Tomorrow and Tomorrow

by Ray Bradbury

Release: May 1947
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

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 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 a recently elected man. “Tomorrow and Tomorrow” doesn’t have the notoriety 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!

— Michael Main

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

DEBUT

“Tomorrow and Tomorrow,” in Fantastic Adventures, May 1947.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

Translations to Croatian, French, Spanish

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1950 to 1959: Steve in 1955
Near Future, AD 2300 and Beyond: Ellen in 2442

Timeline Models

Timeline Needs Immediate Attention!

Themes

Kill Hitler: An early discussion of killing Hitler: “Look, Greek, if you’d known Hitler for what he’d be forty years ago, and you’d had the chance, would you have killed him?”
Letters, Texts, Phone Calls, Talking, and Other Direct Communications through Time: mostly text messages on a typewriter
Time Travel Sickness, Injuries, and Mixed-Up Body Parts: the guinea pigs

Groupings

Fantastic Adventures · Fantastic (periodical): May 1947
Sirius (periodical): #45, March 1980

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From a prison cell in a dictator’s palace, 2442 ⋙ to Steve Temple’s apartment, 221 E. 9th Street, Los Angeles, the week of 10 January 1955. Multiple round trips. Note: the typewriter itself.
From a prison cell in a dictator’s palace, 2442 ⋙ to Steve Temple’s apartment, 221 E. 9th Street, Los Angeles, the week of 10 January 1955. Multiple trips. Note: messages going both ways.
From a prison cell in a dictator’s palace, 2442 ⋙ to Steve Temple’s apartment, 221 E. 9th Street, Los Angeles, the week of 10 January 1955. Multiple trips. Note: and images: “Just a faint quavering outline at first, increasing . . .”