Misfit (short story) - Misplaced Pages

1939 short story by Robert A. Heinlein

"Misfit"
Short story by Robert A. Heinlein
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre(s)	Science fiction
Publication
Published in	Astounding Science Fiction
Publication type	Magazine
Media type	Print
Publication date	November 1939
Series	Future History

"Misfit" is a science fiction short story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein. It was originally titled "Cosmic Construction Corps" before being renamed by the editor John W. Campbell and published in the November 1939 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. "Misfit" was Heinlein's second published story. One of the earliest of Heinlein's Future History stories, it was later included in the collections Revolt in 2100 and The Past Through Tomorrow.

Plot summary

A coming-of-age story that follows Andrew Jackson Libby, a boy from Earth with extraordinary mathematical ability but meager education. Finding few opportunities on Earth, he joins the Cosmic Construction Corps, a future military-led version of the US Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps employing out-of-work youth to construct the infrastructure needed to colonize the Solar System. With a group of other inexperienced young men he is assigned to a ship traveling to the asteroid belt, where their task is to build a base on an asteroid and then move it into a more convenient orbit between Earth and Mars. Libby comes to the Captain's attention during the process of blasting holes in the asteroid for rocket engines when Libby realizes that a mistake has been made in calculating the size of the charge, preventing a catastrophic blast. He is assigned to the ship's astrogation computer. During the move to the destination orbit, the computer malfunctions, and Libby takes over, performing all the complex calculations in his head. The asteroid is settled successfully into its final orbit.

"Slipstick" Libby became one of Heinlein's recurring characters and would later appear in several works associated with Lazarus Long, among them Methuselah's Children and The Cat Who Walks Through Walls.

The story includes one of the earliest uses of the term "space marines".

References

Patterson, William H. Jr. (2010), Robert A. Heinlein: In Dialogue with His Century, Macmillan, pp. 236–237, ISBN 978-1429964852.
Slusser, George Edgar (1977), "The Classic Years of Robert A. Heinlein", Popular Writers of Today, vol. 11, Wildside Press LLC, p. 5, ISBN 0893702161.

External links

"Misfit" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
"Misfit" on the Internet Archive

v t e Robert A. Heinlein's Future History
Collections	The Man Who Sold the Moon (1950) The Green Hills of Earth (1951) Revolt in 2100 (1953) Orphans of the Sky (1963) The Past Through Tomorrow (1967)
Novels	Methuselah's Children (1958) The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress (1966) Time Enough for Love (1973) The Number of the Beast (1980) The Cat Who Walks Through Walls (1985) To Sail Beyond the Sunset (1987) The Pursuit of the Pankera (2020)
Short stories	"Life-Line" "Let There Be Light" "The Roads Must Roll" "Blowups Happen" "The Man Who Sold the Moon" "Delilah and the Space Rigger" "Space Jockey" "Requiem" "The Long Watch" "Gentlemen, Be Seated!" "The Black Pits of Luna" "It's Great to Be Back!" "—We Also Walk Dogs" "Searchlight" "Ordeal in Space" "The Green Hills of Earth" "Logic of Empire" "The Menace from Earth" "'If This Goes On—'" "Coventry" "Misfit" "Universe" "Common Sense"
Characters	Lazarus Long The Notebooks of Lazarus Long Delos D. Harriman Jubal Harshaw Competent man Maureen Johnson Andrew Jackson Libby Hazel Stone
Related	The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein (1966) Expanded Universe (1980)

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