The Man Who Walked Home

by James Tiptree, Jr.

Release: May 1972
Format: Short Story
Genre: Science Fiction
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

After an accident at a temporal research facility in Idaho, a manlike monster known as John Delgano shows up for half a seoncd once a year at the same time and place.

As early as the 1930s, stories have addressed the issue of the Earth moving to a different position when a time traveler moves through time. This story addresses the issue by saying that the time traveler appears only once per year, but that doesn't really solve the problem for so many reasons, starting with the fact that a given position on the surface of the Earth will not be at “the same” position in the subsequent year.

— Michael Main

Then that winter they came down for Christmas and John said they had something new. He was really excited. A temporal displacement, he called it; some kind of time effect.

DEBUT

“The Man Who Walked Home,” in Amazing, May 1972.

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Travel Methods

Time Catapults: “In the beginning it had been so tight—a single ray in a closing tunnel—he had hurled himself after it like an electron flying to the anode . . .”

Themes

Travelers Must Account for Earth's Movment

Fictional Tags

Post-Apocalyptic and Post-Holocaust Worlds

Groupings

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From Bonneville Particle Acceleration Facility, Idaho, 11:53 a.m., 2 May 1989 ⋙ to the some spot, year after year in the future for half a second. Note: John Delgano.