"Thurber Needed Several Minutes To Realize He Was Dead"

"I Want To Go Home."

By Robert Moore Williams (1907-77; Wikipedia HERE; the ISFDb HERE; the SFE HERE; and the IMDb HERE).

Illustrated by Orban (1896-1974; Field Guide to Wild American Pulp Artists HERE).

First appearance: Super-Science Fiction, April 1958.

Reprinted in Tales from Super-Science Fiction, 2012.

Short story (12 pages).

Online at SFFAudio (HERE).

(Note: Some text washed-out but still legible.)

   "What's he trying to do—make a radio set that will contact Mars?"

SOCIOLOGISTS have delineated many causes for juvenile delinquency, but we're fairly sure they haven't come across this one . . . yet . . .

Main characters:

~ Calvin Thurber ("A gadfly of thought was buzzing in his mind") and Ralph ("I've got it right this time. I've got it right!").

Typos: "often the engineer of" [should be or] "the famous scientist"; "not fothcoming"; which is it: "Kine" or "Tine"?

References:

- The theme of someone not from around here wanting to get back to where they came from became the main plot point in two hit sci-fantasy movies back in the '80s (WARNING! SPOILERS! Wikipedia HERE and HERE.)

- "this was schizophrenia":

  "Schizophrenia is a serious mental health condition that affects how people think, feel and behave. It may result in a mix of hallucinations, delusions, and disorganized thinking and behavior. Hallucinations involve seeing things or hearing voices that aren't observed by others. Delusions involve firm beliefs about things that are not true. People with schizophrenia can seem to lose touch with reality, which can make daily living very hard." (The Mayo Clinic HERE.)

- "The condensers must have gotten a little damp":

  "In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser . . ." (Wikipedia HERE.)

Resources:

- Previously we've encountered Robert Moore Williams a couple of times: "The Accidental Murders" (HERE) and "The Pruning Man" (HERE).

The bottom line:

Unless otherwise noted, all bibliographical data are derived from The FictionMags Index created by William G. Contento & edited by Phil Stephensen-Payne.

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