Who was Francis Donovan? He has exactly one story listed in ISFDB, this one, “The Short Life.” That story first appeared in the October 1955 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. It was reprinted in three editions of Best SF Four edited by Edmund Crispin, and in a large retrospective anthology, The Best Science Fiction Stories (1977) – no editor listed. Since both of those anthologies were published in England, I assume Donovan may have been English.

You can read “The Short Life” online at Project Gutenberg and on the Internet Archive. You might want to get an EPUB version for your ebook reader since it’s a novella.

I’m recommending this story to my reading group who are discussing the best short science fiction of 1955. I was asking the group which novelettes or novellas they thought should have won the Hugo award back then if they didn’t like “The Darfsteller” by Walter M. Miller, Jr. I think “The Darfsteller” is an outstanding story, but then so is “The Short Life.”

I find it quite fascinating when I discover a great science fiction story by a forgotten science fiction writer, especially one that published only a handful of stories. Donovan only published one. If you know anything about Francis Donovan, please post it in the comments? And if you’ve read “The Short Life” leave a comment about what you think of the story, and how you discovered it.

“The Short Life” is about telepathy. I’m not going to tell you the plot, there’s not much of one, and all the explanations are withheld to the end, but it really gets into the ramifications of telepathy. It’s also about Homo Superior. And it’s about first contact. I hope that’s enough to entice you into trying it.

“The Short Life” reminds me a bit of “In Hiding” by Wilmar H. Shiras and The Man Who Fell to Earth by Walter Tevis. It belongs among the best short science fiction of 1955.

p.s.

I did find one other clue to Francis Donovan, a letter to the editor in the September 1934 issue of Astounding Science Fiction. Evidently, he wasn’t English if this is the same Francis Donovan.

James Wallace Harris, 9/23/23

5 thoughts on ““The Short Life” by Francis Donovan”

  1. Hello James,

    Thanks for recommending this story, and, your overview of thus far enigmatic Francis Donovan.

    I’ve also read “The Darfsteller”, “In Hiding”, and, “The Man Who Fell to Earth”. The first in Pocket Books’ 1980 anthology “The Best of Walter M. Miller, Jr.”, the second in Avon’s “The Science Fiction Hall of Fame – Volume IIB” (1973), and the third as a “stand alone” novel. I enjoyed all three, but, leaving aside the challenge of making a valid literary comparison between tales presented in the format of a short story, and a novel (!), I found Miller’s work to be particularly dramatic, powerful, and compelling. “In Hiding” is stylistically very different, being related in (as I recall) an almost clinical, cool, methodical style. The effect comes through in the end, but it’s far more subtle than Miller’s work.

    Regarding Donovan, the ISFDB gives the man’s legal name as “F D Thompson”. So, could his full name actually have been “Francis Donovan Thompson”? The “Pondville Hospital”, listed as his address in his 1934 letter in Astounding is described at Wikipedia as having been located in Norfolk, Ma., and functioning as a, ”…state-operated hospital to treat cancer patients and do research on the prevention and cure of cancer.” So, maybe the man’s vocation was in the field of medicine. Well, just an idea.

    Upon reading your post, I dove into my collection of science fiction pulps and happily discovered that I’ve a copy of the October, 1955 issue of Astounding.

    So, you’ve inspired to do some “homework” and read Donovan’s tale in its entirely original format. That kind of homework, I like.

    Thanks for your work; thanks for your blog.

    Michael

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    1. I do believe “The Darfsteller” is the better story because of how it’s dramatically told.

      Yes, I love digging around in old magazines, looking for something interesting to bring forward in time. I see on your site you like to do that too. But you haven’t posted anything new for a few months.

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