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Jack Finney

writer

The Third Level

by Jack Finney
A New York man stumbles upon a third underground level at Grand Central Station which is a portal to the past.

This is the first of Finney’s many fine time-travel stories.

I turned toward the ticket windows knowing that here—on the third level at Grand Central—I could buy tickets that would take Louisa and me anywhere in the United States we wanted to go. In the year 1894.
“The Third Level” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 7 October 1950.

Such Interesting Neighbors

by Jack Finney
Al Lewis and his wife Nell have new neighbors, an inventor who talks of time travel from the future and his wife Ann.

The story was the basis for the second episode of Science Fiction Theater and also Spielberg’s Amazing Stories.

But Ann walked straight into that door and fell. I couldn’t figure out how she came to do it; it was as though she expected the door to open by itself or something. That’s what Ted said, too, going over to help her up. “Be careful, honey,” he said, and laughed a little, making a joke of it. “You’ll have to learn, you know, that doors won’t open themselves.”
“Such Interesting Neighbors” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 6 January 1951.

Quit Zoomin’ Those Hands Through the Air

by Jack Finney
Grandpa is over 100 now, so surely his promise to General Grant no longer binds him to keep quiet about a time-travel expedition and a biplane.
Air power in the Civil War? Well, it’s been a pretty well-kept secret all these years, but we had it. The Major and me invented it ourselves.
“Quit Zoomin’ Those Hands Through the Air” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 4 August 1951.

There Is a Tide

by Jack Finney
A sleepless man, struggling with a business decision, sees an earlier occupant of his apartment who is struggling with a decision of his own.
— Michael Main
I saw the ghost in my own living room, alone, between three and four in the morning, and I was there, wide awake, for a perfectly sound reason: I was worrying.
“There Is a Tide” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 2 August 1952.

Of Missing Persons

by Jack Finney
“Of Missing Persons” by Jack Finney, in Good Housekeeping, March 1955.

I’m Scared

by Jack Finney
In the 1950s, a retired man in New York City speculates on a variety of cases of odd temporal occurrences such as the woman who realized that the old dog who persistently followed her in 1947 was actually the puppy she adopted several years later. And then there was the now famous case of Rudolph Fentz who seemingly popped into Times Square on an evening in the 1950s, apparently straight from 1876.
— Michael Main
Got himself killed is right. Eleven-fifteen at night in Times Square—the theaters letting out, busiest time and place in the world—and this guy shows up in the middle of the street, gawking and looking around at the cars and up at the signs like he'd never seen them before.
“I’m Scared” by Jack Finney, in Collier’s, 15 September 1951, pp. 24ff..

Second Chance

by Jack Finney
A college student lovingly restores a 1923 Jordan Playboy roadster—a restoration that takes him back in time.
You can’t drive into 1923 in a Jordan Playboy, along a four-lane superhighway; there are no superhighways in 1923.
“Second Chance” by Jack Finney, in Good Housekeeping, April 1956.

The Love Letter

by Jack Finney
“The Love Letter” by Jack Finney, in Saturday Evening Post, 1 August 1959.

The Other Wife

by Jack Finney
“The Other Wife” by Jack Finney, in The Saturday Evening Post, 30 January 1960.

I Love Galesburg in the Springtime

by Jack Finney
Reporter Oscar Mannheim has many opportunities in his long life, but never wants to leave the midwest Galesburg that he grew up in—and neither do its many other citizens and artifacts of the past.
To make sure, I walked over to a newsboy and glanced at the stack of papers at his feet. It was The World; and The World had’nt been published for years. The lead story said something about President Cleveland. I’ve found that front page since, in the Public Library files, and it was printed June 11, 1894.
“I Love Galesburg in the Springtime” by Jack Finney, in McCall’s Magazine, April 1960.

Where the Cluetts Are

by Jack Finney
Ellie and Sam Cluett build a house that duplicates every fine detail of a house from Victorian times, and over time, the house gradually takes them back to that time.
We’re looking at a vanished sight. This is a commonplace sight of a world long gone and we’ve reached back and brought it to life again. Maybe we should have let it alone.
“Where the Cluetts Are” by Jack Finney, in McCall’s Magazine, January 1962.

The Face in the Photo

by Jack Finney
Young physics Professor Weygand is questioned by Instructor Martin O. Ihren about the disappearance of several recent criminals who have shown up in very old photos.
I did, and saw what he meant; a face in the old picture almost identical with the one in the Wanted poster. It had the same astonishing length, the broad chin seeming nearly as wide as the cheekbones, and I looked up at Ihren. “ Who is it? His father? His grandfather?”
“The Face in the Photo” by Jack Finney, The Saturday Evening Post, 13 October 1962.

Double Take

by Jack Finney
Jake Pelman is hopelessly in love with Jessica, the breathtaking star in a movie that he works on, but it takes a breathless trip to the 1920s for Jess to realize what her feelings for Jake might be.
Out of the world’s three billion people there can’t be more than, say, a hundred women like Jessica Maxwell.
“Double Take” by Jack Finney, Playboy,April 1965.

Si Morley 1

Time and Again

by Jack Finney
Si goes back to 19th century New York to solve a crime and (of course) fall in love.

This is Janet’s favorite time-travel novel, in which Finney elaborates on themes that were set in earlier stories such as “Double Take.”

— Michael Main
There’s a project. A U.S. government project I guess you’d have to call it. Secret, naturally; as what isn’t in government these days? In my opinion, and that of a handful of others, it’s more important than all the nuclear, space-exploration, satellite, and rocket programs put together, though a hell of a lot smaller. I tell you right off that I can’t even hint what the project is about. And believe me, you’d never guess.
Time and Again by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, 1970).

Dead of Night [segment 1]

Second Chance

by Richard Matheson, directed by Dan Curtis
For the first of three short segments of the TV movie Dead of Night, Richard Matheson wrote this adaptation of Jack Finney’s 1956 story “Second Chance” where a college student lovingly restores a 1920s-era Jordan Playboy roadster and takes it back in time.
— Michael Main
I remember what someone once said; I think it was Einstein or somebody like that. He compared time to a winding river, with all of us in a boat drifting along between two high banks. And we can’t see the future beyond the next curve or the past beyond the curves in back of us, but it’s all still there, as real as the moment around us. To which I now add my own theory . . . that you can’t drive into the past in a modern car because there were no modern cars back then, and you can’t drive into 1926 along a four-lane superhighway, but my car and I—the way I felt about it anyway—were literally rejected that night by our own time.
Second Chance by Richard Matheson, directed by Dan Curtis (NBC-TV, USA, 29 March 1977).

From Time to Time

by Jack Finney
Finney’s sequel to Time and Again initially finds Si Morley living a happy life in the 19th century with his 19th century family, while The Project in the future never even got started because he prevented the inventor’s parents from ever meeting. But vague memories linger in some of the Project member’s minds, and Morley can’t stay put.
— Michael Main
They’re back there in the past, trampling around, changing things, aren’t they? They don’t know it. They’re just living their happy lives, but changing small events. Mostly trivial, with no important effects. But every once in a while the effect of some small changed event moves on down to the—
From Time to Time by Jack Finney (Simon and Shuster, February 1995).
as of 10:18 p.m. MDT, 5 May 2024
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