The Man Who Sold the Moon is the title of a 1950 collection of science fiction

Science fiction

Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...

 short stories

Short story

A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...

 by Robert A. Heinlein

Robert A. Heinlein

Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

.

The stories, part of Heinlein's Future History

Future History

The Future History, by Robert A. Heinlein, describes a projected future of the human race from the middle of the 20th century through the early 23rd century. The term Future History was coined by John W. Campbell, Jr. in the February 1941 issue of Astounding Science Fiction...

 series, appear in the first edition as follows:

• Introduction by John W. Campbell, Jr.
• Foreword by Robert A. Heinlein
• '"Let There Be Light"
  Let There Be Light (short story)
  “Let There Be Light” a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein, originally published in Super Science Stories magazine in May 1940 under the pseudonym Lyle Monroe...
  
  ' (1940; originally published in Super Science Stories
  Super Science Stories
  Super Science Stories was an American pulp science fiction magazine published by Popular Publications from 1940 and 1943, and again from 1949 to 1951. Popular launched it under their "Fictioneers" imprint, which they used for magazines paying writers less than one cent per word...
  
  )
• "The Roads Must Roll
  The Roads Must Roll
  "The Roads Must Roll" is a 1940 science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. In the late 1960s, it was awarded a retrospective Nebula Award by the Science Fiction Writers of America and published in The Science Fiction Hall of Fame, Volume One, 1929-1964 in 1970.The story is set in the near...
  
  " (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "The Man Who Sold the Moon
  The Man Who Sold the Moon
  The Man Who Sold the Moon is a science fiction novella by Robert A. Heinlein written in 1949 and published in 1950. A part of his Future History and prequel to "Requiem", it covers events around a fictional first Moon landing, in 1978, and the schemes of Delos D...
  
  " (1950; first appearance is in this collection)
• "Requiem
  Requiem (short story)
  "Requiem" is a short story by Robert A. Heinlein, serving as a sequel to his short science fiction novel, The Man Who Sold the Moon , although it was in fact published several years earlier than that story, in Astounding, January 1940...
  
  " (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "Life-Line
  Life-Line
  "Life-Line" is a short story by American author Robert A. Heinlein. Published in 1939, it was Heinlein's first published short story.The protagonist, Professor Pinero, builds a machine that will predict how long a person will live. It does this by sending a signal along the world line of a...
  
  " (1939; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)
• "Blowups Happen
  Blowups Happen
  "Blowups Happen" is a science fiction short story by Robert A. Heinlein. It is one of two stories in which Heinlein, using only public knowledge of nuclear fission, anticipated the actual development of nuclear technology a few years later...
  
  " (1940; originally published in Astounding Science Fiction)

Early paperback printings omitted "Life-Line" and "Blowups Happen", as well as Campbell's introduction.

Reception

Boucher

Anthony Boucher

Anthony Boucher was an American science fiction editor and author of mystery novels and short stories. He was particularly influential as an editor. Between 1942 and 1947 he acted as reviewer of mostly mystery fiction for the San Francisco Chronicle...

 and McComas

J. Francis McComas

Jesse Francis McComas was an American science fiction editor. McComas wrote several stories on his own in the 1950s using both his own name and the pseudonym Webb Marlowe....

 praised the 1950 edition as Heinlein "at his superlative best.". In his "Books" column for F&SF, Damon Knight

Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

 selected The Man Who Sold the Moon as one of the 10 best sf books of the 1950's. P. Schuyler Miller

P. Schuyler Miller

Peter Schuyler Miller was an American science fiction writer and critic.-Life:Miller was raised in New York's Mohawk Valley, which led to a life-long interest in the Iroquois Indians. He pursued this as an amateur archaeologist and a member of the New York State Archaeological Association.He...

said that "Heinlein is a master of concealed technology. . . . no other writer [has] worked out the scientific minutiae of his settings so fully or so unobtrusively," praising as well Heinlein's skill at crafting "the human engineering details of each situation."

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