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The Internet Time Travel Database

John Wyndham

writer

Worlds to Barter

by John Wyndham
In Wyndham’s first published story, Jon Lestrange (the distant descendant of the world’s foremost inventor) comes back to the moment of his ancestor’s greatest invention with a story of how his own time was invaded by the people of the 5022nd century, demanding to change temporal places with the people of Lestrange’s time.
It is a difficult situation, but I hope I shall convince you. Very few men can have had the chance of convincing their great-great-great grandfathers of anything. I am now an anachronism. You see, I was born in the year A.D. 2108,—or should it be, I shall be born in 2108?—and I am—or will be—a refugee from the twenty-second century. I assure you that you will be married shortly, but I can’t remember when—I think I told you I was bad at dates.
“Worlds to Barter” by John Wyndham, in Wonder Stories, May 1931.

Wanderers of Time

by John Wyndham
“Wanderers of Time” by John Wyndham, in Wonder Stories, March 1933.

The Third Vibrator

by John Wyndham
Hixton tells his fiancé the reason why he destroyed his death ray: He’s been back to ancient Lemuria and Atlantis and seen with his own eyes the effect it had.

Although the mechanism of the weapon differed from the atom bomb, it still feels as though Wyndham anticipated the capability for world destruction that would soon be upon us.

Furthermore, this young man can’t possibly be Adams Mayhew! Why Mayhew would be nearly eighty, if he were alive today, and this man is still in his twenties.
“The Third Vibrator” by John Wyndham, in Wonder Stories, May 1933.

Judson’s Annihilator

by John Wyndham
“Beyond the Screen” by John Wyndham, Fantasy #1, (1938).

Pawley’s Peepholes

by John Wyndham
Jerry, his girl Sally, and everyone else in the quiet town of Westwich are forced to put up with gawking but immaterial tourists from the future who glide by on sight-seeing platforms.
Was Great Grandma as Good as She Made Out? See the Things Your Family History Never Told You
“Pawley’s Peepholes” by John Wyndham, in Science-Fantasy, Winter 1951-52.

Pillar to Post

by John Wyndham
Terence Molton, a double amputee, falls into a dope trance and wakens in the body of a Hymorell, a man in a flawed utopian future that to Molton’s mind is immoral in many ways. As for his part, Hymorell is back in Terence’s body, building a machine to reverse the swap. Quite naturally, Terence feels some resistance to swapping back, a resistance that’s driving enough to give him some questionable morals himself.

One of the pleasures of reading old magazines is seeing the innocence of the ads, such as a 1.5-inch ad for Frank A. Schmid’s bookstore on Columbus Circle in New York. i’ve got them all! every one!, proclaims the ad, referring to sf books of the day. And perhaps they did!

I sat up suddenly, feeling my legs, both of them. There wasn’t any pain. But there were two legs and two feet!

Then I did something I hadn’t let myself do in years—I burst into tears.

“Pillar to Post” by John Wyndham, in Galaxy, December 1951.

The Chronoclasm

by John Wyndham
An elderly gentleman implores Gerald Lattery to allow Tavia to return, but the only problem is that Gerald has never (yet) heard of Tavia. Oh, and the gentleman insists on addressing Lattery as Sir Gerald.
It is concerning Tavia, Sir Gerald—er, Mr. Lattery. I think perhaps you don’t understand the degree to which the whole situation is fraught with unpredictable consequences. It is not just my own responsibility, you understand, though that troubles me greatly—it is the results that cannot be forseen. She really must come back before very great harm is done. She must, Mr. Lattery.
“The Chronoclasm” by John Wyndham, in Star Science Fiction Stories, February 1953.

Opposite Numbers

by John Wyndham
“Opposite Numbers” by John Wyndham, tag-4106 | New Worlds Science Fiction #22, April 1954.

Consider Her Ways

by John Wyndham
An amnesiac woman, Jane Waterleigh, awakens in an all-female future world with four castes (mothers, doctors, servants and workers), and she can only assume she’s in a dream or hallucination where she finds herself in an enormous body whom the doctors and servants call “Mother Orchis.”
Go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways.
“Consider Her Ways” by John Wyndham, in Sometime, Never (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1956).

Odd

by John Wyndham
“Odd” by John Wyndham, in Consider Her Ways and Others (Michael Joseph, 1961).

Random Quest

by John Wyndham
“Random Quest” by John Wyndham, in Consider Her Ways and Others (Michael Joseph, 1961).

A Stitch in Time

by John Wyndham
“A Stitch in Time” by John Wyndham, Argosy (UK), March 1961.
as of 10:02 p.m. MDT, 5 May 2024
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