stories published in magazines reached one hundred times as many readers.”—R. A. Lafferty, Interview by Tom Jackson, Lan's Lantern #39 (1991)
- One at a Time (1968) 1, 2, 3
"John Sourwine is always interested in new things, or old things returned. So John went down to Barnaby's Barn to see the Odd One. There was no need to ask which one he was, though there were always strangers and traveling men and seamen unknown to John in the Barn. The Odd One stood out. He was a big, spare, tough fellow, and he said that his name was McSkee. He was eating and drinking with a chortling pleasure, and they all watched him in amazement. “It's his fourth plate of spaghetti,” Smokehouse confided to Sour John, “and that is the last of two dozen eggs...”" —R. A. Lafferty
- Ride a Tin Can (1970) 1, 2, 3
"Holly Harkel and myself, Vincent Vanhoosier, received funds and permission to record the lore of the Shelni through the intercession of that old correlator John Holmberg. This was unexpected. All lorists have counted John as their worst enemy. “After all, we have been at great expense to record the minutiae of pig grunts and the sound of earthworms,” Holmberg told me, “and we have records of squeakings of hundreds of species of orbital rodents. We have veritable libraries of the song and cackle of all birds and pseudo-ornins." —R. A. Lafferty
- Continued on Next Rock (1970) 1, 2
"The chimney rock is only a little older than mankind, only a little younger than grass. Its formation had been up-thrust and then eroded away again, all but such harder parts as itself and other chimneys and blocks. A party of five persons came to this place where the chimney rock had fallen against a still newer hill. The people of the party did not care about the deep lime stone below: they were not geologists. They did care about the newer hill ( it was man-made ) and they did care a little about the rock chimney; they were archeologists. Here was time heaped up, bulging out in casing and accumulation, and not in line sequence. And here also was striated and banded time, grown tall, and then shattered and broken." —R. A. Lafferty
· 1972 Ditmar Nominee, · 1971 Hugo Nominee, Best Short Story · 1971 Nebula Nominee, Best Short Story · 1970 Locus 3rd, Best Short Fiction
- Slow Tuesday Night (1965) 1, 2
"“It had been a slow Tuesday night. A few hundred new products had run their course on the markets. There had been a score of dramatic hits, three-minute and five-minute capsule dramas, and several of the six-minute long-play affairs. Night Street Nine—a solidly sordid offering—seemed to be in as the drama of the night unless there should be a late hit. Hundred-storied buildings had been erected, occupied, obsoleted, and demolished again to make room for more contemporary structures. Only the mediocre would use a building that had been left over from the Day-Flies or the Dawners, or even the Nyctalops of the night before. The city was rebuilt pretty completely at least three times during an eight-hour period.”" —R. A. Lafferty
· 2010 Arthur B. Evans, The Wesleyan Anthology of Science Fiction · 1979 James Gunn, The Road To Science Fiction #3 · 1966 Nebula Nominee, Best Short Story
- Snuffles (1960) 1, 2
"“I always said we'd find one of them that was fun,” remarked Brian. “There's been entirely too much solemnity in the universe. Did you never panic on thinking of the multiplicity of systems?” “Never,” said Georgina. “Not even when, having set down a fine probability for the totality of worlds, you realized suddenly that you had to raise it by a dozen powers yet?” “What's to panic?” “Not even when it comes over you, ‘This isn't a joke; this is serious; every one of them is serious’?” “ ‘Cosmic intimidation,’ Belloc called it. And it does tend to minimize a person.” “And did you never hope that out of all that prodigality of worlds, one at least should have been made for fun? One should have been made by a wild child or a mixed-up goblin just to put the rest of them in proper perspective, to deflate the pomposity of the cosmos.”" —R. A. Lafferty
- One-Eyed Mocking-Bird (1982) 1
"Tobias Lamb, though not well liked, was held in high esteem by the scientific community. There were many of us who hardly liked him because — well, it was because his tricks and illusions sometimes shattered us completely. “And besides,” Alwin Garvie said of him, “he's an unlikely man.” Ah well, admit it, we were afraid of him. He was a harsh mocker; and yet he had a pleasant strain (or it was meant to be pleasant) in him. He was a hard driver. If he didn't actually hold a whip in his hand when he was working on a project, there was always a whip in his voice. He was avid, even feverish, to drive a project to success; and yet he didn't seem at all hungry for personal glory. " —R. A. Lafferty
- The Ultimate Creature (1967) 3
"The old Galaxy maps (imitating early Earth maps, partly in humor and partly through intuition) pictured strong creatures in the far arms of the system — Serpents bigger than Spaceships, Ganymede-type Tigers, fish-tailed Maids, grand Dolphins, and Island-sized Androids. We think particularly of the wry masterpieces of Grobin. And at the end of the Far or Seventh arm of the Galaxy is shown the Ultimate Creature. The Ultimate Creature had the form of a Woman, and it bore three signs in Chaldee: The Sign of Treasure; the Sign of the Fish Mashur (the queerest fish of them all); and the Sign of Restitution or of Floating Justice." —R. A. Lafferty
- Among the Hairy Earthmen (1966) 3
"There is one period of our World History that has aspects so different from anything that went before and after that we can only gaze back on those several hundred years and ask: “Was that ourselves who behaved so?” Well, no, as a matter of fact, it wasn't. It was beings of another sort who visited us briefly and who acted so gloriously and abominably. This is the way it was:" —R. A. Lafferty
· 1967 Nebula Made First Ballot, Best Short Story
- The Weirdest World (1961) 3
"As I am now utterly without hope, lost to my mission and lost in the sight of my crew, I will record what petty thoughts I may have for what benefit they may give some other starfarer. Nine long days of bickering! But the decision is sure. The crew will maroon me. I have lost all control over them. Who would have believed that I would show such weakness when crossing the barrier? By all tests I should have been the strongest. But the final test was the event itself. I failed. I only hope that it is a pleasant and habitable planet where they put me down…" —R. A. Lafferty
- Bird-Master (1983) 1
"‘There was a Cheyenne sub-chief named Whistling Elk. There was also an animal, or a ghost-animal, in the mythology of several tribes, the Cheyennes, the Sioux, the Osages, and the Comanches. There is something spooky about this Whistling Elk in the legends, for real elks do not whistle. The Whistling Elk is an apparition, a ghost, a messenger of death. He is also the one who gives the birds the signal to migrate. They would not know when to mill and fly away, and they would perish of the cold and hunger, if the Elk didn't give them the signal. The Whistling Elk is sometimes associated with the Bird-Master, who is variously known as the ‘shape-changer’ and the ‘cloud-shaper’." —R. A. Lafferty
- Selenium Ghosts of the Eighteen Seventies (1978) 1
"Even today, the “invention” of television is usually ascribed to Paul Nipkow of Germany, and the year is given as 1884. Nipkow used the principle of the variation in the electrical conductivity of selenium when exposed to light, and he used scanning discs as mechanical effectors. What else was there for him to use before the development of the phototube and the current-amplifying electron tube? The resolution of Nipkow's television was very poor due to the “slow light” characteristics of selenium response and the lack of amplification. There were, however, several men in the United States who transmitted a sort of television before Nipkow did so in Germany." —R. A. Lafferty
· 1979 Locus 15th, Best Short Fiction
- You Can't Go Back (1981) 1
"One evening in the Latter Days, Helen brought over some bones and rocks that belonged to her late husband John Palmer. She brought the Moon Whistle too. And she left those things with us. Helen had married again, and to a man who hadn't known John. And she left all those things with us. And she thought that she'd better get some of those funny old things out of her house. “The Moon Whistle will be no good without you to blow it, Helen,” Hector O'Day said." —R. A. Lafferty
- All Pieces of a River Shore (1970) 1
"It had been a very long and ragged and incredibly interlocked and detailed river shore. Then a funny thing happened. It had been broken up, sliced up into pieces. Some of the pieces had been folded and compressed into bales. Some of them had been cut into still smaller pieces and used for ornaments and as Indian medicine. Rolled and baled pieces of the shore came to rest in barns and old warehouses, in attics, in caves. Some were buried in the ground. And yet the river itself still exists physically, as do its shores, and you may go and examine them. But the shore you will see along the river now is not quite the same as that old shore that was broken up and baled into bales and rolled onto rollers, not quite the same as the pieces you will find in attics and caves." —R. A. Lafferty
- Narrow Valley (1966) 1
"In the year 1893, land allotments in severalty were made to the remaining eight hundred and twenty-one Pawnee Indians. Each would receive one hundred and sixty acres of land and no more, and thereafter the Pawnees would be expected to pay taxes on their land, the same as the White-Eyes did. “Kitkehahke!” Clarence Big-Saddle cussed. “You can't kick a dog around proper on a hundred and sixty acres." —R. A. Lafferty
· 1998 Robert Silverberg, The Fantasy Hall of Fame · 1992 Gardner Dozois, Modern Classics of Science Fiction
- Configuration of the North Shore (1969) 1
"“I have let my business go down,” Miller said. “My wife says that I have let her down. My sons say that I have turned into a sleepy stranger. Everybody agrees that I've lost all ambition and judgment. And yet I do have a stirring ambition. I am not able, however, to put it into words.” “We'll put it into words, Miller, either yours or mine,” Rousse said. “Slip up on it right now! Quickly, what is the stirring ambition?” “To visit the Northern Shore, and to make the visit stick.”" —R. A. Lafferty
· 1997 Gardner Dozois, Modern Classics of Fantasy
- Golden Gate (1982) 1
"It was clear to Barnaby that Blackie was really a villain. Not everybody knew this. A melodrama villain is only black behind the lights. Off stage he should have a heart of gold. Whether of wrestling match, or afternoon serial, or evening drama or film, or on the little stage here at the Golden Gate Bar, the villain should be — when his role is finished — kind and courteous, thoughtful and big-hearted, a prince of a fellow." —R. A. Lafferty
· 1984 Locus 15th, Best Short Fiction
- Old Foot Forgot (1970) 1
"“Dookh-Doctor, it is a sphairikos patient,” Lay Sister Moira P. T. de C. cried happily. “It is a genuine spherical alien patient. You've never had one before, not in good faith. I believe it is what you need to distract you from the—ah—happy news about yourself. It is good for a Dookh-Doctor to have a different patient sometimes.” “Thank you, lay sister. Let it, him, her, fourth case, fifth case or whatever come in. No, I've never had a sphairikos in good faith. I doubt if this one is, but I will enjoy the encounter.” The sphairikos rolled or pushed itself in. It was a big one, either a blubbery kid or a full-grown one. It rolled itself along by extruding and withdrawing pseudopods. And it came to rest grinning, a large translucent rubbery ball of fleeting colors." —R. A. Lafferty
- Rainbird (1961) 1
(1785 A.D.) "For he pioneered the dynamo, the steam automobile, the steel industry, ferro-concrete construction, the internal combustion engine, electric illumination and power, the wireless, the televox, the petroleum and petrochemical industries, monorail transportation, air travel, worldwide monitoring, fissionable power, space travel, group telepathy, political and economic balance; he built a retrogressor; and he made great advances towards corporal immortality and the apotheosis of mankind. It would seem unfair that all this is unknown of him." —R. A. Lafferty
- Faith Sufficient (1983) 1
"The mouse and the handyman had a little game every day with the pecan, the mouse pushing it with all his physical strength, and the handyman pushing it with faith and telekinesis. But then the mouse would seem to double his strength, and they would play the game to a standstill. “Brother Mus, my employers are rather overdoing this thing,” Brother Gus the handyman said. “I wonder why they have become so extravagant in their manifestations. John Salt is likely to challenge them on the genuineness of them. He is riled by such arrogance. I may have to leave their employ as I left that of the extravagant persons at the laboratory. Oh certainly you will go with me wherever I go. You and I are one.” The mouse winked at Brother Gus and giggled, proving that he was a mouse of at least human intelligence." —R. A. Lafferty
- Great Tom Fool or The Conundrum of the Calais Customhouse Coffers (1982) 1
"How hard it is to judge the second best. Who is the second-best scientist in the history of the world? First place goes to Isaac Newton, of course, but who is second best? There'll never be a solution; only endless quarreling over twenty-five candidates at least. And who is the second-best writer in the history of the world? First place goes to William Shakespeare, of course— Of course. It is odd that so little is known about Shakespeare and that so many people believe so passionately that Shakespeare wasn't Shakespeare but that someone else wrote the plays and poems attributed to the man. But if you want the Great Shakespearean Controversy raised to new pitches of madness, read this mad story." —R. A. Lafferty
- Ginny Wrapped in the Sun (1967) 3
"Hauser honks like a gander! That clattering laugh of Goldbeater! Snodden sniggers so loud that it echos! Cooper's boom is like barrels rolling downstairs, and your own — it'll shrivel me, Dismas. Imagine the weirdest cacophony ever — Oh no! I wasn't thinking of one so weird as that!” Musical screaming! Glorious gibbering with an undertone that could shatter rocks! Hooting of a resonance plainly too deep for so small an instrument! Yowling, hoodoo laughing, broken roaring, rhinoceros grunting! And the child came tumbling out of the tall rocks of Doolen's Mountain, leaping down the flanks of the hill as though she was a waterfall. And both the men laughed. “Your Ginny is the weirdest cacophony I can imagine, Dismas,” Dr. Minden said. “It scares me, and I love it. Your daughter is the most remarkable creature in the world." —R. A. Lafferty
- Cliffs That Laughed (1969) 3
"“Imagine about flute notes ascending,” said Galli. “I haven't my flute with me, but a story should begin so to set the mood. Imagine about ships coming out of the Arabian Ocean, and finally to Jilolo Island, and still more finally to the very island on which we now stand. Imagine about waves and trees that were the great-great-grandfathers of the waves and trees we now have.” It was about the year 1620, Galli is telling it, in the late afternoon of the high piracy. These Moluccas had already been the rich Spice Islands for three hundred years." —R. A. Lafferty
· 1994 Locus 22nd, Best Short Story
Notes 1.
Tom Jackson interview,
Lan's Lantern #39, 1991
2.
Robert J. Whitaker interview,
At The Sleepy Sailor, The Sons of the Sand, 1979
3.
Paul Walker interview,
Alien Critic Volume 6, 1973