This is first complete version of what would become The Elfin Ship, which at that time was titled The Man in the Moon. I wrote the book in around 1978, sent the typed ms. to Lester del Rey and a Xerox to my mother, who wanted to read it. Lester, of course, bought the book, but objected to the plot as it stood, asked me to throw away the second half of the book and to start over, making it 90,000 words long. (The Man in the Moon was 60,000). The Man in the Moon himself played no part in the revised novel, nor does the moon. I don't believe I ever got the ms. back from Lester, but instead simply began handwriting the revised book starting, as I said, about mid way through. Where the discarded 30,000 words went I had no idea, and I long ago simply assumed I'd never see any of it again. Now, lo and behold, the ms. of the original novel surfaces.

The Man in the Moon also contains the first Langdon St. Ives steampunk story, written more than 25 years ago, then sold to a magazine that folded before it could appear!