“A Child is Crying”
Originally published in Thrilling Wonder Stories, December 1948

Even though he’s best remember as a writer of crime novels and the Travis McGee series of thrillers, John D. MacDonald was also an accomplished author of science fiction.  He only wrote three sf novels (The Girl, the Gold Watch, and Everything; Ballroom of the Skies; Wine of the Dreamers), but the ISFDB lists 70 short stories if I’ve counted correctly.  Not all of those are necessarily science fiction, but that’s more than enough for a retrospective collection or two.  (Stephen Haffner, are you paying attention?)  Some of his science fiction was collected in Other Times, Other Worlds.  That little paperback is long out of print, although copies can still be found.  I bought one at a secondhand bookstore in Colorado a few weeks ago.

MacDonald was born on this date, July 24, in 1916, and passed away during surgery in 1986.  In observance of his birth, I managed to read one of his tales.  “A Child is Crying” is one of his best-known sf short stories, and it’s easy to see why. Continue reading →