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Contents

   



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1 Plot summary  





2 Release  





3 Reception  





4 References  





5 External links  














Columbus Was a Dope






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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 


Columbus Was a Dope
AuthorRobert A. Heinlein
LanguageEnglish
GenreScience fiction
PublishedMay 1947 (initial publication)
Publication placeUnited States
The story takes place in a bar on the Moon, where patrons debate the merits of space exploration in comparison to Columbus's discovery of the New World.

"Columbus Was a Dope" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was first published in the May 1947 issue of Startling Stories. It later appeared in two of Heinlein's collections, The Menace from Earth (1959),[1] and Off the Main Sequence: The Other Science Fiction Stories of Robert A. Heinlein (2005).

Plot summary[edit]

Two bar patrons and a bartender debate building a generation shiptoProxima Centauri. One favors space exploration as benefiting society like Christopher Columbus's discovery of the New World; the other insists that "Columbus was a dope" and should have stayed home. At the end of the story, it is revealed that the bar is on the Moon.

Release[edit]

"Columbus Was a Dope" was first published in the May 1947 issue of Startling Stories. It was subsequently released in the anthology collection Travelers of Space in 1951, through Gnome Press.[2]

Reception[edit]

William H. Patterson Jr. claimed that "Columbus Was a Dope," along with other stories collected in The Menace from Earth, occurs within Heinlein's World as Myth framework, stating that they "are happening somewhere else in the Multiverse, somewhere quite close by the Future History."[3]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Stemper, Michael F. (2004). "Robert A. Heinlein's Fiction". Retrieved 2018-10-09.
  • ^ Greenberg, Martin; Cartier, Edd (1951). Travelers of space. New York: Gnome Press. OCLC 1371200.
  • ^ Patterson Jr., William H. (March 2, 2010). "Futures, Histories". The Green Hills of Earth and The Menace from Earth. Baen. ISBN 978-1439133415. Retrieved October 9, 2018.
  • External links[edit]


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  • Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Columbus_Was_a_Dope&oldid=1214404847"

    Categories: 
    Short stories by Robert A. Heinlein
    1947 short stories
    Works originally published in Startling Stories
    Science fiction short story stubs
    1940s short story stubs
    Hidden categories: 
    Articles with short description
    Short description matches Wikidata
    Articles needing additional references from December 2009
    All articles needing additional references
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    This page was last edited on 18 March 2024, at 19:22 (UTC).

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