What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper

by Robert Silverberg

Release: November 1972
Format: Short Story
Genre: Horror
Audience: Adults
Content: Definite Time Travel
Original Language: English

When all eleven families on Redford Crescent receive a newspaper from the middle of next week, the result is a hastily called neighborhood meeting and an assortment of get-rich-quick plans.

— Michael Main

Which sounds more fantastic? That someone would take the trouble of composing an entire fictional edition of the Times setting it in type printing it and having it delivered or that through some sort of fluke of the fourth dimension we’ve been allowed a peek at next week’s newspaper?

DEBUT

“What We Learned from This Morning’s Newspaper,” in Infinity Four, edited by Robert Hoskins (Lancer Books, November 1972).

VARIANTS

1 English variant

TRANSLATIONS

Translations to French, German, Serbian

TAGS(SPOILERS!)

Time Periods

Circa AD 1970 to 1999: Based on the days of the week and the Nixon headline, the story is in 1970.

Themes

Get Rich Quick through Time Travel: stock market, horse racing, football betting, etc.
Media from Another Time: newspapers from the future
Never Change the Past!: Silverberg’s story has a twist on Never Change the Past, which is Never Change What We Know to Be True about the Future!

Groupings

Cited in Time Machines by Paul J. Nahin ()

TIME TRAVEL ITINERARY (SPOILERS!)

From an unspecified place, 1 December 1970 ⋙ to the front porches on Redbud Crescent, 22 November 1970. Note: newspapers from next week.
From an unspecified place, 22 November 1970 ⋙ to the front porches on Redbud Crescent, 1 December 1970. Note: The original newspapers arrive at the end of the story.