author

Roy Hutchins

A little-known science fiction writer remembered for a single striking story, he explored time travel through the very human pull of longing for the past. His work appeared in the classic magazine Galaxy and later found new readers through anthology and ebook reprints.

1 Audiobook

The Nostalgia Gene

The Nostalgia Gene

by Roy Hutchins

About the author

Roy Hutchins is a hard-to-trace figure in science fiction, and confirmed biographical details about his life are scarce. What can be verified is that he wrote "The Nostalgia Gene," a science fiction story published in Galaxy Science Fiction in November 1954.

That story has had a longer afterlife than its author's surviving public record might suggest. It was later anthologized, and it is now also available through Project Gutenberg, which has helped introduce it to modern readers.

Because so little reliable personal information is easy to confirm, Hutchins is best known today through the work itself: a mid-century speculative tale that mixes time travel ideas with a wistful fascination for the past.