Wailing Wall

Roger Dolphus AycockProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.0

Word count: 31K words
Chapters: 4

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Wailing Wall by Roger D. AycockAuthor: Aycock, Roger D., 1914-2004,Language: English, Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature, Release Date: Jan 16, 2016

Editor's review

Wailing Wall is a short English-language work by Roger D. Aycock (1914–2004), published in the mid-twentieth century and now offered as a free ebook by Project Gutenberg. Aycock was a regular contributor to pulp science-fiction magazines, and his work is known for brisk, clear storytelling and clever twists; this piece is no exception: brief, with a clear setup, driven by a single central mystery, a light read that still lingers. It works as an accessible sample of American pulp-era short fiction and suits a single sitting on a commute or lunch break. Note that this is a public-domain English-language ebook with no Chinese translation; the Gutenberg edition is text-only, without notes or introduction, so readers need basic English reading ability and should situate the work in its period themselves. As a free public-domain resource, its value lies in offering very low-threshold access to a popular author overlooked by mainstream literary history.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers who want low-cost access to English-language public-domain science-fiction shorts
Casual readers who enjoy brief stories with a twist at the end
Beginners studying American twentieth-century pulp-magazine science fiction
Learners who want to complete a full English reading in fragmented time

Not a good fit for

Readers who want a Chinese translation and prefer not to read English originals
Readers who prefer long works with grand worldbuilding and deep characterization
Beginners who need notes, introductions, or scholarly guidance

Reading tips

Read through once for plot, then revisit the key turning point to appreciate how the author planted clues.
Don't look up unfamiliar words immediately; infer from context and check them afterward to protect your reading rhythm.
Read alongside other pulp science-fiction shorts to observe common themes and formulas of the period.
After reading, write down the cleverness of the core premise in your notes to test whether you grasped the twist.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

According to Project Gutenberg, the book is in English and falls under American and Canadian literature. There is no Chinese translation, so readers need basic English reading ability.

Is it long? How long does it take to read?

The materials do not give a word count, but as a magazine short story it can be read in a single commute or lunch break, suiting fragmented reading time.

Does the ebook include notes or an introduction?

Project Gutenberg mainly provides public-domain ebook texts; this edition does not indicate notes or an introduction, so readers must learn about the author and period on their own.

Who was the author, Aycock?

The materials show only that Roger D. Aycock (1914–2004) was an American writer. No further biographical details are provided, and speculation is inappropriate.

Comments

Find this book

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Roger Dolphus Aycock Author · American · 1914–2004

Roger D. Aycock (1914–2004) was an American science fiction writer, born Roger Dolphus Aycock in Floyd County, Georgia, and best known by the pen name Roger Dee. He made his debut in 1949 with "The Wheel Is Death" and during the 1950s and 1960s wrote more than fifty short stories for magazines such as Galaxy and If. His work often centers on space exploration, encounters with alien worlds, and human dilemmas, with tight plotting and frequent twists at the end, combining popular entertainment with thoughtful speculation. His representative works include "Traders Risk," "Control Group," and "Assignment's End," and he also wrote the novel An Earth Gone Mad. Twelve of his works are held in the collection, including "The Feeling," "Pet Farm," and "Wailing Wall"; public information on his classification is limited, and his influence rests mainly on magazine science fiction of the later Golden Age.