What If—

If shows the couple scenes from their earlier lives and what might have happened if certain minor but pivotal events had not occurred.

The theme of major events being altered by relatively minor changes would recur in Asimov's 1955 novel The End of Eternity and his 1958 short story "Spell My Name with an S".

Neil Gaiman wrote a short story called "The Wedding Present" as introduction for the collection "Smoke and Mirrors".

In this story, a couple receives as a wedding present a stack of paper sheets relating what could have happened during their to-come life in common.

The 1998 British-American romantic comedy-drama film Sliding Doors is based on a similar idea.

"What If—" was published in the debut issue of Fantastic in 1952