The Big List of Time Travel Adventures

 1937 to 1949



   Myra North, Special Nurse
by Ray Thompson and Charles Coll
First time travel: 24 Jan 1937

My friend Art Lortie, science fiction historian extraordinaire, pointed me toward the unassuming Myra North, Special Nurse, who ran in the daily comics from 1936 to 1941. For the most part, she was nothing more than a special nurse, but some episodes, particularly in the Sunday strips, were more fantastic than others. Art told me of the 1937 appearance of a machine that saw into the future (“The Mechanical Eye” which concluded on 28 March 1937); a later story (“The Mystic Dragon”, 10 Mar 1940 to 13 Oct 1940) finds the nefarious present-day Zero back in the time of Scheherazade and Sinbad (although it’s never said whether he’s an actual time traveler).

Art Lortie's guide and scans include 141 pages of new and reprint material from comic books, too, although I didn’t spot any time travel therein.

 Now then, just visualize how important it might be if we were able to see what was happening a year from now! 


   “He Who Mastered Time”
by J. Harvey Haggard
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb 1937

After testing his time machine on mice, Richard Sauger himself travels to the far end of time with no plot other than that.

 He stood on a flat plain that undulated gently. That much was understandable. The surface of the earth, if it really was changing rapidly, had become a mere blur to his senses. The solid ring of substance across the sky was the sun, traveling at a prodigious rate that kept pase with his transit through Time. The retina of the eye caught its image as a solid ring, so swift was the earth’s rotation. As the seasons altered the ring shifted lower or higher across the horizon, that was all. 




   The Sands of Time Stories
by P. Schuyler Miller
First story: Astounding, Apr 1937

Terry Donovan realizes that it’s possible to travel through time in 60,000,000-year increments, so naturally he travels back to the time of dinosaurs and visiting aliens.

The first story, “The Sands of Time,” was under Tremaine’s Astounding editorship (Apr 1937) but the sequel, “Coils of Time,” appeared under Campbell’s (May 1939).

 Incidentally, I have forgotten the most important thing of all. Remember that Donovan’s dominating idea was to prove to me, and to the world, that he had been in the Cretaceous and hobnobbed with its flora and fauna. He was a physicist by inclination, and had the physicist’s flair for ingenious proofs. Before leaving, he loaded a lead cube with three quartz quills of pure radium chloride that he had been using in a previous experiment, and locked the whole thing up in a steel box. 




   “Forgetfulness”
by John W. Campbell, Jr. (as by Don A. Stuart)
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1937

Millions of years after mankind raised various species and sent them to the stars, one of the species returns and believes that humans have fallen into a primitive existence. And the time travel? Partway through the story, there’s a power source that goes to the end of time and cycles back to the beginning of time. In addition, Fred Galvin pointed out to me that even though it takes the aliens six years to travel to Earth, when they return to their home planet, only one year has passed, apparently a complete undoing by Seun of Rhth of the alien invasion.

The story also appeared in Healy and McComas’s seminal anthology, Adventures in Time and Space, and it was made into a one-act play in 1943 by Wayne Gordon.

 In the first revolution it made, the first day it was built, it circled to the ultimate end of time and the universe, and back to the day it was built. 




   “Lost in Time”
by Arthur Leo Zagat
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun 1937

While crossing the Pacific alone in a small boat, Jim Dunning runs into a storm that capsizes his boat. When he comes to, the only thing in sight is a spherical ship with one passenger: the beautiful (but unconscious) Thalma of the house of Adams, who’s been thrown into the past by her evil Uncle Marnota. When Thalma recovers, she pushes random levers which result in both her and Jim returning to her time and the clutches of Marnota.

 You just trust your Uncle Jim! Everything’s going to be all right, sure as God made little apples. Just sit down over here, and powder your nose, or whatever they do in your time. Then you can tell me all about it. 


The story later appeared in this 1953 anthology.

   “Reverse Phylogeny”
by Amelia Reynolds Long
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1937

Eric Dale once again tells of an escapade of his friend, Professor Aloysius O’Flannigan—this time it’s about his quest to prove or disprove the existance of Atlantis via hypnosis and the recovery of ancestral memories. You’ll need to wait until the end for the tiny bit of time travel to be cast out.

 There are times, I reflected, when nothing else in the English language is so expressive as the single word, “Nuts.” But I said nothing, hoping that he would work off his enthusiasm by writing a letter to the magazine. I should have known better. 


   “Seeker of To-Morrow”
by Eric Frank Russell and Leslie J. Johnson
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1937

Explorer Urnas Karin and his crew of twenty return to Venus from abandoned Earth along with the body of a man who appears to have traveled from the ancient past—and then they revive him, whereupon he tells of his invention of time travel (to the future only) and subsequent journey from 1998 to the present day.

 I had set up my laboratory in the wilds of the Peak District in Derbyshire, in England, where work could be carried on with the minimum of interference. From this laboratory I had dispatched into the unknown, presumably the future, a multitude of objects, including several live creatures such as rats, mice, pigeons and domestic fowl. In no case could I bring back anything I had made to vanish. Once gone, the subject was gone forever. There was no way of discovering exactly where it had gone. There was nothing but to take a risk and go myself. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  Time and the Conways by J.B. Priestley [visions of possible futures ]

  “The Isolinguals” by L. Sprague de Camp, Astounding Sep 1937 [ancestral memory ]

  “Past, Present and Future” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, Sep 1937 [long sleep ]
  aka part of The Three Musketeers of Tomorrow

  I Have Been Here Before by J.B. Priestley, 22 Sep 1937 [precognition ]

  “City of the Rocket Horde” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, Dec 1937 [long sleep ]
  aka part of The Three Musketeers of Tomorrow



   For Us, the Living
by Robert A. Heinlein
First written: 1938 (posthumously published in 2003)

I’m sad that I’ve now read all the extant Heinlein fiction, this posthumous (and first) novel being the last piece for me. It certainly held 3.5 stars worth of enjoyment for a Heinlein fan, but much of that was in seeing the nascent ideas of the writer that I would devour in my childhood. In the story, a military pilot from 1939 dies, and his consciousness is thrown forward to 2086 where social and economic aspects of society are hugely altered, though technological advances are more conservative (but, dammit, I want my flying car).

 “Let me get out of these furs.” She walked away while fumbling with a zipper at her throat. The furs were all one garment which slipped off her shoulders and fell to the floor. Perry felt a shock like an icy shower and then a warm tingle. 

Robert A. Heinlein, Master Traveller

Had Heinlein written nothing other than “—All You Zombies—”, he would still be a masterful Master Traveller.


   Hal Hardy and the Lost Land of Giants
First publication: Whitman Big Little Book 1413, 1938

Not surprisingly, Hal finds himself in the land of dinosaurs.

 The beast Hal saw looked like a rhinoceros, save for the horns. 






   The Once and Future King
by T.H. White
First book: 1938

Merlyn, who experiences time backward, is the traveler in this series, which was introduced to me by Denbigh Starkey, my undergraduate advisor at WSU and later a member of my Ph.D. committee.

The first four of these short books in the series were collected (with a substantial cut and revision to #2) into a single volume, The Once and Future King, in 1958. A final part, The Book of Merlyn written in 1941, was published posthumously in 1971.
  1. The Sword in the Stone, 1938
    —Arthur is crowned
  2. The Witch in the Wood, 1939
    aka The Queen of Air and Darkness (cut and revised), 1958
    —young King Arthur
  3. The Ill-Made Knight (1940)
    —Sir Lancelot
  4. The Candle in the Wind (1958)
    —the end of Camelot
  5. The Book of Merlyn (1977)
    —the final battle with Mordred

     EVERYTHING NOT FORBIDDEN IS COMPULSORY. 

    —a sign at the ant colony
         (and also physicist Murray Gell-Mann’s description of particle physics)






   “Shuffled Symphonies”
by Basil Reynolds
First time travel: 1 Jan 1938 in Mickey Mouse Weekly 100

Shuffled Symphonies were short, illustrated fantasy stories in the British Mickey Mouse Weekly. Some of the episodes included time travel via Doctor Einmug’s time machine. The four that I know about include a trip to Stonehenge (1 Jan 1938), to visit Sir Walter Raleigh and Elizabeth I (12 Mar 1938), a visit to Shakespeare (6 Aug 1938), and a trip to a robotic future (26 Nov, 1938).

 A few more shivers and quivers, and the heap of gleaming metal sprang into life and bowled after the terrified Twin! 

—Mickey Mouse Weekly 147, 26 Nov, 1938




   “Lords of 9016”
by John Russell Fearn
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Apr 1938

Dick and his scientist friend Ladbrook take a helicopter into the giant hole that has opened in the ground near two cities where all people and animals have disappeared, only to find giant ants from the future.

 Not ants of your time, however, but the rulers of the year ninety-sixteen, seven thousand of so years ahead of you—time enough for the busy creatures of your present day to have evolved into the significant might you see we have. 




   The Legion of Time
by Jack Williamson
First publication: Astounding Science Fiction, May–Jul 1938

After two beautiful women of two different possible futures appear to physicist Denny Lanning, he finds himself swept up by a time-traveling ship, the Chronion, along with a band of fighting men who swear their allegiance to The Legion of Time and its mission to ensure that the eviler of the two beautiful women never comes to pass.

 But Max Planck with the quantum theory, de Broglie and Schroedinger with the wave mechanics, Heisenberg with matrix mechanics, enourmously complicated the structure of the universe—and with it the problem of Time.
With the substitution of waves of probability for concrete particles, the world lines of objects are no longer the fixed and simple paths they once were. Geodesics have an infinite proliferation of possible branches, at the whim of sub-atomic indeterminism.
Still, of course, in large masses the statistical results of the new physics are not much different from those given by the classical laws. But there is a fundamental difference. The apparent reality of the universe is the same—but it rests upon a quicksand of possible change. 


   “The Invisible Bomber”
by Ralph Milne Farley (as by Lt. John Pease)
First publication: Amazing, Jun 1938

Here’s a new rule about what constitutes a time-travel story: If the author claims that there’s time travel in the story, then it’s a time-travel story. That’s the case for this story, which doesn’t feel like time travel to me, but in the afterward of The Omnibus of Time Farley says that the airplane bomber in this story becomes soundless and invisible via a “laminated” model of space-time in which a series of different worlds are stacked one on top of another, each just a short time in front of its predecessor. According to Farley, “time-traveling will carry the traveler, not into the future, but rather into an entirely different space-time continuum than our own.” The plane becomes invisible by traveling just a short distance toward the next world without reaching anywhere near it.

My thought on this is that the notion of time as a dimension does not have anything to do with the stacking dimension. In fact, I don’t think they can be the same dimension because that would imply that there is nothing to distinguish a point in our space-time continuum from a point with the same space-time coordinates in some other continuum.

P.S. I also didn’t care for the president’s solution to the story’s problem.

 We human beings live in a three dimensional space, or which time has sometimes been called the fourth dimension. But did it ever occur to you, Mr. President, that we do not extend in time. We never experience any other time than the present. Our so-called space-time existence is thus seen to be a mere three-dimensional layer, or lamina, infinitely thin in the time direction. There could exist another three-dimensional space just a second or two away from ours, and we would never know it. 


Part I of Asimov’s autobiography

   “Cosmic Corkscrew”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: written in 1938, but unpublished

“Cosmic Corkscrew” was the first story that Asimov ever wrote for submission to the pulp magazines of the day. In the first part of his autobiography, he describes starting the story, setting it aside, and returning to it some thirteen months later. It was the story that he took with him on his first visit to John Campbell, inquiring about why the July 1938 Astounding was late arriving. Alas, the story was rejected and then lost, but it did have time travel!

 In it, I viewed time as a helix (this is, as something like a bedspring). Someone could cut across from one turn directly to the next, thus moving into the future by some exact interval, but being incapable of traveling one day less into the future. (I didn’t know the term at the time, but what I had done was to “quantize” time travel.) 

—In Memory Yet Green, Part I of Asimov’s autobiography

Isaac Asimov, Master Traveller

Even though Asimov’s first story was lost, I find it comforting that the story was about time travel, a theme that he returned to over-and-over again with far more variety than any of his other themes. My favorite Asimov story, given to me by my Grandpa Main in its original 1958 issue of Galaxy will always be “The Ugly Little Boy.”




   Language for Time Travelers
by L. Sprague de Camp
First publication: Astounding Science Fiction, Jul 1938

This essay convinced me to add at least a few nonfiction works to my list. After all, why not? De Camp interleaves a few fictional vignettes with thoughts on how language might change over the next few centuries. For me, it shows how well the time travel paradigm had been established by 1939.

As a bonus, this essay appeared in the very issue of Astounding that has the final installment of The Legion of Time and which caused all the trouble in my story “Saving Astounding.”

 Wah lenksh? Inksh lenksh, coss. Wah you speak? Said, sah-y, daw geh-ih. Daw, neitha. You fresh? Jumm? 

L. Sprague de Camp, Master Traveller

Even before de Camp produced the award winning Lest Darkness Fall, my Grandpa Main had identified him as a Master Traveller based on “Language for Time Travelers,” which was the first of many de Camp essays. Appropriately enough, de Camp’s enjoyable autobiography is titled Time and Chance.








   Fiction House Comics
published by Thurman T. Scott
First time travel: Jumbo Comics 1, Sep 1938

Fiction House was a major publisher of pulp magazines and comics through the 1950s. Their comics came out of a pulp tradition with stories of jungle heros (Sheena, Queen of the Jungle), air aces (Wings Comics), westerns (Cowgirl Romances), science fiction (Planet Comics), and, of course, Jumbo Comics (Action! Adventure! Mystery!).

The first time travel that I tracked down here was an adventurer named Stuart Taylor who teamed with Dr. Hayward and his beautiful daughter Lora (later Laura) in many issues of Jumbo Comics. For me, it was exciting for two reasons: (1) It’s some of the earliest time travel in a comic book that I know of; (2) At least the first few stories were drawn by Jack King Kirby (as by Curt Davis). Time travel probably occurred in 1-4 (“The Experiment of Kromo’), as well as in 5-14, 17-78, 84-139, plus a reprint in 140. (Numbers 15-16 had no time travel; I think 79-83 are shorter, with no Stuart Taylor, and Stu disappeared after 140.)

Their science fiction comic, Planet Comics, had at least one bout of time travel when a chronoscope brought dinosaurs and such to The Lost World of heros Hunt and Lyssa (Planet Comics 41, March 1946); it also short, 2-page stories, at least one of which was time travel (“Lost World of Time” in Planet Comics 7, July 1940).

 My name is Stuart Taylor. Do you mind if I ask what seems a silly question! What year is this? 

—from Jumbo Comics 13




   If—You Were Stranded in Time
by Jack Binder
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Dec 1938

Comic book artist Jack Binder wasn’t as well known among science fiction readers as his two brothers Otto and Earl, but Jack did series of what-if comics for “Thrilling Wonder Stories, including this

 Suppose some fourth-dimensional phenomenon catapulted you back to the days of Caesar, with the possibility of a return to your own twentieth century entirely removed. Equipped with an elementary understanding of various sciences, how would you capitalize on your knowledge of future events and discoveries? Could you, with a head-start of two thousand years, earn a living? 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “Island of the Individualists” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, May 1938 [long sleep ]

  “The Dangerous Dimension” by L. Ron Hubbard, Astounding, Jul 1938 [just teleportation ]

  “Through the Time-Radio” by Stanton A. Coblentz, Marvel Science Stories, Aug 1938 [viewing the past ]

  “Time for Sale” by Ralph Milne Farley, Amazing, Aug 1938 [differing time rates ]



   The Ship That Flew
by Hilda Lewis
First publication: 1939

Four children and a ship—a time traveling ship, that is, which takes Peter Grace and his three siblings back to the time of ancient Egypt, Robin Hood, Norse gods, and more.

 It was lovely in the magic ship, lovelier than any one could possibly have imagined. The wind sent their hair streaming backwards. Birds flew past with movements scarcely less graceful that those of the ship. The children sang for joy in the keen, fresh air. The song that they sang had no words, it just came out in trills and rhythms because they were so happy. 




   A Traveller in Time
by Alison Uttley
First publication: 1939

While staying with her aunt in Derbyshire, sickly young Penelope Taberner Cameron is swept back to the sixteenth century where she is caught up in the Babington plot to overthrow Queen Elizabeth I.

 I flung open the door, and I fell headlong down a flight of stairs. I had dropped into the corridor where I had seen the servants pass with their jugs and tankards. For some time I lay half-stunned with surprise, but unhurt, for I had fallen silently like a feather floating to the floor. I looked round at the door, but it had disappeared; I stared at the low whitewashed ceiling and the carved doorways, and I listened to the beating of my heart which was the only sound. Then life seemed to come to the world, distant shouts of men, the jingle of harness, and the lowing of cattle. A cock crew as if to wake the dead, and I sat up trying to remember . . . remember. . . . 






   DC Comics (Anthologies)
First time travel: Dectective Comics 23, Jan 1939

Like all the other publishers, DC also published anthologies of weird stories (as opposed to continuing characters) in the 50s, but even before that, they had anthologies of adventure stories. The earliest time travel that I’ve found so far are from 1939: a two-part story of Slam Bradley and his sidekick traveling to the year two billion, A.D., in Detective Comics 23 and 24; and a five-part story, “A Playboy in King Arthur’s Court,” starting in in Adventure Comics 37. As for the 50s weird stories, the first one I found there was an H.L. Gold tale, “The Endless War,” in Strange Adventures 2. As I find others, I’ll list them in my time-travel comic books page.

 History runs wild when Columbus, Napolean, and Cleopatra journey through time from the past to the present! 

—from the cover of Strange Adventures 60




   The Shadow
created by Walter B. Gibson
First time travel: 1 Jan 1939

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of time travelers? I found one time-travel episode of The Shadow: the Jan 1, 1939 NBC radio broadcast of “The Man Who Murdered Time”:

 My machine bends the staight track of time, curves it, curves it, so that the time track forms a perfect circle! 






   Alley Oop
created by V.T. Hamlin
First time travel: 5 Apr 1939

The caveman’s first exposure to time travel was in the 5 April, 1939 daily strip, shortly before Dr. Wonmug brought the insignts of the boisterous Alley Oop to the 20th century and elsewhere in time.

The image to the left is from Alley Oop 12 from Standard’s 1947-49 run of nine comics (10-18) that reprinted strips. The first one had pre-time-travel strips, but all of the rest probably included some time travel. The time machine picture to the right is from Dragon Lady Press strip reprints in the 1980s.

I’ve also found one Alley Oop take-off called Irving Oops in an the EC comic Panic 8, May 1955—which makes me wonder whether that other Irving of the comics, Irving Forbush, ever time traveled.

 By golly, kid, I’d swear that thing wasn’t there a while ago! I’m gonna see what— 

—Alley Oop watching a camera from the future dissolve away, 5 Apr 1939






   Fox Features Syndicate Comics
published by Victor S. Fox
First time travel: Wonder Comics 2, Jun 1939

Fox Comics had one of the earliest lineups of anthology comic books with continuing characters. Their earliest time travel that I found was by the recurring character Don Quixote, who appeared in the second issue of Wonder Comics. (The first issue starred Will Eisner’s superhero, Wonder Man, but he was quashed by a DC lawsuit.)

My favorite Fox time traveler was the Sorceress of Zoom. She was a female anti-hero along the lines of the Submariner, but her realm was not in the sea, it was the cloud city of Zoom. She had at least one time travel adventure in Weird Comics 7 (Oct 1940) when she gets the best of Morgan Le Fay in Camelot.

As I find more, I’ll list each character’s first time travel here and the details will be on my time-travel comics page. (Sadly, I never spotted any time travel by Marga the Panther Woman, who appeared alongside Cosmic Carson in Science Comics.)
  1. Don Quixote (Jun 1939) Wonder Comics 2
  2. Flick Falcon (Dec 1939) Fantastic Comics 1
  3. Cosmic Carson (Jul 1940) Science Comics 6
  4. The Sorceress of Zoom (Oct 1940) Weird Comics 7

 I’ll project the City of Zoom into the past where it will be safe for the time being! 

—Weird Comics 7


   Pete Manx and the Time Chair Stories
by Henry Kuttner and Arthur K. Barnes (as by Kelvin Kent)
First story: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Aug 1939

Captain Marvel’s time chair got scooped by Dr. Horation Mayhem who sent Pete Manx into dangerous hijinks in the past in the pages of Thrilling Wonder Stories.
  1. Roman Holiday (Aug 1939) Kuttner and Barnes
  2. World’s Pharaoh (Dec 1939) Kuttner
  3. Science is Golden (Apr 1940) Kuttner and Barnes
  4. Knight Must Fall (Jun 1940) Barnes
  5. The Comedy of Eras (Sep 1940) Kuttner
  6. Man about Time (Oct 1940) Kuttner
  7. The Greeks Had a War for It (Jan 1941) Barnes
  8. Hercules Muscles In (Feb 1941) Kuttner
  9. Dames Is Poison (Jun 1942) Kuttner
  10. De Wolfe of Wall Street (Feb 1943) Barnes
  11. Grief of Bagdad (Jun 1943) Barnes
  12. Swing Your Lady (Winter 1944) Kuttner

 “Yes, my boy. I understand your aversion to making any more trips into the historical Past. You have been a—um—lodestone for violent trouble . . .”
“Something always happens to me!” exclaimed Pete. “What if I sh’d get bumped off in the Past? Nix. No more o’ that stuff for me.”
“Quite right, my son. And yet—” Mayhem’s benign tone and dreamy stare at the ceiling were pure ham. “I would never have invited you here again, Pete, knowing it to be a place of strange memories, except that occassionally in our lives there arise demands that transcend all selfish personal considerations. Do you follow me?” 

—“Grief of Bagdad”




   Arch Oboler’s Plays
by Arch Oboler
First time travel: 9 Sep 1939

Arch Oboler was a prolific radio playright from the mid-1930s, starting with NBC’s Lights Out radio show. One of the stories in the 1939 Arch Oboler’s Plays series was “And Adam Begot,” which told the story of two men and a woman thrown back into prehistoric times. The story appear in print in a 1944 anthology, was reprised for the 1951 Lights Out tv show, and formed the basis for a 1953 Steve Ditko story in the Black Magic comic book.

 The young dramalist expects to face his biggest casting problem in filling the roles of the two Neanderthal men which he has written into “And Adam Begot.” He wants a voice, he explains, which will instantly suggest a cave-man to the radio listener. With that in mind, he conducted a survey of what people expect in a Neanderthal voice. “A cross-section of the answers,” Oboler says, “suggests a bass voiced prizefighter, talking double talk with his mouth full of hot potatoes.” 

—The Lima News, 9 Sep 1939




   All-American Comics
aka “A Thousand Years a Minute”
by Carl H. Claudy
First time travel: All-American Comics 8, Nov 1939

Before being bought by DC, All-American Publications had a 102-issue run with All-American Comics, which among other things introduced the Green Lantern and had an adaptation of Carl H. Claudy’s A Thousand Years a Minute in issues 7 through 12. However, the episode in #7 was actually more the wrapping up of an earlier serial (also by Claudy and under the umbrella of Adventures in the Unknown) called “The Mystery Men of Mars,” and the actual time-traveling began until issue 8.

 If you stepped off this platform you’d be cut in two just as if you stepped off a fast moving train! You can’t be in two different “times” any more than you can be in two difference places at the same moment! 

—All-American Comics 9




   Lest Darkness Fall
by L. Sprague de Camp
First published as complete novel: Unknown, Dec 1939

During a thunderstorm, archaeologist Martin Padway is thrown back to Rome of 535 A.D., whereupon he sets out to stop the coming Dark Ages.

 Padway feared a mob of religious enthusiasts more than anything on earth, no doubt because their mental processes were so utterly alien to his own. 




   Top-Notch Comics
by Otto Binder and Jack Binder
First publication: Dec 1939

The first two issues of Top-Notch Comics had a feature called “Scott Rand in the Worlds of Time” written by science fiction staple Otto Binder and drawn by his older brother, Jack (rather than Earl). Rand first drove his time car back to Rome in 200 A.D. where he picked up Thor. In the second episode, they went to New York in 2000 A.D. Jack Binder continued the episodes of Rand and Thor in Top-Notch 3, heading to Mars of the future, but I don’t yet know whether there were any other stories.

This title morphed into Top-Notch Laugh Comics, and was then acquired by Archie Comics. I don’t know whether there were any further adventures in time by Rand or others during the Top-Notch run.

 The time car is working perfectly! We can go anywhere . . . the past or the future! 

—Dr. Meade in Top-Notch Comics 1



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Gnarly Man” by L. Sprague de Camp, Unknown, Jun 1939 [immortality ]

  “Stolen Centuries” by Otis Adelbert Kline, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Jun 1939 [long sleep ]

  “City of the Cosmic Rays” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, Jul 1939 [long sleep ]

  “Greater Than Gods” by C.L. Moore, Astounding, Jul 1939 [visions of possible futures ]

  “Lightship, Ho!” by Nelson S. Bond, Astounding, Jul 1939 [FTL ]

  The Hidden Universe by Ralph Milne Farley, Amazing, Nov–Dec 1939 [differing time rates ]

  “Into Another Dimension” by Maurice Duclos, Fantastic Adventures, Nov 1939 [parallel universes ]

  “City of the Corporate Mind” by Nat Schachner, Astounding, Dec 1939 [long sleep ]



   “Bombardment in Reverse”
by Norman L. Knight
First publication: Astounding, Feb 1940

Jamie Todd Rubin wrote about this story as part of his Vacation in the Golden Age, and I got a pdf copy on Thanksgiving Day in 2012. The story tells of two alien nations at war—a somewhat amateurish was by Martian or Terrestrial standards, but one in which time-traveling weapons target where the enemy was in the past.

 The Nyandrians are attacking Strofander with shells which traverse not only space, but time as well. 






   Fawcett Comics (Anthologies)
First time travel: Slam-Bang Comics 1, Mar 1940

Apart from Captain Marvel Fawcett also had other comics, some with time travel, such as Atom Blake who met himself in time in Wow Comics 2 and Nyoka, the Jungle Girl who traveled to prehistoric times in issue 10.

The earliest that I know of (courtesy of Buddy Lortie) is the continuing story of Mark Swift, his teacher Mr. Kent, and the Time Retarder, which ran in all seven issues of Slam-Bang Comics and finished its run in Master Comics 7. Another continuing character was Dr. Voodoo who began life in the comics as a jungle doctor, but had an adventure in the past in Whiz Comics 18 through 34.

As I find more of those, I’ll list them on my time-travel comics page.

 Where are we going first, Mr. Kent? 


from the Hevelin Collection at the University of Iowa

   “The Final Men”
by H.G. Wells
First separate publication: Mar 1940 by Futurian Robert W. Lowndes

The first complete, published version of The Time Machine appeared as a five-part serial in the January through May 1895 issues of New Review, edited by William Ernest Henley. In the introduction to the 1924 edition, Wells wrote about the back-and-forth between himself and Henley, saying that “There was a slight struggle between the writer and W.E. Henley who wanted, he said, to put a little ‘writing’ into the tale.”

One piece of that writing was a short episode after the traveller leaves the Eloi and the Morlocks, just before visiting the red sun and the end of the world. This episode was deleted from both the American (Holt text) and the British (Heinemann text) published book editions of the novel, but it did appear as a 7-page mimeographed and stapled publication from American fan and Futurian Robert W. Lowndes in 1940, and it appeared in a number of other places, sometimes called “The Grey Man” and once called “The Missing Pages.”

 No doubt, too, the rain and snow had long since washed out the Morlock tunnels. A nipping breeze stung my hands and face. So far as I could see there were neither hills, nor trees, nor rivers: only an uneven stretch of cheerless plateau. 




   Silver Streak Comics
by Jack Cole, et. al.
First time travel: Dickie Dean in Silver Streak 3, Mar 1940

Jack Cole, the Playboy cartoonist, must have been a little boy when he wrote the adventures of Boy Inventor Dickie Dean. Dickie’s inventions included a machine to capture conversations from the past (Silver Streak Comics 3), a time camera (probably in issue 10). You could argue that neither of these is real time travel, but never mind.

I’ll bet there was more time travel in various of the comics published by Lev Gleason, but I haven’t yet tracked them down.

 Without getting technical, this is a “time camera”! It is possible to reconstruct and photogaph scenes of the past with this machine! 








   The Ghost
aka The Ghost Detective, aka The Green Ghost, aka The Ghost Super-Detective
by August Froehlich and Richard Hughes
First publication: Thrilling Comics 4, May 1940

The Ghost, aka George Chance, was a magician trained in India who used his legerdemain and mystic knowledge to enhance his detective work, convincing his nemeses that he was an actual ghost. He first appeared in Jan 1940 in the pulp fiction magazines as the title character of The Ghost Super-Detective, a series that lasted for seven issues with two renamings (The Ghost Detective with the fourth issue in Fall 1940, followed by Green Ghost Detective for the fifth issue in early 1941). Later, he had additional stories in Thrilling Mystery, but no time travel. But when George Chance made the leap to comic books, his second story (“The Ghost Strikes Again” in Thrilling Comics 4, May 1940) introduced the evil Professor Fenton and his time machine. From then until Thrilling Comics 52 (Feb 1946) had regular adventures, mostly with Fenton:
  1. Thrilling Comics 3 (Apr 1940) no Fenton or time travel
  2. Thrilling Comics 4 (May 1940) first Fenton time travel
  3. Thrilling Comics 5 (Jun 1940) Merlin
  4. Thrilling Comics 6 (Jun 1940) Oliver Cromwell
  5. Thrilling Comics 7 (Aug 1940) Columbus
  6. Thrilling Comics 8 (Sep 1940) Nero
  7. Thrilling Comics 9 (Oct 1940) George Washington
  8. Thrilling Comics 10 (Nov 1940) King Rasamis
  9. Thrilling Comics 11 (Dec 1940) to 1759
  10. Thrilling Comics 12 (Jan 1941) Abraham Lincoln
  11. Thrilling Comics 13 (Feb 1941) 18th century
  12. Thrilling Comics 14 (Mar 1941) dinosaurs and cavemen
  13. Thrilling Comics 15 (Apr 1941) California Gold Rush
  14. Thrilling Comics 16 (May 1941) Blackbeard
  15. Thrilling Comics 17 (Jun 1941) to Mars, no time travel
  16. Thrilling Comics 18 (Jul 1941) King Magnus
  17. Thrilling Comics 19 (Aug 1941) 1st-century Wales
  18. Thrilling Comics 20 (Sep 1941) in 1848
  19. Thrilling Comics 21 (Oct 1941) Roger Bacon
  20. Thrilling Comics 22 (Nov 1941) King Midas
  21. Thrilling Comics 23 (Dec 1941) Lost City of Angkor
  22. Thrilling Comics 24 (Jan 1942) [?]
  23. Thrilling Comics 25 (Feb 1942) Jewels of Kapore
  24. Thrilling Comics 26 (Mar 1942) ancient Atlantis
  25. Thrilling Comics 27 (May 1942) ahead 1000 years
  26. Thrilling Comics 28 (Jun 1942) stop time
  27. Thrilling Comics 29 (Aug 1942) Pharaoh Ikhnaton
  28. Thrilling Comics 30 (Oct 1942) Genghis Khan
  29. Thrilling Comics 31 (Nov 1942) [?]
  30. Thrilling Comics 32 (Jan 1943) Nostradamus [?]
  31. Thrilling Comics 33 (Feb 1943) Attila the Hun
  32. Thrilling Comics 34 (Mar 1943) King John
  33. Thrilling Comics 35 (May 1943) to end of time
  34. Thrilling Comics 36 (Jul 1943) Merlin
  35. Thrilling Comics 37 (Aug 1943) Diana
  36. Thrilling Comics 38 (Oct 1943) Sevastopol Siege
  37. Thrilling Comics 39 (Dec 1943) no Fenton or time travel
  38. Thrilling Comics 40 (Feb 1944) no Fenton or time travel
  39. America’s Best 9 (Apr 1944) no Fenton or time travel
  40. Black Terror 7 (Aug 1944) no Fenton or time travel
  41. Thrilling Comics 46 (Feb 1945) no Fenton or time travel
  42. Thrilling Comics 47 (Apr 1945) ancient Mt. Olympus
  43. Thrilling Comics 48-50 no Fenton or time travel
  44. Thrilling Comics 51 (Dec 1945) ancient Orient
  45. Thrilling Comics 52 (Feb 1946) no Fenton or time travel

 This machine can send you back in time to any age since the world began! Thus I have disposed of America’s Greatest men! Later I shall take over control of the entire nation and bring them back through time to serve as my slaves! 




   “Hindsight”
by Jack Williamson
First publication: Astounding, May 1940

Years ago, engineer Bill Webster abandoned Earth for the employ of the piratical Astrarch; now the Astrarch is aiming the final blow at a defeated Earth, and Bill wonders whether the gunsites that he invented can site—and change!—events in the past.

 He didn’t like to be called the Renegade. 




list of correct respondents to the story contest

   “The Time-Wise Guy”
by Ralph Milne Farley
First publication: Amazing, May 1940

The kindly Professor Tyrrell invites his most worthy student, football player George Worthey, to his house after class to debate over the feasibility of time travel, all the time knowing that he can prove that time travel is possible (modulo certain forbidden treks) by sending George far into the future and instructing him to return a short time later.

The story ends with a challenge to the reader with a total of $50 in cash prizes for the best answers! The answer to the challenge was given in the June issue. Somehow in the answer, George Worthey’s name changed to Sherwin, but I think that was just an editorial mistake. I didn’t much care for Farley’s “correct” answer, although I did spot Isaac Asimov’s name listed among the 112 correct respondents in the July issue. The contest winner was Albert F. Lopez from East Boston, Mass.

 This contest is one any of our readers can win. It’s extremely simple. You don’t need to know anything about writing. You don’t have to write a story. You aren’t expected to know a great deal of science. All you must do is read the entertaining story “The Time-Wise Guy,” on page 6, and then, in your own words, in a short letter, tell the editors what you think happened to the hero of the story. In other words, how does the story end?

Your answer should be based on the facts of time travel and its rules, as stated in the story by Professor Tyrrell. Your editors suspect that the correct answer would also shed light on the fate of the Professor’s friend in Holland—rather FROM Holland. But of course, there is a little of George Worthey in all of us, and you may not believe this. Editors don’t know it all, either—

Except that Ralph Milne Farley has kindly supplied us with the answer, and we know it and believe it. We’ll give it to you in the next issue, what’s more, and they you’ll believe it too. 


   Twice in Time
by Manley Wade Wellman
First publication: Startling Stories, May 1940

Inventor Leo Thrasher, perhaps the last modern-day Renaissance man, builds a machine to throw him back to Renaissance Italy, where he plans to leave his mark as a painter. Once there, he’s taken under the wing of Guaracco who views him as a potential rival, but still sees a use for the time traveler. When Leo’s memory of future wonders begins to fade, Guaracco pulls 20th-century memories from Leo’s subconscious via hypnotic interviews, somehow even managing to pull out (among other more mundane things) a working pair of wings for Leo to fly over 15th-century Florence.

 But suppose this me is taken completely out of Twentieth Century existence—dematerialized, recreated in another epoch. That makes twice in time, doesn’t it? 


   “The Mosaic”
by J.B. Ryan
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1940

Emir Ismail (a soldier and scientist in a Muslim-led 20th century) travels back to the crucial Battle of Tours in 732 A.D.

This is the first story that I read via electronic interlibrary loan with the help of the University of Colorado librarians.

 History is built event by incident—and each is a brick in its structure. If one small piece should slip— 

—John W. Campbell’s introductory blurb for the story




   “Murder in the Time World”
by Malcolm Jameson
First publication: Amazing, Aug 1940

Karl Tarig plans to murder his kindly cousin, Dr. Claude Morrison, who took Karl in when nobody else would. Then he'll toss cousin Claude’s body into the time machine that Claude built. Lastly, he’ll sell all of Claude’s valuables and run away with the winsome Ellen Warren. The perfect crime!

 To hell with the law! For he had thought out the perfect crime. There could be no dangerous consequences. You can’t hang a man for murder with a body—a corpus delicti. For the first time in the history of crime, a murderer had at his disposal the sure means of ridding himself of his corpse. 




   “Who’s Cribbing”
by Todd Thromberry
First publication: Macabre Adventures, Aug 1940

 Dear Mr. Gates,
. . . Please write and tell me what you think of my theory.
Respectfully,
Jack Lewis 


The story also appeared in this 1970 anthology.

   “The Day Time Stopped”
by Bradner Buckner
First publication: Amazing, Oct 1940

After pulling the trigger to commit suicide, Dave Miller finds that time has stopped for nearly the whole world. Only Dave, a dog, and Dr. Erickson remain animate—which would be a time stoppage story instead of time travel story except for that possible small jump at the end when the trio figure out how to break the spell.

 The only way for us to try to get the machine working and topple ourselves one way or the other. If we fall back, we will all live. If we fall into the present—we may die. 




   “Rescue into the Past”
by Ralph Milne Farley
First publication: Amazing, Oct 1940

Physicist Barney Baker, now a lawyer, uses his time machine to go back to the sacking of Fort Randolph in 1776 where he hopes to find evidence for an important legal case. He does find that along with attacking Redcoats and Indians and a beautiful young woman who instantly captures his heart, but alas, he can save nothing and no one—or can he?

 Go back there again to 1776, and this time do things right. Go back to just before Caroline’s death, and this time rescue her. Why not! 






   Startling Comics
aka Ace Buckley
created by Max Plaisted
First publication: Startling Comics 3, Oct 1940

For eight issues of Startling Stories, Ace Buckley and his sidekick Toni Stark (no, not that Tony Stark) plied centuries past in Ace’s rocket-shaped time machine.
  1. Startling Comics 3 (Oct 1940) Vikings/Incas
  2. Startling Comics 4 (Dec 1940) shores of Tripoli
  3. Startling Comics 5 (Feb 1941) Elizabethan times
  4. Startling Comics 6 (Apr 1941) the Crusades
  5. Startling Comics 7 (May 1941) Jamestown
  6. Startling Comics 8 (Jul 1941) Blackbeard
  7. Startling Comics 9 (Aug 1941) Battle of Marathon
  8. Startling Comics 10 (Sep 1941) Simon Bolivar

 The machine vibrated dizzily. In just a few seconds we found ourselves back in time, a thousand years ago, half buried in sand. 




   “Sunspot Purge”
by Clifford D. Simak
First publication: Astounding, Nov 1940

“Read the News Before It Happens!” That’s the slogan that reporter Mike Hamilton proposes when the Globe buys a time machine. But when Mike goes onto the future beat, it’s more than just the stock market and the Minnesota-Wisconsin football game that he runs into—it’s the world of 2450 with only scattered population.

 Think of the opportunities a time machine offers a newspaper. The other papers can tell them what has happened and what is happening, but, by Godrey, they’ll have to read the Globe to know what is going to happen. 


   “The Blonde, the Time Machine and Johnny Bell”
by Kenneth L. Harrison
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Dec 1940

Johnny Bell, a reporter for the Clarion, expected to get a story out of Pop Keller’s Curiosity Shop. What he didn’t expect to find were a blonde who looks like Betty Grable who cons him into buying a used time machine.

This was a $25 contest winner story, but Harrison, 23 at the time and living in Portland, Oregon, never published another story.

 But the strangest thing he had ever seen was the queer-looking mechanical apparatus in the center of the window. Johnny Bell’s gray eyes narrowed in perplexity as he read the advertising card atop it:

TIME MACHINE
FOR SALE—CHEAP

 


Norris’s first and last Power Nelson cover for Prize Comics 6   Power Nelson, Futureman
by Dick Sprang (issues 1-6?) and Paul Norris (as by Roy Paul)
First time travel: Prize Comics 7, 12 Dec 1940

From the first issue of Prize Comics, Power Nelson, aka Futureman, used his superpowers to fight the evil Mongol horde that conquered all of civilization in the far-future year 1982. I’ve read many of the escapades of the red-and-yellow champion of democracy (through Prize Comics 23), but I haven’t yet found issue #7 and the story “Journey to 1940.” (The issue is highly prized, being identified as the first horror comic because of its modern Frankenstein story; it also has the first Simon and Kirby Black Owl story.) Later issues do have Power Nelson fighting Nazis and fifth columnists who are attempting to undermine America, but I’m unclear on whether they are World War II Nazis or 1982 cohorts of the horde.

Wikipedia cites Paul Norris (the Brick Bradford strip artist) as the creator of Power Nelson, but the Grand Comics Database gives a tentative identification of Dick Sprang as the artist for the first six stories, with Norris’s first works being the cover of Prize Comics 6 and the “Journey to 1940” story in issue 7. His first signed work, as by Roy Paul, is the Power Nelson story in issue 13.

 I’ll do something about this! 

—splash page of “Power Nelson, Man of the Future” in Prize Comics 1


   “Trouble in Time”
by Frederik Pohl and C.M. Kornbluth (as by S.D. Gottesman)
First publication: Astonishing Stories, Dec 1940

I enjoyed this early effort from the two young Futurians, especially the beginning where chemical engineer Mabel Evans of Colchester, Vermont, goes to visit the newly arrived mad scientist who offers her ethyl alcohol and a trip to the future.

 That was approximately what Stephen had said, so I supposed that he was. “Right as rarebits,” I said. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Wheels of If” by L. Sprague de Camp, Unknown, Oct 1940 [alternate timelines ]

   “The Mechanical Mice”
by Eric Frank Russell
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1941 (as by Maurice G. Hugi)

Slightly mad scientist Burman invents a time machine that lets him see the future, from whence he brings back other inventions including a swarm of reproducing mechanical beasties.

 I pinched the idea. What makes it madder is that I wasn’t quite sure of what I was stealing, and, crazier still, I don’t know from whence I stole it. 




   “The Best-Laid Scheme”
by L. Sprague de Camp
First publication: Astounding, Feb 1941

I like the verb that de Camp coined for forward time travel—vanwinkling—but when the hero, De Witt, chases Hedges back in time, they start changing things and everyone (including them) remembers both the old time and the new. It’s beyond me to grok that form of time travel, but I give credit for creativity.

 The problem of backward-jumping has not hitherto been solved. It involves an obvious paradox. If I go back and slay my own grandfather, what becomes of me? 


The story was reprinted in the 1949 Winter issue of the UK Unknown.

   “The Crossroads”
by L. Ron Hubbard
First publication: Unknown, Feb 1942

When the guvvermunt wants to pay depression-era farmer Eben Smith to plow his crops under, he has a different idea: take his goods to the city where he can barter them for wealth. But on the way, Eben and his trusty horse Lucy encounter an odd intersection of four roads, each with a people from a different disturbing future.

 Then an oddity struck Eben. For the past few minutes that he had been on this intersection the sun had been at high noon! He put his tumb in his eye and peered at it accusingly and then because it was quite definitely the sun and obviously there, he shook his head and muttered:
“Never can tell what the goldurned guvvermunt is going to do next!” 




   “Doubled and Redoubled”
by Malcolm Jameson
First publication: Unknown, Feb 1941

Jimmy Childers was certain of two things: that last night he’d set the alarm to silent (even though it went off this morning) and that yesterday, June 14th, was the perfect day, the likes of which could certainly never be repeated again.

This is the earliest sf story that I’ve seen with a time loop, although there was the earlier 1939 episode of The Shadow.

 Jimmy had the queer feeling, which comes over one at times, he was reliving something that had already happened. 


   “Poker Face”
by Theodore Sturgeon
First publication: Astounding, Mar 1941

The accountant, Mr. Face, joins the poker game and, among other things, has the remarkable ability to rig any deal without even touching the cards—what else would you expect for a man who’s traveled some 30,000 years from the future?

 “Now spill it. Just where did you come from?”
   “Geographically,” said Face, “not very far from here. Chronologically, a hell of a long way.” 


   “Not the First”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1941

As Earth’s first starship passes the light-speed barrier, strange things happen to its acceleration—and to the passage of time.

 Still, it was odd that the lighting system should have gone on the blink on this first ‘night’ of this first trip of the first spaceship powered by the new, stupendous atomic drive. 


   “Don’t Be a Goose”
aka “The Hero Equation”
by Robert Arthur, Jr.
First publication: Argosy, 3 May 1941
Reprinted in: The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Jun 1959

In the third of Murchison Morks’ tall tales at the gentlemen’s club, he tells of mathematics professor Alexander Peabody who discovers an equation that, if concentrated upon firmly, projects him back into the body of a goose at the time of a Celtic attack on Rome.

 He was sure it would work. But when he confided his dreams to his sister Martha, she, woman-like, merely sniffed. She called him a goose. 


   “Time Wants a Skeleton”
by Ross Rocklynne
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1941

After seeing a skeleton with a well-known ring on its finger, a spaceship is thrown back in time and the crew believes that one of them is fated to become that skeleton. This is an early story that addresses the question of whether something known about the future must become true.

 He could feel the supple firmness of her body even through the folds of her undistended pressure suit. 




   “Yesterday Was Monday”
by Theodore Sturgeon
First publication: Unknown, Jun 1941

Harry Wright goes to bed on Monday night, skips over Tuesday, and wakes up in a Wednesday that’s not quite been built yet.

 The weather makers put .006 of one percent too little moisture in the air on this set. There’s three-sevenths of an ounce too little gasoline in the storage tanks under here. 


   “I Killed Hitler”
by Ralph Milne Farley
First publication: Weird Tales, Jul 1941

This story does get bonus points for being the earliest kill-hitler time-travel story that I know of (and for predicting Pearl Harbor), but I didn’t fully follow the ending (after the killing) of this story where a distant cousin to the great dictator goes back to 1899 to gain the trust of the boy he knows will grow up to cruelly rule Europe.

 “You think so?” The Swami shook his head. “Ah, no. For it is written that there must be a Dictator—not only a Dictator, but this particular Dictator”to rule over docile Europe, and plunge the world in war.” 


The story also appeared in this 2000 collection.   “The Probable Man”
by Alfred Bester
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1941

Years before The Demolished Man, there was Bester’s probable man. I looked forward to reading it as the first story of my retirement, and I enjoyed the time-travel model that Bester set up: David Conn travels backward from 2941 to World War II, but then returns to a vastly changed future. For me, though, I found the naïve attitude toward war unappealing.

 She’d be Hilda Pietjen, daughter of the prime minister, just another chip in the Nazi poker game. And he’d be dead in a bunker, a thousand years before he’d been born. 


   “Sidetrack in Time”
by William P. McGivern
First publication: Amazing, Jul 1941

Philip Kingley has a plan to get rid of his time-traveling professor some 5000 years in the future. Unfortunately, the ending to Philip’s professor also got rid of any chance more than half a star in my rating.

 He scrambled out of the machine, the delirious feeling of success and power coursing through his veins like strong drink. His eyes traveled about the laboratory, slowly, gloatingly. All of it his. The equipment, the formulas, and most of all—the time machine. 






   The Weapon Shop Stories
by A.E. van Vogt
First story: Astounding, Jul 1941

Time travel plays only a small role in Van Vogt’s three stories and a serial. The stories follow the immortal founder of The Weapon Shops, an organization that puts science to work to ensure that the common man is never dominated by government or corporations. Along the way, a 20th century man becomes a time-travel pawn, a young man seven millennia in the future takes advantage of a much shorter time-travel escapade, and you’ll spot at least one other time-travel moment.

All the stories were fixed up into two books, The Weapon Shops of Isher and The Weapon Makers, and the SFBC gathered both those into The Empire of Isher.
  1. The Seesaw (Jul 1941) Astounding
  2. The Weapon Shops (Dec 1942) Astounding
  3. The Weapon Makers (Feb-Apr 1943) Astounding
  4. The Weapon Shops of Isher (Feb 1949) Thrilling Wonder Stories

 What did happen to McAllister from the instant that he found the door of the gunshop unlocked? 




   “Backlash”
by Jack Williamson
First publication: Astounding, Aug 1941

Although it doesn’t involve Hitler by name, this story may be the start of the Use-a-Time-Machine-to-Kill-Hitler subgenre.

 With the new tri-polar units I can deflect the projection field back through time. That’s where I’m going to attack Levin—in his vulnerable past. 


The story also appears in the 1953 collection Assignment in Eternity, including this copy which I bought at Heathrow while waiting for my mother to arrive for my wedding.

   “Elsewhere”
aka “Elsewhen”
by Robert A. Heinlein (as by Caleb Saunders)
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1941

Professor Arthur Frost has a small but willing class of students who explore elsewhere and elsewhen.

 Most people think of time as a track that they run on from birth to death as inexorably as a train follows its rails—they feel instinctively that time follows a straight line, the past lying behind, the future lying in front. Now I have reason to believe—to know—that time is analogous to a surface rather than a line, and a rolling hilly surface at that. Think of this track we follow over the surface of time as a winding road cut through hills. Every little way the road branches and the branches follow side canyons. At these branches the crucial decisions of your life take place. You can turn right or left into entirely different futures. Occasionally there is a switchback where one can scramble up or down a bank and skip over a few thousand or million years—if you don’t have your eyes so fixed on the road that you miss the short cut. 




   “The Man Who Saw Through Time”
by Leonard Raphael
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Sep 1941

Walter Yale and his best friend Gary Fraxer build a time machine in the desert. Fraxer wins the right to use it first, but when he returns from the future, he’s intent on killing Yale.

 They had wanted a place where no one would disturb them. So they had come out here and pretended to be doing astronomical observations. Actually, they were perfecting a time machine. 


Asimov’s “Nightfall” also appeared in this issue.   “Short-Circuited Probability”
by Norman L. Knight
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1941

Our hero, Mark Livingston, finds a dead human body that is older than the human race—but still quite clearly his own body along with a highly evolved traveling companion.

 This is a story of something that did—or didn’t—happen. Question is, can it be properly said that it did or did not? 

—Campbell’s introduction to the story




   “By His Bootstraps”
by Robert A. Heinlein (as by Anson MacDonald)
First publication: Astounding, Oct 1941

Bob Wilson, Ph.D. student, throws himself 30,000 years into the future, where he tries to figure out what began this whole adventure.

Evan Zweifel gave me a copy of this magazine as a present!

 Wait a minute now—he was under no compulsion. He was sure of that. Everything he did and said was the result of his own free will. Even if he didn’t remember the script, there were some things that he knew “Joe” hadn’t said. “Mary had a little lamb,” for example. He would recite a nursery rhyme and get off this damned repetitive treadmill. He opened his mouth— 


   “Flame for the Future”
by William P. McGivern
First publication: Amazing, Oct 1941

In 1990 with worldwide war still underway, a Hitleresque Leader sends two lieutenants into the future to recruit soldiers from the super race that he is creating, but the lieutenants seem to find only a barren Earth where they discuss the situation and smoke their cigarettes.

 “The object before you is a Time Machine,” he said with repressed pride. “The result of our Ingenuity and skill. With it we will draw new support to our Cause. Two of my most trusted Lieutenants are to travel into the future to enlist the aid of the races which will be created by us.” 




   “Bandits of Time”
by Ray Cummings
First publication: Amazing, Dec 1941

Bob Manse and his fiancée Doris are invited by a peculiar man calling himself Tork to a cult-like meeting at 3 A.M. where, says Tork, they will be taken to a New Era in the future with no troubles, no worries, no problems giving eyesight to the blind-from-birth Doris—and no problems kidnapping Doris whether she wants to go or not.

 Three A.M. A distant church spire in the city behind us boomed the hour, floating here on the heavy night-air. Abruptly figures were around us in the woods; arriving me. A man carrying the limp form of a girl. From the ship a tiny beam of white light struck on them. Tork! I recognized him. But more than that Blake and I both recognized the unconscious, inert girl. So great a horror swept me that for a second the weird scene blurred before me. 




   “Snulbug”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Unknown Worlds, Dec 1941

In need of $10,000 to open a medical clinic, Bill Hitchens calls forth Snulbug, a one-inch high demon who likes the warmth in Bill’s pipe, and orders the demon to retrieve tomorrow’s newspaper and bring it back to today.

 Then as soon as I release you from that pentacle, you’re to bring me tomorrow’s newspaper. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Fountain” by Nelson S. Bond, Unknown, June 1941 [fountain of youth ]

  “El jardin de senderos que se bifurcan” by Jorge Luís Borges, in a collection of the same name, 1941 [alternate timelines ]
  English title: “The Garden of Forking Paths”

  “—And He Built a Crooked House” by Robert A. Heinlein, Astounding, Feb 1941 [4D spacial topology ]

  “Dead End” by Malcolm Jameson, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Mar 1941 [viewing the past ]

  Tumbledown Ranch in Arizona by Milton Raison, 20 Apr 1941 [just a dream ]

  “Borrowed Glory” by L. Ron Hubbard, Unknown, Oct 1941 [fountain of youth ]





   Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family
First time travel: Whiz Comics 26, 23 Jan 1942

Time travel made it to the Marvel family in 1942, or at least the earliest instance that I’ve spotted was a Captain Marvel story of that year (“The Amazing Trip into Time” in Whiz Comics 26 from 23 Jan 1942). Between then and the lawful demise of Fawcett’s Marvels, the whole family (the Captain, Mary Marvel, Captain Marvel Jr., the Lieutenant Marvels) and the evil Dr. Sivana had a myriad of time-travel episodes by various means from Father Time to the doctor’s time pill to the captain’s time chair.

 OMIGOSH! Now I remember everything! I went to the past in order to prevent Captain Marvel from ever existing! But when I got to the past, all I did was re-live the same events as before! Curses! 

—Dr. Sirvana from Captain Marvel Adventures 80










   DC Comics (Superheroes)
First time travel: Adventure Comics 71, Feb 1942

As a kid, I never read DC (Why would I? Excelsior!), but I’ve read some DC time-travel comics since then (don’t tell Stan). The earliest DC time travel that I’ve found was in 1942, but as for the big boys, the Caped Crusader and the Boy Wonder got the jump on the Man of Steel by a few months: Batman’s first travel was back to ancient Rome in Batman 24 via hypnosis by Professor Carter Nichols. Here’s a table of notable DC first time-travel experiences that I’ve found through 1969 (after that, everything became time-travel chaos):
  1. Starman (Feb 1942) Adventure Comics 71
  2. Justice Society of America    (Apr/May 1942) All Star Comics 10
  3. Green Arrow, et. al. (Jun 1942) Leading Comics 3
  4. Green Lantern (Spring 1943) Green Lantern 7
  5. The Shining Knight (Jul 1943)
      earlier Shining Knight is suspended animation Adventure Comics 66
  6. Batman and Robin (Fall 1943) World’s Finest 11
  7. Mr. Terrific (Apr 1944) Sensation Comics 28
  8. Wonder Woman (Nov 1946) Wonder Woman 20
  9. Superman (Jan-Feb 1947) Superman 44
  10. Johnny Peril (Apr 1948) Comic Cavalcade 26
  11. Johnny Quick (Nov 1948) Adventure Comics 134
  12. Superboy (May/Jun 1949) Superboy 2
  13. Lois Lane (Jan 1951) Action Comics 152
  14. Blackhawk Commandos (Dec 1951) Blackhawk 47
  15. Rex the Wonder Dog (Oct 1954) Rex 17
  16. Jimmy Olsen (Sep 1955) Jimmy Olsen 7
  17. The Flash (Oct 1956) Showcase 4
  18. Legion of Super-Heroes (Apr 1958) Adventure Comics 247
  19. Aquaman (Aug 1958) Adventure Comics 251
  20. Challengers (Nov 1958) Chal. of the Unknown 4
  21. Rip Hunter (May 1959) DC Showcase 20
  22. Supergirl (Aug 1959) Action Comics 255
  23. Adam Strange (Dec 1960) Mystery in Space 62
  24. The Atomic Knights (Jun 1961) Strange Adventures 129
  25. Elongated Man (Nov 1961) The Flash 124
  26. JLA (Mar 1962) Justice League of America 10
  27. The Atom (Nov 1962) The Atom 3
  28. J’onn J’onzz (Dec 1962) Detective Comics 305
  29. The Spectre (Apr 1966) Showcase 61
  30. Eclipso (Jul 1966) House of Secrets 79
  31. Prince Ra-Man (Jul 1966) House of Secrets 79
  32. Sea Devils (Dec 1966) Sea Devils 32

   “The Immortality of Alan Whidden”
by Ralph Milne Farley
First publication: Amazing, Feb 1942

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction characterizes Farley as “a rough-hewn, traditional sense-of-wonder writer,” who “as a consequence became relatively inactive with the greater sophistication of the genre after WWII.” But by the time of this story, Farley’s rough-hewn edges of his 1920s Radio Man stories had been smoothed out, and I find his writing to be engaging. I’ll grant that he never stepped away from the view of women as mere objects of beauty, and his characters have too much purity or evil with no examination of the morality of murdering a greedy man. Also, I have seen only stereotyped presentations of other cultures, but his time-travel plots are still fun and worthy of study. In this story, an immortal man serendipitously invents time travel which takes him from 1949 back to the time of his dastardly grandfather and a consistent resolution of the grandfather paradox.

 Framed in the front doorway stood a gloriously radiant girl of under twenty. Her flaunting reddish-brown hair was the first feature that caught Whidden’s admiring gaze. Then her eyes, yellow-green and feral, set wide and at just the least little slant, beneath definitely slanted furry brows of the same tawny color as the hair. Lips, full and inviting. Complexion, pink and cream. And a gingham clad figure, virginally volupuous. A sunbonnet hung down her back from strings tied in a little bow beneath her piquant chin. 


   “The Man Who Changed History”
by David Wright O’Brien (as by John York Cabot)
First publication: Amazing, Feb 1942

Reggie Vliet and Sandra Vanderveer want to marry, but Colonel Vanderveer refuses his permission on the basis that Reggie’s family is not of the same standing as the long-established Vanderveers. So Reggie sets out to take down the Vanderveers in the times of Waterloo and the Civil War.

O’Brien was a prolific author who died in action during World War II at age 26.

 “Supposing,” he wondered, “that those two old ducks in the pictures on the walls hadn’t been famous?” 




   “Recruiting Station”
aka Masters of Time, aka Earth’s Last Fortress
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Mar 1942

When the Glorious begin shanghaiing military recruits throughout time, Miss Norma Matheson and her once-and-future boyfriend Jack Garson are caught up in 18 versions of our solar system and a Glorious-vs-Planetarians war.

 We are masters of time. We live at the farthest frontier of time itself, and all the ages belong to us. No words could begin to describe the vastness of our empire or the futility of opposing us. 




   “Bull Moose of Babylon”
by Don Wilcox (aka Cleo Eldon Wilcox)
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Apr 1942

A somewhat mad scientist tricks Hal Norton into traveling to ancient Babylon to record ancient animal sounds (I think), but the scientist never told Norton that the kinks in the return mechanism were still being worked out. Trapped in ancient times, Hal meets the also-trapped (and beautiful) niece of the scientist, and together they endure life as slaves while plotting a possible escape.

 Where does this slave, Betty, live? 


   “Some Curious Effects of Time Travel”
by L. Sprague de Camp
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1942

The very first Probability Zero story in Astounding took us on a romp back in time by the members of the Drinkwhiskey Institute to obtain saleable specimens of Pleistocene fauna, we learn that time travel has an effect on aging (coincidentally, the same effect described by Gaspar in Chapter 9 of El Anacronópete).

 A curious feature of time travel back from the present is that one gets younger and younger, becoming successively a youth, a child, an embryo and finally nothing at all. 




   “Time Pussy”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1942 (as by George E. Dale)

Mr. Mac tells of the troubles of trying to preserve the body of a four-dimensional cat.

 ‘Four-dimensional, Mr. Mac? But the fourth dimension is time.’ I had learned that the year before, in the third grade. 




   Yankee Longago
by Dick Briefer
First story: Boy Comics 3, Apr 1942

The Boy of To-day had 26 amusing adventures in the Land of Yesterday, which appeared in the pages of Boy Comics 3 (apparently there was no #1 or #2) through 28.

 George “Yankee” Longago is an ordinary boy like any of you. He isn’t a superboy or a smarty—(he flunked arithmetic twice)(and drawing)—just ordinary . . except he knows history . . oh boy does he know history—better than the teacher—because he gets his facts by going back in time! 


This issue also contains Asimov’s first Foundation story.   “Forever Is Not So Long”
by F. Anton Reeds
First publication: Astounding, May 1942

The professor’s handsome assistant, Stephen Darville, is in love with the professor’s beautiful daughter and wants to spend every waking moment with her, but duty calls—duty to build a time machine, of course, in which the youthful assistant can go ten years into the future to return with the more polished time machines that will be produced by the professor’s very own technicians over the next ten years.

 The technicians would “save” themselves ten years of labor and the new sweeping highway in the future and the past would be open to mankind within the life of its discoverer. 




   “The Ghost of Me”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Unknown, Jun 1942

After Dr. John Adams is murdered, his ghost accidentally begins haunting some time before the murder occurred.

 I’ve simply come back into time at the wrong point. 


The story also appears in Groff Conklin’s 1952 anthology, The Omnibus of Science Fiction.   “Heritage”
by Robert Abernathy
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

Nick Doody, inventor of the time machine and sole explorer through time, ventures some nine millennia beyond what he reckons was the fall of mankind.

 Are you not a Man, and do not Men know everything? But I am only a . . . 


The story also appeared in this 1975 collection.   “My Name Is Legion”
by Lester del Rey
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

At the end of World War II, as the Allies occupation army closes in on Hitler, a man offers him a way to bring back thousands of copies of himself from the future.

 Years ago in one of those American magazines, there was a story of a man who saw himself. He came through a woods somewhere and stumbled on a machine, got in, and it took him three days back in time. Then, he lived forward again, saw himself get in the machine and go back. 

Lester del Rey, Master Traveller

For me, the scope of “My Name Is Legion” might well have garnered del Rey a Master Traveller Citation, but the actual award came when his 1966 juvenile novel, Tunnel Through Time, brought adventure time travel to young readers.




   “Time Dredge”
by Robert Arthur, Jr.
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1942

I haven’t yet read this story which appeared only in Astounding, but Jamie Todd Rubin writes that the story is of two men who seek a German professor who plans to pull things out of ancient South America to help the Germany win World War II.

 The German professor had a nice idea for making archeology a branch of Blitzkrieg technique—with the aid of a little tinkering with Time. 

—John W. Campbell’s introduction to the story


The story also appeared in this 2003 collection.   “Secret Unattainable”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

After his brother is killed by the Nazis, Herr Professor Johann Kenrube invents a machine that promises a little of everything to Hitler—unlimited energy and natural resources, instant transportation behind enemy lines, even a smidgden of time travel—but only after the Germans have over-committed themselves, does the truth about the machine emerge.

 Kenrube was at Gribe Schloss before two P.M., March 21st. This completely nullifies the six P.M. story. Place these scoundrels under arrest, and bring them before me at eight o’clock tonight. 

—comment on a memo from Himmler


   “About Quarrels, about the Past”
by John Pierce
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

In addition to A.E. van Vogt’s “Secret Unattainable,” the July 1942 Astounding also had three short, short time travel stories as part of the magazine’s Probability Zero series. In this story, our narrator tells of the quirky Quarrels who took his time machine into the past—or we should say some past—to woo the winsome Nephertiti.

 Well, didn’t you realize that this uncertainty holds for the past, too? I hadn’t until Quarrels pointed it out. All we have is a lot of incomplete data. Is it just because we’re stupid? Not at all. We can’t find a unique wave function. 


Some other flag covers from July 1942

   “The Strange Case of
the Missing Hero”
by Frank Holby
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

Many magazines across the U.S. featured a flag on the cover in this patriotic month. In this second Probability Zero story of the issue, Elliot Gallant, hero to the people and beacon light of courage, was the first man to travel through time; Sebastian Lelong, editor of the Encyclopedia Galactica, aims to find out why he never returned.

This is the earliest story that I’ve spotted anywhere with the time traveler coming to know his own mother.

 Elliot Gallant went back into time thirty years. He liked the peaceful days of yesteryear. He married, had a son. 


Interior artwork for the Probability Zero series   “That Mysterious Bomb Raid”
by Bob Tucker
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1942

Sitting around Hinkle’s, the narrator tells the story of how he, Hinkle and the local university scientist took a bomb back in time in an attempt to nip World War II in the bud.

 Well, sir, that little machine traveled so fast that before we could stop it we found ourselves in the last century. Somewhere in the 1890s. We were going to drop our oil drip there but I happened to remember that my grandfather was spending his honeymoon in Tokyo sometime during that decade— 


   “Time Marches On”
by Ted Carnell
First publication: Astounding, Aug 1942

Also appearing in the first ever Probability Zero column (along with de Camp’s story, listed above, and a story by Malcolm Jameson) is Carnell’s tale of a group of science fiction authors who explore the consequences of a simple time machine that can be built from radio parts, but can take the traveler only into the future.

 Yes, they were practically all here, thought Doc Smith, as his gaze moved from one to another of the circle. Williamson, Miller, Hubbard, Bond, McClary, Rocklynne, Heinlein and MacDonald, and many others who had once written about the mysteries of time travel—so many hundreds of years ago now. 


   “The Barrier”
aka “Barrier”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1942

John Brent travels 500 years into the future only to find that he can’t return because the authoritarian state has erected barriers to change that include regularization of all verbs and temporal barriers that prevent backward time travel.

Fred Galvin mentioned to me that this story has the earliest mention that he remembers of the Where are all the time travelers? question, but we are still looking for any earlier reference.

 Stephen frowned. “Before failure of Barrier, we often wondered why we never seed time travelers. We doubted Charnwood’s Law and yet—We decided there beed only two explanations. Either time travel bees impossible, or time travelers cannot be seed or intervene in time they visit.” 


The story also appeared in Healy and McComas’s famous 1946 anthology, Adventures in Time and Space.

   “The Twonky”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1942

A dazed man (apparently dazed from running into a temporal snag) appears in a radio factory, whereupon (before returning to his own time) he makes a radio that’s actually a twonky which gets shipped to a Mr. Kerry Westerfield, who is initially quite confounded and amazed at all it can do.

Because of the opening, I’m convinced that this twonky is from the future, but the origin of the twonky in Archg Oboler’s 1953 movie is less certain.

 “Great Snell!” he gasped. “So that was it! I ran into a temporal snag!” 

Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore, Master Travellers

Kuttner and Moore hold the distinction of being the recipients of the only joint Master Travellers award. It’s hard to pick which is their most unforgetable story: “The Twonky”? “Mimsy...”? “Vintage Season”? Nope. I’m nominating the lesser known “What You Need”!


   The Anachron Stories
by Malcolm Jameson
First story: Astounding, Oct 1942

Golden-age favorite Malcolm Jameson wrote three stories of Anachron, Inc., a company that recruits ex-commandos for their “foreign” department—a euphemism for intertemporal commerce.
  1. Anachron, Inc. (Oct 1942) Astounding
  2. Barrius, Imp. (Jan 1943) Astounding
  3. When Is When? (Aug 1943) Astounding

 We can use a limited number of agents for our “foreign” department, but they must be wiry, active, of unusually sound constitution, and familiar with the use of all types of weapons. They MUST be resourceful, of quick decision, tact and of proven courage, as they may be called upon to work in difficult and dangerous situations without guidance or supervision. Previous experience in purchasing or sales work desirable but not necessary. EX-COMMANDO MEN usually do well with us. 


   “The Case of the Baby Dinosaur”
by Walter Kubilius (as by J.S. Klimaris)
First publication: Future Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct 1942

Futurian Walter Kubilius wrote this story about Wilbur and Stevenson, two members of the Society for the Investigation of Unusual Phenomena, who must track down a time-machinist jokester who, among other things, drops a baby dinosaur in Times Square, plops Cleopatra into a modern beauty contest, and brings Shakespeare to a modern-day theater.

 A time-machinist with a sense of humor! 




   “Dinosaur Goes Hollywood”
by Emil Petaja
First publication: Amazing, Nov 1942

While waiting at a bar for Susie May, a man hears Jock Wemple’s story of how a big-shot scientist brought a brontosaurus to Hollywood just in time for the opening of Back to the Dawn.

 I heard a shrill feminine shriek. It was Dorothy LaMarr. Her dress was gold, and shone fit to knock your eyes right through the back of your head. 




   The Thunderbolt
artwork by Rafael Astarita
First publication: Doc Savage Comics 10, Nov 1942

According to the Michigan State University Comic Art Collection index, Doc Savage #10 included a 7-page origin of a superhero called The Thunderbolt (aka Dr. Adams). The story involved a scientific princess and time travel, but the hero was never heard from again. (Maybe he/she is lost in time.)

 With the aid of the mystic powers of Princess Ione, mistress of scientific wonders . . . 




   Kid Eternity
created by Otto Binder and Sheldon Moldoff
First publication: Hit Comics 25, Dec 1942

Kid Eternity, a lead character in Quality Comics title Hit Comics from #25 to #60 and in eighteen issues of his own title, died before his time, and when he returned to Earth he was able to call real and fictional heroes out of the past to help him fight Nazis and other bad guys.

 Come, we must make our way through the corridor of time! 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Push of a Finger” by Alfred Bester, Astounding, May 1942 [predictions ]

  “The Eternal Wall” by Raymond Z. Gallun, Amazing, Nov 1942 [long sleep ]

A translation appeard in the all-Boucher issue of Urania (10 Feb 1991). Strangely enough, “snulbug” translates as “snulbug” in Italian; however “Elsewhen” is “Viaggio nel tempo.”

   “Elsewhen”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1943

Private detective Fergus O’Breen investigates Harrison Patrigde, inventor and ne’er-do-well, who accidentally invents a short-range time machine, causing him to envision how the world (and the lovely Faith Preston) will admire him if only he can get enough money to build a bigger version (perhaps via a murder with the time machine providing an alibi).

 Time can pass quickly when you are absorbed in your work, but not so quickly as all that. Mr. Partridge looked at his pocket watch. It said nine thirty-one. Suddely, in the space of seconds, the best chronometer available had gained forty-two minutes. 




   “The Search”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1943

When salesman Ralph Carson Drake tries to recover his missing memory of the past two weeks, he discovers that he had interactions with a woman named Selanie Johns who sold remarkable futuristic devices for one dollar, her father, and an old gray-eyed, man who is feared by Selanie and her father.

Van Vogt combined this with two other stories and a little fix-up material for his 1970 publication of Quest for the Future.

 “Just grab his right shoulder with that glove, from behind,” SpockPrice was saying. “Press below the collarbone with the points of your fingers, press hard.” 


The story also appeared in this 1952 collection.   “Time Locker”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1943

Once again, drunken genius Gallegher invents something without knowing that he has done so’this time, a box that swallows things up until they reappear at now + x.

 He was, Vanning reflected, an odd duck. Galloway was essentially amoral, thoroughly out of place in this too-complicated world. He seemed to watch, with a certain wry amusement, from a vantage point of his own, rather disinterested for the most part. And he made things— 


   “The Angelic Angleworm”
by Fredric Brown
First publication: Unknown, Feb 1943

If Charlie Wills and you have patience, then Charlie will figure out what’s causing those strange occurrences (such as an angleworm turning into an angel) and you will figure out that angels can time travel.

 We can drop you anywhere in the continuum. 




   “Mimsy Were the Borogoves”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Feb 1943

A scientist in the far future sends back two boxes of educational toys to test his time machine. One is discovered by Charles Dodgson’s niece in the 19th century, and the other by two children in 1942.

This story was in the first book that I got from the SF Book Club in the summer of 1970, The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume 1 (edited by Robert Silverberg). I read and reread those stories until the book fell apart.

 Neither Paradine nor Jane guessed how much of an effect the contents of the time machine were having on the kids. 




   “Blind Alley”
aka “Of Late I Think of Cliffordville”
by Malcolm Jameson
First publication: Unknown, Jun 1943

Business tycoon Jack Feathersmith longs for the simple, good old days of his youth in Cliffordsville.

 Nothing was further from Mr. Feathersmith’s mind than dealings with streamlined, mid-twentieth-century witches or dickerings with the Devil. But something had to be done. The world was fast going to the bowwows, and he suffered from an overwhelming nostalgia for the days of his youth. His thoughts contantly turned to Cliffordsville and the good old days when men were men and God was in His heaven and all was right with the world. 


   “Sanctuary”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1943

Mr. Holding, an American poet in Vichy France before the U.S. came into the war, visits an American scientist who is trying to stay neutral as he builds his time machine.

 I am, sir, a citizen of the world of science. 


   “Caverns of Time”
by Carlos M. McCune
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Jul 1943

The Four Musketeers are transported from 1628 to a current-day Utah desert where they meet medical student and sometimes truck driver Clive, who kindly equips them with motorcycles and weapons more powerful than muskets for an impending battle with the cardinal’s men.

 Following d’Artagnon, they rode their motorcycles right into the main dining hall of the inn. 




   “Endowment Policy”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Aug 1943

A futuristic old man asks the taxi dispatcher for Denny Holt’s cab by name. When the man gets in the cab, he offers Denny $1000 to protect him from pursuit for the night and to steal a brown notebook with a secret formula for the War Department.

 Now, shielding the bills with his body, he took them out for a closer examination. They looked all right. They weren’t counterfeit; the serial numbers were O.K.; and they had the same odd musty smell Holt had noticed before.
“You must have been hoarding these,” he hazarded.
Smith said absently, “They’ve been on exhibit for sixty years—” He caught himself and drank rye. 




   “Doorway into Time”
by C.L. Moore
First publication: Famous Fantastic Mysteries, Sep 1943

Treasures and beings from across time and space populate the halls of an age-old collector whose tiredness of life can be renewed only by the danger of the next hunt, which in this case means going naked and weaponless against Paul, defender of the lovely Alanna.

 On the wall before him, in the dimness of the room, a great circular screen looked out opaquely, waiting his touch. A doorway into time and space. A doorway to beauty and deadly peril and everything that made livable for him a life which had perhaps gone on too long already. 


   “Paradox Lost”
by Fredric Brown
First publication: Astounding, Oct 1943

During a philosophy lecture, the left hand of bored college student Shorty McCabe disappears, at which point Shorty figures he may as well follow whereever the hand went, which turns out to be into a time machine invented by the only kind of person who could invent such a thing—a crazy man.

 But a time machine is impossible. It is a paradox. Your professors will explain that a time machine cannot be, because it would mean that two things could occupy the same space at the same time. And a man could go back and kill himself when he was younger, and—oh, all sorts of stuff like that. It’s completely impossible. Only a crazy man could— 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “El milagro secreto” by Jorge Luís Borges, Sur, Feb 1943 [stopping time ]
  English title: “The Secret Miracle”



   Dick Devins, King of Futuria
First appearance: Mystery Comics 1, 1944

Dick Devins was a 20th century time traveler who protected the 30th century from all that was evil. He appeared in the four 1944 issues of Mystery Comics (#-4) and in at least four 1947 issues of Wonder Comics (11-14).

 Twenty-four hours in the 30th century, eh? Sounds interesting—if your time machine works! I’ll take your offer, professor! 

—from the splash page in Mystery Comics 1




   “As Never Was”
by P. Schuyler Miller
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1944

One of the first inexplicable finds by archealogists traveling to the future is the blue knife made of no known material brought back by Walter Toynbee who promptly dies, leaving it to his grandson to explain the origin of the knife.

 I knew grandfather. He would go as far as his machine could take him. I had duplicated that. He would look around him for a promising site, get out his tools, and pitch in. Well, I could do that, too. 


The story also appeared in August Derleth’s 1948 anthology, Strange Ports of Call.

   “Far Centaurus”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Jan 1944

Four men set out for Alpha Centauri on a 500-year journey where each will awaken only a handful of times. That’s not time travel, of course, but be patient and you will run into real time travel.

Van Vogt combined this with two other stories and some fix-up material (especially for “Far Centaurus”) for his 1970 publication of Quest for the Future.

 We’re here! It’s over, the long night, the incredible journey. We’ll all be waking, seeing each other, as well as the civilization out there. Seeing, too, the great Centauri suns. 




   Archie Comics
created by John L. Goldwater, Vic Bloom and Bob Montana
First time travel: Archie 7, Mar 1944

I’d like to know more about time travel by Riverdale’s upstanding citizens. The earliest I found was in “Time Trouble” from Archie 7 (Mar 1944), which did get the jump on Batman by five months. Later episodes were in Pep 131 (Feb 1959) and at least a handful of 1960s stories.



   “Time on Your Hands”
by David Wright O’Brien (as by John York Cabot)
First publication: Fantasic Adventures, Apr 1944

Although I enjoyed the first Reggie Vliet story (“The Man Who Changed History’), this second story didn’t grab me, even though Reggie does inherit the time-travel watch and travels to see Antony and Cleopatra, Caesar, the sacking of Rome, and Columbus.

It does make me reflective to know that this story was written shortly before O’Brien’s death in a World War II bomber over Europe.

 He, Reggie Vliet, was again actually living in the past. He could enjoy it, relish it, admire it, and—change it. That was why he was here. To scramble the past, knock it off its customary track, blast it out of its timeworn groove. 




   “And Adam Begot”
by Arch Oboler
First publication: Out of This World, May 1944

I haven’t yet read this story, which came from Oboler’s 1939 radio play of the same name. It was later turned into a tv episode of Lights Out and was the basis of a Steve Ditko story in the Black Magic comic book (1953).



   Time Flies
by Ted Kavanagh, J.O.C. Orton and Howard Irving Young (Walter Forde, director)
First release: 8 May 1944

Actress Susie Barton’s husband invested their nestegg in Time Ferry Services, Ltd., but the only way she’ll ever get anything out of it is by taking a trip to Elizabethan times.

 The Professor: Time? What is time? Having successfully controverted the classical views of Euclid and Newton, we arrive at the Theory of Relativity, which states that space-time in the neighborhood of a gravitational field is curved—pop!, pardon—whereas at an infinite distance from such a field field, it is not.
Tommy: How true, how true! Proceed, Prof.
The Professor: Now, the curvature of space-time at any point in the continuum is proportional to the intensity of the gravitational field at that point, and consequently, as I have shown, there is no reason whatever why time should be of infinite duration.
Bill: Very interesting, isn’t it?
Susie: Yeah, what’s he talking about?
Bill: He didn’t say. 








   It Happened Tomorrow
by Dudley Nichols, René Clair(Clair, director)
First release: 28 May 1944

One day at the end of the 19th century, newspaperman Larry Stevens is given the gift of tomorrow’s newspaper by the ghost of the archive man, Pops Benson. That leads him to improve his position at the newspaper by scooping a story; but it also leads to trouble, more of tomorrow’s papers, and a romance with the alluring clairvoyant Sylvia.

So why do I count this as time travel when, for example, The Gap in the Curtain is not? The future newspapers in Gap never actually appear, and it felt as if they were mere visions of a possible future, whereas there’s no doubt that Larry holds the actual artifact in his hands. And besides, the movie had a great take on events may be fated and yet, when accompanied by charming misunderstandings, lead to the unexpected. (And as a bonus, movie star Dick Powell is the spitting image of Robert A. Heinlein of the time.)

According to the Authority on American Film, the original screenplay was bought by Frank Capra from Hugh Wedlock and Howard Snyder; Capra also bought the rights to a similar Lord Dunsany play, The Jest of Haha Laba, after which the rights were sold to producer Arnold Pressburger.

Early Edition, one of my favorite tv shows, uses the same idea of tomorrow’s paper, but its creators said that the show was not based on this movie.

 But I’m afraid I’m going to end up at the St. George Hotel at 6:25 no matter where I go. 




   Looney Tunes/
Merrie Melodies Cartoons
voices by Mel Blanc
First time travel: 28 Oct 1944

I hope I’ll find more time travel in the Warner Brothers cartoons, but for starters, there’s “The Old Grey Hare” where Elmer Fudd is taken far into the future—past 1990!—where he chases bugs with the Buck Rogers Lightning Quick Rabbit Killer, and Daffy Duck with Speedy Gonzalez in “See Ya Later, Gladiator” (1968).

 When you hear the sound of the gong, it will be exactly twoooooo thowwwwwsand Ayyyyy Deee! 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Yehudi Principle” by Fredric Brown, Astounding, May 1944 [predictions ]

production photo from
The Encyclopedia of
American Radio

   The Mysterious Traveler
by Robert A. Arthur and David Kogan
First time travel: 13 Jan 1945

I believe all episodes of The Mysterious Traveler were written by the prolific pair of Arthur and Kogan. The episodes stretched the sf field from thrillers to hard science fiction, but always with a creepy atmosphere. There were at least three time travel episodes and several more that I’ll mark as probably time travel based on their titles.
  1. Escape Through Time (13 Jan 1945) possible time travel
  2. Murder at the Dawn of Time (4 Nov 1947) possible time travel
  3. Escape into the Future (10 May 1949) possible time travel
  4. The Man Who Tried to Save Lincoln (7 Feb 1950) traveler meets Lincoln historian
  5. Operation Tomorrow (11 Apr 1950) traveler sees future war
  6. Journey Through Time (27 Jun 1950) possible time travel
  7. Escape to 2480 (21 Nov 1950) possible time travel
  8. The Most Famous Man in the World (20 Nov 1951) travelers vs dictator

 This is the Mysterious Traveler, inviting you to join me on another journey into the realm of the strange and the terrifying. I hope you will enjoy the trip, that it will thrill you a little, and chill you a little. So, settle back, get a good grip on your nerves, and be comfortable if you can, and hear the strange story that I call “The Man Who Tried to Save Lincoln.” 




   “The Pink Caterpillar”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Adventure, Feb 1945

After Norm Harker tells of a magic man who can bring you back a single item from the future (for the right price), Anthony Boucher’s detective Fergus O’Breen tops the story with the tale of how he figured out why a dead American living in Mexico liked to call himself a doctor.

 At least that’s the firm belief everywhere on the island: a tualala can go forward in time and bring you back any single item you specify, for a price. We used to spend the night watches speculating on what would be the one best thing to order. 




   Classic Comics’
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
adapted by Jack Hearne
First publication: Classic Comics 24, Sep 1945

Jack Hearne’s illustrations provided an abbreviated but accurate adaptation of Hank Morgan’s medieval travails.

 Ah! I’ve got it! On June 21st, 528, there was a total eclipse of the sun, but in 1879 there was none . . . now to wait . . . that will prove everything! 




   “Mr. Lupescu”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Weird Tales, Sep 1945

Time travel makes a cameo appearance in this story in which young Bobby tells his Uncle Alan about his godfather, Mr. Lupescu, who has a great big red nose, red gloves, red eyes, and little red wings that twitch.

 But one of Mr. Lupescu’s friends, now, was captain of a ship, only it went in time, and Mr. Lupescu took trips with him and came back and told you all about what was happening this very minute five hundred years ago. 


   “What You Need”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lewis Padgett)
First publication: Astounding, Oct 1945

Reporter Tim Carmichael visits Peter Talley, a shopkeeper on Park Avenue who provides for a select clientele things that they will need in the future.

I never include prescience stories in my list, but like Heinlein’s “Life-Line,” this one is an exception, both because of its tone and because it was made into episodes of both Tales of Tomorrow (the tv show) and The Twilight Zone.

   




   “The Chronokinesis
of Jonathan Hull”
by Anthony Boucher
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1946

Private Eye Fergus O’Breen is back for his third and final encounter with time travel, this time with a time traveler who shows up dead in his room one day and is alive and walking in a stilted manner the next. In the process of explaining himself, the traveler also displays knowledge of Boucher’s traveler in “Barrier” and also of Breen’s other time travel encounters.

 And now, I realize, Mr. O’Breen, why I was inclined to trust you the moment I saw yoiur card. It was through a fortunately preserved letter of your sister’s, which found its way into our archives, that we knew of the early fiasco of Harrison Partridge and your part therein. We knew, too, of the researches of Dr. Derringer, and how he gave up in despair after his time traveler failed to return, having encountered who knows what unimaginable future barrier. 




   Favorite Story
adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee
First time travel: 26 Jun 1946

Each week, a different personality would choose a favorite story to be dramatized on radio station KFI’s, Los Angeles, Favorite Story program hosted and narrated by actor True Boardman. They broadcast at least three time-travel tales, all adapted by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. In fact, the first time travel was also KFI’s first episode, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, selected by actor Ed Gardner. Another episode was bandleader Kay Kyser’s favorite, The Time Machine, which was the second radio script for the Wells classic, significantly abridged but more faithful than the 1948 Escape radio production.

More or less concurrently, the broadcasts were repackaged nationally for NBC radio by Ziv Syndication with Ronald Colman as host; there were also some new NBC episodes (not adapted by Lawrence and Lee) including A Christmas Carol, which as everyone knows has no real time travel. The KFI dates below are taken from ocrsite.com; the NBC dates (which ocrsite says were aired differently across the country) are from audio-classics.com. The selector for each story is also given in the list below.
  1. Connecticut Yankee (26 Jun 46 KFI / 23 Jul 46 NBC) Ed Gardner
  2. The Time Machine (30 Nov 48 KFI / 21 Sep 48 NBC) Kay Kyser
  3. Enoch Soames (1 Mar 49 KFI / 7 Dec 48 NBC) Donald Ogden Steward
  4. A Christmas Carol (24 Dec 1949 NBC) Everyone!

 I ask you to imagine, gentlemen, a cube—a square box, let us say—which has only those three dimensions: length, breadth, and thickness. . . . Would not such a cube also require another dimension? 

—The Time Machine




   “Film Library”
by A.E. van Vogt
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1946

Each time a film goes through Peter Caxton’s projector at Tichenor Collegiate, it gets replaced with a different film from the future.

Van Vogt combined this with two other stories and a little fix-up material for his 1970 publication of Quest for the Future.

 Not that he would necessarily have suspected anyway that he had come into possession of films that had been made more than fifty years in the future. 




   Prize Comics’ Frankenstein
by Dirk Briefer
First time travel: Jul 1946

I’m always on the lookout for early depictions outside of sf with a climb-in-able time machine where you set the dials and go. Briefer’s humorous Frankenstein had just a such a machine in a 9-page story in issue 3 (Jul 1946). Frankenstein runs into Professor Goniph, and they travel in his machine to 2046 and 1646, although there is a twist at the end.

 It works!! It works!!! I am a genius!! We are in 2046!!! 


The story also appeared in this 1982 collection.   “Blind Time”
by George O. Smith
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1946

Oak Tool Works has developed a handy time treatment whereby a portion of any tool can be sent into the future for a limited time, but its movements during that time must exactly mirror the movements of the rest of the tool during the current time. Peter Wright is the insurance adjuster who must examine an accident that the treatment is going to cause at 8pm.

 There is that element of wonder, too, you know. Every man in the place knows that someone is going to get clipped with that crane. 




   “Vintage Season”
by Henry Kuttner and C.L. Moore (as by Lawrence O’Donnell)
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1946

More and more strange people are appearing each day in and around Oliver Wilson’s home; the explanation from the euphoric redhead leads him to believe they are time travelers gathering for an important event.

 Looking backward later, Oliver thought that in that moment, for the first time clearly, he began to suspect the truth. But he had no time to ponder it, for after the brief instant of enmity the three people from—elsewhere—began to speak all at once, as if in a belated attempt to cover something they did not want noticed. 




   “Technical Error”
aka “The Reversed Man”
by Arthur C. Clarke
First publication: Fantasy, Dec 1946

When Dick Nelson is accidentally exposed to a tremendous electromagnetic field, he comes out with his body reversed left-to-right, essentially a death sentence since certain necessary stereoisomers will be unavailable in the reverse form in his diet. The solution is to flip Dick over once again, requiring a trip through the fourth dimension (spacial) and a bit of time travel to boot. The head physicist assures Nelson that this is purely a spacial fourth dimension that he’ll be flipped over in.

 “You say that Nelson has been rotated in the Fourth Dimension; but I thought Einstein had shown that the Fourth Dimension was time.”
Hughes groaned inwardly.
“I was referring to an additional dimension of space,” he explained patiently. 




   Timely Comics
published by Martin Goodman
First time travel: All Winners Comics 21, Winter 1946/47

Timely was the predecessor to Atlas which became Marvel Comics in the ’60s. Some of their superheroes survived that transition (Captain America, the Sub-Mariner, and an android Human Torch, among others). I’ve only begun to dig up their time travel, finding one issue of All Winners Comics where Captain America and the All Winners Squad do battle with a man from 1,000,000 A.D. Also, in 1948, the Timely superhuman, comical boxer, Powerhouse Pepper, visited the pilgrims via time machine (Powerhouse Pepper 4, Sep 1948).

 Project yourselves far into the fture . . . to the year one million A.D. The Earth is almost unfit for human life! 

—Captain America in All Winners Comics 21



No Time Travel. Move along.
  It’s a Wonderful Life by Goodrich, et. al., 20 Dec 1946 [viewing alternate pasts ]



   “The Man Who Never Grew Young”
by Fritz Leiber, Jr.
First publication: Night’s Black Agents, 1947

Without knowing why, our narrator describes his life as a man who stays the same for millennia, even as others, one-by-one, are disintered, slowly grow younger and younger.

The story is soft-spoken but moving, and for me, it was a good complement to T.H. White’s backward-time-traveler, Merlyn.

 It is the same in all we do. Our houses grow new and we dismantle them and stow the materials inconspicuously away, in mine and quarry, forest and field. Our clothes grow new and we put them off. And we grow new and forget and blindly seek a mother. 




   “Child’s Play”
by William Tenn
First publication: Astounding, Mar 1947

Sam Weber, an underemployed lawyer, receives a Bild-a-Man kit as a Christmas gift from 400 years in the future—and it’s a timely gift, too, seeing as how he could use a replacement girlfriend.

 Bild-a-Man Set #3. This set is intended solely for the use of children, between the ages of eleven and thirteen. The equipment, much more advanced that Bild-a-Man Sets 1 and 2, will enable the child of this age-group to build and assemble complete adult humans in perfect working order. 




   “Time and Time Again”
by H. Beam Piper
First publication: Astounding, Apr 1947

At 43 years old, Allan Hartley is caught in a flash-bomb at the Battle of Buffalo, only to wake up in his own 13-year-old body on the day before Hiroshima.

Piper’s first short story impacted me because I fantasize about the same thing (perhaps we all do). What would you do? Who would you tell? What would you try to change? What would you fear changing?

 Here; if you can remember the next thirty years, suppose you tell me when the War’s going to end. This one, I mean. 


   “Ancestral Thread”
by Emil Petaja
First publication: Amazing, May 1947

Lem Mason’s eleven-year-old nephew, Sydney, doesn’t want to go to a ballgame on Sunday afternoon. He’d rather show his Uncle Lem the contraption that Professor Leyton left in the attic, which has allowed the boy to experience the lives of his ancestors and his descendants!

 But you seem to have forgotten one little detail—the second big dial, the one marked ‘Ahead’! 


   “Tomorrow and Tomorrow”
by Ray Bradbury
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, May 1947

When a typewriter appears on the floor of his boarding room and begins typing messages from the future, down-on-his-luck Steve Temple thinks that it must be his old jokester friend Harry—but he’s wrong about that, and the fate of the world 500 years down the line now depends on what Steve does about the upcoming election.

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow” doesn’t have the notority of that other Bradbury story about time travel and an elected official, but even though this one’s riddled with ridiculous ideas on time, it does accurately predict text messaging!

 Sorry. Not Harry. Name is Ellen Abbot. Female. 26 years old. Year 2442. Five feet ten inches tall. Blonde hair, blue eyes—semantician and dimentional research expert. Sorry. Not Harry. 




   Repeat Performance
by Walter Bullock and William O’Farrell
First release: 22 May 1947

After Sheila Page kills her husband in a fit of passion on New Year’s Eve, she wishes nothing other than to have the entire year back—if destiny will only let her.

 How many times have you said, “I wish I could live this year over again?” This is the story of a woman who did relive one year of her life. 


   “Errand Boy”
by William Tenn
First publication: Astounding, Jun 1947

When invention mogul Malcolm Blyn spots an unusual can of paint that a young boy brings to his factory, he begins to wonder whether it came from the future and what else the future may hold.

 I hand him an empty can and say I want it filled with green paint—it should have orange polka dots. 


   “The Figure”
by Edward Grendon
First publication: Astounding, Jul 1947

The narrator, along with his pals Dettner and Lasker, are frantically working on a machine that can bring something back from the future before they’re all called away by the army to work on some cockroach problem.

I enjoy stories with some personal connection to myself (and generally award an extra half star). In this case, the connection is Alfred Tarski, the Polish logician who was the advisor of the advisor of my own academic advisor, David B. Benson.

 Lasker is a mathematician. He specializes in symbolic logic and is the only man I know who can really understand Tarski. 




   “The Children’s Room”
by Raymond F. Jones
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Sep 1947

Bill Starbrook, an engineer and a devoted family man, discovers a hidden Children’s Room in the university library where his genius son Walt has been checking out books which nobody except himself and Walt can read. In some way that’s hard to explain, that leads to mutants on Earth, an alien invasion, a worry that the mutants are going to take away Walt to save mankind, and (in passing) a requirement that the Children’s Room be moved to a different time.

It’s fair to say that this story’s not about the time travel.

 Some emergency has come up. I don’t know what, exactly. They’ve got to move the Children’s Room to some other age right away—something about picking up an important mutant who is about to be destroyed in some future time. 


   “Meddler’s Moon”
by George O. Smith
First publication: Astounding, Sep 1947

Joseph Hedgerly travels back in time some 60 years to ensure that his grandfather marries the right woman.

 Either we live by accident and die by accident, or we live by plan and die by plan. If our lives are written in the Book of Acts, then no effort is worth the candle. For there will be those who will eternally strive to be good and yet shall fail. There will be others who care not nor strive not and yet will thrive. Why? Only because it is so written. And by whom? By the omnipotent God. Who, my friends, has then written into our lives both the good and the evil that we do ourselves! He moves us as pawns, directs us to strive against odds, yet knows that we must fail, because he planned it that way. 






   DC Comics (Funnybooks)
First time travel: All Funny Comics 20, Nov 1947

It seems that everyone in the DC stable wanted to get in on the road to time travel including the humor line-up. The earliest that I’ve found so far in the Nov 1947 issue of All Funny Comics. Later, there were Bob Hope (in Bob Hope 43) and Jerry Lewis (in Jerry Lewis 43 and 54). In Bob’s story, he gets sent into the future by Carolyn Spooner. It also had a cover with Bob as a caveman. As I find others, I’ll list them in my time-travel comic books page.

 This can’t be the stone age!—I’m just putty in the hands of a girl like you! 

—from the cover of Bob Hope 43




   “The Timeless Tomorrow”
by Manley Wade Wellman
First publication: Thrilling Wonder Stories, Dec 1947

Demoisell Anne Poins Genelle visits Nostradamus and witnesses one of his visions—children climbing into a series of long, wheeled structures with glass windows—and she promptly steps into the vision.

I enjoyed how he wrote out his visions in quatrains.

 Within the Isles the children are transported,
The most of them despairing and forlorn,
Upon the soil their lives will be supported
While hope shall flee. . . . 




   Brick Bradford Movie Serial
by George Plympton, Arthur Hoerl and Lewis Clay
First release: 18 Dec 1947

In fifteen episodes, Brick travels to the moon to protect a rocket interceptor while his pals take the time top to the 18th century to find a critical hidden formula.

 Maybe tomorrow you’ll be visiting your great, great grandmother. 




   “Me, Myself and I”
by William Tenn
First publication: Planet Stories, Winter 1947

As an experiment, a scientist sends unemployed strongman Cartney back 110 million years to make a small change. He makes this first change, which changes things in the present, and then he must go back again and again, whereupon he meets himself and him.

I keep finding earlier and earlier stories with the idea of destroying mankind by squishing a bug, and I am wondering whether this is the earliest linchpin bug (although that doesn’t actually happen here).

 Maybe tomorrow you’ll be visiting your great, great grandmother. 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “No-Sided Professor” by Martin Gardner, Esquire, Jan 1947 [4D spacial topology ]



   “Double Cross in Double Time”
by William P. McGivern
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Feb 1948

I like stories that begin with a want ad, including Heinlein’s Glory Road and the recent movie Safety Not Guaranteed. This is the earliest such story that I’ve seen, in which Paddy Donovan answers the ad (just off Fourth Avenue) to find Professor O’Neill, the professor’s angelic daughter, and a machine that stimulates a man’s dormant ability to travel through time. So, after a quick jaunt to ancient Egypt, Paddy offers to bankroll the development of the time machine’s business potential.

 Opening for young man of adventurous nature. Opportunity for travel, excitement, glory. 


   “The Monster”
aka “The Brighton Monster”
by Gerald Kersh
First publication: Saturday Evening Post, 21 Feb 1948

In April of 1947, a man makes a connection between a tattooed Japanese man and a monster that washed up in Brighton two centuries earlier.

 I should never have taken the trouble to pocket his Account of a Strange Monster Captured Near Brighthelmstone in the County of Sussex on August 6th in the Year of Our Lord 1745. 






   The Thiotimoline Stories
by Isaac Asimov
First story: Astounding, Mar 1948

I don’t know if this is time travel or not, but it certainly violates causality when the time for thiotimoline to dissolve in water is minus 1.12 seconds.
  1. The Endochronic Properties of Resublimated Thiotimoline (Mar 1948) Astounding
  2. The Micropsychiatric Properties of Thiotimoline (Dec 1953) Astounding
  3. Thiotimoline and the Space Age (Oct 1960) Analog
  4. Thiotimoline to the Stars (Nov 1973) Analog
  5. Antithiotimoline (Dec 1977) Analog

 Mr. Asimov, tell us something about the thermodynamic properties of the compound thiotimoline. 

—Professor Ralph S. Halford to Asimov at the conclusion of his Ph.D. oral exam on May 20, 1948.


Escape graphic from
Old Radio World

   Escape’s The Time Machine
aka Radio Theatre Group’s The Time Machine
adapted by Irving Ravetch
First airing: Escape radio program on CBS, 9 May 1948

In the first of many audio adaptations of Wells’s classic story, with Dudley (the inventor) takes his friend Fowler along for the ride so that he’ll have someone to talk with about the Eloi and the Morlocks. The script has been restaged multiple times.
  1. 9 May 1948 CBS’s Escape Radio
  2. 22 Oct 1950 CBS’s Escape Radio
  3. 27 Oct 1950 CBS’s Escape Radio
  4. 2005 with Filby instead of Fowler Radio Theatre Group
  5. 23 Dec 2007 Radio Theatre Group

 On this machine, a man can go whereever he likes in time. By working these levers, a man can choose his century, his year, his very day. 


   “The Tides of Time”
by A. Bertram Chandler
First publication: Fantastic Adventures, Jun 1948

Upon his 21st birthday, the twentieth in the line of descendents of Aubrey St. John Sheraton is to be taken into confidence about the secret of his family’s centuries-long financial success.

 I’d wait five hundred years for you, my darling. 


   “Time Trap”
by Charles L. Harness
First publication: Astounding, Aug 1948

The story presents a fixed series of events, which includes a man disappearing at one point in the future and (from his point of view) reappearing at the start of the story to then interact with himself, his own wife, and the evil alien.

It’s nice that there’s no talk of the universe exploding when he meets himself, but even so, the story suffers from a murkiness that is often part of time-travel stories that are otherwise enjoyable. The murkiness stems from two points: (1) That somehow the events are repeating over and over again—but from whose viewpoint? (2) The events are deterministic and must be acted out exactly the same each time. I enjoy clever stories that espouse the viewpoint of the second item (“By His Bootstraps”). But this does not play well with the first item, and (as with many stories), Harness did not address that conflict nor the consequent issue of free will. Still, I enjoyed the story and wish I’d met Harness when I traveled to Penn State University in the spring of 1982.

 But searching down time, Troy-Poole now found only the old combination of Troy and Poole he knew so well. Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, each preceding the other. As far back as he could sense, there was always a Poole hovering over a Troy. Now he would become the next Poole, enmesh the next Troy in the web of time, and go his own way to bloody death. 




   “Brooklyn Project”
by William Tenn
First publication: Planet Stories, Fall 1948

So far, this is the earliest story I’ve read with the thought that a minuscule change in the past can cause major changes to our time. The setting is a press conference where the Secretary of Security presents the time-travel device to twelve reporters.

 The traitorous Shayson and his illegal federation extended this hypothesis to include much more detailed and minor acts such as shifting a molecule of hydrogen that in our past really was never shifted. 




   “The Cube Root of Conquest”
by Rog Phillips
First publication: Amazing, Oct 1948

Hute Hitle, a dictator on the war-torn planet of Amba, plans to bring down an apocalypse and then travel to the future where he can fulfil his insatiable ambitions to be accepted as the one Leader.

The story is a crudely written Hitler fantasy, but it does have the interesting idea that travel through time can best be accomplished by stepping sideways into a parallel universe, traveling through time in that other universe, and then stepping back. Fortuntely for Amba, the scientist who discovered this version of time travel knows more than Hitle ever will.

 A time machine in one of these other universes could carry me to any point in the future without danger it might have encountered in this one, such as an atom bomb dropped on the space it would have been in here? 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “The Shape of Things” by Ray Bradbury, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Feb 1948 [4D spacial topology ]
  aka “Tomorrow’s Child”

  “He Walked Around the Horses” by H. Beam Piper (paratime), Astounding, Apr 1948 [alternate timelines ]

  “Police Operation” by H. Beam Piper (paratime), Astounding, Jul 1948 [alternate timelines ]



   “La otre muerte”
English title: “The Other Death” (translated from Spanish)
by Jorge Luís Borges
First publication: El Aleph, 1949

I’ve read many translated stories of Jorge Luís Borges, and many of those have surreal time elements, but this is the only one that I’ll deem to have time travel with a sophisticated branching universe, no less!

In the story, Borges himself tells of a man, Dom Pedro Damián, who first has a history as a soldier who lost his nerve at the 1904 Battle of Masoller and then lived out a long, quiet life. But after Damián dies some decades later, a second history appears in which the soldier was actually a dead hero at that very same battle, and no one remembers anything of the earlier life.

Motivated by the final part of Dante’s Divine Comedy, Borges argues that the only complete explanation involves God granting a death-bed wish to the 1946 Damián, allowing him to return to the 1904 battle, causing time to branch into two universal histories, the first of which is largely—but not wholly—suppressed.

 In the fifth chapter of that treatise, Pier Damiani asserts—against Aristotle and against Fredegarius de Tours—that it is within God’s power to make what once was into something that has never been. Reading those old theological discussions, I began to understand Pedro Damiá;’s tragic story. 




   “The Red Queen’s Race”
by Isaac Asimov
First publication: Astounding Science Fiction, Jan 1949

By my count, this was Asimov’s third foray into time travel, but his first as Dr. Asimov. In the story, the dead Elmer Tywood also had a Ph.D. and a plan to translate a modern chemistry textbook into Greek before sending it back in time to inaugurate a Golden Age of science long before it actually occurred.

 There was a short silence, then he said: “I’ll tell you. Why don’t you check with his students?”
I lifted my eyebrows: “You mean in his classes?”
He seemed annoyed: “No, for Heaven’s sake. His research students! His doctoral candidates!” 


the traveller, played by Russell Napier, meets the Eloi

   BBC’s The Time Machine
adapted by Robert Barr
First episode: 25 Jan 1949

The first tv broadcast of The Time Machine, a litle less than an hour, came live from the BBC’s Studio A at Alexandra Palace on 25 Jan 1949 with a second revised broadcast on 21 Feb 1949.

Seeing as how there are no recordings of the broadcast, I wish I had my own time machine so I could send my Betamax® back to 1949.

 In the first showing, after a brief interval in which the hands of the wall-clock recorded the passing of many hours, the lights began to dip and rise to indicate the passage of the days, and as this effect speeded up the walls of the room gradually dissolved. In the second performance this was cut out, killing the impression of fast-moving time. But, outside, the sun moves ever more swiftly across the sky until it is a continuous band of light, rising and falling to indicate the equinoxes, and throwing into vivid relief the changing shapes of successions of buildings which become more startlingly futuristic as the Traveller flashes through the ages. 

—Thomas Sheridan in Fantasy Review, Apr/May 1949




   “Manna”
by Peter Phillips
First publication: Astounding, Feb 1949

After the Miracle Meal food company builds a canning plant on the site of a 12th century haunted priory, cans of the Manna start discappearing.

 Miracle Meal. Press here. 




   Hallmark Playhouse
hosted by James Hilton
First time travel: 3 Mar 1949 in Berkeley Square

Before tv’s Hallmark Hall of Fame, CBS aired the half-hour Hallmark Playhouse on its radio networks. I spotted only one time-travel episode, the well-worn Berkeley Square, which aired on 3 Mar 1949.

 An ancestor of mine built this house in 1730. See that picture there, above the fireplace? His father. Look at it. 




Young William Shatner

   Studio One
created by Fletcher Markle
First time travel: 20 Mar 1949 (“Berkeley Square”)

Almost every week for a period of nearly eleven years (7 Nov 1948 to 29 Sep 1958), Studio One presented a black-and-white drama to CBS’s television audience. We can claim some of the tv plays as our own in the sf genre, and at least two included time travel (a “Berkeley Square” remake on 20 March 1949, and “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court” on 19 May 1952). One other sf connection comes from Studio One clips of William Shatner (in “The Defender”, 1957) which were used to portray a young Denny Crane in an episode of Boston Legal (“Son of the Defender”, 2007).

 You’ve heard of the transmigration of soul; have you ever heard of the transposition of a man’s body in time and place? 

—A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court




   ACG Comics (Anthologies)
published by Benjamin W. Sangory
First time travel: Adventures into the Unknown 4, Apr 1949

ACG had a handful of weird story comic books including Adventures into the Unknown, Forbidden Worlds and Forbidden Worlds. I picked up a few of these at garage sales as a kid, but never really got into them. The earliest time travel that I’ve found so far was a story called “Back to Yesterday” in Adventures into the Unknown 4. Some of the issues are now available on google books.

 It’s supposed to work by producing a displacement in the hyper-temporal field by means of a powerful mesotronic stasis of the continuum—and anyone near the machine’s field will immediately be projected into the future! 

—Hugh Martinson in “Adventure into the Future”




   A Connecticut Yankee
in King Arthur’s Court
adapted by Edmund Beloin (Tay Garnett, director)
First release: 22 Apr 1949

You know the story of Hank Morgan well enough by now, but do you know Edmund Beloin’s (one of Bob Hope’s writers) musical version with bumpkin Bing Crosby? This is my favorite of all the filmed versions.

 ♫Lord help the sister, who comes between me and my sister,
and Lord help the mister, who comes between me and my maaaan!♫ 

—oops, wrong Crosby movie!




   Flight into Yesterday
aka Paradox Men, and also an exerpt, “Paradox Men” in the 1974 collection Space Opera
by Charles L. Harness
First publication: Startling Stories, May 1949

With a scope to rival A.E. Van Vogt, Harness tells the tale of Alar (aka The Thief): a swashbuckling amnesiac with amazing mental powers who’s bent on overthrowing the evil solar system empire while being pursued from the Earth to the Moon to the Sun and beyond by the Imperial Police. Oh yes, there’s also this mutant mind who claims he’s the only survivor of an accidental time-traveling space ship.

 Do I understand that you want me to believe that someone will leave in the T-Twenty-Two tonight, jet backward in time, crash into the Ohio River five years ago and swim ashore as Alar? 




   Mighty Mouse Comics
First time travel: Mighty Mouse 11, Jun 1949

Surely Mighty Mouse time traveled in his comics many times, but the one that I ran across in the Michgan State University library records is a 2-page text piece called “The Time Machine” in issue 11. I haven’t read it, so I can’t say whether it’s fiction or perhaps something on H.G. Wells’s story.

The mouse did save the day himself via time travel in 1961 (Mighty Mouse 152). As I find other instances, I’ll add them to my time-travel comics page.

   “Let the Ants Try”
by Frederik Pohl (as by James MacCreigh)
First publication: Planet Stories, Winter 1949

After a nuclear war, Dr. Salva Gordy and John de Terry decide to use their time machine to see whether a recently mutated form of ant might do a better job than mankind if the ants were given a 40-million-year head start.

 And I doubt that you speak mathematics. The closest I can come is to say that it displaces temporal coordinates. Is that gibberish? 



No Time Travel. Move along.
  “I, Mars” by Ray Bradbury, Super Wonder Stories, Apr 1949 [despite appearances, no time travel ]
  aka ‘Night Call, Collect’

  “The Wall of Darkness” by Arthur C. Clarke, Super Science Stories, Jul 1949 [despite appearances, no time travel ]

  “Time Heals” by Poul Anderson, Astounding, Oct 1949 [long sleep ]

 

196 items are in the time-travel list for these search settings.
Thanks for visiting my time-travel page, and thanks to the many sources that provided stories and more (see the Links and Credits in the menu at the top). —Michael (main@colorado.edu)