Searchlight (short story)

"Searchlight" is a very short science fiction story by American writer Robert A. Heinlein, about a little blind girl whose spaceship crashes on the Moon.[1] The search for her takes advantage of her prodigious musical ability to locate her.

It was originally written in 1962 as part of an advertisement for Hoffman Electronics.[1] Heinlein says that it was "a tour de force; required: to tell a story in 1200 words which legitimately involved electronics". Perhaps because of this, along with the relatively lower profits, it was the last short story Heinlein wrote; the remaining quarter-century of his career was devoted to writing novels and non-fiction essays.[2]

"Searchlight" was first published in August 1962 in Scientific American and in September 1962 in Fortune. It is anthologized in The Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, a collection of short stories published in 1966; The Past Through Tomorrow, a collection of short stories published in 1967; and his Expanded Universe in 1980.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Samuelson, David N. (1976). "The Frontier Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein". In Clareson, Thomas D. (ed.). Voices for the Future: Essays on Major Science Fiction Writers. Vol. 1. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. p. 113. ISBN 0-87972-119-7.
  2. ^ a b Ormes, Marie Guthrie. Robert A. Heinlein: A bibliographical research guide to Heinlein's complete works (PhD thesis). University of Kentucky. pp. 16, 182, 194, 198, 223. Retrieved December 13, 2025.


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