The Alley Man

"The Alley Man" (1959) is a science fiction short story by American writer Philip José Farmer (1918-2009).

"The Alley Man" was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in June 1959.

"The Alley Man" was nominated for a Hugo Award for Short Fiction in 1960, coming in second.

[2] P. Schuyler Miller called "The Alley Man" a "robust, rambling comic tragedy of a dying species, trying to keep its heredity straight, clinging to its old legends, holding its own against the G'yaga, the False Folk who have inherited the Earth", described Paley as "Alley Oop as seen by Eugene O'Neill", and said that although the story itself was "negligible", the character of Paley "is everything".

[3] Sam Moskowitz considered the story to be Farmer's emulation of L. Sprague de Camp's 1939 "The Gnarly Man".

"The Alley Man" was originally published in the June 1959 issue of F & SF , with a cover illustration by Ed Emshwiller .