Although this story shared a title with Malcolm Ross’s 1950 book of the same name,
Farley’s story has but a small scope and a technical bent, explaining the natural mechanism
that has taken the psychiatric patient known as Sixtythree and turned him into someone who
(among other backward things) calls his beloved Margaret “Gnillrahd Tellagrahm!”
For example, I well remember the night when he woke up the entire Asylym by yelling
“Fire!,” just before the boiler explosion which nearly caused a holocaust.
DEBUT
“The Man Who Lived Backward” by Ralph Milne Farley, in The Omnibus of Time, Fantasy
Publishing Company (Inc., 1950).
VARIANTS and TRANSLATIONS
Number of variants: 1
Translations: none
Debut. “The Man Who Lived Backward” by Ralph Milne Farley, in The Omnibus of Time, Fantasy Publishing Company (Inc., 1950).
For example, I well remember the night when he woke up the entire Asylym by yelling
“Fire!,” just before the boiler explosion which nearly caused a holocaust.
Credits and Other Details