In a career that began in 1959 and continued until his death in 2002, R. A. Lafferty wrote well over 200 short stories. This is the fifth volume of the Lafferty Library, a series collecting all of R. A. Lafferty’s short fiction. Assembled by series editor John Pelan, this collection brings together a blend of the familiar, the esoteric, the known, and the obscure.

In this volume, you will find his characters, such as The Men Who Knew Everything, represented by “Mud Violet” and “Barnaby’s Clock.” The Argos Mythos is featured with the novella “How Many Miles to Babylon?”, which has not previously appeared in any R. A. Lafferty collection. The Institute for Impure Science appears in the novelette “Flaming Ducks and Giant Bread.”

This volume includes an introduction by Michael Kurland, the titular novelette from 1978, and Lafferty’s second prose sale, “Adam Had Three Brothers.” It also includes an interview conducted with Lafferty by Robert J. Whitaker and an afterword by series editor John Pelan.